Dreaming in animals is a well researched and proven phenomenon. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dream-about/ https://www.akc.org/exper

Dreaming in animals is a well researched and proven phenomenon. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dream-about/ https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/what-do-dogs-dre... > One of the most famous of these dream experiments involved lab rats. Rats in the experiment spent all day running in a maze. Scientists monitored the brain activity of the rats in the maze and compared it to the brain activity of the rats during REM sleep. What they discovered was that the same areas of the rats’ brains lit up during REM sleep as when they were running the maze, suggesting that the rats were likely to be dreaming of the maze. By comparing the data, the researchers could figure out where exactly in the maze the rats were dreaming about. There's more in that article on dogs specifically, including studies where they chemically disabled the pons, which is the part of the brain stem in vertebrate mammals (humans included) that stops us from acting out our dreams while asleep (and which is involved with disorders such as sleep walking and night terrors). Just like you deduced, the dogs are just literally dreaming about all the stuff they usually do while awake.