nightmares in normally happy dog

[breezytoo]

My pug/chiahuahua mix is healthy and happy awake but has some scary sounding nightmares at night. Is it normal?
Any thing I could do to help? I read not to wake them because they need their sleep. Poor guy sounds so frightened!

[breezytoo]

  Hi there, yes he is barking in his sleep like Ginger did but also its the weirdest thing because Rusty makes these noises that sound like he is mimicking human speech. It sounds like if his mouth was open he'd be talking! Of course I know he couldn't really talk but it sure sounds like he is trying to! It's the sobbing I can't take. I won't worry about it though if it is normal. They are such funny little creatures. Rusty has recently developed a wort looking spot on his paw. a little north of his paw and he's belly has turned into a brownish pigment so I will have them looked at by the vet tomorrow. If anything ever happened to him I would be a basket case.

[ginger899]

As long as your dog is fit and well, any dreaming he does won't hurt him.
When my dog Misty was younger she used to make the saddest-sounding noises sometimes in dreams. Like the sounds we would make if crying or sobbing. It used to worry me.
Then I figured it out. She was barking! Of course because she was asleep the bark wasn't coming out right, and was muffled and strange.
But I worked this out because the sounds she made had exactly the same rhythm as her normal barks.

[tonyb286]

Hi. If he's happy and energetic and eating okay when he's awake, don't worry. Dogs dream exactly the same as humans, but slightly more so because they fall into light sleep (the dream state) more often and for longer periods. And they dream in much the same way, usually about things that have happened during the day while their brains slot memories into their various slots in the brain.

If your small guy seems a bit on the nervous side, that's another reason he may be having very vivid anxiety dreams. Things that may calm him and relax him might be useful, such as the Adaptil Diffuser Pack Dog Appeasing Pheromone plug-in. You might try this overnight and see if it has any effect - there are good reports of it helping anxious dogs. It's available on Amazon. There are also a few natural variations, but I've not heard any reports about whether they work or not on most dogs.

Tony