It’s bedtime, and your dog goes to bed like almost every night, which can also be your bed, a sofa at home or the living room rug. And before lying down, as almost always, she starts scratching like she’s trying to make a hole while circling before finally laying down. Why the hell is he doing this ritual?
As explained on The Dodo page, this baffling habit can be due to several factors, the main one probably being his own survival instinct inherited from his wild ancestors.
And it is that wolves also like to dig in a place before going to bed, although it is a more practical behavior outdoors. Temperature regulation is essential in nature, and according to experts:
On a cold night, digging a hole helps wolves stay warm, and when it’s hot outside, digging a bed of cold soil below the surface has the opposite effect. Even if wolves are comfortable with the temperature, digging a place to sleep has additional benefits. A shallow hole gives them a place to hide, so they can sleep in peace.
In the case of dogs, the action is more complicated when the bed is made of cloth, but that does not stop pets from trying to indulge their animal instincts when preparing to fall asleep.
As we said at the beginning, there are more factors. For example, simple comfort. When a dog scratches, it is possible that he is simply trying to prepare a more comfortable place in the same way that we could mold the pillow before going to sleep.
Another factor is to mark the territory. In this case, instead of with his urine, the dog likes to do it with his paws on his bed. The reason is that the pads of their feet have glands that emit a specific scent for each animal so that when they scratch the bed they expand that scent so that others can recognize whose place it is.
By the way, as for those final twists they do in bed, they’re inherited too. Their ancestors did it to lie down looking for the perfect position, keeping their body heat, but also to protect their weakest areas (where their organs are) from possible attacks.