Do Dogs Bark at Ghosts?

Why Do Dogs Bark at Night?

Some people believe that it is just normal canine behavior when dogs bark at empty yards or blank walls. They point out that dogs see things to which humans are not attuned. They point out that there is nothing paranormal about the behavior; dogs have a much better sense of hearing than we do and notice a lot more than we are able to. Other people just think they are afraid of the dark.

But do dogs see spirits? Are they barking at ghosts? Are dogs able to sense the residual energy left by former inhabitants? It is already known that dogs can sense cancer and detect oncoming seizures, but most of the researchers that examine these dogs don’t think there is anything supernatural in those abilities. I’ve read several stories recently where dogs responded to events that may have been spirits. In the first story, the dog reacted to a haze that could have been natural or supernatural. The second story involved a dog barking at spirits that even the owner could hear, and the third took place in a campground in Canada where the dogs and the owner all saw the spirit before she disappeared.

Do Some Dogs Bark Differently?

A lot of dog owners who are in tune with their pets report that the “ghost barking” is different than the normal barking directed at strangers, stray cats, etc. The barking is more likely to be accompanied by whining or tucking the tail between the legs. Instead of an attack bark, “ghost barking” is more likely to be an imploring type of bark, as though the dog is asking the spirit to take part in their world. Of course, if the spirit wishes harm upon her human family, maybe the dog would sense it and the barking would be more aggressive.

If the dog is just excited because of her exceptional hearing, she would not be barking in this way. The unusual barking is almost always reported to occur at night, but there is no reason for dogs to be more excited at night since their vision is about the same day or night.

Are Ghosts Only Present in Some Cultures?

In some cultures—mostly those where people still live close to their dogs and are in touch with their feelings—dogs are believed to sense the presence of ghosts. This power may be much stronger on nights with a full moon. Cultures that accept the presence of ghosts realize that dogs and children are more in touch and see things we cannot.Is it only human spirits that dogs are able to see? I buried my last dog on my property and have been told that this was a big mistake since my new dog would be sensitive to his spirit. If an animal is buried further away, the spirit is not supposed to find its way home. This is not much of an issue in the city, but I have talked to one person in the country who noticed odd behavior when her dog stood in front of her pet cemetery. Any type of “evidence” we can add will only be anecdotal, but I would appreciate any comments in this area.

How Can I Tell if My Dog Is Seeing a Ghost?

There are no clear answers to this question. All I can tell you is to be observant. Patricia McConnell, the canine behaviorist, recommends that we watch our dogs’ facial expressions to better understand them; as we watch more, we will notice the expressions they are making and are more likely to notice anything strange. I would recommend you be more observant of their barking. Notice the depth and the speed of the barking. Is it frenzied, an attempt to alert you, or just a sign of the dog noticing something new in her environment? If the abnormal activity is caused by a petit mal seizure, you can report this to your veterinarian. source

Is My Dog Barking at Ghosts? Why is My Dog Barking At Nothing?

Dogs have much stronger senses than human’s do

Anyone who has a dog knows that sometimes they bark at nothing. But is it really nothing?

Dogs have much stronger senses than human’s do, including better hearing, and a sense of smell 10,000 times stronger.

The idea that dogs can sense the supernatural has been researched extensively.

According to Animal Planet, hard evidence of this has not been found, but your pet having a “sixth sense” is not out of the question.

Pet psychologist Marti Miller says both humans and dogs have this ability.

“But humans judge or deny what they are feeling,” says Miller, who is based in Austin, Texas. “Dogs don’t judge what is going on in the environment. While our own minds start to analyze what is happening, dogs don’t do that. They feel the barometric pressure change, and may react by shaking, panting, salivating and feeling anxious, or they may not react at all.”

Miller notes that dogs’ reactions to a change in the air or an unrecognized sound can stem from early traumas. For dogs, “sensing the supernatural is natural because they don’t judge it. People could see auras or spirits, but they either don’t believe they exist, or think that if they do exist, we could not see them.””The simple answer is, we don’t know that dogs see ghosts or spirits,” Miller said. But she adds, “If you observe a dog standing in the corner, barking at nothing visible, then there’s a pretty good chance that he’s barking at an entity, spirit, or energy that doesn’t belong there.” source

Is your dog barking at ghosts? Maybe

Sometimes it feels like your dog’s barking at absolutely nothing, at thin air almost, unless it’s a ghost. Sound familiar? If you have a dog barking at nothing, we’re here to help!

What To Do When Your Dog Alerts to a Ghost

Happy Halloween! This blog post was originally published in 2014. It has been brought out of obscurity, dusted off, updated and re-published for your Halloween pleasure!

 

I love this time of year because it’s suddenly okay to talk about our real experiences with the paranormal. Mostly, I roll my eyes at the ghost hunter shows or get excited about the latest Paranormal Activity movie. But I rarely admit that I believe in ghosts.  So I’m stepping away from my normal chatter about raw feeding and dog nutrition to chat about ghosts.

Happy Halloween!

Do Dogs See Ghosts?

