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Can Your Dog Detect Paranormal Activity In The Home?

Hey, guys! It’s that time of the week again. Time to talk about the furry members of our family. I am going to talk about something this week that’s a little on the edge.

I’d love to hear from you after you read this article regarding what your thoughts are on the subject.

This week I was watching a TV show called Unsolved Mysteries. I’m sure many of you have heard of it. Anyway, one of the episodes included a dog who detected paranormal activity in a home. The dog was to have warned the family against harmful spirits.

It’s hard enough for most to believe in paranormal activity, but taking it a step farther and adding the notion that dogs can detect it? Hmm.

In all honesty, there’s no way (yet) to find out if this is folklore or fact. Those who do believe this either feel comfortable because their dogs can protect us against something when we don’t know we’re in danger (if they’re detecting bad spirits) or because their dog is able to see a friend or relative who has passed on.

A woman by the name of Peggy Schmidt wrote a book called Tails of the Afterlife in 2009. In this book, she describes situations which can’t be explained. One of the stories involves a woman, Del Johnsen. Del left seven dogs and six cats behind when she passed away.

There are several people who firmly believe she still visits them to show how much they’re loved. People have reported watching her dogs laying on their backs as if they’re getting their belly rubbed and her cats randomly arch their backs and begin purring. Her dogs and cats will also randomly stare as if they’re looking straight at her. Interesting. That really can’t be explained.

If you do a quick search on YouTube, you’ll find videos of dogs staring into empty space. There’s nothing there we can see. But, their reaction to this ’empty space’ implies the dog is upset or afraid. They will cry and whimper at what they’re seeing in this ’empty space.’

As a scientist, I am inclined to believe this is not possible. But, I do feel there is a huge possibility dogs can detect spirits to some degree. In my opinion, there are some events that science can’t explain — not at this point in time, anyway — maybe someday.

I have personally experienced events I cannot explain.

At my parents’ house, you’ll hear someone walking up and down the stairs at night but when you look there’s nothing there. We’re not the only ones who have heard it, those who have spent the night there have asked ‘what’s with your house? Is it haunted?’

I’ve heard someone say my name as I was taking a bath in the upstairs bathroom when I was younger. It wasn’t muffled, it was clear as day. It felt as if someone was right next to me. As if they were breathing directly into my ear as they spoke my name aloud.

My father heard someone walk into their bathroom. Thinking it was my mother, he asked for a towel, so he could get out of the shower. To his surprise, my mother was no where near the bathroom the entire time he had been in there.

You’ll also see a woman standing in the window of their home from time to time.

That’s only the beginning. There are many, many more experiences I could tell you about in that house.

I don’t think they’re ‘bad.’ They’re just in a realm different from ours. My parents have been in the home since 1999 so if they had wanted to harm us in any way, they would have done so already.

After we had experienced some of these events, we did find out multiple people have passed away in the house. This added to our beliefs in what we were seeing, feeling, and hearing wasn’t ‘crazy.’

Several years ago, in a home my husband and I lived in with our family, I felt incredibly uncomfortable walking in by myself. There was just something ‘off’ about this house. We had friends who wouldn’t even walk in because they said something just felt so wrong about the house.

After we moved out of the house (we weren’t there long), friends had asked if we had a picture of the house. We had taken a photo of the house when we first moved in to show our family. When we looked at the picture, you could very clearly see someone in every window of the house. At that point, I told my husband I was so happy we were out of there as that confirmed my reasoning for not feeling comfortable there.

What I am getting at here is if I can detect when something is wrong as a human being, it wouldn’t be surprising to me if dogs were able to take it a step farther. Their senses are far keener than our own. They’re able to sense even the subtlest of changes.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever had an encounter with paranormal activity? Do you think your dog has? I’d love to hear from you either through the comments here at The Post-Journal if you’re reading my article on their website or through writing to me at AmberLDrake@dogbehaviorblog.org.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to talking to you again next week.

Until next time!

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