A few years ago, I used to visit a friend from college who, on a scholarship, had moved for a few months to a flat near my apartment, next to his podenco. It was nice to be able to talk to him about old times, and yet after the second week it became clear that something was not right. My friend’s face became increasingly marked by dark circles under his eyes, he was easily irritable and began to complain about his work even though he claimed to love it the first few days.

The answer to why this happened came to me just as he announced that he was going back to his hometown, several months before his scholarship and internship ended. It was because of something that happened frequently in his apartment: the dog would start growling, standing still and going towards the only room inside 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 some renovations.

Stories similar to this one are common. The belief that animals can perceive paranormal phenomena is as old as it is popular. Even today, many people have experiences in which a dog stares intently into a corner or a hallway where there is nothing, with its ears held high, and begins to bark or growl with obvious signs of stress. What is true of 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 sixth canine sense is, impressively, and more so considering that there is less and less reason to believe in spirits and paranormal phenomena.

A survey conducted in the United States in 2011 showed that about 47% of people living with dogs have been alerted by these animals just before something bad happened. In other words, the experience was convincing enough that, when it came to interpreting the facts, many people believed that the dog had a kind of sixth sense .

On the other hand, it is also common to believe that when dogs are left barking at nothing, there 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 La Folie à Deux, in which the delirious ideas or hallucinations of one person make that person behave in such a convincing way that the other person ends up believing in his explanations.

But… are the dogs that do this having visions? As far as we know, there is no indication that these animals experience psychotic symptoms of this type more often than humans. But that does not mean that they see ghosts, spirits, or echoes of the future or the past: there are other, much more complete and simple explanations.

Domestic explanations about the sixth sense of the dog

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

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 a cat meowing in the distance, can be picked up by a dog and not by us, even though we are right next to it.

But this better hearing has a downside: in a very wide range of sounds, it is easy to find some that are ambiguous , that lead to confusion, either because they are mixed with others or because they are muffled by materials that the canine has not become accustomed to, such as certain metals that can be used to cover a wall.

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

Dogs in the face of natural disasters

Another fact that is often linked to dogs’ supposed sixth sense 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, the dogs already realize that something is happening? It is believed that this happens because they are very sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure , something that always happens when such a phenomenon is developing.