Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dreaming of the Chase

I've often seen greyhounds running in their sleep and it is always funny.  My last greyhound, Eris, who never barked would often have plenty to say while she was dreaming.  Sometimes her barking would cause her to wake up.

Luna is no exception.  She dreams a lot of running, but when she was on her pain medication the chase was even more intense.  Watching her run in her sleep was very encouraging to us because it showed that the neurons in all four legs were still firing.  At times she would be in a full sprint with her legs kicking hard.  Sadly, we never got a video of this because every time we turned the camera on, she would stop.

The best moment happened when she was still on her medicine.  After she had spent several minutes running in her sleep she returned to a peacefully rest for a few minutes.  When she went back to dreaming, she was no longer chasing her prey.  Only her face muscles and ears were twitching.  From the looks of it, she had finally caught her prey and was giving it what for.  Mike and I laughed as quietly as we could, but eventually she heard us and woke up.  I have never seen a dog dream of chasing and catching something before .  It always seemed to me that they were forever chasing.

It's nice to see that Luna sees herself as catching that elusive rabbit.  You got to love her optimism.

8 comments:

verobirdie said...

You are right, it is a sign of optimism.
It must be funny to watch.

Auntie M said...

Is she still on meds?

But I'm glad she's running with all her heart in her dreams. Especially now that she could probably do it while awake.

Sue said...

Sounds likie a good dream. Song often races in her sleep, with her breathing getting heavy and faster and then slowing down as she get's over the finish line.

Jay at The Depp Effect said...

So glad to hear good reports on Luna - yes, it must be encouraging to see her run in her sleep!!

Sid catches his prey in his sleep, too. I was entranced the first time I saw it!

genji said...

I do love watching them do that in their sleep. No so much fun when they sleep on the middle pillow at the top of the bed between us. Sometimes we wake up with bruises.

houndstooth said...

I think her optimism has served her well! One of our hounds snores and one of them runs so hard that the bed shakes sometimes.

Witty Angel said...

I love your comments. Eris used to wake me up with her dreaming when she would sleep in my bed. Eventually we agreed that we would both get a better night's sleep if we didn't share the bed.

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

Perhaps Beryl does enough running in real life because I've never seen her do this? Must be so funny to watch, I hope you do eventually catch it on video for those of us whose hounds don't do it:)