Dogs and humans all over the world have been enjoying a mutually beneficial best friendship for perhaps tens of thousands of years. They’re the first animals we domesticated, and have been constant companions ever since. Sometimes dogs have a job they help us with, like sheep herding or duck hunting. But others are literally just here for the cuddles, and dog people are happy to oblige.
Even after all those years, we’re still learning about dogs, including more about how our unlikely animal friendship began. But plenty of dog questions have delightful answers — like whether they dream:
If you’ve spent a lot of time around dogs, you’ve probably seen them twitching or kicking in their sleep. It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on in a dog’s mind, but they do exhibit brain wave patterns much like we do when we’re in our most dream-heavy phase of sleep.
So what do dogs dream about? In one study, scientists removed or deactivated the part of the brain that keeps dogs from moving around in their sleep (yikes). These dogs started to move when they entered the dreaming stage of sleep, and began acting out their dreams, doing breed-specific behaviors. According to dog psychology researcher Stanley Coren, “What we’ve basically found is that dogs dream doggy things. So, pointers will point at dream birds, and Dobermans will chase dream burglars.” This indicates that dogs probably just dream about their everyday actions.
Media Release/InterestingFacts
