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Dogs With A Sixth Sense About Things


Little Gifts
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Ages ago I started reading an old book about dogs who seem to know unexplained things about their owners, like when their owners are going to arrive home, even if they have an unpredictable schedule. I experienced this house/dog sitting a couple of years back too. The owners went overseas for a week and had to run some errands and drive several hours before making it back home from the airport so their dog could not have known what day or time they would arrive. Yet the afternoon they arrived back in Australia he set himself up in a spot in the yard with a clear view of the entry gate and stayed put until their car pulled into the drive a couple of hours later. All the other dogs had dinner and settled into warm beds for the night except him. He wouldn't be budged or distracted.

Anyway, yesterday something very similar happened with our odd girl Tempeh. I wasn't expecting to be home till last night some time but the people I'd been house/dog sitting for came home quite early in the morning instead. So yesterday morning here at my house, Tempeh woke my sister early and was super hyper (ie a pain in the arse). She wouldn't stay still long enough to eat her breakfast (unheard of). My poor sister tried to get her out of the house for half an hour and Tempeh refused to leave, getting both of them worked up. My sister got angry with her because she was by then very late for work so she left Tempeh inside the house. Tempeh has never refused to leave the house before, never been left alone inside the house for any period of time and my sister never gets angry with any of the dogs, but that's how difficult she was being. I got home about an hour after this had all happened and thought it was strange I could hear the other two dogs barking out the back but not Temp. I opened the front door and there she was, as calm as calm can be welcoming me home. I really think she knew. My trip home was about an hour. I hadn't even text my sister to say I was coming home earlier so it's not like my sister had spoken to me on the phone or been running round the house tidying up before I got back. And when my sister got home Temp was very happy to see her, like the morning's events were just a misunderstanding. She even grabbed my sister's hand and brought her to see me. She even spent the night snuggled down in the lounge room with us rather than putting herself to bed after dinner.

Has anyone else had an experience like this with their dogs? How do they know?

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Definitely! My daughter reports that Willow will suddenly become a bit mischievious and annoying roughly 30-40 minutes before I come home from work. I get home at different times so it's not like I get home at the same time everytime.

I've noticed that some animals that have been quiet all day, become more unsettled and whiney prior to their owners arrival.

On the days I decide to take the dogs to work with me, they are usually more excited about my routine. What gets me is this starts before I have made a firm decision and prior to checking that there is space for them at work...so the decision is not set in stone.

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yep.

The spookiest was many years ago , dad was working about 40 km away ..and was driving home in the dark.No mobile phones/UHF radios or anything back then .. mum & I were at home , when all the dogs started howling .... eventually dad got home, covered in blood & glass , after a kangaroo had come thru the windscreen ...at the time the dogs had all started howling .....

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Yes, apparently about 30 - 40 minutes before I arrive home every day my dog will park herself at the window next to the front door and wait for me, without moving and nothing will distract her. I work different hours every day so it's not like I come home at the same time every day, but without fail exactly around 30 - 40 minutes before I get home my dog will do that, which is the length of time it normally takes me to drive home from the office - so if I finish late say 6pm she will sit there at 5.30pm and if I finish early say 4pm she will sit there at 3.30pm. It's not like I call home to say what time I'm coming back either, so I don't know how she knows, although I did see a documentary once that some dogs can intuitively tell when their owners thoughts turn to home, regardless of how far away they are. No idea how true it is but I'm inclined to believe it!

Edit to say she was the only dog I've had to do this... possibly because she's the first dog I've had such a strong bond with and is my first 'really mine' dog and not just a family dog. My previous Rottie girl didn't do it and neither did my childhood dogs.

Edited by silentchild
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I used to mind a Labrador when his owners went on holidays. He would stay at my house. No problem; a lovely dog, always fitted in, he never made any attempt to escape. He was happy, ate well, interacted well, generally fitted in and had a great time

On the day they were due to returne, he would somehow escape and trek about 8k home, and be sitting in the garden or the footpath when they arrived.

Didn't matter whether they went for 2 days, or a week, or 2 weeks, the routine was always the same. He left in the morning, as soon as he was let out for toilet. If I watched him, he would wait until my attention wasn't on him.

He didn't deviate - straight home and wait. He often left before they had even left their destination.

Dogs know more than we credit them with.

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Our little chi x littermates used to do this too. My mum worked very varied hours including sleepovers (disability work in residences) and even if we didn't know when she was due home the dogs would start barking and being weird about half an hour before she came home.

