Dogs With ADHD-Like Traits Show Surprising Improvements After a Short Nap

Any dog owner has seen moments that look a little like human distractibility — bouncing between smells, losing focus mid-task, or grabbing a treat before you say, “wait.” Now, two new studies reveal just how closely these canine behaviors parallel human ADHD, and how sleep and structured training can help dogs regain focus and learn more effectively.

The researchers found that the biggest improvements came when dogs were given time to rest and repeat the task.

“It seems that task repetition and sufficient sleep can help mitigate the cognitive flexibility impairments linked to ADHD traits in dogs,” said Márta Gácsi, senior research fellow at the HUN-REN–ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, in a press release.

How Sleep Helps ADHD Dogs Learn

In the first study, published in Animals, researchers used a simple cup game to test how flexibly dogs adjust to change. First, the animals learned that a treat was always hidden under one cup. Then, without warning, the reward switched sides. Dogs with higher ADHD-like scores held on to the old rule longer, echoing the reduced cognitive flexibility often seen in humans with ADHD.

The team then wondered whether sleep might help. They monitored the dogs during a one-hour nap using sleep EEG. After repeating the task, the gap between high- and low-ADHD-score dogs vanished. The biggest gains came from dogs that slept for at least 25 minutes.

“Dogs with stronger ADHD-like traits were slower to learn the new treat location, mirroring the lower cognitive flexibility observed in humans with ADHD,” said Tímea Kovács, lead author of the study.

“Because sleep is known to improve learning, we retested the dogs after a one-hour nap to see how sleep would affect their performance,” added co-lead author Vivien Reicher,” in the press release.

The finding suggests that rest and structured practice can help attention-challenged dogs learn more effectively — a pattern that mirrors long-established sleep research in humans.

Read More: Is Your Dog Secretly Judging You?

Testing Dogs’ Ability to Wait

The second study, published in The Veterinary Journal, focused on self-control. In a dog-friendly twist on the Marshmallow Test, dogs could eat a plain biscuit right away or wait a few seconds for a more desirable sausage. Dogs with lower ADHD-like scores were more willing to wait, while those with higher scores struggled to delay the reward.

When the researchers broke ADHD traits into their core components, a more nuanced pattern emerged: inattention and hyperactivity predicted weaker self-control, while impulsivity did not. The team notes that impulsivity varies by context and may present differently in questionnaires versus behavioral tests.

Training experience also played an important role. Among highly trained dogs — the kind accustomed to structured cues and patience — ADHD-like traits no longer predicted self-control at all.

“Many studies overlook how a dog’s training experience affects test performance,” Gácsi said. “Our results highlight this factor; among highly trained dogs, there was no link between ADHD scores and self-control.”

Why Sleep and Training Matter for Distractible Dogs

The studies show that attention-related challenges in dogs are surprisingly flexible. Sleep and repetition boost learning, and training experience plays a crucial role, so much so that the researchers say future studies must account for it, noting that intensive training may reduce self-control difficulties altogether.

Read More: Why Taking Your Dog On A “Sniffari” Will Tire Them Out More Than A Walk

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