With senses much more acute than ours, dogs detect what we cannot — and perhaps more than we imagine.
Since probably the beginning of time, people have believed in their dogs’ ability to feel spirits.
In ancient Mexico, for example, the Aztecs believed that dogs could see ghosts and guide the souls of their owners through the underworld. And, throughout the history of Humanity, there have been reports of people who believe in the psychic abilities of dogs.
But what do experts think about this?
Marc Eatonprofessor of sociology at Ripon College, remembers speaking with a paranormal investigator who had recently lost his father. “Your dog repeatedly barked at the stairs from his house and appeared to follow someone or something up the stairs,” Eaton said.
“Given this behavior, the recent death of his father and the fact that he is already predisposed to believe in ghostsconcluded that his dog was feeling his father’s spirit and believed that his father was watching over him while he was grieving,” Eaton tells .
Some parapsychologists, people who study paranormal phenomena, believe that the explanation lies in dog extrasensory perception, or ESP — mental abilities beyond the five senses.
ESP includes things like telepathy (read thoughts), clairvoyance (perceiving distant events) and precognition (predict the future).
“Ghosts are not physical phenomena that can be captured by the senses. Therefore, some form of non-sensory perception would be necessary to perceive a ghost”, the parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach in an article on the Parapsychological Association website. “Dogs and cats, and probably most animals, They are psychic, just like humans“.
But scientific support for ESP is scarceand many studies fail to provide conclusive evidence that it exists. Still, some people argue that ESP operates beyond the limits of science conventional, which in practice makes it impossible to prove or disprove it.
This argument could also extend to dogs’ ability to sense ghosts. Maybe we just don’t have the tools to accurately measure what dogs feel?
The sensory explanation
The reasons why dogs and cats seem to be seeing ghosts can sometimes be quite mundane.
“Animals hear and even see physical things that we can’t,” says Auerbach. “If there is any insect or small animal activity on the walls or exterior walls, dogs and cats can hear it.”
His own cats, Auerbach says, sometimes jump at something he can’t see — until he looks closer and finds a small bug.
The psychologist Christopher Frenchwho studies paranormal beliefs and is the author of the book ““, agrees with this explanation.
“As I’m a skeptic, I don’t believe in the supernatural at all.“, he says. “It seems much more likely to me that dogs sometimes react to natural stimuli that humans cannot detect, given their superior senses of smell and hearing.”
Dogs are about 220 million olfactory receptors in the nosecompared to approximately 5 million in humans. They also have a specialized Jacobson’s organ (or vomeronasal organ) that can detect chemical cues beyond normal smell.
In a published in 1952, scientists at Duke University discovered that dogs could sniff garlic oil diluted to 0.00000005% with 85% accuracy.
More recently, in 2019, a study showed that dogs can use their sense of smell to identify with almost 97% accuracy. In 2021, a study concluded that they can detect . And another, in 2024, discovered that dogs can do it.
Your hearing is equally impressive. Dogs can hear sounds that are much higher pitched (up to 65,000 Hertz) and much quieter (up to -15 decibels) than humans can, giving them a extraordinary sensitivity completely noise out of our reach.
These super senses may explain why dogs seem to see things that we humans don’t see it. “Perhaps, instead of seeing something haunted, they are orienting their heads to smells and sounds to help them better understand these stimuli,” he says. Ellen Furlonga psychology professor at Transylvania University who studies animal cognition.
On the other hand, ours. “Humans can see more clearly at a greater distance than dogs and can see a wider range of colors. Dogs are red/green color blind,” says Furlong.
However, they are better at capturing objects that move quickly and subtle changes in light. For example, a television screen that appears smooth to us may appear to flicker to a dog, explains Furlong.
Therefore, when dogs appear to react to something invisible, they may actually be reacting. capture small movements or changes in light that our eyes simply cannot detect.
Why does the belief persist?
If there are natural explanations, why do so many people believe that dogs can see ghosts? Eaton says there is a common belief that animals and small children can sense spirits in ways that adults cannot.
“This belief is based on a theory that adults have been socialized into the culturally dominant attitude that ghosts are not real and, as a result, typically have ‘cultural blinders’ that inhibit their perception of ghosts or make them inclined to explain such perceptions,” says Furlong.
“When animals or young children respond to stimuli that adults cannot see or hear, those with a preconceived notion that animals and children have a greater capacity to sense spirits can conclude that this is, in fact, evidence that there is some ghostly entity in your midst.”
While it’s comforting to think that our dogs can sense the presence of those we’ve lost, science suggests that their sometimes mysterious behavior is due to its remarkable ability to detect smellssounds and movements that escape our attention.
AND It’s hard not to wonder if your incredible senses can sometimes capture things beyond our understanding; but an idea that “operates beyond the limits of conventional science”, and that is impossible to prove or disprove… is worth what it’s worth.
