If your puppy shakes and twitches during sleep then he is absolutely healthy. This shaking and twitching during sleep indicate neural and muscle development. You should not be worried about this condition. If your puppy shakes or shivers when not sleeping then it can be due to pain and discomfort. If so, then take him to vet.
This is absolutely normal for a puppy. Most of this occurs during the REM sleep cycle, and indicates that the puppy is dreaming. Sometimes you will see your puppy start kicking its legs while sleeping, like it is trying to run from something. I have even experienced my puppy barking softly in his sleep. Think of it this way: Dogs are a lot like humans, as they experience dream cycles like us and they even require some of the same types of medications that we would use during certain types of illnesses. There are so many similarities between our animals and us, that we have to look at everything from a broader perspective. We may shake, twitch, kick, or thrash in our sleep which is normal so why can't a dog do it too.
Dogs experience dreams like people do. These dreams can be quite active--dogs can vocalize, move their limbs, and jaw chatter. If your puppy is doing this continually every time it is sleeping I would be more concerned. Videotape this event and show your veterinarian to determine if this is a cause for concern.
Answer number one is correct. But, puppies learn a lot. Is this breathing constant, or does it happen in spurts? Does his paws twitch a little when this happens? Eye movement? Collective " sigh" when fast breathing stops? Possible your puppy is dreaming. And what is he dreaming about? All the stuff he experienced that day! Take to vet to be on safe side, or at least call one. But I've had a lot of dogs in my life. One in particular used to chase squirrels. You should have seen him sleep after a good day of treeing those little guys. You would have thought he was coming apart at the seams. All he was doing was chasing the squirrels in his sleep.
Pets should always be treated like your kids. If you are feeling any change in behavior or activities in your pets, take them to vet for diagnosis and treatment. You have not pointed out what other signs of illness your dog is showing? Difficulty in breating in dogs can develop due to heart diseases, heart failure, lungs diseases, fluid in lungs, trauma, tumors or cancer of lungs, pneumonia, bleeding in lungs and obstruction of air passage. Complete general examinations, blood tests, chest x-rays, ECG, echcardiogram and blood pressure measurements are required to diagnose properly. Treatment depends upon underlying cause. So, you should take your dog to vet for proper diagnosis and treatment.
My puppy does that ever time she sleeps. I've had a lot of blood work and test's done to her at a Specialist Animal Hospital and came to the conclusion it's have to be normal. She is almost 3 months old. The only test I havnt got done to find out a solution to this very popular episode in puppies is a mamigram or spinal tap. I dought the if it was one of those two, that this spacific episode in puppies while they sleep wouldn't be so frequent to hear from owners as if it were normal. We are not in the pup's body to visulize what they see and how they feel, but we can do varys of things to have a logical answer. 1. Observe and get tests done (I did that, my dog very healthy.) 2. Find out if there are any dogs that are older that went through the same episode frequently and determine the dogs health now. 2. Find out the percentage of dogs that frequently go through this twitching, neck jerks, jaw clenching, though consious while sleeping pattern. Put poll's up to have a percentage of dogs in the U.S. That do, so we know the among everybody's puppies or dogs- we could be think it is normal because people who type in the search engine "pups twitching in sleep" are the ones with their this episode, noticed they 'think' it is frequent, it has to be normal, right? How do we really know? 3.I'm sure that if the dog was unconcious during this accurance that you should consider seeing a vet and many test will be done to narrow down the cause to this effect. Unconsiousness, in awareness, drooling, loss of balance and nausea are true symptoms of a puppy having a seizure. Basically, we can start to prove if this really is puppies having "dreams" or if it possible could be a common disorder in dogs, or uncommon, even in just suspected inbred puppies, by having a POLL on AOL to EVERYONE the episode in detail...how many dogs, if any, in your life had the same symptoms and if their are, still or were any medical problems in the past or later down the road for their dog? That will solve the "mystery" of if they really are dreaming. Think of it this way, we can even have a poll on the most popular used search engine question about how many humans have you seen frequent twitching, jaw clenching, and neck jerks in humans while dreaming and compare the two results together and maybe or maybe not this "mystery" will be narrowed down. Thanks, Michelle - Michelle G
I have a bet that your puppy is just having an especially vivid dream. My dogs have even growled in their sleep! Just wait and see if he does it a lot. I bet he won't but if he does then call the vet.
You have to think about how small them little lungs are. It is going to be fast, but if you notice that it is somewhat labored, then you should take him in to be seen. Hope this helps, good luck to you.
