SNoRE 3.0 Sleep Score Calculator for Dogs

1. Pick the mode. Pet owner gives a plain-language result and next steps. Vet or nurse adds item-pattern differentials, a cognitive screening prompt, episode capture, medication and trial fields, serial tracking and a printable clinical record. The six questions are identical.
2. Add the dog's details. Age and adult size set the senior threshold that unlocks the cognitive dysfunction prompt (about 10 years for small dogs, 8 medium, 7 large, 6 giant; 8 if size is not set). Tick the factors that apply: flat-faced breed, overweight, epilepsy, chronic pain, daytime drinking or urinating more, endocrine, kidney or heart disease, sleep-affecting medication, or a cognitive dysfunction diagnosis.
3. Answer the six questions about the last 7 days only, as a whole rather than the worst night. Each is a 1 to 10 scale; 1 always matches the left-hand description (best sleep) and 10 the right-hand one (worst sleep). Do not skip items: the score is only valid with all six answered. The person who watches the dog at night should answer.
4. Read the result. The total out of 60, both factor scores, the six item scores colour-coded, a comparison with the validation cohort, and the working. Warnings are sorted by severity.
5. Track it. In clinician mode, enter the previous total (or both factor scores), its date and whether the same person answered. Because the questionnaire covers 7 days, score a full week apart, and weekly while a treatment is being trialled.
6. Keep the record. Copy, print, email, download or share a link that restores the exact answers and fields. The blank questionnaire prints from step 3 in the published wording for owners to complete in the waiting room or at home.

SNoRE stands for Sleep and Night-time Restlessness Evaluation. It began as a pain-research tool in the Lascelles group at North Carolina State University, where the original six-item version captured a reduction in night-time restlessness in dogs treated for osteoarthritis pain (Knazovicky et al. 2015). The 3.0 version was developed and validated by Alejandra Mondino, Natasha Olby, Margaret Gruen and colleagues at NCSU and published in Scientific Reports in 2023. As far as we know it is the only published owner sleep questionnaire for dogs that has been checked against both polysomnography (EEG-based sleep recording) and wearable activity monitors.

How it was built. The original SNoRE asked owners to rate, on a 1 to 10 scale, how often their dog moved, twitched, dreamed, shifted position, vocalised and paced during sleep. The nine-item development version for 3.0 asked about ability to sleep at bedtime (Q1), sleeping continuously (Q2), night-time eliminations (Q3), frequency of dreaming (Q4), vocalisations (Q5) and twitching (Q6) reworded to ask whether they disturbed the dog's sleep, snoring (Q7), breathing interruptions (Q8) and daytime naps (Q9). Q4 was excluded before factor analysis because dreaming is normal and expected during sleep. Exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood, varimax rotation) in 68 owners then dropped Q7 and Q9, which did not load on either factor, and left six items in two factors explaining 42.9 percent of the variance:

• Factor 1, Sleep Quality (items 1.1 to 1.4, the paper's Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q8): ability to fall asleep at bedtime, ability to sleep continuously through the night, frequency of night-time elimination, and breathing interruptions during sleep.
• Factor 2, Sleep Interruptions Caused by Dreaming (items 2.1 and 2.2, the paper's Q5 and Q6): how much vocalising and twitching wake the dog.

Who the dogs were. Development phase: 68 owners, dogs of median age 12.5 years (range 1.3 to 16.2), mostly senior dogs from an NCSU neuro-ageing study and a clinical-trial baseline, screened as systemically healthy and excluded if a psychoactive medication had been started within 4 weeks, plus adult dogs over 1 year with no other selection criteria. Confirmatory factor analysis: 194 further owners recruited through the veterinary college and social media (median dog age 6.9 years, range 0.43 to 17), where the two-factor model fitted excellently (chi-square 7.36 on 8 df, p 0.50; CFI 1.000; RMSEA 0.000). Test-retest: 97 of those owners 2 weeks later. Polysomnography: 38 dogs. Activity monitors: 41 dogs for at least a week. CADES: 57 senior dogs. Internal consistency was acceptable for factor 1 (Cronbach's alpha 0.73) and good for factor 2 (0.86).

