Unfortunately, as well as the things that dogs love to do (what do dogs dream about?) they can also recollect all the things they dislike whilst they sleep too. Just like us, our dogs days are made up of lots of mundane things, some nice things and some things they’re not particularly fond of and at night time, or when they’re sleeping, their brains de-construct lots of the events of the day.
Scientists, when studying canine dream patterns, have learned that a dog who didn’t particularly enjoy receiving a bath would fire the same neurons in their sleep when recollecting the experience as they would when they were physically being bathed in their woken state. So for a dog who doesn’t like a bath and gets a bath on a particular day, in their dream state they will – in their mind at least – be essentially experiencing the feelings they had when they were being given a bath. For a bath-hating dog, that’s a dog having a nightmare.
This, I’m sure you’ll agree, is another reason for us to make our dogs days as happy as can be. It’s a truly gut wrenching thought to imagine our dogs having unpleasant dreams and it’s obviously something we can positively contribute toward, given that we’re normally responsible for the mapping out and types of experiences our dog’s average day contains. It’s also particularly harrowing to think that those poor, mistreated dogs will almost certainly be reliving their fear as they sleep as well as when they’re awake.
Dogs do have nightmares folks, that’s worth remembering. We should already seek to fill our dogs days with as many positive experiences and pleasant emotions as we can. That science has shown dogs are capable of having nightmares is just an additional reason why we should work extra hard to make their daily lives as enjoyable as we can.
Wonder What This Dog Is Dreaming About?