Watching TV and half asleep, I felt a flutter on my side. Rosie, my eight-year-old Chihuahua mix, who had fallen asleep some time ago, seemed to be running in place. Then she started “rooing.” You know, it’s not a howl, not a bark, but kind of a whine that goes “roo.”
Since she was sound asleep, she must’ve been having a dog dream, right? And if she was, could something be chasing her? Those feet sure were moving fast, so it was either that or she was doing the polka and singing.
Where Do Dog Dreams Come From?
Scientists believe that a dog dreams about whatever they normally do during the day. So, it very well could be that Rosie was dancing the polka and singing. Or more likely chasing that chatterbox squirrel in the back yard.
With this theory in mind, let me tell you a little story. A man had a dog that hated baths and would run and hide behind his master’s legs every time he had one. Once, when the dog woke from his nap, he ran behind the man’s legs. Could it be that the dog dreamed about a bath?
In an article in Psychology Today, I read that scientists have figured out that the brain structure of dogs and humans are similar. During sleep they have similar brain waive patterns and go through the same stages of electrical activity. That shows the dogs are dreaming.
They also talked about Poms. Those are things in our brains that keep us from acting out our dreams. It’s a good thing we have them or sleep time could get pretty nasty, especially when the nightmare includes mixed martial arts with a Tree Bear.
To find out if breed had anything to do with types of dreams dogs have, the poms were temporarily disabled for the study. They saw that a Retriever pointed, and a Doberman acted out more guard dog like behavior.
Do Dogs Dream Like Us?
Like humans, dogs go through different stages of sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) is where the vivid dreams come alive. If you watch your dog sleep, you can see his eyes begin to dart around under his eyelids about 20 minutes or so after falling asleep.
If you’re around puppies, you’ll notice they move quite a bit while dreaming. This is because their poms haven’t fully developed. And, when dogs get older, their poms sort of wear out, so they move more than younger adult dogs.
Just like us, dogs have nightmares. You can tell if she’s having a doggy nightmare if she whimpers or cries out, or if she seems distressed. You want to come to the rescue and wake her up, but did you ever hear the phrase “let sleeping dogs lie?”
When you’re in a deep sleep and suddenly wake up, it takes a minute to figure out where you are and what’s going on. A dog is the same way. Watch out or you may become part of the doggy nightmare and end up with a set of teeth embedded in your hand.
Until next time, Carol
PS: Low and behold, size does matter! Little dogs dream more often than big dogs, but big dogs’ dreams last longer.
Cover photo: Cute Dog Sleeping by Pic Basement, Photos: Dance Selene by Dodgers Mom Photography, Look by Muddy Lens, Stretched Out on Mums Place on the Sofa by StooMathleson, Nap by Matt Roberts ABC, Thank you for your visits by Meelki, licensing for all photos.