Countless evenings I have awoken to the sound of my dog, Buddy, crying and tossing in his sleep. It always bothers me because I can only guess as to what he is dreaming about. I know that dogs don't think like people do, so it is really hard to tell what is going on in his mind. I know that he can feel sadness and happiness, but I am not sure about the other human emotions that make us dream. People may have dreams about insecurities that they have. Animals don't have insecurities, so that may limit the extent to which they can dream. Also, as Freud speaks of, many adult dreams are sexually orientated. Animals don't have the same sexual needs as people. When a person is having a nightmare, you can wake them and explain that they were only dreaming and everything is fine. With an animal, you can't communicate with them like you would with a person. This makes it much more difficult to tell what they dream about.

One circumstance where I was almost certain that I knew what my dog was dreaming happened about three months ago. My dog happens to be very close with my mother. No matter where my mom goes, Buddy is right behind her. When my mom leaves to go to work, Buddy lies by the front door, and barely stirs until she arrives home again. Three months ago, she went away for the night. Buddy, who normally sleeps next to my mom's side of the bed, never left the front door. That night I awoke to him crying, barking, and shaking around in his sleep. I am fairly certain that he was dreaming of my mom, and maybe he was afraid that she wasn't coming back. The night after my mom returned home, he peacefully slept through the night. Another instance where I was fairly certain I knew what he was dreaming about occurred a month ago, when we got a parrot. Buddy is used to getting all the attention of our family, so when we got a parrot, Buddy was quite jealous. He would spend most of t!

I believe that the function of an animal's dream is to vent about things that may be on their mind. Although animals do not think like people, I am sure that things must bother them. The fact that my dog has cried in his sleep on nights that something bad has happened to him proves that he must be thinking of the day before. Animals cannot talk to people when they are bothered by something, so they

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Approximate Word count = 936
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)