Dog
The dog appears more often than any other animal in dreams. It depicts our natural drives that are well socialised, but still have the tendency to revert back to the spontaneous or ‘wild’ state quite easily. For instance our anger might usually be well under control, but if someone teases us we might surprise ourselves by the amount and strength of our anger, or our desire to cower and hide. But the dog is often a sign of enthusiasm, care or warning – as can be observed so often if we have a dog. See animal
Example: I had misinterpreted the meaning of Tramp my dog, who I felt was my inner self. I now see that Tramp is my psychic self, the mixture of instinct, complexes, feelings and closeness to nature. Possibly my intuitive, habitual or instinctive response to events. He is my companion on walks, to run faster, react quicker, smell better, fight more savagely, and face hardship.
Similarly our sexuality may be usually expressed in a socially acceptable way, but if we are in a situation where our sexual pleasure is stimulated or allowed easy expression we might deeply shock other people and ourselves by what we do. It can also represent easy expression of such aspects of ourselves as aggression – maybe because dogs show their teeth easily – as well as their sexuality, especially male sexuality; also their easy expression of love. Also the parts of self we usually keep out of sight, but which may express spontaneously. The dog as an example of intuition is shown in the following dream.
Example: Was crawling through a tunnel underground. I was now in a dreary, dismal, drab Edwardian type room. My mother, father and my dog, Tramp, were also there. It was quite a big room. Tramp went up to the fireplace and put his paw up under the shelf as if pointing. I looked and saw he was indicating a crevice under the shelf. I felt there and found papers in there, but also that there might be fingers in there touching mine. I said this to my father, but he did not reply. The hole was getting bigger all the time, and the room darker.
The dogs can represent this feeling energy, this natural life response to events and ones situation, our easy flowing natural feelings such as devotion, perhaps to a lover or child. The dog is yourself if, the natural you if you let your emotions off the lead. So it can be your uninhibited love or anger, your open sexuality, or even your honest needs.
For some people a dog was the only source of expressive love in their childhood, so may well depict this; fidelity and faithfulness, as the sheep-dog it is also the guardian of our welfare. Like the cat, the dog can be a substitute baby for childless women, or represent affection or caring.Occasionally we depict a person, or what we feel about a person through the character of a dog. See: cat.
Example: Actually seeing a dog in my dream I find not the dumb animal that humans patronizingly assume to be there, but a creature of remarkable complexity and deep emotions, capable of various levels of behavior, of guilt and loyalty, or shame, of identification with people—a creature so like themselves that other distinctions seem negligible. It broke down my assumptions of superiority. It sent me spinning back to the sense of kinship with animals that primitive men, in their rituals and folk myths, so clearly revealed. I found myself becoming snakes, tigers, bears, rabbits with such ease and pleasure that there would seem to be a veritable menagerie in the back of my mind. Moreover, the conviction of animal identity, once accepted, is terribly convincing. Having accepted the limited truth of my animal kinship, I am loath to see the broader areas in which such a communion is untrue. See Animals in your Brain – Temple of the Animals
Example: The role then came to life and spontaneously I as Vince the dog went to Alan and stood up on my hind legs with my paws on his chest, looking into his eyes. I wanted to communicate something to him.
The communication was so strong that I as Alan felt it and will describe it. Vincent reminded me of the many things we had shared in life. As this happened I felt such love – the love I really had felt for that beautiful dog. As I felt this Vincent and I became one being. I remember carrying him in my arms when he was young because, as a runt he was so nervous that at times he couldn’t even walk. I remember going everywhere with him as I walked London. I also knew that Vincent represented for me the ability to see into the invisible worlds – psychic sight and sensing. He had demonstrated it to me at least twice.
As all these memories poured through me I felt deep emotions pouring up and started crying. Crying because Vincent was helping me be aware of things I had not put together before. Lately I have been trying to extend personal awareness again, into lucidity and into the world. The emotions I was feeling were due to a realisation, and as this happened I knew what the previous dream of Vincent meant. I understood because various bits of memory came together to form a whole.
In mythology the dog has symbolised the guardian of the gates of death, or a messenger between the hidden and the visible world. The dog was also thought of as a guide or guardian of the hidden side of life entered in sleep and death. The following example illustrates how love can survive death.
