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Dog barks and stares at nothing?


Belial

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Just got ourselves a new family members another dog, shes been purchased as a companion for the older male dog we have had for years.

The older dog as never shown any emotions towards the walls,doors etc but the new one within a week makes a mission out of getting into the en suite room and sitting barking or staring at nothing, no mice in the roof no damp no nothing just her sitting by the wall staring and making muffled barks and groans?

Our other dog when sat by the new one just gets up and walks away, shows no interest at all.

Any ideas.

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Yeah. Nothing to do with 'ghosts, hauntings or the paranormal'. It's a dog, she's new in your house and feels uncomfortable. Hasn't found her 'order' yet.

Edit: If the groans persist, take her to a vet.

Edited by Likely Guy
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Shes not a puppy, fully vet checked the day we purchased her the dog is healthy and full of beans anywhere else, but when she gets the chance she makes a move for the en suite area?

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Do you have a window in or near the en-suite area - maybe something from outside is casting shadows on the wall - like a tree, shrub or whatnot.

Or there maybe an odour of some kind - that she doesn't like ?

Can you close a door to the area - to keep her away from that particular spot ?

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Is your house new or old? If old, what do you know of it's history? The difference in reaction between the two dogs could be due to the age of the older dog or perhaps just different sensibilities, the way some dogs can predict seizures and some can't.

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Is your house new or old? If old, what do you know of it's history? The difference in reaction between the two dogs could be due to the age of the older dog or perhaps just different sensibilities, the way some dogs can predict seizures and some can't.

I was thinking that the new dog just might have more acute hearing.
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Thanks guys, eight years old the house built on what used to be open sand dunes right by the beach, no windows near or able to cast a reflection onto wall in question no wallpaper either painted only.

I was in our bedroom earlier getting my camera out to go off taking storm images and she was sat in the room just looking at the wall again, creeping me out a bit now.

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This was extracted from pets.thenest.com. In a nutshell, always the wisest advice is go to visit the vet :B

What Does It Mean When Dogs Stare at a Wall & Growl?

http://pets.thenest.com/mean-dogs-stare-wall-growl-8579.html

Edited by Still Waters
Replaced copyrighted text with source link
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Maybe your dog isn't seeing something, but is smelling something on the other side of the wall as their sense of smell is far greater than ours.

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In a contest between a dog who acts as if there's something there and a human who says there's nothing there, my money's on the dog. It doesn't have to be ghostly, just something she's better equipped to detect than people are. That's pretty much everything except what depends on visual acuity and color discrimination in daylight. No offense intended, but this is why our ancestors domesticated wolves in the first place.

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No one can convince me that ghosts don't exist, because my family lived in a haunted house throughout my childhood. We had numerous cats and dogs, but never for long! The one cat we had, he froze solid one day, and stared (with a fixed focus) at something head-height moving across the room from one end to the other. He looked terrified! He ran to the outside door, scratched frantically to be let out, and never came back.

I believe they can see things we can't.

Edited by Blurfoot
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No one can convince me that ghosts don't exist, because my family lived in a haunted house throughout my childhood. We had numerous cats and dogs, but never for long! The one cat we had, he froze solid one day, and stared (with a fixed focus) at something head-height moving across the room from one end to the other. He ran to the outside door, scratched frantically to be let out, and never came back.

I believe they can see things we can't.

I agree. I was once a temporary guard in a place the regular guards referred to as "the ghost factory". It was a children's convalescent hospital back in the forties and was being used as a warehouse to store surplus hospital equipment. Totally empty except for the guard. I took my dog with me one night. We did several rounds of the building without incident. Then there was a loud crash down a hallway where Xray equipment was stored. I went to investigate and naturally the dog came along. About halfway down the hall the dog froze, stiff legged as a fainting goat, and stared straight ahead at the end of the hallway. Then he turned around and crept back towards the guard station along the wall like he'd been scolded. He never went with me down that hall again but he continued to stare down it as if looking for something. I found nothing out of place that could have caused the crash.

