Dreaming dogs

Good morning; I have three dreaming dogs on my bed this morning. My husband is away so lastnight I had three bed buddies who were fairly quiet. Until 4:45 this morning I didn't hear a peep from them. Typically Luke sleeps at the end of the bed but Tilley nabbed that spot first lastnight so Luke slept beside my head. So when he had a huge sneeze this morning I got the full affect "I'm up now."

So after being awakened abruptly I lay there listening; listening to their dreams. Luke is the most dreaming dog we have ever had. But all my dogs dream; they dream alot. After reading up on dogs dreaming they apparently have the same Slow wave sleep and Rapid eye movement parts of sleep as we do. But they slip into REM much faster than we do. And from researching my own dogs I know this to be very true.

Luke dreams very quickly after closing his eyes. Infact I comment on this regularly. He can be watching out the window intently starring at a crow and the next minute he is sleeping and dreaming. How can they possibly be in such a deep sleep so quickly? The answer is relaxation; a dog must be relaxed to fall into a deep sleep.

What do they dream about? No one can be sure but I think that it is regular dog activities; some good some bad, very much like us I would imagine. Their body reacts to the dreaming; often while sleeping Jessie's hair will rise on her back. She is usually growling when this occurs and it will remain up until her body seems to relax. Tilley seems to be a more relaxed dreamer; quietly twitching, deeply engulfed in her dream. Every once in a while she has a burst, legs going full out with her body convulsing; she is at this point very vocal as well.

Luke dreams constantly; from the tiniest face and feet movements to full on charging; he dreams alot consistenly and very regularly. Being an epileptic dog; does this factor in his dreaming cycle?: Is his brain so different that it interferes with his dreaming patterns? I think so. His brain obviously functions differently than a non epileptic dog. When awakened abruptly and forced into action by reactive response his brain sends his body into convulsions. Yet the girls can be sleeping one second and charging to the door the next and suffer no ill effects. What happens to his brain?

Although Luke slips into REM within seconds of closing his eyes; his brain seems to have a problem waking quickly. This is always a problem leading to a seizure. If he wakes normally he suffers no effects; this leads me to think that his dreaming patterns are different as well.