Example: It involves my dad and his English bulldog, Chauncey. They were big buddies. Chauncey even went to work with Dad. Several years after Chauncey’s death, I dreamed of a female English bulldog who was very pregnant! A few weeks later, she appeared to me again, smiling proudly at two adorable puppies. One was brindle and the other was brindle and white. She showed me her house and street sign. The name of the street was Rosebud Lane. Then Chauncey appeared in the dream and told me he was returning and he would be the puppy that walked to me first! The next day I got the classifieds and started calling. It didn’t take long, the second call was located on Rosebud Lane. When I arrived, the mother dog looked just as she had in the dreams. She even acted like she knew me. I stood back and waited. Shortly, the little brindle and white puppy waddled to me. Dad cried when I handed the pup to him. Reincarnated bulldog…why not? By the way, Chauncey had a nickname…it was Rosebud!
Dogs can be a wonderful intuitive friend, even life saver. This is because it has been proved that dogs often know when their owner is ill or about to have an attack. But dogs are also very psychic. See Talking with Dead also Cats and dogs know
Example: In a dream, my dog, Gus, told me he had worms and needed to go to the doctor. We went the next morning. Dr. Dennis Umlang looked at Gus, a picture of health, then asked why the visit. I – told him Gus needed to be checked for worms. “Have you seen any evidence of worms?”, he asked. “No.” I answered, “but I still want him checked.” The testing showed negative. I told Dr. Umlang the dream and asked that they try again. That’s when he told me of the heartworm test which is costly but the only way to detect their presence. “Do it,” I said. The test was positive! Ordinarily there is no real warning of heartworms. By the time symptoms appear it is often too late and treatment is dangerous due to the animal’s weakened condition. Because of early detection, Gus survived the treatment with no damage to vital organs.
Barking dog: A warning or a sign of protection. Warning that something or someone is there who is not a friend – or that you should not approach whatever is shown in the dream.
Black dog: The black dog figures in quite a lot of people’s imagery. Bernard Levin uses it to represent depression. For some people it brings feeling about death. The sense or meaning the dog gives in relationship to depression or death in dreams is that it is a living energy in us that has gone ‘bad’ and thus causes the depression or death. Such depression is usually the result of past painful experiences that are like lumps blocking free flowing positive life energy.
The black dog also show you urges which are largely unconscious, or it is a messenger related to what is unconscious in you. So the black dog can indicate sexual feelings that you are not proud of, or any natural feelings, even feelings of love that you hold back.
Dog attacking: Either being attacked by someone and so representing their anger or snide criticism – or your own anger or aggression. See: What Does my Dream Animal Mean
– Animal phobias at the end of the animal entry.
Dog on lead attacking: If you are holding the lead – restraint of your aggression toward someone. If someone else is holding the lead – feeling attacked by someone. As in Cornelia’s dream in the example below, there may be a sexual connection.
Dog on lead: Restrained or controlled urges; urges we have trained or directed; holding back or restraining or directing parts of oneself.
Puppy: Youth, heedlessness, spontaneous affection and enthusiasm. It often represent a child, or feelings about wanting a child, being pregnant with a child, even one of your own children. Also vulnerability or dependent needs. Like any young animal, it can depict your need to care for or love something, or be loved. What happens to the puppy, if neglected or mistreated, most likely indicates memories of pain from your own childhood, or neglect of vulnerable parts of yourself. See: Baby animal in animal situations; Neglected animal in animal situations.
Woman’s dream – attacked by dog: Could well be feelings about male sexuality or a relationship with a male. Possibly the dreamer is holding back her own female strength and cannot meet the male strength.
Example: ‘I continue on my path, and suddenly the nettles disappear and the path is clear. Ahead the wall has curved round to face me, but there is a gate in it, and I can see my dog waiting for me on the other side.’ Mrs M. G.
In the dream from an elderly woman the dog is leading the way through the experience of meeting death. Mythology has often shown the dog in this light, as an inner sense of knowing how to find transformation through death – or as the ravaging threat of death.
Example: I was with a female friend who is a lesbian. Two dogs attacked us. My friend ran away but I couldn’t. Cornelius.
On exploring her dream Cornelius discovered feelings about her own womanhood and relationship with males. She realised the dogs represented her relationship with male sexuality, and that her friend was afraid of males.
Example: I was aware of the danger of two, or maybe one young child. They had been allowed to carry a small animal which acted as a scent lead for large tracker dogs that were hunting and would attack and kill whatever they were tracking. I found one of the boys trying to hide under a pot or a basin in the spare ground behind the house I lived in London. I pulled him out from his attempts to hide. He had no idea of his danger. Two of the dogs – perfectly harmless and friendly when not hunting, were coming close to me and trying to lick me. They had huge mouths. I got very angry with one man, a farmer type, who I thought had been careless in the way he was urging the dogs to hunt. I swore at him in public, calling him something like a ‘fucking idiot’. There was a large public gathering and I wondered what the public would think of me swearing. D.G.
