Big dog attacking little dog

Hi I'm new to this forum, but I'd like to have some views of a dream I had last night that has stuck with me all day:

I was visiting someone, a middle aged woman, but she was kind of anonymous, no one I knew from previously. She had two dogs. One middle sized of unknown type and one small border terrier. Another visitor arrived with two larger dogs, long haired and black. This visitor too anonymous, didn't strike me as anyone I knew. The two dogs started showing interest for the small border terrier, sniffing it and pushing it. The owner of the house waved the larger dogs away until a third dog arrived, a vicious looking Doberman. It too started sniffing the small dog, but when the woman tried to wave it away it lashed out and bit the small dog across the face. The small dog, terrified and shaking, lifted it's head and bot it's eyes were gone, blood pouring out of the sockets. All the three large dogs circulated around it and started licking the blood from it's face. Disgusted I backed into a bathroom halfway closing the doors, shouting that the large dogs should be put away. I woke up nauseaous and even now when thinking about that small dog with no eyes I feel it in my stomach.

I have tried to search for some meaning of this, but apparently it's too messed up to have an interpretation as I have found nothing similar. Hope someone here can help.

Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some background information about you (and a description of events just before this very upsetting dream), it’s safe to say that animals in dreams symbolize the dreamer’s connection with and overall attitude toward natural instinctive reactions, strong emotions, vague feelings, intuitions and even cold thoughts and actions that are sometimes needed to defend ourselves in certain situations.

Just to also start off by mentioning that dreams use the language of analogy and metaphor which can range from the simple to the very complex.

In your dream, a simple analogy appears in the fact that you don’t know the middle aged woman and the other visitor who arrives later. A couple of the dogs are also “unknown”.

So on analogy, there appear to be certain parts of your unconscious mind of which you’re apparently generally unaware (the two people) but which are active in your life as to making decisions and how you behave etc.

And while you’re aware of certain aspects of your instinctive and creative side (the dogs whose breed you know), other sides of this part of you appear to be “unknown”.

The dream therefore seems to be saying that because certain unconscious factors are involved, a potentially destructive conflict regarding your instinctive side could possibly occur (the Doberman brutally attacks the Border Terrier).

Dreams choose their details very specifically, so it’s no accident that the known dogs are a Border Terrier and a Doberman.

To help to understand your dream, you can try focusing in turn on the Border Terrier and the Doberman as they appear in the dream.

Spontaneous memories, thoughts and feelings will likely appear which it’s best to write down.

Then by sifting through what emerges, hopefully a clue about the meaning of these images in the dream will become clear.

Generally though, a Border Terrier is a very feisty and friendly dog who needs a lot of attention and exercise in order to be happy.

A Doberman is loyal and protective of his family but generally isn’t good with other dogs.

It’s not clear where exactly the Doberman in the dream came from and therefore whether it’s really under any “control” as it were.

In any case, a severe conflict to say the least occurs where the Doberman savagely wounds the Border Terrier.

While there are very many possible meanings for the image of dogs in dreams, one analogy is possibly apt.

That is, most dogs are extremely sensitive to how they are treated.

So a dream can use the image of a dog to symbolize how sensitive the dreamer is to listening carefully to instinctive cues about his or her overall physical and mental well-being.

In your dream, the Doberman might possibly be seen as a kind of misdirected “guard dog” mentality which unfortunately could possibly tend to want to shut out bodily feelings, symptoms or anxieties etc.

That is, for whatever reason, you might potentially tend to allow a "brutal" shutting out of any such symptoms etc. (as would be conveyed by the Border Terrier) in order to “protect” yourself from a fear of physical illness or feeling down too often etc. etc.

The Doberman is shown as effectively “blinding” the Border Terrier, making him unable to “see” and therefore unable to convey symptoms etc. to you, the conscious ego.

Other parts of your instinctive side could apparently “lap up” this temporary relief from anxiety etc. (the other dogs lick the blood from the Border Terrier’s face) but the nausea you felt on waking and afterwards could actually be showing the best reaction to any such situation which would of course need to be corrected.

Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything about you, this way of looking at your frightening dream might not fit your personal circumstances very well, but I hope that these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Please feel free to comment on, or to ask any questions about this particular way of looking at your dream.