What it correlated with. On polysomnography, which was a single 2-hour afternoon recording in a laboratory after an adaptation session rather than an overnight study, higher total and factor 1 scores went with a longer latency to NREM sleep (rho 0.507 for the total, 0.545 for factor 1) and a trend to less time in NREM sleep; nothing correlated with REM measures. On wearable monitors, dogs with higher total scores were more active between roughly 1 and 3 am, and factor 1 also tracked late-evening activity; factor 2 trended toward more activity at 1 to 2 am without reaching significance. After controlling for age, the total and factor 1 correlated moderately with both the total Canine Dementia Scale (CADES) score and its sleep-wakefulness subscale, more strongly with the subscale: total SNoRE 3.0 rho 0.614 against total CADES and 0.676 against the sleep subscale; factor 1 rho 0.571 and 0.624. Factor 2 did not correlate with either (rho 0.219 and 0.246, not significant). Part of the CADES correlation is expected, because the CADES sleep subscale asks about the same nights; the authors note that CADES does not cover night-time elimination, parasomnias or breathing abnormalities, which SNoRE 3.0 does.

How the authors suggest using it. As a cost-effective way to monitor dog sleep in clinical settings, complementing polysomnography and activity monitors, particularly in senior dogs, and as an outcome measure over time provided the same person completes it each time. They call for future work in dogs with diagnosed sleep disorders and across all life stages.

The questionnaire and the paper are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, which is what allows the items to be reproduced here with attribution. The table below and the printable blank questionnaire carry the published wording. The on-screen prompts are lightly rephrased for owners reading on a phone (for example "eliminate" is glossed as "toilet"); the anchors and the 1 to 10 scale are unchanged, and the rephrasing has not been separately validated.

All six items are answered for the last 7 days on a 1 to 10 scale. The left-hand anchor is 1 and the right-hand anchor is 10. Nothing is reverse scored.

Item numbering follows the published figure of the final questionnaire (section 1 Sleep Quality, section 2 Sleep interruptions caused by dreaming). In the paper's factor analysis these correspond to Q1, Q2, Q3, Q8, Q5 and Q6 of the nine-item development version.

How to answer each question

Think about the last seven nights together. If four nights were fine and three were bad, land in the middle rather than scoring the worst night. If you do not sleep in the same room as the dog, say so to your vet, because you will under-report. Twitching, paddling and soft whimpers during sleep are dreaming and only count for items 2.1 and 2.2 when they are loud or violent enough to wake the dog.

Total = sum of all six items. Factor 1 = items 1.1 + 1.2 + 1.3 + 1.4. Factor 2 = items 2.1 + 2.2. The cohort values below come from the 68 dogs in the first phase of the validation study: mostly senior dogs (median age 12.5 years, range 1.3 to 16.2) recruited through the NCSU veterinary college and social media, the seniors screened as systemically healthy and off recently started psychoactive medication, plus adult dogs over 1 year with no other selection criteria. They describe a screened, older research population, not a healthy reference range and not young dogs. A median of 9 in a mostly-senior cohort is a generous yardstick for a 3-year-old.

Reliability

An ICC above 0.75 is conventionally "good" and 0.5 to 0.75 "moderate". The paper reports identical ICC and confidence interval (0.817, 0.738 to 0.874) for the total and for factor 1; we reproduce it as published. In practice: the total and factor 1 are stable enough to track over time, while factor 2 wobbles more between repeat administrations, so a change of a couple of points in factor 2 alone should not drive a decision. No minimal clinically important difference has been published for SNoRE 3.0. This calculator reports the raw change and says plainly that a shift of a few points can be noise; the only threshold it applies is an ASK A VET™ working convention that flags a rise of 6 or more points as worth investigating, and it never claims a fall proves a treatment worked. Because each score covers 7 days, two scores taken fewer than 7 days apart describe overlapping nights and are not a true before-and-after.

How this calculator bands scores

Because there is no validated cutoff, the calculator does not label a dog "abnormal". It reports where the score sits relative to the validation cohort: at or below the cohort median, above the median but within the cohort range, or above every dog in the cohort. Individual items are flagged as raised at 5 to 7 and high at 8 to 10. These bands are an ASK A VET™ working convention for triage, chosen so that a dog past the midpoint of a scale gets attention, and they are not part of the published instrument.

Senior threshold by size

The study defined senior as older than 75 percent of expected lifespan using a height and weight formula, so a flat age cutoff is late for a giant breed and early for a toy. This calculator uses the following working thresholds for the cognitive prompt; set the dog's adult size in step 2 to apply them, or 8 years is used.

