These Dogs Take a Couple Days to Adjust to Daylight Saving Time, New Study Says

Get ready to reset your watches and microwaves (your iPhone’s got itself covered), because this Sunday is daylight saving time. Most humans aren’t super fond of the concept — in fact, one Business Insider poll found that three out of five Americans would prefer to do away with it altogether. It’s especially easy to complain about in springtime, when we lose an hour of sleep — though we do gain some precious evening sunlight. And because our routines are inevitably our dogs’ routines, many pet parents wonder if our beloved pups hate the change, too.

Myriad studies have questioned the effect of daylight saving time on people’s overall health and safety, including one that found car crashes increase after daylight saving, and another that associated daylight saving with an increased risk of stroke. But when it comes to our dogs, a new study published in PLOS One found that not all companion dogs need time to adjust to the new schedule — but working dogs do.

When it comes to our pups, “there is a dearth of understanding of how this sudden, human-mitigated change affects the routines of companion animals,” Lavania Nagendran, the study’s lead author, wrote. To investigate the under-researched topic, scientists observed 25 sled dogs and 29 companion dogs in Ontario during a “fall back” daylight saving time period. To control for any breed-level differences, all recruited companion dogs and sled dogs were either Huskies or Malamutes. Researchers used accelerometers, devices that measures an object’s acceleration, to record the activity of the dogs and humans around sunrise and when their handlers or guardians arrived.

They then compared the average activity measures from the week prior to daylight saving time to activity measures from the three days following the switch. For working dogs, they noticed a significant difference in activity on the morning of daylight saving time; these pups were “significantly more active” before their handlers arrived on the day of the switch. In the two days after, they returned to their pre-daylight-saving levels.

When it came to companion dogs, the findings were different. Non-worker dogs showed no difference in activity levels before and after the transition. Older dogs were an exception; senior pups were less active the morning after daylight saving time. “We recommend caregivers of older dogs to be especially mindful in implementing sudden changes to daily routines,” Nagendran wrote.

Researchers conclude that a more gradual change in a routine, especially for older dogs and working dogs, may be helpful as they adjust to the time change. While the PLOS One study took place during the fall, it’s likely that the same principle applies this spring. If you have a senior or working pup on your hands, it might be worth incrementally adjusting their feeding schedule now, rather than waiting until Sunday.

Overall, though, dogs — regardless of age or responsibilities — adjust pretty quickly to the switch-up in schedule… unlike us humans, who already plan to complain all the way through next week.