“My Senior Dog Is Breathing Faster While Resting”: what it could mean and what to do

Noticing your senior dog breathing faster while they are resting can be unsettling, especially if it seems to come out of nowhere. Sometimes it is something straightforward, like a warm room or a stressful day. Other times, a higher resting breathing rate is one of the earliest clues that the heart, lungs, airway, or even the whole body is under strain.

This article will help you sort out what you are seeing, how to measure it correctly, what patterns matter most, and when it is time to treat it as urgent.

Important note: This is educational information, not a diagnosis. Always check with your dog’s veterinarian, especially because older dogs often have more than one condition at once.

What “faster breathing at rest” actually means

Dogs can breathe faster for two broad reasons:

1. Higher rate: more breaths per minute than usual.
2. Higher effort: they look like they are working harder to breathe (bigger chest/abdominal movement, flared nostrils, neck stretched out, elbows held away from the body, unable to get comfortable).

A dog can have one without the other. Rate alone is useful, but effort is often the bigger red flag.

What is a normal resting or sleeping breathing rate for dogs?

Most veterinary references aimed at pet owners put a normal sleeping or calm resting respiratory rate roughly in the 15 to 30 breaths per minute range. Some handouts and cardiology clinics use a practical cutoff of under 30 to 35 for many pets when measured properly at home.

Here is the part many people miss: your dog’s “normal” is personal. A small dog may sit toward the higher end of normal and a large dog may be lower. That said, if your senior dog is consistently above the typical resting range, or trending upward over days to weeks, it is worth taking seriously.

How to measure your dog’s resting breathing rate accurately

To get a number you can trust, timing matters more than people think.

Best time to measure: when your dog is asleep or deeply resting in a comfortable, not too hot, not too cold environment.

How to count:

• Watch the chest (or the flank). One breath equals one in-and-out cycle.
• Count breaths for 30 seconds and multiply by 2 to get breaths per minute.
• Repeat once more a few minutes later. Use the lower, calmer number.

Make it useful for your vet: jot down:

• breaths per minute
• date and time
• whether your dog was asleep or awake
• room temperature (roughly)
• anything else you noticed (cough, restlessness, appetite change)

Cardiology services specifically recommend home monitoring because rising resting respiratory rate can be an early sign of worsening heart disease control.

When faster resting breathing is an emergency

Treat it as urgent if you see fast breathing plus signs of respiratory distress. The American Animal Hospital Association notes that breathing trouble should be treated as an emergency, and gum color changes (blue, gray, or purple) are especially concerning. Cornell’s veterinary guidance also emphasizes that respiratory distress can be a serious medical emergency requiring immediate attention.

Go to an emergency clinic now if your dog has any of these:

• Blue, gray, or purple gums or tongue
• open-mouth breathing at rest that is not typical for your dog
• obvious struggle to inhale or exhale, noisy gasping, or repeated “can’t get comfortable” repositioning
• collapse, extreme weakness, or sudden inability to walk normally
• fast breathing after a possible toxin exposure, choking episode, chest trauma, or severe allergic reaction

If you are unsure, it is safer to call an emergency hospital and describe what you are seeing. Do not wait overnight if your gut says this is different.

Common reasons a senior dog breathes faster while resting

Below are patterns that veterinarians often consider. Your dog could have more than one at the same time.

Heart disease and congestive heart failure

In older dogs, especially small breeds, degenerative valve disease (often mitral valve disease) is common. When heart disease progresses, fluid can build up in or around the lungs (congestive heart failure), and one of the earlier home clues can be an increased resting respiratory rate.

What you might notice along with faster breathing:

• cough (often worse at night or after lying down)
• reduced stamina on walks
• restlessness when trying to sleep
• appetite changes

Not every cough is heart-related, and not every fast-breathing dog has heart failure. But if your senior dog has a known murmur or diagnosed heart disease, a rising sleeping respiratory rate is a “call your vet” data point, even if your dog seems okay otherwise.

Lung disease and lower airway problems

Older dogs can develop chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, lung tumors, or scarring conditions that reduce the lungs’ ability to exchange oxygen. Some of these cause coughing; others do not. Dogs may compensate quietly at first by breathing faster, especially when lying down.

Your vet may recommend chest radiographs, oxygen assessment, and sometimes ultrasound or CT depending on what they suspect.

Upper airway issues, including laryngeal paralysis

Large and giant breed seniors can develop laryngeal paralysis, where the “voice box” does not open properly to let air in. Merck notes it is common in middle-aged to older large and giant breed dogs and can progress gradually. Cornell also describes emergency management and the common “tie-back” surgery used to improve airflow.

Clues that point toward an upper airway issue:

• noisy breathing (especially on inhale)
• voice change or “weird bark”
• heat intolerance
• worsening with excitement, exercise, or warm weather
• episodes that look like panic but are really air hunger

This matters because overheating and stress can rapidly spiral into a crisis for dogs with airway obstruction.

Pain, anxiety, and stress

Pain commonly raises breathing rate, even at rest. Arthritis flare-ups, dental pain, abdominal discomfort, and internal pain can all show up as faster breathing before they show up as limping or crying.

Anxiety and stress can also elevate breathing rate, but it usually comes with other clues: pacing, panting, hypervigilance, inability to settle. In seniors, new anxiety should still be discussed with a vet because pain, cognitive dysfunction, and organ disease can all masquerade as “just nervous.”