The paper is candid about what it did not do, and each point changes how a score should be read.

• Agreement between different owners of the same dog was not tested. The authors say the same person must complete the questionnaire for longitudinal use. This calculator asks who answered the previous score for that reason.
• The cohort was mostly senior dogs. The medians are a senior yardstick, and the tool has not been validated in puppies or adolescents.
• Very few brachycephalic dogs were included, despite their high rate of sleep-disordered breathing. Item 1.4 has therefore not been tested in the dogs it matters most for.
• No dogs with diagnosed sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea or REM sleep behaviour disorder were studied, so the questionnaire's behaviour in those dogs is unknown.
• Polysomnography was a single 2-hour afternoon recording after one adaptation session, not an overnight study. Median sleep efficiency in the laboratory was low and not every dog reached REM sleep.
• No cutoff for disease was derived or proposed. Every band on this page is a working convention.

One further caution that is ours, not the authors': the score is what the owner witnessed. Owners who sleep in another room, sleep deeply or are away part of the week under-report; anxious owners, or those with a new baby or a poor night of their own, over-report. Ask who sleeps near the dog, and score with the same person every time.

What it measures. Owner-perceived sleep disturbance over one week. It is anchored to things an owner actually witnesses: how long the dog takes to settle, how often it gets up, whether it needs to toilet, whether its breathing pauses, and whether its dreaming wakes it.

What a high score tells you. That the dog is probably more active in the small hours than a low-scoring dog, took longer to drift into NREM sleep when that was measured in a daytime laboratory recording, and, if the Sleep Quality factor is the driver in a senior dog, that cognitive decline is more likely than it would otherwise be. Those are the associations the validation study actually demonstrated.

What it does not tell you. Why. A raised score is a symptom score. Pain, urinary tract disease, polyuric endocrine disease, upper airway obstruction, anxiety, a new puppy in the house and cognitive dysfunction can all raise it. The item pattern narrows the list (see the next section) but the diagnosis comes from the examination, the history and the tests, not the questionnaire. It also says nothing about daytime sleep: the naps item was dropped in development, so a dog that sleeps all day can score 6. Hypothyroidism, anaemia, cardiac disease, sedative medication and intracranial disease all present as "sleeps all day" and need asking about separately.

Where it earns its keep. Three places. First, turning "he's restless at night" into a number the whole team can compare. Second, monitoring: a dog started on an analgesic trial, a cognitive supplement, trazodone or a change in evening routine can be re-scored a week later and the effect is visible. Third, screening the sleep-wake component of cognitive dysfunction in senior dogs, where owners often normalise night-time pacing as "just getting old".

Scores on treatment. A score on trazodone, gabapentin, a benzodiazepine or a sedating antihistamine is an on-treatment score. Items 1.1 and 1.2 can fall without the cause being treated, so a good score does not close the work-up. Score before starting where possible, then at 1 to 2 weeks and 4 weeks. Gabapentin and trazodone occasionally cause paradoxical restlessness or ataxia at night; phenobarbital, potassium bromide, corticosteroids and diuretics raise items 1.2 and 1.3 through polyuria. The validation cohort excluded senior dogs started on psychoactive medication within 4 weeks, so its values assume a stable regimen.

The floor matters. The lowest possible total is 6, not 0. A dog scoring 6 sleeps as well as the scale can describe. Roughly half the validation cohort scored 9 or below.

These are differentials to consider when a single item is raised, in the order a first-opinion vet would usually think about them. The calculator's clinician-mode notes are summarised from these lists. The item is the prompt; the work-up is the answer. Each item has its own anchor so it can be linked to directly.

Item 1.1: slow to fall asleep at bedtime

Think about: pain and discomfort (osteoarthritis, spinal pain, dental pain), anxiety and noise sensitivity (storm and firework season, a new baby or pet, a house move, the owner's changed shift pattern; separation-related distress presents at bedtime in dogs shut away from the family), cognitive dysfunction (altered sleep-wake cycle), a bed that is too hot, cold or hard for a stiff dog, evening medications such as corticosteroids, an unmet need to toilet, hunger on a once-daily diet, and simple lack of daytime exercise or mental stimulation. First steps: orthopaedic and neurological examination, pain trial where indicated, ask what changed in the household in the last month, evening routine and environment review, cognitive screen if the dog is senior for its size.

