Resting Breathing Rate Counter for Dogs
The dog resting breathing rate counter below does one job: it counts her breaths for 30 seconds while she sleeps, doubles the number, and keeps it on your phone so that tomorrow’s reading has something to stand next to. For a dog with a heart murmur or diagnosed heart disease, this is the number her vet most wants you to watch, and the trend matters more than any single count. If you are here because of a new diagnosis, our congestive heart failure stages and life expectancy page explains what the stages mean and why this count is the early warning.
She is
Timer
30s
How to count a dog’s resting breathing rate
- Wait until she is asleep, or at least lying still and calm for several minutes. Not after a walk, not while she is panting, not while she is dreaming hard.
- Watch her chest or flank. One rise and fall is one breath. Tap the counter on the first rise; the timer starts on your first tap.
- Keep tapping once per breath until the timer reaches zero. The counter doubles the 30-second count to breaths per minute.
- Tap “Keep this reading” so it goes on her chart. Do it at the same time each evening, three or four times a week while she is stable, so you know her own normal.
Readings stay in this browser only. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else, which also means a new phone or cleared site data starts the chart over; screenshot it before you change devices.
What the number means
Cardiologists use this count because fluid begins to gather in the lungs before a dog coughs or struggles, and the first thing it changes is how many breaths she takes when she is asleep. The 2019 ACVIM consensus guidelines on mitral valve disease put it this way: “Of these variables, identification of increases in resting respiratory rate above normal baseline has the best predictive value for impending clinical decompensation.”
On the number itself, a study of dogs and cats whose heart failure was controlled on medication concluded that “These data suggest that most dogs and cats with CHF that is medically well-controlled and stable have SRRmean and RRRmean <30 breaths/min at home.” That is why the chart draws a line at 30. Your vet will give you the threshold for your own dog, which may be lower; the two signals worth a call are a single count above the number the vet named, or a sleeping rate that sits above her usual number on two consecutive nights.
A count taken while she is awake and resting runs a little higher than a sleeping count, which is why the counter asks which one it was and marks them differently on the chart. Compare asleep with asleep.
When counting is not enough
A rising rate is a phone call. Open-mouthed breathing at rest, blue or gray gums, a dog who will not lie down or sleeps sitting up with her neck stretched, or a collapse, is the emergency clinic tonight, counter or no counter. Our senior dog panting page separates the breathing patterns that can wait from the ones that cannot.
Counting by hand is easy to start and hard to keep up through a year of ordinary nights. If the habit slips, a collar sensor can carry it: Maven Pet logs resting respiratory rate and heart rate overnight and flags a rising trend. It does not diagnose and it does not replace this page’s advice to call the vet; it counts on the nights you are asleep. Our Maven Pet review covers what it measures and what it does not. Maven is an affiliate partner; if you subscribe through that link we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.