Fever, infection, and inflammation

Fever increases metabolic demand and can raise respiratory rate. So can infections like pneumonia, urinary tract infections, or inflammation in the abdomen. Older dogs sometimes show “quiet” infection signs, meaning fast breathing can be one of the few early hints.

Anemia and poor oxygen delivery

If your dog’s red blood cell count is low, the body may compensate by breathing faster to deliver enough oxygen to tissues. Pet-owner resources on anemia describe increased breathing and heart rate as possible compensatory signs.

This can have many causes in seniors, including bleeding, immune-mediated disease, parasites, chronic kidney disease, and cancers. Anemia is not something to watch-and-wait at home.

Hormonal and metabolic disease, including Cushing’s

Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism) is more common in middle-aged and senior dogs and can be associated with increased panting along with thirst, urination changes, appetite changes, and hair/skin changes.

Panting is not the same thing as true rapid breathing, but owners often describe both as “breathing fast.” Either way, if panting at rest is new and persistent, it is worth a medical workup.

Heat, weight, and medication effects

Even indoors, a warm room or thick bedding can push a senior dog into faster breathing. Obesity increases the work of breathing and reduces heat tolerance. Some medications (including certain steroids) can increase panting and resting respiratory rate in some dogs.

Because medication effects overlap with disease signs, any change after a new prescription should be discussed with your vet rather than guessed at.

What to do at home right now

If your dog is bright, comfortable, and not showing emergency signs:

1. Measure the resting rate correctly (asleep or deeply resting), then re-check once.
2. Reduce heat and excitement: cool room, fresh water, quiet environment. Avoid vigorous activity until you talk to your vet.
3. Look for the “extras”: cough, decreased appetite, belly swelling, pale gums, unusual tiredness, new noisy breathing, restless sleep.
4. Start a simple log for 3 to 7 days, unless the number is very high or your dog worsens sooner.

If the rate is persistently above the typical resting range (often cited around 15 to 30 when sleeping), or it is clearly climbing compared with your dog’s baseline, contact your veterinarian.

If your dog has known heart disease, many vets want to know about rising sleeping respiratory rate promptly because it can help catch fluid buildup earlier.

What your veterinarian may do (and why)

A good diagnostic plan depends on what else is going on, but common next steps include:

• physical exam focusing on heart sounds, lung sounds, and airway noise
• chest radiographs to look for fluid, pneumonia, airway patterns, masses
• bloodwork to evaluate anemia, infection markers, organ function, electrolytes
• heart testing (echocardiogram) if murmur, heart enlargement, or heart failure is suspected
• blood pressure and oxygen assessment
• sometimes airway evaluation or sedation-assisted laryngeal exam if laryngeal paralysis is suspected

Bring your breathing-rate log. It can speed up decisions and reduce guesswork.

What the research does and does not tell us

Home monitoring of resting respiratory rate is widely used in veterinary cardiology and supported by clinical guidance, especially for detecting worsening control in dogs with heart disease.

Where evidence is more limited:

• Exact “perfect” cutoff numbers for every breed, body size, and age. Many sources provide practical ranges, but individual variation and at-home measurement noise make rigid cutoffs imperfect.
• How reliably owners can distinguish panting from true tachypnea without training. Clinically, both matter, but they can point to different causes.
• How much a day-to-day change should trigger action across all conditions. In practice, many veterinarians rely on trends plus the full symptom picture, not a single number.

That is why a log plus a vet’s exam is often more informative than one isolated count.

Bottom line

If your senior dog is breathing faster while resting, do two things: measure it correctly and pay attention to the whole picture.

• If you see distress signs (gum color change, obvious struggle, collapse), treat it as an emergency.
• If the rate is consistently higher than normal for your dog, or trending upward over several days, schedule a veterinary visit.
• If your dog has known heart disease, rising sleeping respiratory rate is especially important to report.

And regardless of what you read online, always confirm next steps with your dog’s veterinarian, because your dog’s age, breed, medical history, and medications change what “safe to watch” looks like.

Sources

• VCA Animal Hospitals, “Home Breathing Rate Evaluation” (Vca)
• University of Missouri Veterinary Health Center, “At-Home Monitoring of Pets with Heart Disease” (MU Veterinary Health Center)
• Veterinary Partner (VIN), “Sleeping and Resting Respiratory Rates of Dogs and Cats with Heart Disease” (Veterinary Partner)
• Cardiac Education Group, “Monitoring Your Pet’s Respiratory Rate” (PDF) (Cardiac Education Group)
• CVCA Cardiac Care, “At Home Respiratory Monitoring” (PDF) (CVCA Cardiac Care for Pets)
• Royal Veterinary College, “Mitral Valve Disease in Dogs” (Royal Veterinary College)
• AAHA, “Recognizing Respiratory Distress in Pets” (PDF) (AAHA)
• AAHA, “Help! Is This a Pet Emergency?” (AAHA)
• Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, “Recognizing and responding to canine respiratory distress” (Cornell Vet Medicine)
• Merck Veterinary Manual (Pet Owner Version), “Paralysis of the Larynx in Dogs” (Merck Veterinary Manual)
• Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, “Laryngeal paralysis” (Cornell Vet Medicine)
• University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, “When aging isn’t the answer: Cushing’s disease in dogs” (Veterinary Medicine at Illinois)
• PetMD, “Cushing’s Disease in Dogs: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment” (PetMD)
• PetMD, “Anemia in Dogs” (PetMD)