If humans are the only recognised inteligent species why do dogs dream?

Yes
If humans are the only recognised inteligent species why do dogs dream?
My dog lays there making funny noises and small barks wiggling her paws arround and blinks her eyes alot (with them shut) while shes asleep. and to my knowledge dreams would either require a cauntious memmory of events and places to put together into a dream, or if you believe in the esoteric they would be and need a traveling mind/spirit/contiousness threw the astral plane and both require a cauntious being. just my opinion. alot of people forget how smart some of the animals that are sitting staring them in the face are.

reply to post by pryed -eyed-one


Why do rats dream?

There have been experiments conducted on rats indicating that animals dream to prepare themselves for the waking hours. Essentially, our dreams are simulations that are used as training programs for possible encounters in the future based on, initially, evolutionary past and then, as we age, social/environmental/conditional experiences.

Effect Of Rapid Eye Movement (dreaming) Sleep Deprivation On Retention Of Avoidance Learning In Rats

The effect of deprivation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep upon retention of a passive avoidance response in rats was studied. An incompletely-learned avoidance response was established in one trial by shocking the animals when they stepped down from an elevated platform. Fourteen animals were then deprived of REM sleep by placing them on small inverted pots in a pool of water. Twelve control animals were placed on slightly larger pots which permitted normal sleep. None of the REM-Deprived animals showed retention of the response when tested the day after training, whereas sixty per cent of the control animals showed retention. The results suggested that REM sleep is essential for adequate adaptation to new experiences, especially those which cannot be completely comprehended upon first exposure.

This study is extremely interesting, suggesting that REM sleep deprivation can be the difference between life or death in wild animals when encountering novel dangers.

reply to post by pryed -eyed-one


We're not the only intelligent species but we are the only species with such complex language. Other animals might have a sort of consciousness but it wouldn't be as advanced as ours. I do think that we tend to look down on animals a bit too much, they're often quite smart and can make altruistic decisions for the better of others as well. We're related to them evolutionarily so we're not really as far removed as we pretend to be.

Dreaming is the subconscious minds way of dealing with all the information it gets during the day. There is a lot of sensory stimulus during the day, too much for our minds to directly address and so we ignore many of the little details. When we sleep all that information is blended together in our subconscious to form dreams. Or at least that's what I think happens...

Any creature with a brain (as opposed to only a central nervous system) still maintains brain activity while sleeping, as do we. It's reasonable to assume that some of that activity might be directed towards unconscious thought, or dreaming.

We are the only intelligent species, that is a scientific statement because it is falsifiable, for we are still waiting to meet any living thing that is intelligent like us.

Hahaha.

Science has been reduced to such a miserable condition as to leave everything without any solid and lasting and reliable foundation, and that means that scientists are so smart...


Hahaha.


Pachomius

We still underestimate our fellow earth creatures, and overestimate our own intelligence. If one day we could learn even just one of their languages, we would probably be so surprised at their intelligence.

There are some animals that have very complex languages, just our ears/senses aren't able to understand them. I heard of a study done once on gophers or groundhogs, and they determined they had a different sound for different animals they were exposed to.

Elephants have an ability to make such a low sound that our ears can't pick it up.
scienceray.com...

And then there is dolphins......

I would love to know what my dogs are dreaming about.

Part of intelligence should be to be able to recognize intelligence so exasperating to have to constantly argue for animal intelligence as to language they have it but it doesn't work like ours.

I'll give an example of many many I could cite.

