The Light of Your (Dog's) Life
Hello, and welcome back.
We know that your dog is the light of your life. But do you know how important light is to your dog?
As Linda mentioned last week, exposure to sunlight is very important to keep our circadian rhythms in check. This is also something that is hugely important when it comes to our dogs. Their circadian rhythms help our dogs to enjoy good quality, regular sleep. But, just as importantly, they also help with a whole heap of other processes including hormone production, cell regeneration and even some patterns of brainwave activity.
It might sound a little dramatic… but if your dog doesn’t get enough access to sunlight (indoors or out), then it could increase their chances of suffering from a number of chronic diseases.
The type of light that our dogs enjoy throughout the day actually changes. We’ve got UV, UVB, IR… but what does that mean? These different spectrums of light actually encourage different functions in our dog’s body - so it’s important that they experience outside light at different times to really keep those rhythms in check.
Now we have much more daylight to play with we’d invite you to embrace it! Make the most of those earlier morning walks, a lunchtime sniff outdoors for food, or a pre-dusk stroll in a new environment. Those night-time walks bring the red phase of light, which increases melatonin - which gets our dogs ready for good night’s sleep. Which is doubly important when it comes to the clocks springing forward in a couple of weeks - you don’t want to miss any extra sleep!
If you’ve not caught up on our chart-topping podcast yet, we’d invite you to tune in as next week we’ll be giving you tips for both ends of the lead as to how to prep for that 1-hour time change later this month.
Until next time, embrace the light!
Caroline