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Ages ago I started reading an old book about dogs who seem to know unexplained things about their owners, like when their owners are going to arrive home, even if they have an unpredictable schedule. I

Has anyone else had an experience like this with their dogs? How do they know?

I have such a long list. Involves different breeds too.

Going back years, our friend's Great Dane flatly refused to leave the house one morning. He would be taken outside and left in a beautiful back yard. ( Absolutely dog heaven.) They had to go off to work so left him inside. Came home that evening to hear moans from a bedroom....

one intruder on top of a wardrobe AND one very proud Dane guarding him

My older Vizslak go to the phone EVERY night 30 seconds before my SO makes a call to advice he is nearly 5 minutes away.

Another friend's English Cocker Spaniel kept on licking a 'small' mark on her leg. Diagnosed as a melanoma.

Police dog I knew had been given the 'stay' command as his handler checked a room. Without warning the dog suddenly up & leaped into the air.... there was a manhole in the roof AND a man about to jump down onto his Dad.

I am so convinced of many abilities of dogs. I hope more share stories too

:thumbsup:

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I own boarding kennels.

I often have dogs who will start acting up on the day their owners are coming (usually the perfectly behaved ones do you know something is up), quite often I don't know they are coming a day early.

Anything from being unusually hyper to barkng non-stop to refusing to eat etc.

Edited by OSoSwift
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On the flip side I have some dogs that do not pick up on anything and it isn't until their owner is standing infront of them that they register anything! Some will even run past their owners back to their dog run and have to have their owner planted infront of them patting them for it to sink in-bless their little socks!

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My Rascal is one of these dogs, if I'm not well or feeling down even if I act normal he becomes a Velcro dog. He will follow me from room to room always having to be touching my leg, he will lay on my clothing while I have a shower and sleep on my feet while I cook dinner.

If I'm working he will be watching me from the opposite side of the gate.

He started this yesterday morning even begging to be picked up, not like him at all. I felt fine but exhausted, seemed he was telling me to sit and rest.

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Little Gifts, I think you must be referring to "Dogs that know when their owners are coming home" by Rupert Sheldrake. [i will never understand how his editor let that title through :( - should be 'who', not 'that'. I am one of those much hated by some, a Grammar Nazi LOL]

Another book you would love and is by Jeffrey Masson 'Dogs Never lie about Love'.

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In the last week of my pregnancy my boy wouldnt leave my side.

DH takes him for a run every day without fail, in my last week he wouldnt even do that! Now, this is a dog (Jack Russell) that has boundless energy and doesnt want to sit still ever! He stayed on my lap with his head on my massive belly....

It was very very sweet.

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Its strange, when we bought the baby home he wouldnt have a bar of her!!!

But now, its a completely different story. He is her little body guard. If she cries he will come running to see whats wrong! Sometimes he will :"cry" along with her :)

If we have any visitors and she is on the floor, he will put himself between the two, or will sit close by and watch carefully.

I had a good friend visit with her baby last week, during the day Maui (my dog) is usually in with DH in his office. But because there were visitors and they were near the bub, he wouldnt leave her, he stayed about 1 meter from her at all times!

She just loves him to bits too :)

Just because I love the cuteness, here they are, he is patiently waiting for her to drop the toast :)

10154492_10152049193280878_6828266475725140960_n.jpg

Edited by kitkatswing
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I have read and re-read both those books. I find it fascinating.

A friend had and extremely well trained Dobe that at the day she was 6 months pregnant went into guard dog mode and she just couldn't take her out without her guarding not matter what she tried.

It lasted until the baby ( who was then also under her web of protection) until she was around 8 months old. Suddenly it was like you have it now, I've done my bit and she went back to her normal self :)

Interesting creatures our dogs:)

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Joey used to always have a 6th sense about things, I was always writing in here about the different things he sensed.

The night my husband's Mother passed away, he sprung up at about 3am and was howling. Half hour later we got the call from the hospital to say she had passed away at about 3am.

Joey and my MIL weren't close, so i'm not sure why he would have reacted? That was just one of many incidents !

Renae's not that way inclined, but Miah has started reacting to a few things around here also. But then I'm convinced our house is haunted eek1.gif

Its always been said that animals and young children have a six sense about things. It doesn't surprise me at all ;)

Edited by Jules❤3Cavs
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