What do dogs dream of?

Anyone who's spent time around dogs will have witnessed the "bunny chasing" dreams that dogs have when they're fast asleep, whereby the dog's legs run on thin air, their ears and facial muscles twitch cartoonishly, and they emit muffled yips and growls - for all the world looking and sounding like they're chasing an imaginery rabbit.

Louis: fast asleep, but still listening.

Last night, we experienced a novel variation on the doggy dreaming theme: Louis was fast asleep on the lounge when a police car, with siren blaring, appeared on the television. Almost instantly - and still fast asleep - Louis started howling. This wasn't the lung-filled rusty bagpipe howl that Louis normally responds to sirens with. Rather, it was a dream-version of howling: muffled, breathy, and very funny.

Clearly, the siren had entered his dreams, which made me wonder (as I often do) just what a dog is capable of thinking, imagining, and, indeed, dreaming.

Louis and Kai, asleep on the lounge (as usual!)

All this talk of dreaming-in-motion reminds me of one of my favourite music videos, "Her Morning Elegance" by Oren Lavie: