Question:
I am a 13-year-old with a 5-year-old mutt called Oreo. My family and I love her very much, and she has lived a very calm and comfortable life filled with love.However, we have recently noticed that she twitches in her sleep quite often. Is she dreaming? Is it serious or common for an adult dog to shudder during deep sleep? We have never seen Oreo do this when she was a puppy. Should we be concerned?.
The W. Family, Silver Spring, Md Jan 23, 2005
Answer:
Many people still find it hard to accept that other animals dream. Maybe this is because it means that animals also have feelings, imaginations and "souls," just like us, which some religious traditions find unacceptable because they assume that humans are superior to animals. The idea that animals have more similarities to human beings than differences is, to their way of thinking, lowering humans to the level of the beastly realm, and that makes many people uncomfortable. If animals are like us we should clearly give them basic rights and not exploit them, but this upsets entrenched notions of human chauvinism and species-ism.So, yes, your dog dreams just like you do, but she has doggie dreams -- sometimes they're nightmares after a scary day, or she might relive a happy afternoon of chasing squirrels (that's when you'll see her paddling her legs and rolling her eyes).
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