What's a Shorty?

 

          It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Shorty! A shorty? Yes, indeed a Shorty. Meet my 8 year old Lhasa Apso (LAH-sa APH-so), who isn't as short, nor looks like a shorty but there he is! 

          What's a Lhasa Apso? It's definitely not a common type of dog you hear on a daily basis. The Lhasa Apso originated in Tibet, hundreds of years ago. I was researching more about this and  found some interesting facts on dogbreedinfo.com, the website stated "It's named after the sacred city of Lhasa. For years the breed remained solely bred in Tibet by holy men and nobles. It was used as a watchdog in temples and monasteries (that explains my dog being alert most of the time when he isn't sleeping). To read more about the history of Lhasa Apsos here is the link to the website; dogbreedinfo.com/lhasaapso

          I've been observing Shorty for a week now and boy, is he one lazy dog! I already knew that but, you're probably thinking why pick your lazy dog to observe must be boring? Yeah, true since he can't do any cool tricks just sleep and eat but I do that too, so its okay! Just kidding, I picked my dog because I have a few questions for myself and I want to take a deeper look into the life of a lazy ol' dog. 

       

        While observing Shorty, I realized he sure can sleep, and sleep, and sleep, and sleep a little more each day. I wake up at 5:45 am he's still sleeping, get home from school comes greets me at the door and sleeps again. His daily schedule is sleep, wake up, pee/poop, sleep, eat, and sleep. You get the point.  I was curious about this though, because at some point I was scared. Like why does he sleep so much? Is he sick? Getting old? Or what? So, I did some research. On dogshealth.com the article said "20 or more hours a day of sleeping does not mean an old dog is ill; they’re just tired out." which I now find true, because if Shorty were to be ill, I'm pretty sure there would be signs of sickness rather then sleeping. You can read more about this topic in this website: dogshealth.com. I found another article about dogs sleeping too much. The article "When You Lie Down with Dogs" written by Brian Fischler said "Dogs tend to sleep the majority of the day at no specific times, and that is completely normal. The amount they sleep will differ from breed to breed or even dog to dog. Older dogs will also sleep more", Shorty is 8 years old which makes him an older dog and that answers my question as well. Hmm, pretty interesting to me. Although there are some moments where Shorty isn't as sleepy actually the complete opposite of it but, we'll get into that later. Here is the website to the last article I referred to about dogs sleeping because of their age, if you would like to read more: dogbehaviors.com .

                                        

                                                  Work Cited

"Lhasa Apso." Dog Breed Info Center. Dog Breed Info. n.d Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

 Fischler, Brian. "When You Lie Down with Dogs." Ceasar's Way. N.p., 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.