Puppy Smiles and Eyes

What is the saddest thing in the world? Puppy eyes. What is the happiest sight you can find west of the Mississippi? Puppy smiles.

Add to that puppies dreaming and playing and you have a ball of pleasure that is hard to beat. Even grownup dogs can go from the saddest of facial expressions when they are bored to a completely carefree, joyous expression when they think they are getting to do something, anything, other than lay around the house.

What is the toddler gene that most or all dogs seem to have in common with us humans? Dogs remain toddlers until the onset of old age. Even then, unless physically incapacitated, they can summon the toddler-ness if stimulated in just the right way.

If you could, for one afternoon, be a dog running free and frisky in perfectly crisp autumn weather in an open unleashed environment, carefree from the over-analysis and petty worries of humankind, would you ever want to become human again? Maybe so at meal time when the same old dog food greeted you for dinner as usual.

What do dogs think about? Are they driven completely by chemical instincts or do they see images? Can they think in images? Do they have image memories or just sensual memories?
What do they dream? I ask this because I can watch my doggie lying there asleep, making puppy sounds, twitching and moving his legs. What is he doing? Is he reliving a past running adventure from the dog park? Is his little brain merging images together randomly into some new experience in his dream?

Too many questions. Too few answers. Maybe the all-knowing Internet can help me answer some of these canine wonderings.