Canine Dreams...

[coquina]

I have had dogs before who seemed to be dreaming. Most of the times the feet would go as though they were running.

 

Now, I have Sadie, a black lab mix "pound puppy". She's now about 2. She is a very sweet and good natured dog, and she loves people, but some things absolutely terrify her - the garden hose for instance. She is afraid when you even turn on the spigot.

 

Now - for the dream part. When she is asleep you often yelps as though she is being beaten. Several times it has caused me to rush from another room to check on her because it sounds as if she is being hurt.

 

Do you suppose that she could be having dreams about her former abusive treatment?

[pulkit]

It is quite possible. When I got my dg as a little puppy it used to sometimes hyper ventilate while sleeping and appear restless. We were advised by a vet to calm her down by stroking her whenever this happened. And thankfully, it stopped soon after we started to do this.

 

Our dog also seemed to be very insecure. It sleeps on the bed and at night if by chance someone touched her, she'd jump up and try to byte. Again with soothing her whenever this happened, this has also stopped.

 

I must say I am quite convinced that dogs do dream

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Sometimes while my cat sleeps she will twitch and her ears will swivel around, as if she is on the hunt.

I think most mammals dream, if not in the same way we do.

[RICHARDBATTY]

My dog does all the running deep breath yelpy bubble noises too. If we inhale sharply to sneeze or cough he legs it out of the room and he hates the vac. We got him as a pup from someone who had a dog and a cat already but decided they didn't want him. He is the most mild mannered afectionate dog (probably because I treat him like a baby) and he was a very cute pup. I had wondered if it was that he has a longer coat and may have triggered alergies in the previous owner. Does your dog spy on you through a slightly open door.

[coquina]

Sadie can't stand having a closed door between us. I can't even have a private moment in the bathroom without her scratching at the door. She is very fortunate because she gets to go to work with me - all the employees love her. So does my grandson and his friends.

 

I need a sign. "A spoiled rotten dog lives here."

[RICHARDBATTY]

We have one of those simple door closers on the living room door so it just closes to but he can pull it open with his claws. He goes for a drink or a chill at the bottom of the stairs but when he's in between tasks he pushes the door ever so slightly open and pokes his eye through the crack to check we're still there. He's generaly a bit of a looney but I wouldn't have him any other way.

[coquina]

What kind of dog is he?

 

Sadie has some other tricks too. She likes to goose the cats. She does a "hit and run number", because they turn around and swat her.

 

However - she knows that Louie, who we took in when his owner had to go to a nursing home, has been declawed. When she sticks her cold nose in his rear, he turns around and swats her, but she just stands there and lets him do it. She figured out he can't hurt her.

[RICHARDBATTY]

What kind of dog is he?

 

Sadie has some other tricks too. She likes to goose the cats. She does a "hit and run number"' date=' because they turn around and swat her.

 

However - she knows that Louie, who we took in when his owner had to go to a nursing home, has been declawed. When she sticks her cold nose in his rear, he turns around and swats her, but she just stands there and lets him do it. She figured out he can't hurt her.[/quote'] He is a cross labrador/german shepard. His name is Rex and his best talent is stealth sofa infiltration. We can sit on the sofa talking, watching tv what ever and suddenly notice he's got in between use somehow or he is lying behind us. We don't see him get up he's just there.

[coquina]

The proper term for it is "the oouch" This is usually practiced when there is food in the general vicinity. The dog lies down across the room from the food and seems totally disinterested, however, over a period of time, it gets closer and closer to the food, even though no observable movement has been noted.

 

Time lapse photography reveals that the dog extends its forlegs and pushes forward with its hind legs without apparently moving the rest of its body. This enables it to creep up on its prey (the food) without attracting attention.

[RICHARDBATTY]

I suppose without the need for hunting the instinct has been transfered to the aquisition of cuddles.

[PiCkLed]

Only one of my dogs dreams. Sophie my english setter gets right into it. On the odd occassion she has been moving her legs so much she has launched her self off the futon onto the floor. She then proceeds to look up and blame me while im sitting at the computer, as if i had something to do with it.

Julie(whippet-like a small greyhound) is my other dog who just barks in her sleep and moves her eyes around and has changes in her breathing.

Dogs seem to think doors are just a game. Sophie has the habbit of going up to a door to be let out then proceed to a different door around the other side of the house to be let in by someone else around. She then repeats the process.

[rakuenso]

This reminds me of Pavlov's experiment, where the dog responds due to conditioning

[PiCkLed]

Pavlov's experiment ? Is that something like where the guy strung up the head of a dog and taunted it with the scent of food and made it drool even though it had no body or stomach ? Gotta love early scientists . Had so much more fun without ethics and morals.

[Glider]

No. Ivan Pavlov was the one who found that you could condition dogs to associate a non-related (unconditioned) stimulus with a conditioned stimulus (food), to produce a conditioned response (salivation). This is known as classical conditioning.

[PiCkLed]

Thanks for clarification . Eh . would that work the same way with humans responding to memory in a certain way to something that seems totally unrelated(when i hear Garbage-Crush i think of a computer game called Terminal Velocity)

 

Is it just a creation of the link between two things in the mind of the animal ?

[Edisonian]

I have had dogs before who seemed to be dreaming. Most of the times the feet would go as though they were running.

 

Now' date=' I have Sadie, a black lab mix "pound puppy". She's now about 2. She is a very sweet and good natured dog, and she loves people, but some things absolutely terrify her - the garden hose for instance. She is afraid when you even turn on the spigot.

 

Now - for the dream part. When she is asleep you often yelps as though she is being beaten. Several times it has caused me to rush from another room to check on her because it sounds as if she is being hurt.

 

Do you suppose that she could be having dreams about her former abusive treatment?[/quote']

 

LOL. Hey Coquina, my cat's name is Sadie too. I have lived with dogs and cats. While I it appeared that my dogs would dream a lot, I cannot recall seeing my cat dream. Maybe only once or twice. I wonder why dogs seem to dream more than cats?

[AzurePhoenix]

I had a dog named sadie.... didn't dream as often as my cat. Actually, i once caught my cat sleep stalking. Definetley asleep, eyes closed the entire time and didn't react to my calls or waving whatsoever, way passed her normal sleeping time (a fat, old cat)

First, she walked into a glass door, fell over, got up, walked into the door again, circled around, did two laps around the living room, fell onto her side, kicked and snarled a little, got uup, went in ttwo small circles, then suddenly screeched and leapt four feet up into the air, landed on her side (not her feet!) woke up, panicked, and bolted into the laundry room.

 

Is that bizarre or what?