Does your dog have nightmares?

[Navy Chief]

Occasionally, my dog "Chief" has nightmares. I don't know how else to describe it.

It always happens very late at night. He will let out the most mournful, chill-to-the-bone howl you've ever heard. Honestly. Think of the scariest movie you have ever seen, and a scene where someone screams or moans...and multiply that by 10. It is that bad.

I get up, go downstairs, and give him a hug and spend some time with him. Whatever he's experiencing, it must be traumatic.

Do your dogs go through this too?

NC

[grunau_baby]

Yep, mine has bad dreams, too. However I believe the worst nightmare is running out off food...:d

Seriously my dog often runs in dreams, moving the legs in fast moves, barks mutely and growls. But this tiny animal (kinda dachshoundish) feels so superior over others and is so selfconfident I would not call it nightmares. Struggle, yes, but no fear. In daily life she even attacks much bigger dogs..no risk no fun!

Alex

[kilo delta]

Yep...all of my dogs have experienced the same...rapid leg movements and whimpering or small barks.

[rpjkw]

Mostly our dog twitches and her breathing rate increases while she makes huffing and puffing noises. There have, however, been a couple of times she's howled just like you described, NC. It was truly a mournful and frightening sound. Shayna's never howled while she was awake so we were a bit concerned. Thanks for the post, NC, I feel a little better.

Bob

[Tako_Kichi]

Both our previous dog and our current one behave(d) as described. The huffing and puffing and the twitching/running legs. The current one is a one year old English Springer Spaniel and the first 'howler' we've had, but, he only howls when he hears a fire-truck siren (and to a lesser extent ambulance or police sirens).

It's funny to watch him as his head snaps up when he first hears one, then he starts huffing and making small barking noises as it approaches before going into a full nose up howl that sometimes amazes us as to how long he can howl for. To top it off he finishes the howl with a weird 'yodel' that always cracks us up, sort of like ... awROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...ROW ROW row row row!

To get back to NC's original post, we were in bed one night last week and were all fast asleep (the dog was on the floor at the foot of the bed) when suddenly we were woken up by one of the loudest and longest howls we have ever heard from him. It seemed to go on forever and the dog never woke up through the entire thing! My wife and I were in fits of giggles when he finished which wasn't helped by the sound of his nails against the dresser, I guess he'd gone into full 'chase mode' in his dream....lol.

Thinking of noises while sleeping, I just remembered another quirk of his too. If he's asleep under the desk he will sometimes make a noise just like the sound of dripping water which he repeats at a rapid rate. Always raises a smile when he does that one!

[Daveroo]

my cat (pictured left) does this as well,,wakes howling ( or Yowling as a cat does?)but its such a ,well scarey ,to me..sound..she sounds in pain......when she was a kitten..my girf friend at the time was a absolute nutcase and her son was worse...the GF would grab the cat at night in bed (cause the cat would curl up next to me) and throw her ( the cat) across the bedroom..she was only months old at the time....and her son would pick the cat up and force her lil head into the fan blades of the over head fan in the livingroom..i knew nothing of this until oneday i just happened to come around the corner and caught him in the act,,,he dropped the cat and she ran to my feetbut i walked over and picked the kid up...he was 16 and 6'2",and i stuck his head in the fan...we needed a new fan and he needed 6 stitches but he never did that to the cat again and i swear the cat was laughin......and no...i was,,like ive said an ex fire fighter and very good friends with the local cops..the currant police chief is one of my ex girl friends..,,,,so no i didnt get into trouble..........thing is..when this same gf the crazy one..tried to have me arrested for assualting her...it never happened..ive never toouched a female in violence in my life...i was standing out front with the currant police chief picking glass out of my hair,and she looked into the window and watched the crasy gf bite herself on the arm,once the welt and bruise came up...the crasy one came out to the police chief and told her that i had bite her....OH MY GOD you should have seen the fur fly....Val (police chief) told her i dated dave for 5 years and he never even raised his voice with me...youre with him for 3 months and you make 6 claims of violence against him?..and i WATCH you bite yourself??? how dare you and she took her to jail....hehehehehe


omg that has nothing to do with dog dreams........

[Navy Chief]

Daveroo,

That story you related was worth my posting, just to read it! I can understand your anger at the former GF's son for the animal abuse. Stupid evil moron.

NC

[OBIO]

Both of our dogs have dreams, as I call them. Not sure what they dream about...but they run in their sleeps..their little legs pumping gently in their sleep. They bark, growl, and howl. I like to think that deep in their Chihuahua genetics, there are ancestral memories from their primordial wolf predecessors. When 8 pound Hazel and 12 pound Brutus dream, they see themselves as hulking wolves chasing rabbit, deer and elk across the wild grass lands and steppes. In their dreams, our ankle biters are hunters!

OBIO

[TARPSBird]

Was reading a book late the other night during the heavy rain we had. Suddenly I hear my dog Joker let out a low evil-sounding growl like he's about to attack somebody. Really scary. I look out in the hallway and the old boy's asleep. He always twitches and barks in his sleep, but something in his dream really got him PO'ed that night. :d

[Astoroth]

My Coco twitches and yips, and runs in her sleep, but no howls, thank God....

[luckydog]

I've been told that when I was younger, I'd let out some pretty good howls while sleeping......
.....now that I'm old and grey, I just huff and puff, twitch a lot, and cut loose with some pretty bad stinkies......

[Navy Chief]

I've been told that when I was younger, I'd let out some pretty good howls while sleeping......
.....now that I'm old and grey, I just huff and puff, twitch a lot, and cut loose with some pretty bad stinkies......

You are hysterical!

Since I live alone now, I can't testify as to whether I am vocal or not in my sleep. But my "Chief" hasn't complained!

[OBIO]

You are hysterical!

Since I live alone now, I can't testify as to whether I am vocal or not in my sleep. But my "Chief" hasn't complained!

That may be so...but Chief licks his own hind end...so his standards of etiquette are quite low.

I will share this about my little Hazel. I just fired the furnace up for the first time this season...and you know how they always have that dusty burny smell during their first heat up? Hazel knew that something was NOT RIGHT and began barking and carrying on..going from room to room trying to find the source of the NOT RIGHT. Bless her little 8 pound heart...protecting her mommy and daddy from the unseen NOT RIGHT.

OBIO

[Bone]

Yeah, our dogs did this...we called it "doggy-mares".

[Willy]

My Sassy is seven pounds of Minature Pinscher that's all legs and thinks she's a full sized Doberman. She sleeps on our bed and sometimes will start growling or whimpering when fully asleep. If she's growling I leave her alone figuring she's got it under control, but if she's whimpering, I'll pick her up and love on her.

Here's what she looked like as a puppy a few years ago.