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Many people will tell you all kinds of things they think your dream meant. What is important is what you personally think it meant to you and what feelings and messages you got from it.

You really shouldn't worry. You may have died in dreams before but not remembered for what ever reasons. You will die in dreams to come. It is a very common thing for people to dream about whether they want to or not becuase it is a universal fear and curiosity. You might have heard the old wive's tale of "if you die in a dream, you will die in real life" or something to that effect. That is not true. Well, it is in the sense that we all die some day one way or another. But just becuase you dream of death (no matter how it happens in your dream), that doesn't mean you will die that way or any time soon.

Dreams are fears, desires, worries, joys, memories, and so on that our subconsious plays out while we are asleep. Some things in dreams have meanings and some don't. It is always hard to tell the difference and some times we never figure it out. There is no sure fire way to tell you what your dream means. Only you really know what it means to you, even if it is only the feelings you got from it that you understand but not the mental imagery. You can read all the "your dreams mean this" books you want. What a candle means for one person may not mean the same for another. Even then, what may mean something to you one night, may not mean the same the next, even if it is the same dream with or without some differences.

Anyways, I could go on forever on the subject of dreams and what they mean and how to inturpret them for yourself, but I won't. I think I have said enough on that subject and I think you get the point by now: No matter how others view it, what matters is how you view it. On top of that, dreams are just dreams. It does not mean it will happen in any shape or form. Of course people can argue about premonitions and psychic dreams and so on.

Honestly, I think your dream is the typical nightmare. It doesn't mean anything more than your subconsious giving shape to recent worries, fears, and troubles. Why your worries, fears and troubles appear as an appearntly demonic dog that chases you, who knows! You may never know either. Usually whatever is an object of fear or worry in a dream represents what we really do fear or worry about in waking life, even if it looks or acts nothing like what it is in waking life. That's why we often misinturpret dreams and meanings. We expect waking life fears and worries and joys and so on to look the same or atleast simular in dreams.

You are just having a nightmare about stresses and worries and fears from your waking life. Just ask your self what kind of stresses, fears, and worries have been bothering you lately and then compare it to your dream. You may realize a thing or two about it. Maybe seeing your father shoot the dog when you know he wouldn't normally is a inner fear of the things he might do to yourself or others if you do something wrong or bad in his eyes. Not that he will shoot you or others, but you are subconsiously or even consiously afraid of how he will react to things. Well, that's just one of my views on it.

Damn, I type too much, lol! I better wrap this up before I write a ButterBalls length novel, lol! Just compare what's happening in your waking life to what's happening in your dreams. Maybe start keeping a dream jounral where you write what you do remember in dreams. You can go back and read it later. Sometimes when you read it later (days, weeks, months, so on) you will find more meaning in it that you didn't see at the time.

Sleep and dream studies have shown:
A person has on average 3-8 dreams a night, but only remembers 0-4 when they wake. This is based on a person's brain wave and pyshical activity during the REM cycle (Rapid Eye Movement, thought to be the deepest level of sleep).

lol, you're welcome. Glad that helped. As you can see, I could have gone on forever with the subject! I used to read a lot of dream books and stuff like that. I wanted to become a psychologist at one point. Dream and sex therapy intrested me the most so I mostly focused on this things.

If it helps even more, I have reoccuring nightmares as well. They mostly involve the date March 18, 2011. It is usually a saturday or sunday lazy morning between 9am-11am at my mom's house and them mass destrustion stuff happens. It is usually man made stuff like war and bombs and nuclear threats, but sometimes it is nature made like tsunamis or tonadoes and so on. No matter what happens it is always in the morning of March 18, 2011. I have been having that dream since I can remember. Sometimes I have it often, sometimes I don't for a year or more. Oddly enough, since 9/11, I have only had it maybe 3 times when I thought I would have it more. Oh well, I still have no idea what it means exactly.

Dreams are a representation of the id, as Freud would say. Perhaps you have some self-destructive tendencies, or perhaps, it's just a dream.