my dog has been having bad nightmares to the point where she kinda screams/howls in her sleep.she aslo kicks and shakes and im starting to worry.

Aww Poor doggie I have no idea what could be causing it tho. Has anything bad happened to her lately that you know about? Does she act any different than normal when she's awake-like skittish or anything? Change of diet?

I've always just petted my dog softly to wake them. If this is starting to keep her from sleeping, feel free to call your vet. They'll be happy to tell you how you can help.

James i have a GSD and every few months i notice he has one of those....legs moving, whineing and barking dreams. AS soon as he wakes up he goes to his favorite ball and chews the ball...HARD! As the Big boy gets older, this has gotten less and less.

How old is your pet? I wonder if they have "night terrors" like humans and birds. Perhaps as Kksuns said there is something on their mind. Do you play/tucker out your pet. When i was having horrible dreams my doctor recommended that i read alot and play outside as much as possible that way i just sleep when i sleep....not dream. It worked, and after a while i got lay again but they did not come back...i was told i "grew out of it"

Perhaps a little tough play with your dog can help or even decrese the occurances!

my dog is 6 years old and she just started to have these night terrors.nothing has happened befor that i know of. but she was an abused stray, which she might be dreaming about.

Every so often my parent's ACD will have nightmares. The other day he was curled up next to me on the couch sleeping and he started kicking his legs and whining. He's 3 years old and has been with my family since he was adopted at 10 months. The humane society told us he was picked up as a stray so we do not know what his life was like before then.

I never really thought of dogs having nightmare, but it makes total sense. I see mine dream a lot, but I would guess they might have some disquieting dreams about unresolved longings or issues from their pasts if they were abused/neglected.

Our cats both dream, it's hard to tell what they're dreaming about. They make soft noises which sometimes i think are sad noises, but my boyfriend thinks they might be just snoring kinds of noises. I did what Gustafson did, gently petted them to wake them up a bit, just in case.