Item 1.2: waking, getting up, pacing at night

Think about: cognitive dysfunction (the classic presentation in seniors), pain, anxiety or separation-related distress, polyuria and polydipsia driving a need to go out, gastrointestinal discomfort or nausea, hunger, itch, cardiac or airway disease (nocturnal cough, inability to lie flat), hypertension and hyperadrenocorticism (restlessness and panting), and environmental disturbance (noise, other pets, temperature). Night-time vocalisation while the dog is awake belongs here and is worked up as night-time waking, not as a dreaming item. First steps: history of daytime behaviour change, pain assessment, urinalysis and biochemistry if drinking has changed, cardiac auscultation, cognitive screen if senior, video of the night-time behaviour.

Item 1.3: needing to toilet during the night

Think about: polyuria and polydipsia (chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, hyperadrenocorticism, hypercalcaemia, pyometra in entire females, liver disease, diabetes insipidus, psychogenic polydipsia), lower urinary tract disease (cystitis, urolithiasis, prostatic disease), urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence in spayed females, colitis and diarrhoea, diuretic, corticosteroid, phenobarbital or potassium bromide therapy (all drive polydipsia), cognitive dysfunction with loss of house-training, and a late evening meal or drink. Under 6 months of age, several night-time eliminations are physiological. First steps: urinalysis with specific gravity, sediment and culture, biochemistry and haematology, abdominal imaging as indicated, medication review, cognitive screen if senior.

Item 1.4: breathing pauses during sleep

Think about: sleep-disordered breathing from upper airway obstruction: brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (elongated soft palate, stenotic nares, everted laryngeal saccules), laryngeal paralysis, nasopharyngeal polyps or masses, tracheal collapse, and obesity, which worsens all of them. Also congestive heart failure (a dog that cannot lie flat is a different problem but owners may report it here) and severe nasal disease. First steps: airway examination, body condition score, thoracic auscultation and imaging, referral for airway assessment and correction in flat-faced dogs; any dog with cyanosis, collapse or open-mouth breathing at rest is an emergency. The validation cohort contained very few brachycephalic dogs, so this item is the least tested in the dogs it matters most for.

Item 2.1: vocalising that wakes the dog

Think about: normal dreaming that has become intrusive, pain (vocalising on movement during sleep), REM sleep behaviour disorder, nocturnal seizures, and anxiety. Vocalising while awake belongs under item 1.2. First steps: video of episodes, clarify whether the dog is asleep or awake when vocalising, pain assessment, seizure history, neurological examination.

Item 2.2: twitching that wakes the dog

Think about: REM sleep behaviour disorder (violent limb movements, running, biting or howling during sleep, easily roused and immediately normal), nocturnal seizures (many idiopathic epilepsy seizures occur during sleep or on waking, so a first seizure witnessed at night is not unusual; the dog is typically hard to rouse and then disoriented, may salivate or urinate, may be stiff; generalised tonic-clonic activity with loss of awareness is a seizure until proven otherwise, and focal seizures can mimic dreaming), myoclonus, pain on movement, and tremorgenic toxins or metabolic disease such as hypoglycaemia or hypocalcaemia if acute, which will also be present when the dog is awake. Narcolepsy-cataplexy (collapse into flaccid, often REM-like sleep triggered by food or excitement, dog fully rousable, with a heritable form in Dobermanns, Labradors and Dachshunds) is not measured by SNoRE 3.0, which asks only about night-time sleep. First steps: video, seizure diary, neurological examination, biochemistry, referral for EEG or video-EEG when the two cannot be separated. Sleep-related movement disorders and epilepsy are treated differently, so the distinction matters.

Two patterns worth naming. A high Sleep Quality factor with a low dreaming factor in a senior dog is the pattern that correlated with CADES in the validation study; that dog needs a cognitive screen, but also a pain and urinary work-up because those raise the same items. A high dreaming factor with a normal Sleep Quality factor did not correlate with cognition and points instead at sleep-related movement, pain or seizures.

Cats. SNoRE 3.0 was developed and validated in dogs only. Night-time yowling and restlessness in cats (hyperthyroidism, hypertension, cognitive dysfunction, deafness, pain) need a feline approach, not this questionnaire.