There is an obvious reference in this dream to the unconscious urges some people have to hunt and hound others. The dogs especially depict this unleashed aspect of human nature, harmless when not set into motion. It also shows how such actions by others threaten the child in us, or the areas of personal vulnerability.
Example: I come out of my house. Across the street is a nursery. (this is actually true, there is a nursery across the street and the street is well used and busy) I looked up to see my yellow male Labrador dog named Odo. (He is a dog I have now) He was sitting in a truck on the passenger side. He looked like he was smiling. I thought, “What in the world is Odo doing in that truck?” At first I thought he was driving the truck, but then realised that he wasn’t, an ancient old man was. And the truck was weaving from one side of the street to the other. I yelled for Odo to come back and he jumped out of the truck. How I don’t know. But he did. He came running toward me, but there was a chain-linked fence between us. The fence ended at the street, but Odo was attempting to climb over the fence instead of going around it. I shook my head and said to myself that he was going to hurt himself. Sort of laughed, too. Then I woke up. I remembered thinking the day before that I was comparing my husband, A, to Odo. And thinking if I could just accept the silly things he does as well as I do with my dog, our relationship would be so much easier. K.
In this dream K. is probably right that she is using her dog to consider her relationship with her husband. She may even be using the dog as an image of her husband and his character.
Idioms: See a man about a dog; hair off the dog that bit you; call off the dogs; you can’t teach an old dog new tricks; raining cats and dogs; dirty dog; as sick as a dog; dog eat dog; dog in the manger; dog tired; dog’s life; gone to the dogs; let sleeping dogs lie; lucky dog; tail wagging the dog; top dog; die like a dog; dirty dog; gay dog; go to the dogs; hair of the dog; sick as a dog; lucky dog; raining cats and dogs; see a man about a dog; teach an old dog new tricks; tail wagging the dog; thrown to the dogs; etc.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is my dream dog represent someone I know or my own spontaneous feelings?
Is there any indication of relating to this dog as a child or a love object?
What feelings is the dog expressing?
Is the dog helping me meet or understand death or the unconscious?
If so what am I learning?
See Secrets of Power Dreaming – Life’s Little Secrets – Dream Yoga
Comments
Hi, I recently had a dream of a couple walk their golden labrador in the same park I like to walk in. The dog was very excited to be out and had a playful nature. The dog ran from it’s owners and toward me and eventually layed down beside my feet and let me pet him. It was almost like i could see this dog smile like a person would from cheek to ear! The couple then came beside me and said it was unusual for their dog to be so friendly. They told me his name and it was very similar to that name of the guy I like in waking life. Only the last two letters were taken from his name.. I then told them it was weird that his name was almost the same as the guy i like and they said ‘why’? and i told them why and then headed off on my walk! Could you explain this dream for me please?
Emilene – I have a feeling about this dream that might not be correct. It is that the dog represents your intuition about the guy you like. He loves you and comes to you, but he is very much involved with his parents – the dog owners.
Heading off alone for a walk sounds like you are very independent. So where will you go?
Tony
i had a dream of opening the door to the house, not my house, and seeing the cats lying peacefully and pleasurable inside the door. they were waiting to be let out when someone came home. I moved aside to let them stretch and come on out when my dog, a friendly collie came up on the verandah and playfully started in to the house. The cats retreated, off into the house. The dog walked around, the door still open, so neither in nor out but nonetheless preventing the cats from getting out for a play or a pee or whatever. Also, i was now inside the house, aware of this ongoing state of affairs where the door was open but none of the animals were really coming or going, i noticed a small child come out from under a bed, holding a stuffed animal, with an innocent grin on his face….looking a little lost and dishevelled.
Mary – As far as I can understand your dream it is about your natural instincts, your normal everyday drives, are being held back and so are not expressing or doing what is normal. The dog is not actively stopping this – is the dog a man – but nevertheless it is interfering with you in some way.
But then the little boy with an innocent grin appears from under the bed. I believe it is this little rascal who is giving you feelings that contribute to the theme of the dream – blocking action. This is a part of you that has been hiding away from you – unconscious – and is now beginning to be known consciously. Don’t be concerned that it is a boy; some of my most troubling emotions were in my dreams as girls.
