Count a Dog or Cat's Resting Breathing Rate

Count your dog’s or cat’s breathing when they are genuinely resting or asleep: watch one full rise-and-fall of the chest, count each rise as one breath, and count for a full 60 seconds—or count 30 seconds and multiply by two. Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine notes that, in most dogs and cats, breathing at rest or during sleep is usually fewer than 35 breaths per minute; use that as general context, not as an all-clear cutoff for your individual pet.

If your pet is visibly struggling to breathe, seek urgent veterinary care now rather than spending time counting repeatedly. A cat breathing with an open mouth may be having an emergency. If your pet’s resting or sleeping rate is newly or persistently higher than their usual pattern, contact your veterinary team promptly for assessment rather than waiting several days or changing any treatment.

Choose a genuinely resting moment

A resting respiratory rate is meaningful only when your pet is calm and undisturbed. Choose a time when your dog or cat is asleep or quietly resting in a comfortable environment—not after play, a walk, excitement, heat, stress, or, for a cat, purring. Tufts specifically advises checking breathing at rest or during sleep, not after exercise or excitement, and notes that a purring cat may appear to breathe rapidly even when healthy.

Do not wake your pet, move them into a particular position, restrain them, press on the chest, or try to make them hold still. You only need a clear view of the chest and belly. If your pet gets up, starts playing, becomes excited, or begins purring during the count, stop; do not extrapolate from a few seconds of observation. Try again later when they are settled.

For dogs, remember that panting is different from resting breathing. A dog may pant quickly with an open mouth after exercise or when hot; that is not the same as a fast breathing rate at rest. Tufts distinguishes normal panting from fast breathing or increased breathing effort present even at rest.

Count one full breath correctly

One breath is one complete cycle: the chest rises during inhalation and falls during exhalation. Count the rise once. Do not count the rise and the fall as two separate breaths.

You can use either counting window:

Count every chest rise for a full 60 seconds.
Count chest rises for 30 seconds, then multiply that number by two.

For example, if you count 12 chest rises in 30 seconds, multiply 12 by 2 to get 24 breaths per minute. That arithmetic example is only a measurement demonstration; it is not a diagnosis or a statement that 24 is normal for every dog or cat.

The full-minute count can be useful when breathing is irregular, because it captures the entire minute rather than assuming the second half matches the first. The 30-second method is often easier when your pet is sleeping quietly and their breathing is steady. Whichever method you use, record the method along with the result so your veterinary team can compare observations accurately.

Record the context, not just the number

A single number is most useful when it comes with the conditions under which it was measured. Record:

Your pet’s name and the date.
The time of day.
Whether they were asleep or quietly awake.
The counting window: 60 seconds, or 30 seconds multiplied by two.
The raw count and the calculated breaths per minute.
Whether breathing looked easy, labored, shallow, deep, or otherwise unusual.
Any interruption, such as waking, moving, purring, barking, or activity.
Any symptoms or events your veterinarian asked you to track.

A simple entry might read: “October 21, 2:15 p.m.; asleep; 30-second count of 12; 24 breaths per minute; breathing looked quiet and easy; no interruptions.” If you counted for a full minute, write the raw count as well as the breaths-per-minute result.

Use the same general context when possible so the observations are comparable over time. For example, repeated asleep counts are more informative than comparing one sleeping count with one count taken while your dog is mildly excited. Avoid turning this into constant testing; measure when your veterinary team has asked for it, when you notice a relevant change, or on the schedule they recommend.

Rate and effort are different observations

Breathing rate is how many breaths occur in a minute. Breathing effort is how hard your pet appears to work to move air—often visible as increased belly-wall or chest-wall motion with each breath. Tufts advises assessing both, because a pet can have concerning effort even when the count is not dramatically high.

Look for extra abdominal movement, a heaving chest, an outstretched neck, reluctance to lie down, or an unusual posture. In dogs, severe difficulty breathing may involve standing or sitting with the legs in a wide stance, an open mouth, or an outstretched neck. In cats, difficulty breathing may look more subtle: some cats simply sit quietly or hide, rather than acting obviously distressed.

A number below a general reference range does not override signs of distress. Likewise, a number within a usual range does not mean that every breathing change is harmless. Your veterinarian can give you a pet-specific baseline, a threshold for calling, and the monitoring frequency appropriate for your dog or cat.

When to contact the veterinary team

Contact your veterinary team promptly if your pet’s resting or sleeping breathing rate is newly or persistently higher than their usual pattern, even if they do not appear to be in immediate distress. Do not wait days to see whether the change resolves, and do not start, stop, or adjust medication based on a home count. Your veterinary team can assess the change in the context of your pet’s history, current condition, and monitoring plan.

Seek urgent veterinary care immediately if your pet is having difficulty breathing, breathing rapidly and deeply while at rest, or showing increased breathing effort. Tufts states that difficulty breathing is an emergency and that severe difficulty breathing requires immediate veterinary care.

For a cat, open-mouth breathing may be an emergency. Cats do not normally pant the way dogs do, so do not wait to complete multiple counts or see whether it improves on its own.

If it is safe and does not delay care, a brief video of your pet’s breathing can help the veterinary team see both rate and effort. But do not delay emergency care to record a longer video, repeat counts, or wait for a more convenient time.

A resting breathing count is a screening observation you can share with your veterinary team. It cannot by itself diagnose heart failure, lung disease, pain, or any other condition, and it cannot confirm that a pet is “all clear.” Its value is in providing accurate, comparable information for the team assessing your pet.

Using the observation in routine care

A requested breathing count can be one part of a broader home observation record, especially for an older pet or one with a condition your veterinarian is following. If you already keep notes for veterinary visits, add the breathing observation in the same dated format so your team can see it alongside appetite, activity, mobility, or other changes. For a broader example of useful routine observations, see Senior Dog Health Checklist: Monthly Checks and Vet Visit Planning.

Can I compare my two pets’ breathing counts to each other? Use each animal’s own usual resting or sleeping pattern as the more meaningful comparison. Different pets can have different normal patterns, so follow your veterinarian’s guidance for each individual rather than treating one pet’s count as the other’s baseline.

Are asleep and quietly-awake counts directly interchangeable? Label the pet’s state every time and compare similar contexts when looking for a trend. A sleeping count and a quietly-awake count can both be useful, but they are not automatically equivalent observations.

Do I need a special phone app to count breathing? No. A timer and a written record are enough. An app may help organize notes, but it cannot establish a diagnosis and should not override your veterinarian’s instructions about when to call or seek urgent care.