Dogs That Bark at Nothing: a Sixth Sense?

A few years ago, I used to visit a friend from college who, for a scholarship, had moved for a few months to an apartment near my apartment, next to his hound. It was nice to be able to chat with him about old times, and yet, from the second week onwards, it began to be evident that something was not right. My friend’s face became increasingly marked by dark circles, he became irritable very easily and began to complain about his work even though the first few days he claimed that he loved it.

He told me the answer to why this was right when he announced that he was returning to his city, several months before the end of his scholarship and his internship period. It was due to something that frequently happened in his apartment: the dog began to growl, remaining motionless and heading towards the only interior room in the place, as if he saw something there. The final blow came when he learned that about twenty years ago, a tenant had died right there, electrocuted during renovations.

Stories similar to this are common. The belief that animals can perceive paranormal phenomena It is as old as it is popular. Even today, many people have experiences in which a dog stares intently at a corner or hallway where there is nothing, with its ears erect, and begins to bark or growl with obvious signs of stress. What is true in this belief? Is it really true that dogs are capable of seeing aspects of reality that escape our senses?

Dogs barking at nothing: between the paranormal and the mysterious

The scope of the belief in a canine sixth sense is impressive, and even more so considering that there are fewer and fewer reasons to believe in spirits and paranormal phenomena.

A survey conducted in the United States in 2011 showed that around 47% of people who live with dogs have been alerted by these animals just before something bad happened. That is to say, the experience was convincing enough that, when interpreting the events, many people They believed that the dog had some kind of sixth sense.

On the other hand, it is also common to believe that when dogs bark at nothing, they are actually ghosts and supernatural entities. The ambiguity that is generated in these situations feeds beliefs in the paranormal, and a phenomenon occurs that, on a small scale and intensity, is reminiscent of the Folie à Deux, in which a person’s delusional ideas or hallucinations make him or her. behaves in such a convincing way that the other ends up believing his explanations.

But… are the dogs that do this having visions? As far as is known, there is nothing to indicate that these animals experience psychotic symptoms of this type more frequently than humans. But that does not mean that they see ghosts, spirits or echoes from the future or the past: there are other, much more complete and simple explanations.

Domestic explanations about the dog’s sixth sense

It seems undeniable that dogs have certain sensory capabilities that are much more developed than representatives of our species. But that does not mean that they enjoy a sixth sense, in the most mystical conception of the concept. In reality, these very strange behaviors, such as becoming nervous in situations where there is no clear danger in sight can be explained based on what is known about their sense of smell and their hearing ability.

It is a fact that these animals can hear sounds at a volume that is well below the threshold of our hearing sensitivity. This means that the same stimulus, such as the meow of a cat in the distance, can be captured by a dog and not by us, despite being right next to it.

But this better hearing has a drawback: In a very wide range of sounds, it is easy to find one that is ambiguous which leads to confusion, either because it is mixed with others or because it is cushioned by materials to which the dog has not become accustomed, such as certain metals with which a wall can be lined.

On the other hand, much of the mystery of why this always happens in the same place, and more or less constantly, also has a very simple explanation: pipe noises. These components cover a good part of the walls and occasionally generate noise, but we do not perceive them as they are muffled by many layers of construction material.

Dogs in the face of natural disasters

Another fact that is usually linked to the supposed sixth sense of dogs is that they are capable of foreseeing some natural disasters.

How do you explain that hours or days before a hurricane passes through the area, dogs already realize that something is happening? This is believed to occur because They are very sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure something that always happens when a phenomenon of these characteristics is brewing.