Snoozing dogs twitch, woof, and flop in their sleep. But what’s going on inside their brains dogs almost certainly dream. Any doubt comes from the fact that they can’t use language to communicate their experiences and confirm, yes, they had a nightmare about the vacuum cleaner last night. A cursory YouTube search confirms dogs twitch, kick, and do plenty of adorable things in their sleep. None of that proves they’re dreaming. But their brain activity highly suggests it. Like humans, dogs enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when their brain activity looks very similar to when they’re awake. That’s when people dream. It’s likely the same for dogs. While we might be able to infer what dogs dream about based on their waking obsessions (fallen pieces of steak, playing in the park, being pet by their humans, etc.), how they experience those dreams could be totally alien to us. Anyone who has patiently waited for their pup to inspect every tree and lamppost on their block knows that dogs largely experience the world through smell. We may never know exactly what dogs dream about and what those dreams feel or look like. But, factoring in what we know about their emotions, social life, and memory, we can demarcate “the space of what is possible” in their dreams Issues of animal rights aside, viewing your dog as a conscious, dreaming animal could change your personal relationship with your pet. Peña-Guzmán has received messages from readers telling him the book “peeled a new layer of complexity” or “revealed a new kind of depth” to the pets they already loved.
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