. a long time ago in Arizona I had a friend who raised Thoroughbred horses. She boarded to two year old colts (they are not mature at two but they are tall and powerful the ones you see racing on tracks are two.) they had not been trained or handled and were virtually wild.So we had some very un Arizona like weather on winter in the form of a blizzard that lasted for almost a week,it was miserable the colts lived in chainlink pens with no shelter and after a few days of this howling wind unremitting snow they were standing knee deep in frozen mud dying of exposure . I could see from a long distance away that they were in real trouble and I was frantic,so I said to my friend 'those colts are dying ,I'm going out there to rescue them (that meant putting them under shelter with her colts) .She said you'll never get near them they're wild they are'nt even halter broke,'I said I can't sit here and watch them die " so I grabbed a halter and lead rope and brave the storm . The 'wild colts" literaly flung themselves in to my arms!! They were so desperate the first one smashed me against the fence,no it didn't hurt, he was just so glad to see come he was beside himself ,I said well if you give a little wiggle room I'll save you and he backed off and let me do whatever I need to do , I saved them both and they were fine incidentally. So they had to do some tall on the spot thinking to trust me and realized immediately that I was there to save them,and figure out how to cooperate with me to help me help them.
animals can think far better than we give them credit for and they can analyze and think through experiences that are totally new to them
that's intelligent .

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
reply to post by pryed -eyed-one

 

Dreaming is the subconscious minds way of dealing with all the information it gets during the day. There is a lot of sensory stimulus during the day, too much for our minds to directly address and so we ignore many of the little details. When we sleep all that information is blended together in our subconscious to form dreams. Or at least that's what I think happens...

Why have all mammals evolved to do it? Birds do it too. Despite it being a very risky activity to the animals surivival as it is left vunerable while sleeping, none at all have evolved to not dream. Its almost as if dreaming is essential to life. We have people walking this planet who are missing half their body or the majority of their brain and can barely function at all......except we dont have anyone alive who doesnt dream. (They may not remember which is different)

They just do. :-) Obviously. About the only people who don't know that animals are NOT how (or who) we think they are would be those who either have never had pets or didn't engage with them beyond feed/ walk/ play ball. Some breeds (maybe all of them?), in some ways, are WAY smarter than we are. They are extremely creative & thoughtful (they ponder, plan, connive, hope, fear & grieve, etc), are empathetic & far more telepathic than most of us will ever be. (When you're away, odds are that your furkid knows when you're a block or 2 away. A couple of ours can tell when my hubby has to be leaving the office because they get in position to greet him & they are NEVER wrong. I have a friend whose cats do this) The different species (cats, dogs, whatever) have different styles or personalities & that's why dogs usually don't interact with us the same way cats do (or whatever species it happens to be). Although, if you've ever heard someone say that Phideaux thinks he's a cat- that's not set in stone. Animals break out of their stereotypes all the time. Supposedly, even fish interact with their people. I don't doubt it. I do know that invertebrates (corals) can be trained to expect food at a certain time & will open up when it's time to eat.
I don't know how far this can go with a "wild" animal as opposed to a domestic creature or if it's true of all domestic creatures.
I'm not telling a "big" animal person anything new. Animals do communicate to the extent that, when we're close enough, we often know what the other one wants pretty quickly, if not instantly.

What I want to know is what they're dreaming about (running & playing is pretty straightforward). I wish I knew more- or sooner, when they don't feel good.

Mankind has been keeping & adoring cats and dogs for at least 11,000 years- to the point that they've been found mummified & adorned with (at least) ivory jewelry. You'd think we would have done a better job of understanding them.
Sorry. I went off. I hope that isn't more than you ever wanted to know.

Originally posted by pryed -eyed-one
My dog lays there making funny noises and small barks wiggling her paws arround and blinks her eyes alot (with them shut) while shes asleep. and to my knowledge dreams would either require a cauntious memmory of events and places to put together into a dream, or if you believe in the esoteric they would be and need a traveling mind/spirit/contiousness threw the astral plane and both require a cauntious being.

During the day, the brain uses short term memory to store information for seconds, while the brain decides whether to save or discard the data. When the conscious is sleeping, the brain will relive the day in memory and organize and associate the data to already existing structures in the long term memory. This is what you are seeing.

reply to post by pryed -eyed-one


Intelligence is not related to our soul, every living organism has souls, they all communicate with each other, they are all magnificent in one way or another, humans just have a huge problem of arrogance.

