Dreams are so ambiguous and unknown – it’s hard to figure out what they mean and if they mean anything. There is the dream of being without clothes in front of a large audience, the one where you can’t speak and need to give an important speech. The vision of rejection, happiness, floating on a cloud – there are so many, and you can never know what you’re going to dream until you fall asleep. But are we the only ones who do this? Can a dog dream, and what about? Maybe we can figure it out once and for all!
What Defines Dreams?
Do we know what dreams are? They can be pleasant, scary, incredible, made up, perfectly vivid, or absurd. But what defines them? What are they? No matter what your life is, dreams are defined as images or experiences composed of a person’s thoughts. The most vivid dreams occur during our deepest sleep, known as REM sleep. Although a person dreams up to six times a night, most dreams are rarely remembered.
Does a Dog Actually Dream?
Studies on rats show they have dreams, and the same studies have transferred to dogs. Depending on the breed and age of our canine companion, their dreams can be more or less frequent and last for shorter or longer periods. And it has been found that whatever dreams your puppy has, that dream usually mimics the activities they participated in during the day.
What Dreams Do They Have?
It is already a known fact that a dog has the same dreams as a human – they dream of lived experiences. More often than not, you can tell by your canine friend’s movements what they might be dreaming about. They could be running or walking around the lawn when moving their legs. They might be picturing drinking water if they’re sticking their tongue out. The American Kennel Club also suggests that the breed of our buddies might play a role in their dreams.
Can a Pup Have Nightmares?
Dogs can have nightmares just as they do regular dreams, and they are also associated with their experiences. If a pup has been mistreated in any way, that might transfer to their dream in the form of whimpering and uneasiness. The best is to call their names from afar and try to wake them gently instead of jerking them awake. Be gentle, just as you would want someone to be with you if you’re having a nightmare.
A dog dreams just as a human does, and it’s hard to know what the dream may be about, but it’s a safe bet to think it might be thoughts about lived experiences. Our canine friends are no different than us – they dream – we dream. It can be about anything and everything!
Amazon Sidewalk Is Available for a Week, Starting June 8th
Users of Amazon’s Ring and Echo devices have only a week to opt out of Sidewalk, the company’s shady new IoT service. On June 8th, the functionality will go live, promising to share an encrypted sliver of your home network with the networks of other nearby Amazon IoT device users to “enhance services.” Unless you tell it otherwise, Amazon will automatically enroll you in Sidewalk, which, as you might expect, might lead to some unwelcome privacy and security concerns down the road.
What Is Amazon Sidewalk, Exactly?
Sidewalk works by combining a limited, encrypted section of a user’s personal network with that of other Amazon product customers in the area. It’s simply a bandwidth-sharing agreement that, in certain circumstances, guarantees better service for devices. Amazon provides examples of a smart lighting device installed at the perimeter of a user’s property or a garage door lock installed in an area with limited coverage. In both cases, the product may use Sidewalk to get “connectivity support from a participating neighbor’s gateway,” allowing it to keep running even if “the device remains offline for a period of time,” as the company puts it. Similarly, Amazon claims that Sidewalk may be used to improve the connectivity of pet-tracking devices, allowing for the continuous tracking of a missing dog or cat that has ventured outside of a pet owner’s personal network.
The Concern
Despite its pledges to protect your data, Amazon has a poor track record in this area; it’s very bad at it. Consider the case of Ring. Since the tech giant bought it for $1 billion in 2018, the Amazon subsidiary, which offers a neighborhood watch app and smart home security system (and thus operates as a quasi-surveillance network for the country’s police agencies), has had a series of privacy issues. According to Gizmodo’s investigation, the company’s Neighbors app had mistakenly disclosed the geo-coordinates of certain Ring users, which was only one of multiple privacy lapses discovered. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Ring as a result of the cameras’ hackability.
Amazon maintains that Sidewalk has “well-built privacy rules” that regulate how it “collects, stores, and uses metadata.” Sidewalk has even released a short “white paper” outlining the program’s privacy and security features, which include Sidewalk’s three-layered encryption. This may sound remarkable, but it’s a cold consolation when you consider that there are hackers who sit around all day and idle away the hours attempting to come up with ingenious ways to exploit scenarios similar to the one presented by Sidewalk.