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Black Dogs?

Up until a couple days ago I had no idea that to 'see' a black dog was a common thing. When I was around seven I was in bed with my mother, she was taking a nap and wanted me to take one too but I wasn't tired.

At some point I got an urge? (or something) to sit up and look out the small window that backed onto baron land at the back of our house. There it was, this big jet black dog (with the all too commonly reported red eyes) just sitting there (almost regal like, it wasn't moving and didnt bark or anything) staring at me. I remember the feeling I got from it wasn't a pleasant one so I reached out to my mum to shake her awake to show her this dog and looked back a split second later.. it'd vanished. I didn't actually witness it disappearing though. Scared the beejeezus outta me then and still gives me the shivers when I think back on it now.

Ok, so it could've been just a dog with bloodshot eyes and the legs of a greyhound? With the feeling I got from it and the way I remember it I dont think so. This all happened in daylight too (would've been late afternoon) unlike most of the other stories I've read about in last couple days being 'at night'.

Have only ever told a few people (family mostly) about it and someone did mention to me years ago it was a sign of sadness or depression. I know Winston Churchill labelled his depression the black dog. Strangely enuff, I was diagnosed with depressive bi-polar disorder 2 yrs ago. For myself, I used to put it down to my old mans negative energies (he was a bit of a monster) influencing what I felt and experienced as a kid as I used to have alot of nightmares too and never felt 'safe' but maybe it was some kinda sign to my approaching illness as an adult? who knows. Anyway's that's my story and I'm stickin to it lol. Arohanui.
 
Little ol New Zealand (Porirua, Wellington) example...I've done a search around on the net and couldn't find any reportings of phantom black dog sightings here in NZ which is why I'm thinking the folklore tales of the dogs in Britain and the States versus my own are prob. unrelated. But if there's any kiwi's out there who have seen one, I'd been keen to hear about it. The dog I saw was as still as a statue too, sleek skin, like a large doberman but fatter. Was pretty scared of dobermans for a long time after that.
 
I had a Black Dog as a Pet!

Mind You he had patches of white also on his chest front and paws. he was a mongrel cross labrador and was the gentlest creature you can imagine. Had an eerie sad howl though, creeped out a lot of people. Many pure bred Labs are jet Black but not shaggy and smaller than the descriptions of Black Dogs. They are also known for their friendly gentle temperament. Dark brown eyes sometimes with very little whites showing.
Ona slightly similar note. I was attacked by a dog when I was twelve, ripped a chunk out of my leg. The thing just went berserk when I rode past on my bike. Several years later in Lambton Lion park I was standing looking at the Wolf compound. They became agitated, prowling around, growling, then the alpha male sat on the top of the mound and the others sat next to him and the whole pack started howling like mad. Very creepy, the keeper came running up and started putting a barrier accross the path telling people to go away. He turned to me and said had I done anything, I said I had just looked at them, he said he had worked there for five years and never once heard the pack howl. They were enraged and he was worried they might attack. he thought even the ditch and fence might not stop them as they can leap quite a distance, he said he was even worried that they might savage him they were in such a state, he reckoned I must smell wrong. I had a similar thing happen when on an anti thatcher demonstration at Newcastle Civic Centre in the 1980's. She was coming to visit and lots of people were there. I was right beside the barrier with a policedoghandler right in front of me. The dog started being menacing. You know how big the things are, a massive German Sheperd. Then it started barking and a few minutes later it was going mad, it was so bad it was frothing at the mouth and the cop had to drag it away and put it in his van. He came back to where I was to tell his mate he was going off duty, it had bitten him badly on the arm. he said the same, told his mate it was me. He said I had done nothing, I must just smell wrong. My sister has had a few sheperds as well. All were not too keen but the last one went for my throat, I was saved from it by her dragging at his collar and beating him with the lead to stop him. Funny thing is small dogs russels etc are the opposite, they all seem to want to play jumpies on my leg or turn over for their tummies to be scratched. They seem to just adore me. An uncle had a russell which had a bad reputation for barking and growling and being generally unfriendly to everybody. She hated practically everyone, but drooled over me. Like I say I must smell wrong. :?
 
