Nightmares

[Tia]

My puppy; the latest member of our family is about 20 weeks old now (I think) and she is a very happy go lucky dog, however when she first came to me she was very shy and didn't care for any physical contact. She now loves being cuddled and I've invited everyone who comes to the farm to try to take a little bit of time out to stroke her. This has worked well and she is now no longer afraid of people touching her.

All sounds good eh? Yesterday she had been sleeping in the dogroom with all the other dogs. All dogs were lying on their own respective beds, as was she. Anyhow the puppy started to cry...inconsolable cries. I immediately went to her and cuddled her but she still whimpered and was crying for about 2 or 3 minutes afterwards. When she stopped crying, I checked her over thoroughly and didn't find any reason for her crying. I knew she had been sound asleep previously as I had been in the kitchen up till a couple of minutes before she started crying and I could see she was sound asleep.

All seemed back to normal again for the rest of yesterday and when I gave them their chewies (soft ones) last night, she was perfectly happy. Very early this morning she started crying again and making short barking sounds. Again I got up to her and when I went downstairs she got out of her bed and greeted me with her "smiley" face and seemed very happy. She's been running around this morning and there doesn't seem to be anything actually wrong with her.

So, could she be having bad dreams? That's all I can think of because when she is awake, she doesn't do this. I have her booked into the vets this week for her to get her rabies shot, so will mention it to the vet, however I thought I would run it by you guys first.

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

Don't know to be honest, my puppy (just 5mnths old today) has dreams, like he muffled barks, and his limbs move like he is running, in his sleep!
So I guess if they can dream, they can have bad ones too.
If she was fearful of you stroking her at first was she beaten or mistreated from where you got her? cause that might be a cause? like humans, maltreated children=nightmares (whilst asleep and awake!)
so maybe nightmares is it, and just making her awake time as happy as possible will reduce them!
Don't know for sure tho! just an idea!

 

[MrsElle]

One of ours used to cry pitifully in her sleep when she was young. She would wake up looking a bit dazed then remember where she was and be all smiles and waggy tailed. She has always acted out her dreams in her sleep, ie barking, eyes and legs twitching and occasionally tail wagging like mad. As she had got older she hasn’t done it as much, they do grow out of it.

I don’t think there is anything you can do, it may be that she is howling with excitement in her dream but it comes out differently, if you know what I mean? Mine was once howling as if in pain but the tail was going ten to the dozen.

She will grow out of it – eventually!

 

[Tia]

This was not the usual sleeping dog sound though. My others always did the little muffled barks and legs jumping all over the place as pups, but this puppy really sounded like she was in pain and cried even when I was cuddling her, with loud cries. I was the sort of sound they make when they have had a fright.

Lucy, no I don't think she had had any bad treatment. She is a working dog so was born and lived in a barn until I brought her home. She had never been outside before that day and I don't think she had met many people before, so she was just uncomfortable with people. It's quite typical of these dogs, they don't really care for people much.

I've just been outside with the dogs and she seems her normal happy self. I've given her a good check over again, and still can't find anything wrong. She is teething though, so it could be this I suppose.

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

Well its good she has not been mistreated.
BUt its annoying you can't quite put your finger on whats wrong!
SO
vets advice is probably best bet! sorry can't be of more help!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I think I've seen some scientific study that showed that dogs have REM-sleep, they concluded that dogs do dream, and thereby I conclude that they should also be able to have nightmares.
But since I think that dogs don't go around thinking and worrying about things the same way some of us tend to do, they are therefore less likely to have a nightmare.


But I believe that it has, at least, happened with two of my dogs, because it was the sort of puppy-in-great-danger-cries. However since one of the dogs was an older lady when it happened to her, as soon as she woke up she looked around the room, nothing there, and that was it. The other one though, was still a young dog when it happened, and she needed a little more time to calm down, after she had woken up.



Doesn't rule out that she can't be in pain somehow, but I believe it just as well could be a nightmare that caused it.

ETS If it was because of real pain, and since I think we're talking about a large puppy still growing? (saw a cute picture from you in SB, of a white puppy of a big breed), my thought would probably be that she'd been running with her legs in her sleep, and somehow had a nerve squeezed somewhere. Or as you say, she's changing her teeth.
Basically one of those times I wish we could ask them questions and actually get real answers. /ets


from Sweden.

 

[Tia]

Yes I knew they dreamed and same as you, I expected they could have "nightmares" but probably not in the same way as we see nightmares. I'm not one to put human perspectives onto animals but it does seem that something happened to her; teeth aching or trapped nerve or maybe just dreaming; who knows

.

Yes she is a large breed dog and she has grown a lot in the past month or so. She's very nice and gentle and when she came to me, she looked quite sad and surprised and not really sure why she was crying. Bless her.