Do Dogs Dream?

Many of nights, the howling of my dog in her sleep has startled me awake. I have to really shake her to wake her up otherwise, her howling will wake up the neighborhood. I have always wondered what dogs dream of, I have had a person say they don't dream at all but, I do not believe that. Therefore, I did my own research.

The true function of dreaming is still a mystery, but research suggest it is necessary for normal data processing and storing memory. Most dogs "think" and their memory banks needs periodical purging and reorganization with sleep, as do people.

The way dogs sleep is very much like how people sleep, and evidence supports the theory that dogs dream. Using electroencephalogram (EEG) researchers experiment measuring and reproducing canine brain wave activity during sleep. Like humans, when a dog first falls asleep, they go in to a "lighter" sleep mode, breathing regularly and easily awakened. The stage in "deep" sleep, breathing becomes more irregular. It is harder to wake a dog or person in the deep sleep stage of sleeping. In addition, brain wave activity increases at this stage; the dog has Rapid eye movements (REM), when the dreaming takes place. Jumping in and out the dreaming stage several times a night. REM is exactly what it sounds like, behind their closed eyelids the eyes move back and forth. Presumably, watching what ever they are dreaming about. This is also the stage of sleep when the dog may have involuntarily body movement and vocalizations. I know that, from experience. I have seen my dog act as if she is drinking water, running, growling, barking, howling while asleep, it is fun to watch though. There are times when I think she is have a bad dream and want to wake her up. Nevertheless, I resist because dogs need uninterrupted sleep for healthy mental activity just like people.

Since dogs cannot tell us what they are dreaming, we can assume that their dreams are similar to what ours are like. This assumption is made based of the fact that we are genetically close to dogs. Something like 80% identical. Many of our inner workings are the same, like our brains, neurochemistry, reflexes and memory are "wired" in a similar manner. They all point to the likeliness of dogs dreaming in a fashion to humans, canine fantasies along with everyday things.

Research suggests that small dogs may dream more then the larger dogs, dreaming frequency may also be related to a dog's age. Puppies dreaming more the older ones.