I can't remember exactly what age I was, but I must have been around 10 when I had my encounter with a black dog. I grew up in a village in the middle of Northumberland, and at the far side of the blacksmith shop.. around the back a wood, quite dense. If you walked through a field at the side of the wood you would come to a little field boxed in all sides but one... Us kids used to go there often as there lived a dear old donkey we named Huckleberry. One night, around twilight time, I ventured down there by myself... but when I got to the field there was no sign of the donkey, so I turned to walk back the way I came. I got about half way up the field when I heard growling coming from the wood and what I saw must be one of the freakiest things in my life (& believe me I have experienced a lot of weird stuff in my time) Looking back at me was a very VERY BIG DOG... must have been a good 4' in size... now that would have been bad enough (especially since the growling was very menacing) however what really freaked my out was its eyes... they where glowing red. (needless to say I legged it home)

Now I've read the stories about these dogs, and the bad omens they carry with them... however I must say nothing bad immediately happened after the event... however when I was 18 my dad died of cancer... a few months after his death I was talking to my mother who told me this tale...

one night, a couple of years before my dads death she was woken up by my father (who was not easily freaked out) He was shaking like a leaf and said he had just seen a very big black dog with red eyes by his bedside. Now we did not have a dog in the house at the time... and certainly not one with glowing red eyes!!

As you can imagine, I found this very freaky. Have not (thankfully) witnessed any other unearthly dogs, and pray that experience was a one off.
 
Black Dog

I may have joined the many who have seen one but first I want some info on the phenomonon.

Has one actually harmed anybody? Besides the church/lightning events

Does anyone know how the rumors about the omen of death got started? People die all the time without seeing black dogs and it seems that most of the people who see them live to tell the tale.

Sigh. So many questions, so little time. I'll ask more and tell you about the encounter later on hopefully.
 
I saw a black labrador yesterday, and I'm still alive. ;)
 
Re: Black Dog

shonda said:
Does anyone know how the rumors about the omen of death got started? People die all the time without seeing black dogs and it seems that most of the people who see them live to tell the tale.
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shonda,

I'm one of those people who firmly believe that paranormal events are more about a kind of message delivered to the experiencer than actually about any lasting physical effects or harm.

Taken this way, black dogs may have become associated with portending death simply because, mythologically-speaking, dogs are associated with the underworld (they are psychopomps -- conductors of the soul to the land of the dead). The colour of the black dog too, is very important: with blackness signifying 'absoluteness'. The antithesis of white, black is most often seen in its cold and negative aspect which has an immediate relationship with concepts of death and the grave. Dogs in the myths of many cultures are also associated with fire and disease (again, harmful elements) and so, taken all together, symbolically speaking, you can't have much more of a death-related symbol prowling around in the night than that of a black dog (who, on top of everything else, is also associated with the Devil, for all the reasons mentioned above!)

Now, again, just to reassure you: realize that these are all human constructs. Seeing a black dog doesn't necessarily portend death but, believing as I do that such encounters are more about the message than the messenger, I'd like to hear if something of interest has transpired in your life following your meeting. I have a rather glib interpretation of what a meeting with a black dog may mean but it's so hackneyed and uninspired that any roadside palm or Tarot reader/charlatan would immediately adopt me as one of their own. :)

Polterdog.
 
Ahhh, now you've gone and summoned up the Polterdog!! Where's the holy water bottle!?

