When people see a dog, they see just an animal, but a dog owner knows that a dog is much more than just a regular animal. Your dog is capable of dreaming, this means that your dog has a mind hence is a conscious being capable of subconscious activities, such as dreaming.  Dogs,  just like us humans, go through their day like any of us. Their day maybe good or they may just have a bad day. They may have a exciting or dull day. How a dog day goes will also determine the dog's sleeping and dream activities. A dog which has a good day may fall asleep within 5 minutes, in the day or in the night. When your dog is dreaming, you can tell by what is called the Rapid Eye Movement or REM.  This rapid eye movement happens in humans and some animals. When your dog begins to dream, you may just hear or see your dog reliving conscious activities which may have happened in the day, week or month. Dogs dream and wag their tails, bark, groan and a whole host of other doggy attributes. But you can pinpoint various things which dogs may dream about based upon stuff dogs love to do. With that said, let's look at a few things your dog may dream about.

A Fun Run or Walk

• Dogs love to go on nice long walks, they just find the earth curious, sniffing and smelling people, post , trees and just about anything their nose find peculiar.  If a dog goes on a exciting walk, you can be sure at some point he/she will relive that experience in a dream. You may just see your dog sleeping and doing excessive foot motion. Don't worry, your dog is just reliving past reality in his subconscious.
  

Burying a Special Bone or Item

• There are some dogs that just love to go hide their favorite bone or simply try to bury an item they think looks better covered by dirt. If you see your dog digging in his sleep, his dreams are about buying that special piece of item.
  

Chowing Down

• What would a dog's dream be like without dreaming of gulping down some of his best dog food. Have you ever seen you dog sleeping and constantly licking his lips, and even salivating? Don't wake him, he is in his dreams chowing down, and guess what, he may just wake up with a full stomach which will save you on some dog food.
  

Running and Playing

• I can't tell you how many times i have seen my dog running in his sleep. It is either he is chasing a cat or simply running around and enjoying himself.  One would also think that the dog is enjoying an alternative reality wear he gets to chase the mail man and give him a couple snips on the butt too.
  

Whimpering, Barking

• If you see your dog or any other dog for that matter sleeping and whimpering it is more likely the dog is reliving a bad time in his life. This could be a physical abuse, a time when the dog felt scared, owner leaving for work, or the dog may have been injured. Dogs use the same sounds to mean a variety of activities.
  

Unless your dog is in immediate danger, don't wake your dog if you suspect your dog is dreaming. Dreaming will not hurt your dog, just let him sleep it off and your dog should be up again in no time seeking something to chow on.

We go out and we get a dog, the dog is so cute that you begin to talk to the animal telling him how adorable and sweet he is. He seems to be enjoying the compliments vested towards him and you would swear he understands every word which falls from your lips. But the truth is your dog is more inclined to feelings that human words. When you pet your dog and say nice things, the dog really feels the genuine love and emotion from you towards him which makes him respond likewise. But giving your dog direct commands is a total different ballgame. You may have to take a little time, sit back and focus on your inner dog whispering abilities.

So before you begin to tell give your dog all types of commands such as, "Sit, Stay, Get my Shoe or Tell me the winning lottery numbers," you must know your dog breeds temperament and by owning the dog, you may know a little more about the personality your dog has taken on. Remember, dog breeds may have the same temperament, but different personalities.  So after you sit down and figure out your dog, what he can and cannot do, your next phase in training your dog is to:

1. Plan the methods to be used in Training
How will you decide to give commands to your dog? What are the mediums you plan to use? Will you be training the dog yourself, or will you hire a professional trainer. As much as i love to see the work of professional dog trainers, there is no more fulfilling reward than to train your dog yourself and see those great results when your dog responds to commands from your own voice. Training your dog also helps create an even tighter bond with the animal. But despite whosoever is doing the training, different training methods may be applied such as video training, regular voice and action training.

2. Plan the Different Phases of Training
Some dog owners do not realize that not because your dog is highly intelligent means you can come right off the bat and go tell your dog to take a buck from your wallet and go buy a bar of chocolate, unwrap it and place it on the table. Your dog may be just as confused as i am. You have to start with some basic and manageable commands in the first initial stages. Start with basic but needed commands such as; stop, come, sit, stay, lie down. Once you believe that your dog has mastered these basic commands then you can move your pet over to learning much more complex commands. Some of these include, fetch, jump,quiet, don't move, attack, etc.

3. Provide Positive Reinforcement
Dogs have rational thought processes. Dogs have emotions. Dogs also have a conscience. Dogs learn to love. Dogs have language skills and can understand about five hundred human concepts with words. None of these things are in a puppy when you get them, they are learned behaviors. If you find that your dog has done well and responds beautifully to training, at each level you can give your pet some treat to let him feel good about himself and his achievement. The dog will definitely want to learn more just to be pampered.  A dog can learn so many things you'd be surprised. If you simply teach it what it needs to know to function well in a human world, it would knock your socks off.

One thing i have learned from owning two dogs and a cat and long hours at work is to never place the dog shampoo beside the fish oil bottle especially if both bottles  look the same. Chances are you may just be out of it and accidentally grab the shampoo without even reading the bottle and begin pouring it in your dogs plate. Well, i have done just that. Here is what happened. I reached home from work and was extremely tired and stressed from those long working hours and mediocre pay. As usual, my two dogs rushed to the gate to greet me. My cat did what she normally does, just wonder about on the veranda wiggling her tail and waiting on me to pull that front door. My dogs live and sleep in an open space. It is actually the garage, but there is enough room for them to sleep, rock and roll. Plus they rarely use the dog house. Actually they never used that dog house i built. They just have a thing for the garage, so i just rent them that space. They are cool and they are protected from rain, sun, etc. 

So i go inside and plunge on to my bed with sleep cracking it's whip in my eyes. But then i jump up and remembered that i had not paid my pets any attention and part of that attention is giving them their meal. So i took out some dog food i made the day before, placed it in the microwave, thawed it out and decided i was going to pour fish oil on it to spice it up a bit. I reached for a bottle grabbed it and begin to pour dog shampoo in one of the dog's plate. Luckily i did not pour too much as the smell of not selling the fish oil hit me. I stopped pouring and realize that i was about to wash the inside of my dog by giving hi dog shampoo to eat. All i did was to simply scoop out the parts of the food that were contaminated and disposed of it. My dogs got their foods and well, they did what dogs do best. Chow down. So to all my fellow dog owners, i implore to you. Never place your dog shampoo beside the fish oil. Your dog may end up having shampoo for dinner.