Disrupted sleep-wake cycles are one of the core signs of canine cognitive dysfunction, alongside disorientation, changed social interaction, house-soiling and altered activity. Owners often report the night-time part first: pacing, wandering, standing in corners, vocalising, wanting to go out repeatedly. In the SNoRE 3.0 validation study, the 57 senior dogs with higher CADES scores had higher total and Sleep Quality scores even after adjusting for age, and the correlation was strongest between the total SNoRE 3.0 and the CADES sleep-wakefulness subscale (rho 0.676).

That makes SNoRE 3.0 a useful front door. When a dog past the senior threshold for its size scores 10 or more on the Sleep Quality factor (cohort median 6), this calculator prompts a formal cognitive screen. Two validated owner questionnaires are in common use:

• CADES (Canine Dementia Scale, Madari et al. 2015): 17 items across spatial orientation, social interaction, sleep-wake cycles and house-soiling, total 0 to 95. Published bands: 0 to 7 normal, 8 to 23 mild cognitive impairment, 24 to 44 moderate, 45 to 95 severe. Repeat at 6 months with the same owner to track progression.
• CCDR (Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating scale, Salvin et al. 2011): 13 items, total 13 to 80. A score of 50 or more is consistent with CCD and 40 to 49 is "at risk".

Two cautions. The prompt threshold here is an ASK A VET™ working convention, not a published cutoff. And a raised sleep score in a senior dog is at least as likely to be pain or urinary disease as cognition, and frequently both. Treating osteoarthritis pain often improves sleep dramatically in dogs whose owners had assumed they were "getting senile". Work up the body before labelling the brain, then treat the cognition too if it is there: environmental enrichment, dietary and nutraceutical support, and where appropriate selegiline are the mainstays, and consistent daytime exercise and a predictable evening routine help the sleep-wake cycle specifically. Neither scale replaces the exclusion of pain, endocrine, urinary, sensory and cardiac disease.

SNoRE 3.0 is at its best as a repeated measure. A suggested schedule:

• Weekly while a treatment is being trialled. Score, change one thing, re-score after a full 7 days. A score taken in the first fortnight of a new drug reflects the adaptation period, not the effect; re-score at 2 and 4 weeks.
• Fortnightly to monthly once stable.
• At every senior health check, ideally every 6 months alongside CADES or CCDR.

Three rules make the trend trustworthy. The same person answers every time; the study never measured agreement between different owners of the same dog and its authors are explicit that one respondent must complete it for longitudinal use. Scores are at least 7 days apart, so they describe different nights. And the record carries what changed: medication and dose, the treatment being trialled and its start date, and any witnessed episodes with whether the dog was rousable and normal afterwards. The clinician mode captures all of these so the printed record can be compared like for like.

What normal dog sleep looks like

Adult dogs sleep 12 to 14 hours a day in several blocks and sleep lightly, so brief waking, repositioning and a quiet stretch are normal. Twitching, paddling, soft barks and whimpers during sleep are dreaming and are normal at any age. Senior dogs sleep more by day and less soundly at night. Puppies under 6 months wake to toilet. A dog that settles quickly, stays down most of the night, does not need to toilet, breathes quietly and is not woken by its own dreams scores 6, the lowest possible.

Dreaming is not a sign of illness

Do not shake a dreaming dog awake; a startled dog can snap before it knows where it is. Call its name from a short distance instead. Worry only if the dog is hard to wake, stiff, drooling, wets itself, or is confused afterwards. Those signs need seizures excluded.

When to worry: tonight, this week, next check-up

• Tonight (emergency vet now): struggling to breathe, blue or grey gums, collapse, a seizure over 5 minutes, two or more seizures in 24 hours, or a dog in obvious pain that cannot settle.
• This week (book an appointment): breathing pauses during sleep, new night-time toileting, twitching or vocalising that wakes the dog, a score that has jumped, or a dog on medication whose sleep has changed.
• Next routine check-up: a score above 9 with no single question above 4, gradual changes in an older dog, or a score that improved with routine changes.

What to bring to the vet

Bring this record, two or three short phone videos of the episodes (lights on if you can), the list of everything the dog takes including supplements, a note of how much it drinks, a first-morning urine sample in a clean container if toileting is the problem, and a note of who sleeps near the dog and what changed at home recently.

Senior dogs

Older dogs nap more, wake more and take longer to settle, and some of that is age. Pacing, standing in corners, barking at nothing at 3 am, or forgetting house-training is not normal ageing and is worth a cognitive check. Arthritis pain is the most common reason an old dog cannot get comfortable, and it is treatable.

