And speaking of dogs…

Listening

If you’ve read my ghost books or heard me speak about Mrs. Crouch, the unseen spirit of our house, you know that I don’t believe in ghosts.  Not really.  But I am a believer in coincidence and, also, in intuition.  So… when for the second time in as many months two totally unrelated friends spoke to me about their dogs seeing and hearing “a presence” that no human could detect…  I couldn’t help but pay attention.

Most of us do know that dogs have better developed senses of sight, hearing, and smell than we do.   For that reason, some say they have a highly evolved “sixth sense”– that ability, often called “intuition” which enables some humans to feel or see things without using the usual five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste.

Perhaps the best documentation of dogs’ super-skills along these lines, is of their ability to detect impending disasters (especially weather-related events) before they happen,  thanks to their powerful sense of smell. “Barometric pressure and all natural phenomena have odors associated with them,” says Dr. Mary Burch, a certified animal behaviorist.  “They are beyond the capacity of our noses to recognize, but dogs can sense these changes immediately.”

On Point

Dr. Burch points out that when a dog barks at what appears to be nothing, an owner sometimes thinks it’s because he’s seeing a ghost or picking up on something the owner can’t see. “While clairvoyance generally falls outside of what we can prove in terms of science, we do understand and have research on a dog’s basic five senses,” she says.   “Their senses are highly attuned, and it is obvious they are perceiving the world in a vastly different way than we do.”  Whether their extraordinary senses are able to pick up on unknown forms, energies, or the paranormal continues to remain a mystery.

So…  though I’m not a believer in ghosts (not really) I do think there may be some logic to the fact that in an area (ours) overflowing with ghosts (or so it seems) and with a dog population perhaps approaching that of our human numbers, there may be more ghost stories to tell.  Maybe even a book to write.  If you have a story to tell me about your dog’s “sixth sense,”  I’d love to hear it. Message me (as in don’t put it out here for other dogs to howl about!)

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