I cannot tell you exactly what part of you the boy represents, but you can find out for yourself by using the following: http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-in-your-dream/
Tony
i had a moment while i was falling to sleep, yet i was not fully awake. i saw/dreamed i had a black doberman next to my bed, watching over me, making growling noises. also, i’m not a pet person.
RM – You do not have to be a ‘pet person’ to dream about a beautiful dog watching over you.
Being human is only a relatively recent development, and we are still very vulnerable in it. And of course we didn’t suddenly arrive out of nowhere as we are built upon ancient foundations of animals. This is why we have levels of our brain stretching right back to the reptiles. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/#reptilebrain
And of course we have a mammalian brain too, and each of these levels – stretching right back to the cellular – is active in us and in our dream life. So your dream dog is an expression of deep instinctive wisdom you have that is constantly trying to warn and protect you. So treat it with respect and love.
Tony
HI MY DREAM WAS A LOVING DOG TREATING ME LIKE A PRINCESS KISSING ME AND PICKING ME UP IT WAS SO WEIRD BUT IT WAS ALL POSITIVE GOOD DOG
Hi, I was wondering if you could help me depict a reoccuring dream. I had this dream during my childhood occuring over a period of months. I am an adult now and the dream came up again a few months ago. I have always remembered it and always have been curious as to what it meant. The dream is about me, my father, mother, and brother (I also have a sister but she is seven years younger than me and did not exist when I was a child having the dream, and was not in the dream I had a few months ago either) in almost what is a war zone. It takes place in deep, dark woods with tall dark colored trees. All I remember is being scared and that a shaggy dog was leading us through the woods into huts or hiding places for safety from the bombs and loud noises happening all around us. I love dogs and have my own, but none are a shaggy dog and I dont have any intentions of gettting a shaggy dog. I don’t remember when I woke up, just that the shaggy dog was leading us throughout the dark, scary woods and feeling anxious and scared to “get away” from the war zone, the bombs/ loud noises, or whatever we were running and hiding from. We didn’t do anything wrong to be there hiding, I think it was more just being in the wrong place. If you could help me find the meaning to this weird dream, it would be much appreciated. Thank You!
I also wonder if it has to do with family considering I have moved out of my parents home. I have been living with my boyfriend (of two years) for about a year now, and maybe that could be a reason the dream came up again. He was not in the dream though, and we are very happy together, and expect a future together. But I dont think it has to do with him. I have no clue.
Amy – Sorry to say this, but this points again to you having rough time during your childhood. That wonderful dog was your own inner resource showing itself to you and guiding you through feelings or what we call instinct. The rough time could have been your family environment or from outside events.
But a war zone is often showing you feeling those feeling and passing through them.
Tony
hi, i had a dream that my daughter had done something wrong and she knew it, i called out to her and she began to run from me i chased after her and she squeezed through a big black gate where she was attacked by a brown pit bull, i managed to to fit through the gate there was also a rottweiler but it did not attack i grabbed my daughter and squeezed through the gate and then i woke up she was not hurt
Hello Tony,
I wonder if you can help. I had two consecutive dreams about a black dog. In the first dream I am walking with my dad a long a long footpath. There are pretty houses and gardens along this footpath when I notice a black dog in one of the gardens. It is unleashed and wondering around. I tell my dad and he says it probably lives in one of the houses and not to worry, but then I notice the dog following us each time getting closer and closer. When it is close enough I can see that it is has a thick black coat and red eyes, it looks like a woolf. Then suddently we enter an area where there are a lot of people and the dog does something like try to bite someone. Police come, when the people have dispersed, I approach the police and ask about the dog as I am worried about it. The police say that it is in fact a bitch and they are going to take it to the pound to try and find its owner. I feel happy they are not going to put it down. It then poos on the ground and I step over the poos to exit the area out of some large gates as they take it away up some stairs to the pound. I went back to sleep and then I dreamt I was in a large fluffy bed watching a TV screen. My own black dog, that now lives with my parents, jumped on my bed and lay beside me. He was very warm and happy and went to sleep there.
I keep having dreams that my dog Bella is drowning. The dream, I walked away from a full bathtub to grab something before I got in, and when i stepped back into the bathroom she was in the tub standing really still. I yelled frantically for my husband to come help me, I am pretty sure he either didn’t hear me or was ignoring me. I grabbed her from the tub as I was yelling for help, then I woke up before I knew if she was alive or dead. In the second dream I saw her struggling to swim in the pool, I jumped in to save her then I woke up. Then last nigh,t I had a dream that both of my dogs ran outside in the morning before I put on my glasses, and then I called them both inside. When I put on my glasses, it wasn’t Bella that had came back into the house, it was a squirrel (she is a small brown dog and I am practically blind without contacts or glasses.) I am a young newlywed with no children, so my two dogs are my furry kids. I would think she would represent my kids, but I don’t have any kids, so I am a little confused here.
