Dog Sleep

Have you ever observed your dog sleeping? Suddenly they start to shake, twitch and sometimes start whimpering. We call this dreaming, but what does it all mean for our dog. And just how powerful does this sleep have on dogs?


The exact function of sleep is still a mystery, but there is one intriguing theory, championed by Francis Crick the co-discoverer of DNA, that REM sleep otherwise know as rapid eye movement. This sleep happens in dogs when we perceive them to be dreaming, and it is to be thought that when dogs have REM sleep that it helps them to rid their mind of excess information.

Crick says that REM sleep is a kind of natural shock therapy for the brain. Dog’s that are denied REM sleep certainly suffer from obvious behavioural disturbances and simply build up a backlog of REM sleep requirements. Their behaviour does not return to normal until the body rhythms requirements for REM sleep have been made good. So as a dog trainer this is why I always ask clients how much deep sleep their dogs get throughout the day, part of my job is to encourage deep sleep patterns in my treatment plan to help aide this natural healing process for dogs.The more your dog has REM sleep the more they will become balanced again. So try and observe how much your dog is having of REM sleep!