:shock:

Seriously, shonda, tell us what concerns you. I've never heard of them being associated with death. Oh, yeah, I guess there was that Stephen King story, but he goes crazy with stuff. I stopped reading his stuff long ago. Was it long ago that this happened to you? I take it it was really bad? I hope you're feeling better by now? ;)
 
i posted this awhile ago to some other thread, but it never got a response and i think the thread was dead anyway:

i was driving back to my apartment relatively late, i'd say about 11:00... the only light on the road was from a brightly lit 24-hour gas station behind me. Beside the road coming toward me, I saw a black shape moving, as I got closer the shape revealed itself to be a huge black dog trotting along. I tensed quickly and my heart skipped a beat as I thought to myself that this beast could easily try to run across the road in front of me, or dart towards my car. I was about to swerve when the dog's image "shifted" slightly... and the torso of a man apeared above it. It was then that I realized that it wasn't a dog, but a guy wearing dark (black) pants, and a very drab greyish shirt that blended in with the grass alongside the road. I assume that my eyes couldn't see his upper body right away, so my brain simply interpreted his moving legs for a loping dog.

the OTHER possibility is that I saw some soft of dog-spirit who quickly masked himself in the form of a human when he realized i was looking at him. :roll:
 
Gemaki said:
Ahhh, now you've gone and summoned up the Polterdog!! Where's the holy water bottle!?
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.

Well, being my personal favourite paranormal subject matter (in fact, this handle was inspired by the black dog phenomenon) whenever the mention of black dogs or hellhounds bay upon the stillness of the FTMB, this dog's ears perk up.

I've never heard of them being associated with death.
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Oh, yes, this is old hat. Folklorically speaking, one can easily equate black dog reports to their Irish kin, the banshee. This idea of the black dog being an omen of death is explored in Arthur Conan Doyle's classic The Hound of the Baskervilles too, by the way. So its roots go just a bit beyond Stephen King. :)

Still, again, if only to promote my own theory, I think the reasons for this association are clear (see my previous post). Of course, this doesn't really address why, if symbolically speaking, dogs are related to death the way they are, why the black dog phenomenon is essentially limited to the British Isles and American Deep South; you'd think with dogs being everywhere that humans are (and death being, well, universal) that the black dog pheomenon would be a bit more more widespread. Unless, of course, it has something to do with the rich oral traditions of those areas and...ah, but I'm just chasing my tail on this, aren't I? :)

Polterdog.
 
I'm not superstitious.
Last Sunday I read the Black Dog item in the FT, then went to see some old prints, one of which depicted Bungay Church. :shock:
 
I have heard of them being 'visitors' taking that shape, but I didn't want to scare shonda. If I saw a dog (no matter what color!) with red eyes, I would definately be freaked out. But I also don't want to turn people against black dogs, because we have a black cat, and I think superstitions can sometimes be dangerous.

Thanks for the info, Polt, it's very interesting. I've heard of The Hounds, too, but haven't read it. Brrr!
 
CoffeeJedi said:
i posted this awhile ago to some other thread, but it never got a response
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I did read this post and it reminded me very much of the Ameridian tales of 'skin-walkers'.

My grandfather, who was part Indian himself, used to tell a tale of a well-known witch in the poor rural community where he had grown up that, apparently, could assume different shapes (a power that he attributed to her snakeskin belt). Two of her favourite manifestations, apparently, were those of a fireball and a large black dog. I can't remember his tellings of the stories with absolute clarity but I believe he said he had encountered her in both of these forms, at one time of another (I seem to have a vague recollection of him telling me about the one night that he had seen a fireball leave through the chimney of her ramshackle house -- and seeing it move and dance across the sky with a kind of apparent intelligence -- and of a large black dog coming to his house, in the midst of a raging snowstorm, and clawing at his door, begging and whimpering for shelter.) I should point out that even he didn't put too much stock in this second one but the legend of the witch-woman was so pervasive throughout the small community where he lived that he didn't dare open the door, lest it might be her.

So, again, to me, very similar to these 'skin walking' tales. If there's a history of such stories in the area where you encountered that 'highway dog man', then that might be fertile ground for investigation.

Polterdog.
 
