So Vegeta was just napping under my chair like he always does when I'm at the computer, and started growling. At first I thought it was something else on the tv then I muted it and he was clearly growling. I can't be 100% sure if he was sleeping but I assumed he was since there wasn't anything to growl at. So I thought he was having a nightmare and growling at his nightmare, so I went to wake him. Gave him a light nudge and he went full on growl, bark, bite mode. It was scary. He really snapped at me. I hope it was just being startled form his dream but still I didn't like it. I don't want the poor guy to be having bad dreams or to be any kind of aggressive. Granted I'm not 100% you can even be aggressive at 8 weeks, but you know what I mean.

Has anyone ever had something like this happen? Where they would growl in their sleep?

I bet it was being startled. The old saying, Let sleeping dogs lie. (-- English Proverb) fits in this situation. I don't wake my dogs up from naps by touching them, I just call their names out.

Kennedy is my big dreamy sleeper. She runs in her sleep, barks in her sleep, cries in her sleep..you name it, she does it. I have NEVER waken her up by touching her. You actually aren't supposed to touch them. The end result, as you now know, is that they still think they are in dream mode and your hand or face can be the first thing they latch on to. They don't understand that they aren't dreaming anymore, so that incident was not his fault.

Like Kevin, I only wake Kennedy up by saying her name. Dogs will dream, you can't stop that. It isn't his fault he bit you and he didn't do it on purpose. He's not aggressive because he is growling in his sleep.

Pippa growls and whines and woos and does lots of weird stuff in her sleep. I usually just whistle or call her name and she'll wake up.

blu growls barks cry's "woo's" whimpers digs and runs in his sleep. however i learned early on not to wake him by touching him. since at night he useually falls asleep on the couch watching tv with me, and i needed to wake him to get him in the crate so i could go to bed... i got quite a few nips doing that, and the lesson was learned. also doesn't help that blu is extremely grumpy when he wakes up, and hates to be picked up. so my lesson learned from this... wake him by calling his name once or twice then get him in the crate via his favoriet toy... his beloved mr.raccoon (he's had that toy since 10 weeks old and still sleeps with it, plays with it and takes it everywhere... even to go potty lol)

kevo wrote:

I bet it was being startled. The old saying, Let sleeping dogs lie. (-- English Proverb) fits in this situation. I don't wake my dogs up from naps by touching them, I just call their names out.

Ditto. I wouldn't be concerned at all. I also only wake mine by calling rather than touching.

Kerian makes funny noises while sleeping kind of a cough. We start talking to her telling her is is okay to wake her up.

Yup - seconding what others have said on here, you should never wake a dog up by touch. If you need to get them up, then call out his name or make a noise and he should wake up without attempting to gnaw your hand off.

I dug up this post (from two years ago) because I was searching for similar experiences here about their dogs having nightmares. Luna one time jolted awake with a squeal and I wanted to know this is okay. Once, when I absently touched her while she was napping, she also bolted upright very tensely. She has never growled or bitten anyone waking up, but I'm noting all the tips here on how to ease dogs awake