Do Dogs Have the Ability to Think?

[BillTre]

I had a dog that would demonstrate thinking when playing with my daughter:

1) She (the daughter) would throw a ball into the kitchen from the living room and then go hid somewhere (like behind the shower curtain in the bathroom) before the dog returned with the ball.
The dog would then look around, not see her, drop the ball, search and eventually find her, get the dropped ball and take it to her.

2) The dog, being big and the daughter being young and not tall at the time, would occasionally go between her legs, lift her off the ground so she fell over on the floor, and then run around to her feet and nip at them to tickle her.
It was quite funny. Sense of humor?

 

[Bystander]

Sense of humor?

Oh, yeah; Nam, CQ, company dog name of Ralph (what else) keeping me company dozes off, I say, "Ah-hah, caught you asleep on guard duty," when I startled him awake by rolling an empty Coke can across the floor at a sand/fiddler crab; Ralph disappears; I head to the water point couple hours later for 1SGT's morning coffee, pass a bunker, and Ralph erupts from the shadows barks twice, and disappears, giggling like the dog from Quick Draw McGraw. You better believe they've got a "sense of humor."

 

[Raf]

So, I was browsing through Youtube, when I stumbled upon this video. It really got me thinking, I was contemplating a lot about life.



This really confuses me. I mean, do dogs even have the ability to have nightmares or the capacity to think? Like I know this sounds kinda dumb, and before you go on a big essay about dogs having brains I know dogs obviously have brains and stuff but I'm wondering if they have the ability to think, if they have a subconscious. To me it just doesn't make sense, what language would they be thinking in anyways? Or is their imagination just visual? But that wouldn't make sense either, because dogs are colourblind. I know dogs are a lot dumber than humans, so they really wouldn't be thinking of anything super complex anyways. Like, maybe only about food and smelling stuff.

Dogs are mammals and I would think their brains would share some basic characteristics with other mammals such as humans. I am not saying they experience things or have the same mental abilities as humans, but am sure whatever it is they experience it must have some similarity with other animals that posses similar mental structures. I've always thought they may experience things like emotions like humans, but in an even more dramatic way (this would come in handy in a survival situation in the wild it would seem to me).
So be nice to other mammals :)

 

[DennisN]

I mean, do dogs even have the ability to have nightmares

I don't know, but it would not surprise me if they do.

I have no experience with observing dreaming dogs, but I do have it with cats.

I often saw one of my previous cats being engaged in what I do think was dreaming. Sometimes during sleeping, his limbs suddenly started shaking and sometimes he even made various sounds and moans when he did it. It was so similar to what a human can do when dreaming, so my conclusion is that he was dreaming when he did that.

Another one of my former cats sometimes fell asleep on my chest while I was holding his head, and there were a couple of times I was actually holding my hand over his shut eyes when he was sleeping when I clearly felt his eyes were moving rapidly under my hand. That seemed to have been REM sleep.

 

[256bits]

From the videos by @Nidum and @berkeman , I conclude that dogs can even think of the future.
At least the short term future.

( I do have a doubt, though, that they makes plans for their retirement and eventual demise in life, and to whom they should will their squeaky toy ).