Animals also have souls, just like my computer, the soul of my computer which I'm using right now is me.

Hope the last sentence can be understood..

reply to post by snowspirit


I know animals have communication but it is not the same as human language, at least not as far as we can tell. For instance, I have no doubt a pod of dolphins can alert each other to the presence of a shark or where a tasty school of fish is swimming but I do have doubts that a Dolphin could dictate a novel length work of fiction.

And yes, vocalizations can be outside the human ability to hear. Infrasoundwhich has been linked to human fear response (we can feel it even if we can't hear it).

We're all just animals, animals with big brains and cell phones, but animals nonetheless... The thing I want to learn about is the development of language, how earlier mammal vocalizations developed as we evolved into what we are today.

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
We're not the only intelligent species but we are the only species with such complex language.

After studying dogs for many years, I must disagree. Dogs' language is also very complex, it's just that most of it isn't verbal.

Other animals might have a sort of consciousness but it wouldn't be as advanced as ours.

Keeping in mind that WE are the beings that make the tests that gauge such things... We say we're more advanced and intelligent than other animals, but we made the tests!

Originally posted by snowspirit
We still underestimate our fellow earth creatures, and overestimate our own intelligence. If one day we could learn even just one of their languages, we would probably be so surprised at their intelligence.

Excellent! I am surprised every day at the intelligence of my dogs.

Originally posted by Titen-Sxull
I know animals have communication but it is not the same as human language,

Of course it's not the same, but is it lesser? That's like saying that French people are less intelligent because they can't speak English.

For instance, I have no doubt a pod of dolphins can alert each other to the presence of a shark or where a tasty school of fish is swimming but I do have doubts that a Dolphin could dictate a novel length work of fiction.

And so, we use the criteria of writing a novel to indicate intelligence? I'm quite sure that a dolphin would see the ability to write a novel as an enormous waste of time and energy. And I'm quite sure that if the dolphins wrote the intelligence tests, we wouldn't even be able to figure out where to write our name on the paper! We would seem illiterate, mentally slow and like bumbling idiots.

Regarding dogs, Jaia says humans are so dumb... (How dumb are they?) They are SO dumb, they can't even figure out the mood, health and state of mind of someone else by sniffing their butt! They have to rely on this clumsy verbal stuff, and even then, you never know if what they say is true or not...

reply to post by pryed -eyed-one


Whoever said humans are the only intelligent species?

second

reply to post by polarwarrior

Why have all mammals evolved to do it? Birds do it too. Despite it being a very risky activity to the animals surivival as it is left vunerable while sleeping, none at all have evolved to not dream. Its almost as if dreaming is essential to life.

So...how do we know all animals dream? What, flies dream too? Ants? Everything? That's incorrect IMO...what tests have been done to show these small animals are dreaming? "Brain activity" isn't necessarily dreaming...however, I know dogs and cats can dream because I've had several that make noises and move their legs as if they were running in a dream, and things like that. Dreams are an extremely complex thing, our brains are able to generate entirely new worlds and personalities which we interact with, without even being aware it's all just an illusion most of the time. The ability to dream indicates an advanced form of intelligence IMO...it indicates a type of self awareness, it shows they have conscious perspective as an observer. Not all animals on Earth do dream, but I assume many probably do...only when you realize many animals are more than just a simple organic machine, but are in fact self-aware individuals with clear personality traits, can you form a deeper connection with them.

most animal's brains create a psychedelic chemical called '___' (for short) while sleeping.It's what causes dreams. Some say one's dream state is closer to reality.

en.wikipedia.org...

www.youtube.com...

As an answer to the OP, we are not recognized as the only intelligent species, but we separate ourselves because of our exceptional ability to use symbols for representation, which most animals cannot fully utilize.

We dont give animals enough credit just because they arent were humans are (civilization).

but then most people take civilization for granted.

It's amazing having such diverse and living creatures on this planet some people don't care about.

i bet they dream in color.


they chase things and do doggie stuff.

maybe have some nightmares too!