While there are people who believe in the paranormal, have you ever wondered whether your dog is able to sense the spirits? After all, canines have extraordinary senses that are much sharper than a human. Since childhood, I have always been fascinated by ghosts. A die-hard fan of horror movies; I have made it a point to watch almost every horror movie in the cinemas. I had read, and heard, that dogs can sense super natural or paranormal activity and was always curious if my Casper and Junior could do the same as well. Personally, I had never faced or experienced any paranormal activity except for sleep paralysis. When that happened to me, first I thought a ghost was trying to enter my body. But after a little research, I realized it was actually sleep paralysis and no ghostly activity.
In addition to the five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing), dogs also possess a sixth sense — in laymen terms, that “gut” feeling we get when something doesn’t feel right. Dogs are remarkable creatures, with senses that far exceed a human. A dogs sixth sense is a miraculous thing, which in itself suggests a supernatural order. The human intellect, however, for all its power and triumphs, is largely formed by this world and is therefore corruptible. A dog’s sixth sense, or intuition is a natural gift! While we humans to a small extent also have that sixth sense, we are usually not so trusting or acting towards those feelings as much as dogs are. Our minds tend to analyze what’s going on, and deny the possibility that something is amiss or is about to happen.
A dog can detect or sense a disaster before it happens; they can even detect an illness in their humans. Casper and Junior, both are so intelligent (I am sure all dogs are) that when anyone is about to come home, they would be at the door some seconds or even minutes before the doorbell rings. As humans, we find it very hard to believe that another animal can do something that we can; even when we see animals doing amazing things right in front of our eyes. For instance, Junior would even know a day before when we are going on a holiday. He would start following me in the house at all times a day prior to our holiday. Dogs can even sense danger, and are usually a very good judge of character. My friend had narrated an incident to me when she and her son were walking home, and the street was kind of isolated. She noticed a suspicious stranger started following her and panicked a little. But just then, the stray dogs started barking and became alert due to which the man got scared and chose to discontinue his intents. On a side note, when Casper was dying, he refused to walk out of the house that day for his treatment. I thought he was scared of the vet’s clinic. But within two hours, he passed. I believe, he had already sensed his end, and wanted to spend his last hours at home, which I did not realize that time. Many dogs, choose to go into hiding right before they are about to die. It is basically their natural instinct which tells that what I coming, and, their body reacts accordingly.
We all know, a dog’s vision, nose and ears are highly attuned and enduring. When they can sense, see and feel so much that is beyond the capacity of a human, then can they see ghosts? Unfortunately, this is one of the many unanswered questions we humans have about dogs. For me, who believes in the good and the bad, God and Ghosts, I will believe that dogs can see or sense the paranormal. It may sound funny, but living alone with dogs, when I hear any sound at night, the first thing I do is look at my dog. If he is relaxing and sleeping, then I go back to sleep without any worry. I distinctly remember this one-time Casper kept barking looking towards the balcony of my house. (I will attach the video also if I find it) We tried to distract him, closed the balcony door, also went in the balcony to see if anything was there and found nothing, but, Casper wouldn’t budge. He continued barking for two days straight and eventually stopped on his own. I have no explanation to this, but clearly, there was something to it.
The book “Tails of the Afterlife” by Peggy Schmidt journals multiple instances of the unexplained actions by dogs who apparently interact with something, or someone, unseen. And supposedly, they are true stories. We see a lot of horror movies too where the dog can sense something not so normal and starts barking or alerts his owners. Though most of the movies are fictional, but it is believed or let me say assumed since many years that dogs can see or sense the super natural or paranormal.
While, there is no scientific proof to whether or not dogs can see ghosts, we all are aware that there are those few things or incident in life which are unexplained. I am not being gullible or trying to spread some superstitious tale, just sharing some thoughts which are definitely to be pondered over. It is said ‘Intuition is the nose of the heart’ – Let’s embrace this mystery and also be alert ourselves as many a times when our dogs are behaving eerie, it could even indicate some health issues in our pets which we may mistake it to “my dog is seeing a ghost”. It’s important to understand that dogs do not generally exhibit signs of illness when they first start to feel bad. It is believed that they instinctively hide their illness as a form of self-protection. After all, we love our pets so much that we can even fight the paranormal for them ;).
The Accidental Dog Mom 