Dreaming about a puppy: getting one, caring for or finding one

Dreaming about a puppy: what it usually points to

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about a puppy is not an announcement of pregnancy, of money on the way or of a guaranteed new friendship. The scene usually appears in periods when care is at the center: a beginning that needs attention, someone who depends on you, the wish to have something small to protect. When the puppy is a gift, the tone is usually joyful; when it is abandoned, it is one of worry and responsibility.

For anyone thinking about adopting a dog, the dream may simply be the wish rehearsing the scene. The general meaning of the animal is covered in dreaming about a dog; here the focus is on the puppy and what it stirs up.

Read also: Dreaming about a black dog and Dreaming about a cat.

Why the puppy shows up in the dream

The continuity hypothesis, tested by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, says that dreams follow what fills waking life. Puppies are a constant presence on social media, at adoption fairs and in the home of anyone who has just gotten one. A litter in the neighbor's backyard or a conversation about adopting is already enough.

There is also a reason in the way we ourselves look at them. The ethologist Konrad Lorenz described the "baby schema": a big head, big eyes, a short snout and a rounded body awaken in adults the urge to take care. Puppies bring all of these traits together, which is why they move us so much, awake or asleep. See why we feel like squeezing cute things.

And a real puppy has a life very different from that of an adult dog. It is born with its eyes and ears closed, which only open in the first weeks, and it sleeps a good part of the day. Roughly between the third and the twelfth week, it goes through a socialization period that shapes its future behavior. Anyone who has raised one knows: it is a time of great devotion, and the dream tends to repeat that atmosphere.

Source: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

Scenes with a puppy and what usually goes with them

If the puppy arrived gift-wrapped, also read dreaming about a gift. If the scene felt like the arrival of a baby, see dreaming about a baby.

See also: Dreaming about a black cat and Dreaming about a big spider.

Do puppies dream too?

Anyone who shares a home with a puppy has seen it: the little paws move, the snout twitches, sometimes a soft whimper comes out during sleep. You cannot ask a dog what it dreamed, but research with other mammals offers clues. Kenway Louie and Matthew Wilson recorded hippocampal neurons in rats while they were awake and then asleep, and saw sequences of the day's activity reappear during REM sleep, on a similar time scale. More details in do animals dream? what science already knows.

Source: Louie and Wilson, Temporally structured replay of awake hippocampal ensemble activity during REM sleep, Neuron, 2001.

The puppy for Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud saw the dream as the fulfillment of a wish, and he said this shows up most clearly in children's dreams. In The Interpretation of Dreams, he tells the case of an eight-year-old girl who, after her father postponed an outing, dreamed that he kept his promise. Someone who has asked for a dog their whole life and dreams of getting a puppy is doing something very similar.

In Jung's psychology. Jung wrote about the child motif as an image of what is being born and of the future, and Jungian psychology treats the animals in dreams as expressions of our instinctive nature, a theme of Man and His Symbols. Putting the two ideas together, the puppy may speak of a side of you that is still new and fragile, one that needs care in order to grow.

In symbols and faith. In Matthew 15, a foreign woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter and answers, with humility: "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Jesus praises her faith. For believers, the puppy may recall the trust of someone who asks for little and hopes for much.

Bringing both readings together. Research shows where the puppy came from; psychology and faith ask what in your life is calling for care right now.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

When a dream about a puppy weighs on you

Not every dream about a puppy is sweet. A puppy that is sick, lost or dies in the scene usually goes with anxiety, and it is common in people who have just lost an animal or who look after someone fragile. If the loss was real, remember that grieving a pet is real grief; see dreaming about a pet that died. If the distressing dream repeats several times a week, talk to a health professional: frequent nightmares have treatment. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), free and available 24 hours a day. See how to have fewer nightmares.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The puppy in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for a puppy. The closest one is dog: in life, new friendships; in love, infidelity. For a litter with the mother nearby, there is the entry for female dog: in life, a surprise; in love, courtship. These are short readings from folk tradition, not predictions.

Freud would remind us that the dreamer's wish weighs more than any table: the same puppy is joy for someone who wants to adopt and worry for someone whose home is already full.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

What folk tradition says about puppies

In folk reading, a puppy is usually associated with a new friendship, joy at home and happy beginnings. Getting a puppy would be a sign of pleasant surprises; a litter, of a growing family, and some people read it as a sign of a pregnancy in the family; an abandoned puppy, of someone who needs your help. These are interpretations from tradition, which vary from home to home and predict nothing. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.