Dear Dr. Dana,

My son asked me if dogs dream. I told him that you may be better equipped to answer this question.



Dear Faith,

This is actually a really common question. Most research and observations support the fact that dogs do dream. You have probably witnessed your dog moving his legs, wagging his tail or vocalization during a nap. This is often associated with dreaming.

Professor Stanley Coren, author of "Do Dogs Dream? Nearly Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know" confirms that dogs do experience dream patterns. Similar to humans, dogs will cycle through stages of wakefulness, rapid-eye-movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid-eye-movement sleep. In a study performed in 1977 that evaluated the brain activity of six pointer breed dogs found that dogs spend approximately 44 percent of their time alert, 21 percent drowsy, 12 percent in REM sleep and 23 percent in non-REM sleep. The brain wave patterns of dogs are similar in many respects to humans following different stages of electrical activity.

Further support for animals dreaming was indicated in a study by researchers at MIT in 2001. This studied measured brain activity of rats during activity and during sleep. It was recorded that the brain cells fired in a distinct pattern and looked identical to the pattern of brain cell activity during their time in the maze. The results indicated that rats were in fact dreaming and most likely about the maze they had run in earlier in the day.

There is also belief that small dogs, like Chihuahuas, actually dream more often than large dogs. Additionally puppies and senior dogs tend to dream more often than middle-age dogs. Normal dreaming behavior for dogs includes twitching legs, whimpering, flicking their paws, moving ears and rapid eye movement.

Smaller muscles of the body are not paralyzed during REM sleep like other major muscles. When your dog is dreaming it is best to let him sleep even if you believe he are having a nightmare. Waking a dog out of a deep sleep abruptly can be startling and result in confusion or possibly provoke an aggressive reaction depending on the dog or situation.

We will never be able to know exactly what our dogs are dreaming about but we can hope their dreams revolve around fun activities, delicious food, and spending time with their loving owners.



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