Hey,

The other day I saw my puppy sleeping and she was running, growling,whining and barking in her sleep. This has been a debate for a long time whether animals dream or not. Some say they do and others say they do not. If you believe in the scientific theory then they may be right but If you see it you may want to change your mind.

I think maybe the reason they make all those sounds is just due to memory. It is like what we do i nour dreams if we concentrate on on one aspect of our day or anything for a long time then most of the times it comes in your dreams. I think oit is sort of the same for them for on days she has had played a lot then she tends to do the above active tasks but if she has eaten a lot then she would imitate sucking on a nipple. Its quite cute and I actually do not care if they dream or not but wanted to know what you guys thought about it

I definitely think they do.
There's been numerous times where my dog is sleeping and then she starts whine in her sleep. I asked a vet about it and he said that the dog is just dreaming. It's still scary when it happens though because I don't know what's going on. Some people say the dog is having a good dream when they whine, others say it is bad. I'm not sure.

But I definitely think my dog (and all pets I'm sure) dream.

I think some do and some don't. For example, dogs and cats probably do because they are pretty smart (compared to most household animals). A pet ant or frog, for example, probably don't dream because their mind is incapable of doing it. I don't know a lot about science so my idea is very unlikely, but that's just what came to mind what I saw the question. No need to publish my brilliant idea

This post has been edited by husker: May 12 2007, 05:50 PM

Hey,

She must be chasing a bone or playing with another dog. lol. I used to have a great dane and a german shepherd when I was a baby along with 10 cats. When the great dane or german shepherd (Samson and Brute) would sleep One of them would growl or bark and being big dogs their barks were scary.Once Samson(dane) started barking n his sleep and one of my cats, sasha went near him and clawed him reallly hard. It was funny for she hit and looked at him like he had done something wrong and she was punishing him. He looked really confused

I think they do. I use to have dogs and when I did they would make sounds in their sleep. bark out of nowhere when they're eyes are closed and still sleeping. They're just probably in deep REM sleep. if they do go through that stage. haha. If dogs are sensitive to everything including the supernatural why not be able to dream too.

My dog moves her legs in a running motion almost all the time when she sleeps. Alot of yips and stuff like that too. I think they do dream. There would be no reason for them not to. I mean we dream...

From what I know of neural networks (that's the description for most animals' brains) dreaming and sleeping are both necessary for proper function and to recover from the days input. Even a fictional android in the fictional universe of Star Trek, Data, must sleep and must dream. Any creature, weather man-made or not, that uses a neural net for its brain composition dreams and sleeps according to currently accepted science. The answer to the age-old question, Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep, is most likely, if their CPUs are built in a neural network, yes. Do ants dream? Maybe, I'm not sure if they incorporate neural networks, but I'd imagine they, too, dream...

According to my admittedly rudimentary understanding of dreams, sleep, and neural networks, dreaming is the brains way to take an abstract object that was sensed during the awake time and apply various fantastic contexts to its existence and file those away for the next time the object is encountered. Then, based upon the encounter and observation, the brain can go through, during the next sleep, and reject the fantasies (dream fragments) that don't fit the new information gleaned from the most recent experience.

This post has been edited by Watermonkey: May 27 2007, 12:34 AM

I once had a dog that often ran in her sleep. I believe that she was dreaming about chasing something.

Well I am not to sure but still I think they do anyways. But then again what really is a dream? My dreams are alway my mind playing tricks on me like I a mtrying to scare myself. I look into darkness and see a angry evil face. When I sleep and I am thinking happy thoughts I dream of bad things, same things go the other way around. It is akward.