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"Other signs and symptoms of canine cognitive dysfunction include sleeping more during the day or less overnight, becoming antisocial, pacing or wandering aimlessly, shaking, lethargy, seemingly getting lost, having difficulty navigating doorways or around obstacles, difficulty with once-familiar tasks,"

I'm thinking that maybe I should see a vet.

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Hey Belial. If the *en suite* is a bathroom off the bedroom (I'm assuming that's what it is) then maybe there is a water pipe in the wall there that makes noises you cannot hear but the new doggie can hear? Do you have a fan in this bathroom? Some bathrooms have the light/fan option for ventilation and maybe the fan makes an odd noise the dog picks up on? Is there anything beyond the wall? Is there another room or is the opposite side of the wall the outside of the house?

Congats on the new dog!! :)

Otherwise, I was going to ask about the history of the house as well...are you the first to live there? Has anyone died in or near the house? All those kinds of questions.

I'm thinking it's just that your dogs is new to the home and just settling in and getting to know the place. Take care.

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Eh, my cat runs around at 3am for no reason making as much noise as he possibly can. I don't think it has to do with anything beyond him being an animal, and therefore utterly insane. Your dog is probably responding to things that humans can't perceive, smells or dust particles or somesuch. Or, she's just crazy. Animals can be weird, just like humans.

Edited by Podo
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Yeah house was built by original owner and then we purchased it off them right by the Ocean on what was sand dunes and limestone rock outcrops originally. No deaths in or around the area that we are aware of, nearest house is about 400 metres away so no noise from next door so to speak either?

She as been back to vets for a check while being micro chipped and again all is well she is a normal family loving bull terrier.

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She as been back to vets for a check while being micro chipped and again all is well she is a normal family loving bull terrier.

Nice to read mate :)

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Not that this has any bearing on your home but I have read of some studies between Limestone and Residual Hauntings. I will post one of the articles here for you to see what I'm talking about and if you want to google it yourself just type in the search Limestone and Paranormal Activity and a bunch of things will pop up. Here you go:

Limestone, Quartz, and Magnetite

and Their Ability to Generate a Residual Haunting

Theory: Limestone, Quartz, and/or Magnetite deposits can supposedly hold information, such as an event in history, and when the information is released a residual haunting may occur.

A Residual haunting is when an event in the past gets imprinted at a certain location and is released in the present world. An example of this is Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania. There have been reports of tourists walking through the park and seeing a reenactment of solders having a battle. When the tourists return to the park office, they find out that there was no reenactment scheduled for that day. In theory what has happened is that the battle that took place at Gettysburg is imprinted at this location. Some say that because of the high energy during the battle that is what got imprinted at this location. Some also say that because of the amount of solders that had lost their lives during this battle that there spirits are not at rest, and that is why this place has paranormal activity. In a residual haunting there is no intelligence behind the haunt. There cannot be any interaction between you and the event that is taken place. If you are able to interact with the event and the soldiers or people that are part of the event than it is an intelligent haunting. A residual haunting is like a tape recorder playing the information over and over again. A residual haunting usually happens at the same time every time. It may take place once a year, once a month, once a week, or on rare occasions, you may only see it one time only.

Testing the theory that Limestone, Quartz, and/or Magnetite can generate a residual haunting is almost impossible to do in a lab. One way to test the theory is find out were residual hauntings are taking place and log them down. Then you have to see if the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has ever done a field survey on that location. If they did a survey then you can see what rocks/minerals are present at that location. If you look at the facts about each rock/mineral, then you can base any possibilities that a residual haunting can even occur. The first thing that should be looked at is how the rocks are formed. In the rock cycle you can see how each rock type; igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks are formed. Here is an example of the rock cycle.

SOURCE: http://liparanormalinvestigators.com/rocks.shtml

I mean, it could be nothing or you never know...it could be something unexplainable? Keep us posted and good luck! :)

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I tried to copy and paste this one but it wouldn't let me so I just did a screen shot. Here you go:

54jead.jpg

From here: http://theparanormalpost.com/archives/3450

I also think water is a huge conductor or paranormal-type activity. So, with the Limestone AND being near the water you might have a good mix for something to occur? These are just thoughts. I would love nothing more than to have hauntings proven one day so for now these are just ideas to think about since we really don't know if any of this is even possible. But yes, the limestone AND how close you are to water is impressive so you might have a residual haunting? Keep us posted :) Take pictures if you come across anything odd.

