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

Dogs have cognitive reasoning and basic language skills. They understand human language both spoken, sign and body language. You can teach dogs new things every day and not just sit, speak and roll over. They can be taught to be service dogs to handicapped humans, being eyes and ears for those without. They can navigate debris fields and identify hazards that would harm them and humans that follow. They are by all accounts as intelligent as a 4 year old child... my children could read at 4.
Now I've had some brainless dogs... but I've known some equally brainless humans and the ability to vocalize thought does not constitute intelligence (see politicians).
Now, I could add that dogs display a variety of emotions that one would only attribute to sentience. Happy, sad, angry, depressed, jealousy. I have two dogs that laugh when you tickle them and smile when you talk to them and I'm not talking about showing teeth or open mouth panting but a genuine ear to ear smile. Eyes squinch up and everything.

Looking at this from another perspective. Usually humans do not twitch their paws when asleep, because we normally generate a chemical when we are asleep that allows us to sleep without moving our body. Some scientists think that it is this chemical that is related to the "waking paralysis" that is reported by those who think that individuals who think space aliens are coming into their sleeping quarters.

Some folks use the supplement Melatonin to allow them to sleep better. www.webmd.com...

For better info on REM, I suggest one go to the forums associated with Sleep Apnea. Which brings me to another oddity about Sleep Apnea. Many who have Sleep Apnea do not have dreams when the Apnea is present. In the second year of treatment, after the individual has started REM sleep again for a year, the individual starts suffer from continual nightmares.

My Sleep Doctor, (the MD with a specialty in Sleep Apnea, who gets five hundred dollars for a one hour consultation) suggested that usually dreams are more related to what is going on in our current reality. Like if I dream I am in Alaska in Winter, I often will soon wake up to discover the room I am in while sleeping is cold.

An acquaintance who believed in a spookier explanation suggested that our dreams are often predictions of what will happen in our future.

This topic reminds me of a farside cartoon:




If we base intelligence off of communication then we are ignoring the fact that we speak English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, Afrikaans or Sesotho sa Leboa, etc, etc.

If you do not know the language, then its nothing but intresting sounds coming from the person. Why can it not be the same for animals? Humans are the ones who claim we are the most intelligent species on this planet, yet animals have been around a whole lot longer the we have. Animals live in balance with their surroundings, where humans do not. Animals mastered flight before humans. Animals mastered the oceans before humans.

Just some food for thought.

the definition of 'intelligence' is where the problem lies. All definitions are subjective - a spider might think it's the most intelligent, because it knows how to spin a web, where us useless humans can't. conversely, humans might think that they're the most intelligent, because we can do advanced mathematics.

trying to define intelligence is rather useless when it comes to interspecies comparison.

reply to post by Pachomius


It's called skepticism. Skepticism is good. Skepticism is healthy. Skepticism promotes critical thinking. Without skepticism you would probably still be living under the reign of the catholic dictatorship of the middle ages, probably succumbed to rape by a priest at the age of 9 too, and then burnt at the stake for telling other people what happened, as it was "Blasphemous". Skepticism is necessary.

There are all kinds of great ways to measure sentience. There are tests to determine whether or not an animal can see its image reflected in a mirror and realize that the image is of itself. Great apes, some birds (parrots, crows) and elephants do very well with this test, as do most humans. Dogs do not do as well, but I doubt this proves anything. Dogs can identify each member of their pack by smell, including themselves. Most humans would be hard pressed to do that.

A more important test, IMO, is the test to determine whether or not an animal can guess at or predict the emotional state or interior thought processes of another animal. Some crows hide their stolen food by waiting to stash it when cameras are turned off, or other animals are not present, and so on.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I love my dog, almost as much as I love my wife or kids. If you let them, they will get under your skin. I know my dog performs certain behaviors because he wants particular rewards. I have seen him creatively work out a novel approach to reward when his first, second and third tries don't get him what he is after. None of that makes him sentient, but it does suggest that animals have a far richer and more diverse "inner life" then we normally give them credit for.