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SCARED POOCH

A

Anonymous

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I live in the old Market town of St Albans in South East England. Our town was built by the Romans and we have a 14th century abbey and 14th century streets close to the modern city centre. All in all a very lovely and ancient place to live.
One day my mother happened to mention over lunch that our dog had refused to walk past a house in the medieval village of St. Michaels. I didn't believe her at all so took him down there myself . To my astonishment when we got to number 61 or so he stopped dead and put his claws into the ground and wouldn't move - sounds a bit cruel but I needed to be convinced. He did this every single time we walked past this house but was fine again literally 1 step further on although we had to pick him up to move him.
We watched the actions of other dogs but no other ever had the same fear. Through local research we discovered that some of these houses had been built on an old abbatoir.
Does this mean that he could smell or sense the death of other animals on this site from hundreds of years ago ? I really doubt it so maybe there was something in the house the stopped him in his tracks every time.
 
Where is St Michaels? Is it near or in St Albans? I live in Watford so I like the sound of this local story. How long ago was the abbattoirs?
 
My dad had the experience with two horses on a card, they would stop dead and their eyes would turn white [like they do when they are really scared] and would just not move past a certain spot near a forest. A man had hanged himslef there [which was common knowledge] and as far as I know other animals went past that spot ok.

Maybe some animals are more "sensitive" than others, like humans?
 
Had something happened on an earlier occasion which had alarmed him, making him unprepared to approach that house again?
 
Yes Fishpool Street in St Albans is on a hill but this was right at the bottom of a hill - why do you ask. I think the abattoirs would have been there a few hundred years ago - not recent.
 
Sorry Carol - forgot to say that no he hadn't ever been past there before and frightened by something. It was a 2 mile drive away so not on his ususal route.
 
I lived in St Albans for a while. Fishpool Street has really high kerbstones if I remember correctly and there are lots of old restored buildings. It's not particularly spooky as I recall, but it's old enough to have soaked up a bit of wierd.

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, just off Verulamium park (and also medieval), now that's an odd place...
 
Dogs have strange minds it seems. I dont know if he sensed death, but perhaps he saw something which people can't. It might have been threatening enough that he wouldnt go further. Dogs are smart, in boats they know what the water is, and wont go near it usually. Same with heights, if a dog is sitting next to you on a cliff edge and you nudge him he will push away. They know when theres a threat, and they avoid these things by not getting closer.
 
Human_84 said:
Dogs are smart, in boats they know what the water is, and wont go near it usually.
Click to expand...

Try telling that to my dog. It took all we could do to stop him from diving off the edge of the Ullswater ferry last year and find his own way home.
 
I have had the opposite experience with my dog. I got him (greenwood) from a friend after his dog (rudy) had a rather unexpected litter of puppies. He lived down the road from me, so every now and then we would end up walking past their house, and greenwood would pull with all his might until he got his way and we would go for a visit. After a few years, rudy passed on, and both of us moved away. A few years later (3 years from when we moved, green was 7), i decided to take a visit in my old town. I decided to drive past all my friends houses. As we drove past rudys old house, green just flipped. He started whining and barking and jumping around (which was a real nuicense because he is an 80 lb dog, in the back seat of a 2 door car). He never quite forgot where his mama lived...
 
Animals can perceive strange things as threats. I had a horse once who was quite easily spooked so I used to keep an eye out for things that might bother her so I would know when to hang on for dear life, as she would leap about in fright.

Once I was riding down a quiet road and noticed a large tractor in operation ahead. I thought the noise would frighten her so I prepared myself for some of her theatrics.

She walked past it without blinking an eyelid.

However a few minutes later she absolutely refused to walk over (or even past) a big white "P" painted on the road, skittering about and rolling her eyes.

Sometimes animals just don't appear to make any sense at all.
 
Human_84 said:
Dogs have strange minds it seems. I dont know if he sensed death, but perhaps he saw something which people can't. It might have been threatening enough that he wouldnt go further. Dogs are smart, in boats they know what the water is, and wont go near it usually. Same with heights, if a dog is sitting next to you on a cliff edge and you nudge him he will push away. They know when theres a threat, and they avoid these things by not getting closer.
Click to expand...

i think that's a bit harsh trying to push your dog off a cliff edge as an experiment...
 
My dog is clever like that - she won't go near water either, especially if it has dog shampoo in it...

:roll:

One of my previous dogs had a habit of watching one of my cats leap down from the top of my kitchen cupboards, onto the microwave then the counter and then finally the floor. However, she had been dead about 5 years at this point. It was her favourite place to sleep (on the top of the cupboard) and the way she would get down when she wanted to go out. The dog would suddenly look up, whimper and then her head and eyes would follow the (invisible) cat down. I am sure that dogs are able to see things we can't - after all, they can see in a different spectrum - who knows what is also in it?
 
Maybe there was something on the ground that was irritating his feet, like rock salt or something.
 
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