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Just out of interest.....

Have you actually FED the dog?

(joke!)

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Just out of interest.....

Have you actually FED the dog?

(joke!)

Belial is a good family-man and loves his pets!! I'm sure he has bent over backwards taking care of this animal!! :lol: I don't think you have to worry about any of that! :P

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Thanks She -ra nice find, as for feeding they eat better than i do lately chicken/pork/oats and the postmans left leg :w00t:

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I too have a dog that will stare at seeming nothing and whimper. He has been living here since he was 5 months (I think) he still does it (though less frequent). I always get chills when he does it. The worst part is he's a boxer, a guard dog breed.

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Below is a bit long, but worth it. Just because one dog is doing it, and not another, does nto mean something is not being heard, smelt, etc......Especially a newer dog to the home. ( different breed, keep reading )

There are more facts out there of why dogs do strange things. No need to jump to a baseless " paranormal " bandwagon without reading facts first.

The Nose

DogSmellDarleyNoseBeagle1.jpg

A dog interprets the world predominantly by smell, whereas a human interprets it by sight. As a human I cannot even imagine what that would be like to get most of my information from what I smell. This is why a blind or deaf dog can get along just fine if allowed to be a dog, given the proper leadership and exercise and their sensory whiskers are not cut off when they are groomed. While a dog's brain is only one-tenth the size of a human brain, the part that controls smell is 40 times larger than in humans. A dog’s sense of smell is about 1,000 to 10,000,000 times more sensitive than a human’s (depending on the breed). A human has about 5 million scent glands, compared to a dog, who has anywhere from 125 million to 300 million (depending on the breed). Ever wonder why your dog's nose is wet? The mucus on a dog's nose actually helps it smell by capturing scent particles. When a dog’s nose is dry they may lick it to aid them in scent.

When dogs smell something they are not just registering a smell, they get an entire story. They can smell pheromone, which is not only found in the urine and fecal, but on the skin and fur. From this they can tell a lot about another dog or human including if they are male or female, what they ate, where they have been, what they have touched, if they are ready to mate, if they have recently given birth, or had a false pregnancy, and what mood they are in. They have even been known to smell cancer on people, alerting them to it and saving their lives. This means when your dog smells another person, tree that another dog has peed on, pant leg that another dog has rubbed up against, or chair that someone has sat in, they are actually reading a story, not just smelling an interesting scent. While a human will smell something like spaghetti sauce as one smell, a dog smells each individual ingredient. Unlike humans, dogs can move their nostrils independently, allowing them to know what direction a smell is coming from.

A dog can both sniff and breathe. These are two different functions. Breathing is for air, but when they sniff with short breaths they actually save some scent that does not get exhaled. When a dog is overheated and actively panting, its sense of smell is reduced by as much as 40 percent as it uses the air to cool itself rather than for smelling.

Puppies have heat sensors in their noses to help find their mother during the time when their eyes and ears are closed. These sensors disappear by the time they are adults.

The Eyes

DogSensesEyesBruno.jpg

Since dogs do not have a spoken language, their thoughts are more like a sequence of images, much like a child before it learns to speak.

A common question among humans is, "Are dogs colorblind?" The answer is no, not exactly, meaning they do not only see in shades of only black and white. Studies have shown that dogs see in colors of various shades of blue and yellow. For example, a rainbow to a dog would be as follows: dark blue, light blue, light gray, light yellow, dark brownish yellow, and dark gray.

Purple and blue are both seen as shades of blue. Greenish-blue is viewed as a shade of gray. Red is seen as a black or dark gray. Orange, yellow and green all are seen to a dog as various shades of yellow. This means that, to a dog, bright orange toys are the same yellowish shade as the green grass. If you want your dog to clearly see his toys in the green grass you are better off giving the dog blue toys; if you have orange, yellow or green toys, the dog will be able to find them with his nose.