Flat-faced dogs

Flat-faced dogs snore because their airway is narrow. Snoring with pauses, gasping, sleeping sitting up or with a toy in the mouth to keep the airway open, and being exhausted in warm weather are signs the airway needs assessing. Weight loss helps, and surgery to widen the nostrils and shorten the soft palate helps most dogs.

Puppies

This questionnaire was not tested in dogs under 1 year. Puppies wake and toilet at night; that is not a sleep problem. Use it from about 12 months, or earlier only to describe what you see, not to compare with the study.

Helping a dog sleep better

If the score is raised, the first job is a vet visit to find out why, especially if the dog is older, is toileting at night, or has breathing pauses. While that is happening, or if the vet has found nothing medical, these are the changes that help most dogs:

• Tire the body and the brain during the day. A proper walk plus sniffing time, and ten minutes of training, food puzzles or a snuffle mat in the evening. A dog that has done nothing all day has no reason to sleep at night.
• Keep the evening routine identical. Same dinner time, same last toilet trip, same bed, same lights-out. Older dogs and anxious dogs run on routine.
• Last toilet trip late, last big drink earlier. Do not restrict water in a dog that is drinking more than usual (that needs a vet), but a late-evening bowl top-up is a common cause of 3 am requests in a healthy dog.
• Fix the bed. Stiff and arthritic dogs sleep badly on thin beds and cold floors. A supportive orthopaedic bed in a warm, quiet, dim spot, with a ramp if the dog has been sleeping on furniture, removes a lot of night-time repositioning.
• Do not medicate blind. Sedatives for a dog whose sleep problem is pain, a urinary infection or an airway obstruction treat the owner's night, not the dog's problem. Sleep aids have a place, after a diagnosis.

Re-score after a week of any change. If the number moves, keep going. If it does not, that is information for your vet too. This tool is for dogs; if your cat yowls at night, that has its own list of causes and needs a vet, not this questionnaire.

SNoRE 3.0

Sleep and Night-time Restlessness Evaluation, version 3.0: the six-item owner questionnaire scored on this page, validated by Mondino et al. in 2023.

Polysomnography (PSG)

Sleep recording using EEG (brain), EOG (eye movement) and EMG (muscle) electrodes to stage wakefulness, drowsiness, NREM and REM sleep. The SNoRE 3.0 study used a 2-hour afternoon recording.

NREM and REM sleep

Non-rapid eye movement sleep is deeper, quieter sleep; rapid eye movement sleep is when dreaming, twitching and vocalising occur. Latency to NREM is the time taken to reach it after settling.

CADES

Canine Dementia Scale: a 17-item owner questionnaire (0 to 95) for cognitive dysfunction with a sleep-wakefulness subscale; bands 0 to 7 normal, 8 to 23 mild, 24 to 44 moderate, 45 to 95 severe.

CCDR

Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating scale: a 13-item owner questionnaire (13 to 80); 50 or more is consistent with cognitive dysfunction, 40 to 49 at risk.

Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD)

Age-related decline in cognition in dogs, with disorientation, altered social interaction, disrupted sleep-wake cycles, house-soiling and changed activity. Often called doggy dementia.

ICC

Intraclass correlation coefficient, here for test-retest reliability: how closely the same owner's scores agree 2 weeks apart. Above 0.75 is good, 0.5 to 0.75 moderate.

BOAS

Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome: narrowed nostrils, an elongated soft palate and other airway changes in flat-faced breeds that cause snoring, breathing pauses in sleep and exercise and heat intolerance.

Sleep-disordered breathing

Breathing that is repeatedly interrupted or obstructed during sleep. In dogs it is usually from upper airway obstruction and is what item 1.4 asks about.

REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD)

A parasomnia in which the normal muscle paralysis of REM sleep fails, so the dog acts out dreams with violent limb movements, running or biting, is easily woken and is immediately normal.

Parasomnia

Any abnormal behaviour or event during sleep, including RBD, sleep-related movement disorders and some seizures.

Nocturia

Needing to urinate during the night, the subject of item 1.3, usually driven by polyuria (increased urine production) or lower urinary tract disease.

Polyuria and polydipsia (PU/PD)

Producing more urine and drinking more than normal, a sign of kidney, endocrine and other systemic diseases and a common driver of night-time toileting.

Working convention

A threshold or band set by ASK A VET™ for triage on this page, labelled as such because the published instrument has no validated cutoff.