2023 Animal Stories Magazine

Page 7 2023 Animal Stories Lincoln Daily News February 22. 2023 even their own anxieties. As odd as it sounds, dogs have stress dreams, too. Knowing my dogs, they probably dream about running after the rabbit that they want to be friends with in the backyard, or the strangers walking outside. One of them really doesn’t like when she can’t see faces, so she probably has nightmares of people wearing hats. Another odd dog behavior involves the passage of time. Some dogs, especially those with any sort of herding breed in their ancestry, are very aware of the cycle of day and night. This doesn’t just mean that they know when it’s time for dinner. This sense of time goes further than that. My second dog knows when it’s time for bed, and will get upset if we don’t do so immediately. He does, in fact, throw a fit if we don’t go to bed “on time.” Usually this means flopping on the couch and sighing a lot- another weird thing that dogs do that is just as passive-aggressive as when humans do it. The truth is that some dogs are very sensitive to schedules. If bedtime is consistent in the house, then deviations from that become a problem. As a result, some dogs will effectively try to herd their owners. It’s funny to think about it like that, but this dog takes his self-appointed job very seriously. Dogs are not the only pet with odd habits. Cats come with their own unusual behaviors- or it can seem that way to people who aren’t used Continued --