Michelle – All your dreams are about anxiety that your dog might die, that it is struggling to survive.
And I feel it is an anxiety about having a child. The only thing I think is that you are feeling anxious because in some way you feel you are not worthy. If there is any truth in that realise that it is only feelings and you should get back into those dreams and visualise a different ending. See your dog safe.
Tony
hi tony can you interpet this dream for me,
i enter my house to find i have 2 dogs one a black labrador bitch which i have in real life and another an alsatian which i dont own in real life,the alsatian is strong willed and has loads of energy but the black labrador is calm both dogs are laid in front of the fire but i have to watch them just in case the alsatian goes for the labrador
Dawn – The impression I get of your dream is that through keeping your Labrador you have learned a fairly calm relationship with your own natural/instinctive nature. And that is what often happens because we learn so much from dogs that we may be unaware of.
But now a new element of you is appearing. Now you have a dog and a bitch together, and you are scared that the Alsatian with go for the Labrador. So it seems like a more reactive or dominant site of you is emerging – maybe even sexual in nature.
Maybe if you realise that within you are all possibilities, but you can choose how to react to the instinctive urges we all have, it will calm the situation.
Tony
as far as i could remember with my several dreams last night..I remembered dreaming this scene..i was in a classroom (my highschool alumni) together with my college classmates (its weird i know), and one classmate of mine brought his brown fat bulldog with leash. As i saw the dog, since i really love dogs, i approached it and started petting, the bulldog doesn’t seem fierce,in fact it looked behaved/welltrained,.i was surprised when it started talking! it was saying (what’s your name?)that was the only thing i remember the dog saying and some other mumbles i can’t remember. The dog was amazing like one of a kind, everyone was petting him…and then the dream shifted to another scene.
The time before I slept/dreamt, I was crying because of my ex who broke up with me in the last 2 months. That whole day I seem to think about him, I was in those places where we used to go together,. that was unintentional because I only need to review somewhere else outside the house.
btw, I had already graduated of highschool and college so these people are from the past already
Rachelle – An interesting dream. It starts of with your college classmates, but one in particular brought the bulldog. You say “its weird I know” – but it isn’t weird at all. From people we have spent time with and been close to we actually absorb parts of them. You are not the isolated and hermetically sealed person you may think yourself as. You are like a plant that takes up the soil and turns it into you. You are therefore a mixture of many people, your parents, teachers, books that you absorbed; and you constantly take up things and ideas from other that suit the direction of your growth. And there was one person in your college that you absorbed a lot from – thus the bulldog in your dream.
The dog is something you learned from that friend, an ability to listen to your inner animal self. The bull-dog may even depict a Taurean part of your character, and is certainly a wonderful dream character to have and cherish, a protector and adviser.
The part of the dream where you cry is because you felt the loss of a love. As William Blake says, He who clings to himself a joy, doth the winged life destroy; while he who kisses as it flies, lives in eternity’s sunrise.
You cannot hold on to love, it is a part of you that you cannot possess. But you can open your heart to it to flow through. Do this by in a quiet time look within you and notice that behind all the thoughts and body sensation there is a quiet and even dark space. Of course we all have it but few of us notice it. But every time you speak the words come to you magically from that dark possibility. So without trying to stop our thoughts, open yourself to that wonderful creative darkness, and listen.
Tony
I recently had a dream where I was alone riding in the backseat of a van down a neighborhood street with the passenger door wide open only on the right side of the van. Alongside the left side of the car, there were 2 full size dogs, 1white, 1black, running side by side, following the van I was in. As the van turned a curb, the black dog disappeared and the white dog ran around the van towards the open door of the van and tried to jump in. It seemed like a friendly dog,it wasn’t barking or anything, just running and jumping around, but I was scared. I closed the door enough(not all the way), so that the dog couldn’t jump in and then it just ran away…
I had a dream about my dog that has died not along time ago (brown mini pinscher) came back and lay in front of my house. She lay beside my father and thought it was her ghost. My mother appeared and said, ” She come back because she is happy now.” However my dog looked at me with sad eyes. I felt sad and wondered if she’s real or not, so I touched her and she was solid. After I touched her, she turned into a black puppy and ran away. Then I went inside my garage and found a black puppy (that I recently pick up in my real life) sat on the water storage.