This dog was not massive but average size. Looked like a black golden retriever. The eyes almost glowed; think husky or spitz. I was not really upset by the event but merely curious having never heard of any one actually dying but some people insist it happens. I'm having login issues so I won't be able to say any more until Monday
 
I always felt Skin-Walkers more akin to the werewolf myth, than the Black Dog myth, but in this case I kind of see what you mean. Especially in relation to that Gas Station account.

I mean, sure it was more likely to have been eyes playing tricks, but you never know...
 
Gemaki said:
Monday?! Damn, I hate suspense!
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I was on my usual Sunday morning routine to get the paper from the gas station across the street when the dog came from behind a huge pile of broken limbs he stood in the middle of the road and just stared at me (I was on foot btw). I wasn’t thinking any thing super natural at the time. I actually reached out to pet it but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I continued on and kept looking back but it was still there just staring at me. When I got to the end of the road it was gone but on the way back there was the feeling of being watched.

This happened in November and I had almost forgotten about it. I was talking to a friend about our pets and something made me bring it up. After telling her about it I received one of the most horrified looks.

I got to thinking about it really hard this weekend and if it was a Black Dog perhaps the legend has already come true. Since the incident my life has made an abrupt turn around and it was the end of one way of life and the beginning of another.
 
shonda said:
I wasn’t thinking any thing super natural at the time.
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Well, based on this new description of your encounter, it certainly doesn't sound like anything too supernatural, either. I think if you met Black Shuck (or whatever the black dog phenomenon is being called in your area), you'd definitely know it. It wasn't until your second post on your own encounter that you described the creature you met and, to be quite honest, black dogs are usually quite big (they are often described as being calf-sized), have a distinctive whorly coat, and are said to have eyes and mouths that burn as if their head was lit internally by a glowing lantern (what you described as "eyes [that] almost glowed" sounds like the lambent properties of a normal animal's brown eye). It's vanishing was equally unspectacular. Generally speaking, when a black dog decides to take its leave of you, it tends to leave an impression -- both physically and psychologically.

So, all in all, your meeting seems more in the stray category than supernatural.

Polterdog.
 
shonda said:
I got to thinking about it really hard this weekend and if it was a Black Dog perhaps the legend has already come true. Since the incident my life has made an abrupt turn around and it was the end of one way of life and the beginning of another.
Click to expand...

Do tell us more, Shonda.
 
Polterdog said:
It wasn't until your second post on your own encounter that you described the creature you met and, to be quite honest, black dogs are usually quite big (they are often described as being calf-sized), have a distinctive whorly coat, and are said to have eyes and mouths that burn as if their head was lit internally by a glowing lantern (what you described as "eyes [that] almost glowed" sounds like the lambent properties of a normal animal's brown eye).
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I saw a dog of this general description yesterday in Battersea Park (I was at the Affordable Art Fair). I didn't notice its eyes burning brightly, but I did notice how huge and black it was, and how shaggy its fur was. It was probably the size of a small pony (really), and its fur was completely black with no highlights.
It was highly unusual, and I've no idea what breed it was. It can't have been a supernatural black dog though, as it was playing around with its owners.
 
Polterdog said:
what you described as "eyes [that] almost glowed" sounds like the lambent properties of a normal animal's brown eye).
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Now, I never heard anything like that but I'm no expert on dogs.
But it could of been like a Husky/Newfie/Boxer mix.
The eyes were defintly Husky quality and the shaggy black fur Newfie-ish. And I've known a few Boxers and they like to stare at people or birds or a leaf falling as though nothing could be more interesting.

There was a dog however that did leave an unsettling mark on my entire life. It was the hideous concotion that came of one of those full-sized poodles and a rottwieler. Now that was a frightening thing to see. Two means canceled each other out though and it was the sweetest, most soft-spoken (or barked) dog ever.

