The Dog and the Doorway

[Spookdaddy]

A few weeks ago I was dog-sitting for my brother and his girlfriend while they were on holiday. They have a smallish 1930’s era semi-detached house to which they have done a lot of work. Chester, that’s the dog, is old, deaf, short-sighted and stupid.

Now, I was aware of what I can only describe as a slight “atmosphere” in the house accompanied by the odd noise which I always put down to the dog. Nothing frightening, just the odd suggestion that I wasn’t totally free to do as I pleased. Anyway Chester has lately taken to staring at fixed points for long periods of time and one of his favourite targets was a blank wall which separates the kitchen from the hallway. Last night my brother and his girlfriend both admitted that they have been aware of fleeting movement in this same area. The interesting thing is that until my brother blocked it up this wall contained the doorway to the kitchen. I can only surmise that Chester is staring at a doorway that isn’t there anymore or maybe something that is still using that doorway.

Canine ESP? Ghost? Or does a building have it's own memory? Any ideas/experiences?

 

[Anonymous]

Chester, that’s the dog, is old, deaf, short-sighted and stupid.

And perhaps suffering from the canine equivalent of Alzheimers and thinking "Wasn't there a door there yesterday?"

 

[Spookdaddy]

That would be the simple answer if it wasn't for the fact that he had never been in the house when the door was in it's previous position.

 

[mikelegs]

My GF's parents have some Rotweilers (spelling?). One of them is a bit, ummm... crazy. Their house is old (1870's) and *supposedly* haunted, but I've never gotten any weird vibes. But I did witness very freaky doggie behavior. She'll sit and stare at nothing in particular, subtly moving her eyes and head right to left, then back again. She also chases lights. One day the screen door was swinging back and forth in the wind, reflecting light on the far corner of the kitchen. She was frantically trying to get it. Give her food and she'll carry it up to a landing on the stairs and pretend to bury it, then lie beside it. You're not supposed to notice she has it, cause if you do, she'll 'dig it up' and go 'bury' it somewhere else. One of her favorite spots is the bottom of the front staircase. Sometimes when no one is there she'll sit up, perk up, look up the stairs and start barking happily. They have quite a few pets, and none of them ever really acted strangely. Maybe it's just the dog?

 

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of a Golden Retriever we had when I was a kid. She was quite possibly the stupidest and most docile dog I have ever known (she was supposed to be a gun dog but was scared of loud noises!!!)
Anyway, the house we lived in was a converted stable, the bedrooms were where the hayloft used to be, the living room was one of the old stable stalls and the kitchen bathroom and dining room at the back were the old ostlers cottage. To get to the bedrooms from the kitchen you had to walk through the living room and up the stairs.
The dog had a worrying habit of suddenly sitting bolt upright, staring at the entrance from the kitchen then following something invisible across the room until it reached the stairs to the bedroom, then abruptly stopping and laying down again, as if she was watching something walk across the room and go up the stairs. Needless to say, when you are 12 this doesn't give you any great encouragement to go to bed!
On another occasion, one of the workmen who were building a fence across the orchard at the back of our house collapsed and died from a massive heart attack while digging the hole for one of the gateposts. Like I said, our dog was incredibly docile most of the time, but from the day that man died she would turn on you rather than walk through that particular gate, we used to have to walk her to the other end of the fence to another gate to get her to go through.

 

[Anonymous]

we are way smarter then dogs, but dogs are way more telepathic then we are. my old dog used to bark at every single thing that passed by our house, except for this one man. this man just wandered up and down our street, my mom said he was mentaly insane or something like that and somehow my dog knew he was crazy and stayed away from him, my dog never even barked at him ever. and whenever he walked by my house, my dog would run away and start whineing. the other day my new dog and i were home alone. i was sitting at the computer when all the sudden my dog who was in our hallway just started to bark and snarl and stuff. i came out to see what was wrong and she was like staring at our bathroom door. but whats even weirder is that my mom insists that she sees me standing there sometimes just looking at her. she said she just see's movement and it feels like someone is watching her, I have also noticed this. other then that my dog is pretty normal.

 

[Anonymous]

Strange this. Dogs know things we'll never know, that's for sure.

I used to have two dogs, now sadly gone, and they used to do exactly the same thing. They'd bark at a fixed point for no apparent reason. This can completely freak you when you're sitting quietly alone and they suddenly explode from apparent sleep and begin barking like hell at the corner of the room. A corner, I might add, that had no door or window.

The dog I have now will sometimes suddenly sit up alert with ears pricked at apparently nothing, and sometimes he appears to track something across the room. Spooky.

None of this unsettles them, however. After whatever it is they see or hear, or think they see or hear, they invariably go back to sleep. Either there was nothing there in the first place or they're so familiar with whatever it is it's like, " Oh, it's only you. That's okay then." and just roll over and forget it.

My current buddy is also afraid of thunder. He makes a real pest of himself whenever a storm is on it's way, climbing on my lap or under my chair. He hears it coming long before I do.

They're sensitive to things we know nothing of. :eek!!!!:

 

[Anonymous]

What you have to remember is that dogs have far better hearing than us, and can hear high-pitched sounds that are inaudible to humans. So maybe all these dogs are reacting to mice or insects in the walls or maybe electrical 'hums' or something.

 

[Anonymous]

Gary Larson has the answer to this, as to so many of life's mysteries.

There's one of his cartoons showing two dogs, master sitting quietly, and one dog is saying to the other something like -

'Watch this, I'm just going to rush over to that corner and stare at nothing - that should get him going'

 

[Anonymous]

'Watch this, I'm just going to rush over to that corner and stare at nothing - that should get him going'

Hahahaaaa, and probably the truth of it too!

 

[Yithian]

The interesting thing is that until my brother blocked it up this wall contained the doorway to the kitchen. I can only surmise that Chester is staring at a doorway that isn’t there anymore or maybe something that is still using that doorway.

It's quite possible the acoustics are different there because of the differing material / density etc. Perhaps the hound has got fine hearing...

 

[James_H]

my dog's got old and has developed cataracts. She just stands there and stares at blank space, but I think that's because she's can't see much and hasn't much else to do.

 

[Yithian]

my dog's got old and has developed cataracts. She just stands there and stares at blank space, but I think that's because she's can't see much and hasn't much else to do.

That's a bit somber Faggus.

Perhaps she's just at that stage in canine life where she's become more reflective and introspective.