I wonder what does it mean?
Gaby – Quite a lovely dream about love.
You still have love for the dog that died, and your dream is telling you that such love is never lost. The dog was sad because it wanted to be with you, and it was only when you touched it that it became the black puppy.
There is a saying that whatever you do unto one of these (people or animals) you do unto me/Life. In dreams we know that we are connected to everything living and dead. So giving the black puppy attention and love is felt everywhere.
So your love with the black puppy put you in touch with your dog.
Tony
Hi, I don’t usually remember my dreams, but for some reason last night I really remembered my dream, and I was wondering if you could help me out. I’m currently studying abroad in Argentina, and my dream took place here in Argentina with my host family. In my dream, my dog had died, I was really sad the whole day, and at dinner I didn’t even want to finish eating my pizza or really talk to anyone about my dog’s death. I even woke up this morning from the dream feeling a little sad and down. The thing about this dream is that I don’t even have a dog; I actually don’t have any pets at all, or any animal/pet that I’m close to. Do you know what this could mean? Thanks, Sammi
Sammi – It is good to get a post that has all capital I’s instead of i and all the spelling is correct. Thank you.
Of course you have a lot of animals you are deeply connected with – in dreams that is. For your dream animals are very important part of you. For one to die is a very sad things and needs to be investigated.
For instance we have three levels of our brain. The lowest is the reptilian, then the mammal brain, and then the human. If you removed the reptilian brain and mammalian brain we would not function at all. We, like all of nature are dependent on being a part of the web of life – down to the bacteria in our intestines.
So the death of your pet dog suggests you have not looked after the mammalian needs we all have. The mammalian needs are suitable food, water, good companions and love, exercise and some sexual expression. So ask yourself what has led to the death of your dog, and what the sadness. Imagine having a talk while you are awake with the dream dog and see what it says.
Tony
I am having a reacuring dream that I just cant seem to figure out and was wondering if you could help me. The dream has been going on for about 6 months now. Basically I am being attacked by either a dog (german shepherd) or a wolf. When I fight back, usually by choking the animal as I keep it at bay, the animal turns into a puppy. One one occasion I stabbed the animal and it turned it into a rabbit. While the animal is attacking I do not feel scared, I feel angry. However when the dog/wolf turns into a puppy I am completely devastated and I begin to sob. I remember thinking in the dream “what am I doing?” I wake up feeling sad and confused.
Thanks
Stephanie – This is a good example of how we should see our dream images as expressive of aspect of ourselves. They are a bit like masks we must get behind to find the meaning.
As an example I was recently asked by a man who had given no thought to dreams how on earth you could extract any meaning from them. He was wearing a fairly old T-shirt, so I said, “OK, let’s imagine you dreamt of your T-shirt, what would you make of that?” After a while he said, “I don’t know that I would make anything of it.”
My response was to say, “Right, but now tell me where you bought the T-shirt, and what memories it has for you.” Whereupon he told me, with some hesitation his memories of being abroad, and that the shirt was part of memories that he didn’t want to talk about. Not only did he realise he had very powerful associations with the T-Shirt, but he wanted to hide them. The important point is that everything we see and deal with, every person, every imagined scene, has such a background of feelings and perhaps memories. It is exactly this background of feelings and information that the dream weaves its story from. It is these associations that are the language of our dreams. To understand them you need to become aware of the usually unconscious feeling responses you have in connection with every thing, place, person and animal you fill your dreams with.
So your attacking animals – well these are expressions of anger, and you deal with your own childhood anger usually by suppressing it, or with anger – as in your dreams. You were not frightened but you dealt with them with anger – but the dog and you are the same being, as you seen when you kill them. Then they revert to babies or vulnerable creatures – you as a child.
You choke out your real child feelings with anger. You cannot directly dream about them as yourself as a child as that would be too immediately emotional.
But you are an adult now and you can take it – whereas when you were small and vulnerable it would have been too much to bear.
Tony
hello,
my ex girlfriends, whom has recently met a new man, had a dream that she was picking up her 5 year old step brother from daycare and my dog (whom she loved dearly and treated like her own when we were together) was at daycare as another kid! what the hell does this mean? we have recently just become friends again after four months
thanks!
Richard – I get a feeling that this means that your ex has a very strong mothering instinct. So she puts you in the dream as your dog – that she loved dearly – and so her attachment to you is through her mothering feelings.
Don’t be put off or offended by that. It is fairly normal. She is in the act of ‘picking you up’ after all.
Tony