Why Does My Dog... Sleep Belly Up? - Vetstreet
There are no solid stats to reflect the incidence of dogs willing to sleep belly up, but an informal survey of the dog owners you know will probably reveal something like this: 5 to 10 percent of pet dogs sleep with their bellies bared on a fairly regular basis.
But these squishy stats are for pets only. Perhaps not surprisingly, sleeping belly up is not a common behavior among wild canids. Their greater security concerns are likely responsible for an unwillingness to bare all. After all, to offer up one’s soft underbelly when you’re already at your most defenseless is not exactly in a predator’s best interest –– much less in his nature.
