Can dogs have nightmares?

[Zumie05]

I do think dogs dream, but can they also have nightmares?

Something strange happened last night and made me wonder if Coco was having a nightmare. In the middle of the night I was woken by ferocious barking from Coco!! I have NEVER heard her bark the way she was last night. Usually she does one or two barks, and only at things she finds "out of the ordinary", and that is it, she really is not very vocal at all.

Her barking last night was like a dog alerting of an attack or something. I lay in bed for at least 30 seconds to see if she would cut it out on her own but she didn't. So I turned on the lights, and she was curled up in bed and then she opened her eyes and looked up at me, wagged her tail. I thought that she might have been barking in her sleep?

Is it possible she was having a nightmare? Or an SM episode She wasn't yowling in pain, it was just a lot of barking. I'm worried now!

 

[Furrfoot]

Based on our dogs, I would say that yes, they do. Our Cardigan Corgi went to fiercely growling and barking one night in the middle of the night, jumped up, and ran and hit the wall (GAH!). We quickly flipped on the lights, and he was standing sheepishly next to the wall. I knew he had been fast asleep because I had JUST walked past him on my way back from the bathroom. Our boxer also had a few nights when we called her name to wake her up because she sounded like she was having a bad dream.

 

[tara]

I had a similar incident with Holly once. She was sleeping on the bed as I was watching TV. All of a sudden, she jumped up and began frantically running in a tight circle. I spoke to her calmly and she seemed to snap out of it. I watched her the next day for any signs of pain, but saw none. I really think it was a nightmare.

I understand the worrying part, though -- we love these dogs so much, don't we?!