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Nightmares.....


PuddleDuck
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Every few months bear, my toller, will have a nightmare where she is crying in her sleep and her little legs start running. When you wake her up, she is really freaked out and will come tearing over to me and huddle on my lap whimpering very loudly for about 10-15 minutes, and spends a few hours extremely sooky and upset.....Even if you give her some food which is her happy thing! She has the usual 'chasing bunnies' dreams a few times a day and wakes up with no issues, but these nightmares shake her up for a few hours at least. I've had dogs my whole life and bear is the only dog I've had that does this. Does anyone else's dogs have these type of nightmares and reactions??

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My 2 year old BC girl has suffered nightmares on a regular basis since puppyhood. Complete with howling like a wolf, legs moving in full stride running mode at times, sometimes just fidgeting . Whinning all while absolutely asleep.

I have always been advised against waking them during a bad dream. Apparently it can frighten them to be woken while dreaming. Instead I may just cough or make a normal house hold noise to slightly stir them & Stella seems to resettle into a more calm sleep after this.

I have had another BC, years ago that had very similar very bad dreams as Stella does but not to the same intensity as she does.

Hope I was of some help as it is quite scarey at times for all concerned. Just dont touch or sook them. Let them resettle on their own.

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Hi Puddleduck.

I don't think you should ever wake up a dog when it is dreaming. I understand it is stressful watching the episode but as the saying goes "let sleeping dogs lie" Obviously this is not the case with yours, but a woken dog may snap and bite without even realising what is going on.

I would let the nightmare run and allow Bear to wake up on his own.

Edit. I just see BC Crazy is saying similar :laugh:

Edited by Yonjuro
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I believe Bella had a nightmare once, she was whining in her sleep and woke up very distressed. For several weeks afterwards she refused to go in her bed, and would start shaking if I tried to put her on it. I think she had a nightmare which gave her a real fright. It took her a while to not be distressed about going in her own bed.

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Unfortunately we have to wake her, we live in a pretty small place and if we let her go on she wakes my daughter, and if we dont wake her doof will nudge her until she wakes. We just call her softly until she wakes up or calms down but usually the slightest noise sends her off in a sook. Thankfully she doesn't get upset about going back to sleep when the sook is over.

I feel better knowing she isnt the only one though I do wonder what they are dreaming about.....the only thing I can think of that would upset her that much is if we ran out of kibble :laugh: we tend to call regular dog dreams 'chasing rabbits' and when she is having a bad dream someone generally says 'uh oh, the rabbits are chasing bear'.

She is the smartest dog I've ever owned, I wonder if it is related to intelligence?

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I have often wondered why Stella has nightmares. Funny you should mention the intelligence of your dog as Stella is the smartest dog I have ever owned as well. She amazes me with her interlect. She is extremely bright & such a fast learner.

Stella is also a very anxious/stressed girl. I have her meds for these issues, sometimes wonder if she has such bad dreams because she doesn't relax fully. Like her mind is doing overtime. It can't be the meds because she was doing this before I starrted her on them. It would be interesting to know why though as they are quite frequent & intense. I do feel for her. Must be frightening you'd think.

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Mine all dream and run and twitch in their sleep. Usually they make little noises but very occasionally one will do this mournful howl that makes the hairs in the back of my neck stand up. I never wake them from it though. It's me who gets spooked. :scared:

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I have often wondered why Stella has nightmares. Funny you should mention the intelligence of your dog as Stella is the smartest dog I have ever owned as well. She amazes me with her interlect. She is extremely bright & such a fast learner.

Stella is also a very anxious/stressed girl. I have her meds for these issues, sometimes wonder if she has such bad dreams because she doesn't relax fully. Like her mind is doing overtime. It can't be the meds because she was doing this before I starrted her on them. It would be interesting to know why though as they are quite frequent & intense. I do feel for her. Must be frightening you'd think.

In Bear's case, I don't think it could be because of anxiety, she is the most chilled couch potato in the world and only gets anxious if dinner is late or we don't go in the second our daughter (Bear's baby :laugh: ) wakes up. She has a pretty charmed life, I can't think of anything that would cause the nightmares really??

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Mine all dream and run and twitch in their sleep. Usually they make little noises but very occasionally one will do this mournful howl that makes the hairs in the back of my neck stand up. I never wake them from it though. It's me who gets spooked. :scared:

It is really quite spooky, I agree Kirislin. Gives me the chills. With all the howling it's really haunting. Stella would have a nightmare at least 3 to 4 times a week of a evening. So its a regular thing.

Funny because Sonny, my other BC will go over to her & check her out, turning his head from side to side, listening & smelling her. then go back onto his bean bag to sleep. He never wakes her up though.

Sometimes her feet are going so franticly that they have hit Sonny on the face while he has been checking her out & she still hasn't woken up.

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Koda does the same

I was really worried when I first saw his nightmare, he was howling and kicking and moaning, I woke him the first time he did it and he snapped at me hard, then when he was fully awake I think he realized what he did as he wouldn't stop licking my hand where he bit me.

I checked on-line after that and realized my mistake, I am glad this happened when he was young, I can only image what he would have done at full size

DO NOT wake up a dog having a bad dream with your hands or body

If you are concerned for there safety due to leg movement maybe softly call out their name or make noises that are natural to your house, but try to leave them asleep if you can.

Koda seems to settle if I calmly call his name, not enough to wake him but enough for him to hear, he seems to settle well after hearing me

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Ours seems to dream of eating. No kidding. He will chomp and chew and lick his lips and then groan in the most satisfied way.

So funny. If it's related to intelligence we have a dunce on our hands...

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One of my foster dogs was having a bad dream the other day, growling a lot in her sleep and twitching, not just normal dream noises but really growling. The other foster who is very attached to her went over and licked her ear, which is how they usually show affection to each other, and she woke up with such a start, a yelp and eyes wide open like they were going to pop out. She was really freaked out and the one who licked her was also super freaked and scampered accross the room to get away. She took a few minutes to settle down again. Hopefully no more nightmare for her :( makes you feel so helpless

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One of my foster dogs was having a bad dream the other day, growling a lot in her sleep and twitching, not just normal dream noises but really growling. The other foster who is very attached to her went over and licked her ear, which is how they usually show affection to each other, and she woke up with such a start, a yelp and eyes wide open like they were going to pop out. She was really freaked out and the one who licked her was also super freaked and scampered accross the room to get away. She took a few minutes to settle down again. Hopefully no more nightmare for her :( makes you feel so helpless

:) it's part of life ...none of us sail thru without some not-so-good experiences , dogs and humans alike!

Obviously very severe and recurring ones are a concern .... but IMO , the odd bad dream/nightmare is a normal part of the brain working to sort things out ....

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Both mine dream but not like you've described PD, poor Bear :(

"Bears baby" made me laugh though :laugh:

She is bear's baby! They've had this weird connection since I was pregnant and now they're inseparable. It's funny when I send her breeder pics of them together she says 'I always knew that dog wanted to be a mum' :rofl:

Definitely poor bear though, she's walking around covered in hair clips at the moment :laugh:

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Ours seems to dream of eating. No kidding. He will chomp and chew and lick his lips and then groan in the most satisfied way.

So funny. If it's related to intelligence we have a dunce on our hands...

:laugh:

I think that should be destined for YouTube!

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