Last year, Sydney and I walked into the kitchen, and she stopped, her hackles raised, and she started a low growl while looking towards the sink/dishwasher area, stepped forward to block me and leaned into me, to push me back.

She was seeing a ghost. I didn’t get freaked out because I’m no stranger to the paranormal.

I’ve always been told to ignore ghosts because to acknowledge them is to give them power. But what do you do when your dog sees a ghost? It’s hard to ignore Sydney when she’s snarling, growling and barking.

What I Did When My Dog Saw a Ghost

Relax – I took a deep breath and faced where I thought the ghost was standing based on Sydney’s reaction.

Address the ghost – I said “thanks for stopping by, but because of Sydney’s reaction, I need you to move on, you can’t hang out with us here.”

Pray – Years ago, I read a scary article about a woman who was attacked by an entity in a hospital room. She said “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” and the attacked stopped. So I did the same.

Hope for the best – Sydney immediately calmed down and was acting like nothing happened. It was like I had woken up from a dream; it was hard to believe that anything was wrong. So I hope that I did the right thing.

What to Do if Your Dog Sees a Ghost

I reached out to Nicole Guillaume, psychic medium and tarot card reader of Guiding Echoes, to see what advice she’d have to offer…

Seeing a ghost can be just as terrifying for a dog as it can be for a human. Sometimes, the ghost might be someone your dog recognizes, or it could be a new energy that he is not familiar with.

How you respond to the ghost should be determined by how your dog is behaving towards it.

A few years ago, there was a ghost roaming my home. I was the first one to see him, and then my dogs began to see him too. This ghost was a lovely energy, and the dogs loved him. He seemed to enjoy their company too!

If the ghost in your home doesn’t present a threat, and if the dogs seem to enjoy him, then let him stick around. Sometimes our dogs enjoy the presence of their unearthly friends. However, if having a ghost in your home bothers you, you can ask it to leave. Most ghosts (the friendly ones) don’t mean you any harm, and they will move on if you ask them too.

However, if your dog begins to bark, growl, snarl or tries to hide from something invisible, then it is clear that you have a potentially dangerous entity in your home.

source

CAN YOUR DOG SEE GHOSTS?

If you have a dog, there’s a good chance that he or she has exhibited some unexplainable behavior. Running through the house as if chased by … something. Growling at unseen things. Intently staring at walls for no reason. There’s probably a rational explanation for every time your dog appears to be reacting to something that isn’t there.

But it’s almost Halloween, so we have to ask the question: Have you considered that your dog is seeing ghosts?

Since this is an educational blog, we’ll amend the question and then try to answer it. Can your dog see ghosts?

It would explain a lot, really, and it might even be comforting to pet parents to know that there was a reason for the 2 a.m. zoomies. Maybe that’s easier to accept than just assuming that your dog was bored and decided to race pell-mell through the house for no reason at all. Unfortunately, since there’s no scientific evidence that ghosts actually exist (there’s also no evidence that they don’t, however), it’s impossible to determine whether dogs can see them. But what we can determine is that usually there is a reason for your dog’s otherwise weird behavior.

And that reason is that dogs have super-senses, at least compared to human. If your dog is reacting to something that you can’t see or hear, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. It just means that their scope of sensory awareness is beyond yours.

Scary-good hearing

According to the American Kennel Club, dogs can hear sounds as high as 47,000 to 65,000 hertz (Hz), where humans are lucky to hear things in the 20,000 Hz range. This means that the average dog can hear things at a pitch more than three times higher than the average human. That opens up a whole world of possibilities. Mice, for instance, do produce sounds that humans can hear. But research has proven that they’re capable of producing squeaks well out of the range of human hearing: if your dog is staring or growling at “nothing” in the corner of the room, they might just hear a mouse (which is maybe even scarier than a ghost) or some other high-pitched sound on the other side of the wall.

The nose knows

Although there’s no definitive research in the limits of the canine sense of smell, researchers think that it’s anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than the human sniffer. Even if we’re going with the more conservative number, that means that if you can smell meat being grilled out on the patio, your dog can conceivably smell the same thing more than two miles away. It would be pretty easy for your dog to sniff a chipmunk scurrying around the backyard, even from your bedroom in the middle of the night. And what dog could resist barking at a chipmunk, even through a wall?

Eyes on the prize

Comparing a dog’s vision to a human’s is tricky because they’re just designed for different things. By human vision standards, dogs are technically nearsighted, but they have greater peripheral vision than people (able to see about 250 degrees compared to our 180), and see a lot better than humans in the dark. So if something is out there in the dark, they’ll see it.

Potentially a scary issue

Fun and games and ghosts aside, if you do notice your dog behaving differently than usual, it could be a sign of canine cognitive dysfunction, a condition similar to Alzheimer’s disease in people. Aimless wandering, lack of response, sudden nighttime hyperactivity, wall staring, and a loss of house training are signs that you should contact your veterinarian. source

Yes, Your Dog Is Totally Barking at an Invisible Ghost in the Corner

Just call your dog Haley Joel Osment, because just like that cute little kid in The Sixth Sense, your pooch can see dead people.