Polterdog said:
It's vanishing was equally unspectacular.
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I probably should have pointed out that this was an area that the dog could have easily hidden.
 
shonda said:
Now, I never heard anything like that but I'm no expert on dogs.
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Animals which spend part of their time using their eyes in dim light (or whose ancestors did so) have reflective retinas. See, not all light is absorbed by visual pigments in the retina; some of it passes through a mirrored layer called the tapetum lucidum, behind the retina, and reflects some of this light back through the retina so that it has more chance of being captured. Depending on the different types of pigment found in the animal eye, you might see different colors shining back at you. The green glow is typical of deer, dogs, and cats, whereas a crocodile has a chilling red “eye shine.” But this eerie red eye shine can also be found in dogs depending on such things as the light level, eye pigment, viewing angle, etc.

But it could of been like a Husky/Newfie/Boxer mix.
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That's kind of my point. If you're calling it a Husky/Newfie/Boxer mix then it's definitely not a black dog. Read some of the encounters that people have had with black dogs over the centuries: they're generally described in a very distinctive way with very distinctive features. I think if you saw one of these things, there'd be little doubt.

shonda said:
I probably should have pointed out that this was an area that the dog could have easily hidden.
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Well, again, animals are surprisingly versatile (one with black fur would be even more adept at hiding in the shadows) but you're right: I wasn't there and I don't have a good idea of the geographical layout that you're trying to convey through your post. I am saying, however, that black dog vanishings tend to be spectacular: exploding in a ball of fire or literally vanishing right in front of your eyes (and in this instance I'm not talking about you turning your head for a moment only to find the animal missing; I'm talking about the creature literally dematerializing right in front of you.)

I'm not trying to belittle your encounter as I had a strange 'bonding' moment with a fox (two in fact, over a span of 15 years) that left me just a little bit awe-struck about the world and my place in it. As one university professor pointed out to me, encounters like this are our equivalent of the mythic hero meeting his monsters; the civilized meeting the wild. So if you met a potentially dangerous dog, out in the middle of nowhere, it might be exhilerating as the fight or flight instinct takes over you, making the hair on the back of your neck raise, as you had mentioned.

Again, maybe I'm not fully appreciating all the 'weirdness' of your run-in with this dog but based on what I know of the black dog experience, it just doesn't seem to fit the particulars.

Polterdog.
 
Polterdog said:
That's kind of my point. If you're calling it a Husky/Newfie/Boxer mix then it's definitely not a black dog.
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And that was me agreeing with your suggestion that it could have been a stray. There was just something creepy about the way it was staring at me.
 
The link in post #1 is long dead. Here's the complete text, salvaged from the Wayback Machine ...

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Black Dog

James Sanderson

About seven years ago I was still living in Kent in a town called Tenterden. Myself and three mates used to regularly drink in Smarden, which is a just few miles from Pluckley. The route we would drive home was single-track back road, with the odd house and a few farms. We were driving back at about 11.45 pm on a October evening with a patchy fog, you know the sort of thing.

We had reached straight bit of road and ran into think bank of fog when a shape in the middle of the road forced us to slow down. A huge black dog was stood there, side on. If I had to guess I would say it was similar to very thick set Labrador. We had slowed to a walking pace then stopped. The car we were in was a Mini and it was level with the window on the driver's side as it walked along side us and towards the back of the car, at which point Jane, the driver, hit the gas!

Our immediate reaction was an irresponsible farmer was letting a dog wander loose and thought no more of it. I however spent some time thinking about it and was reminded of stories that I had heard in my childhood in the Isle of Man of the Moddey Dhoo and thought that there might be something in the stories of
Black dogs. I understand that they are not always of bad omen, but can be the guardians of water ways and rivers and can appear where rivers used to flow (as I believe was the case in my experience) Has anyone else come across a Black Dog? I would be very interested to hear from you.

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SALVAGED FROM: https://web.archive.org/web/20020205050650/http://forteantimes.com:80/happened/blackdog.shtml
 
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