Nightmares...

My dog, Sugar, is always haveing nightmares at night, whenever she is on my bed, she will start shaking and somtimes wimpering, and breathing heavy. She is 4 years old, but I was wondering if she is remembering when she was taken away from her parents or somthing, if it is somthing like that, is there anything I can do to stop her form having bad dreams? Thanks alot

 

I am not sure how to help her from having them but my Husky has nightmares sometimes. She used to live in an abusive home and sometimes at night she is barking in her sleep and crying so to say. Sometimes to wake her up I will make a loud noise as I dont want to shake her to wake her up incase she thinks someone is trying to hurt her and snaps at me. Hopefully someone will come along with some advice on how to stop the dreams but I have not found any way so far.

 

Hi! my dogs do that also, I figure they are chasing cats in thier sleep, and I have had my dogs since they were pups. I don't think this is something you need to worry about, but that's just me

Perhaps you can gently rub on him/her, that's what I do, and they stop.

Good luck! Susan

 

All of my dogs have shown signs of "dreaming" in their sleep - from facial distortion, to whimpering, to growling, to rather rigorous leg and tail activity It's a bit like us humans and our sleeping experiences. I've never worried about it and I'm sure it's a relatively normal occurrence for dogs.

 

I am interested to see the response you get from this. I posted the same topic on the old forum and didn't get too much response.

Harley has nightmares and she sobs. You wake up and it literally sounds like there is a small child sobbing in the room, it is kinda creepy at times. I know she was abused in her old home, so I wonder if that's it. The weird thing is she is VERY dog aggressive, and can not be around other dogs, but the home she ws in before had 2 dogs and their cat just had a litter of kittens that Harley was great with. So I sometimes wonder if she misses romping with her pals, but why she would then not tolerate any other dog.

I have tried to do a search for dog nightmares but came up with no real info.

 

Jake has them all of time, for him I dont think they are nightmares, he hasnt been traumetized at all. And when he lays up around my head how about a 100# dog kicking you in the head. He was pretty active a few nights ago and I had to shake him because it lasted so long. I do think some dogs have nightmares because of hwat has happened to them.

Honeybear

 

I hope this info helps all of you....

"Dreams" are the bodys way of sorting out information stored in the brain. While you are dreaming (or your pet) you are deciding what info is necessary to keep and the rest is discarded. The images that you have when you dream are a combination of all the information that you do not need to keep. So, while you might dream of being chased, there might be things around that indicate something you have seen before or heard about.


I wouldn't worry about your pets dreaming. And please don't wake them up. They are sleeping deep enough for their brains to sort all of this info. This is helpful to them and us alike. I know you might want to "rescue" them, but honestly, do you want someone to wake you up just because you are talking and moving in your sleep??

 

Our mutt puppy has "nightmares"....he lashes out with his feet and moans. I dont know how he was treated at his first home though, but he was dumped on a busy highway as a puppy. Our other dogs dont move or make noise while they sleep.

 

my puppy has dreams like that too, she twitches and cries and looks like she's running sometimes....we adopted her from a shelter at 8 weeks old... i don't know how she was treated before we got her all we know is that the whole litter was taken from a shelter in the city..breaks my heart to hear her cry in her sleep

 

I agree with RottieZeus: They're just absorbing the events of the day. I really don't think they have nightmares. I wake up sometimes and Reese is really thumping his tail in his sleep. Probably thinking about when he was trying to mooch some of my dinner. Sometimes he starts to do a barking sound. Probably thinking about someone walking down the alley. Sometimes he starts moving his legs like he's running. Probably chasing Grace or one of the cats. My other dog Grace doesn't make any sounds or motions at all. I feel the more sensitive the dog, the more they dream. The one thing they both do is SNORE like crazy!!

 

Well that would make sense becasue my dog is very sensitive!