Dogs can see best at dusk and dawn. Their low-light vision is much better than a human’s, but their overall vision is not better. While a human’s vision is considered perfect at 20/20, a dog's vision is on average 20/75. Dogs cannot see as well at a distance as a human with normal eyes. Humans can also see things close up better than a dog can. On average, a human can see something clearly as close as 7 cm away, compared to a dog that sees things burry if they are closer than 33 cm away. Dogs can recognize objects better when they are moving and sometimes overlook the same object when it is still. Dogs see images on a TV screen, but most likely also see a rapidly flickering light, almost like a strobe light, in the picture; a human’s flicker resolution ability is about 55 Hz and a dog's is about 75 Hz.

The Ears

DogSensesEarsTia2.jpg

Puppies are born deaf and cannot hear until they are about 21 days old. Their eyes are also closed. During this time they rely solely on scent to interpret their world. By the time their sense of hearing is completely developed they can hear about 4 times the distance of a human who has normal hearing. Dogs can hear higher pitched sounds that humans cannot hear. They often bark at vacuums because they hear a very loud annoying pitch to their motors.

Dogs detect sounds in the frequency range of approximately 67 - 45,000 Hz (varies with different breeds), compared to humans with the approximate range of 64 - 23,000 Hz. As humans and dogs get older they both lose the ability to hear certain frequencies.

Dogs have 18 or more muscles in their ears allowing them to be mobile, whereas a human has only 6 and can only move their ears slightly, if at all. Dogs with perked ears can usually hear better than dogs with hanging ears, especially if they can move their ears in the direction of the sound.

DogSensesEarsTia3.jpgDogSensesEarsTia5.jpgDogSensesEarsTia4.jpg

Energy

DogSensesWalkingPackDogs.jpg

Animals can feel energy. If you break it down to simple science, the kinetic energy a dog detects might simply be a frequency. Light, sound and heat are all frequencies. This energy is a universal animal language. Have you ever been watching a group of wild animals out in the yard, perhaps a squirrel, rabbit and a deer all eating peacefully? Clearly these animals are not speaking words to one another asking if they all come in peace; somehow they all know that they are not going to harm one another. Or perhaps you know a dog that other dogs do not tend to like, or a cat that likes one dog but not another. Or perhaps you know of a person who dogs are prone to bark at. Dogs can sense fear. It is believe they can smell the pheromone and perhaps they can even feel it radiating from a being. Some dogs can tell a few minutes before a human is about to have a seizure even before the person knows. When I was a kid growing up I had a Lab mix who loved everyone. There was not a single person he didn't like, except for my uncle. When my uncle would come around he would bark at him. I later discovered that many dogs tended to bark at my uncle and as I got older I realized my uncle was a very tense, nervous person.

Another example was a time when my husband and I were driving down the road with our two dogs in a van that did not have any windows in the back. The dogs were sleeping on the van floor. Suddenly our Pit Bull stood up and started growling. I was in the passenger seat and didn’t see or hear anything. My husband, on the other hand, was amazed. He had just passed a cop and for a split second thought he may have been speeding and at the exact moment he felt a chill of fear run down his spine, his dog had popped up from his curled up sleep and growled, not at us but toward the walls of the moving van. The dog had felt his fear and was jumping up in protection mode.

Dogs interpret human emotions such as worry, anxiety, fear, anger, pity and nervousness, as weaknesses and they do not listen to these emotions. Dogs listen best to someone who is calm but firm in their approach. They use their sense of energy to determine who should be the leader of their pack. The being with the strongest and most stable energy is the one they look to, be it themselves or another being around them. While you can hide your emotions from another human, you cannot hide them from a dog.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/dogsenses.htm

Critters in the Wall

If you have critters in your walls, like mice, squirrels or other burrowing animals, your dog's sensitive ears will pick up their scratching even if you cannot hear a thing. Since dogs are territorial and hunters by nature, your dog will look at the unusual sound as threatening and this will result in him staring at the source of the sound and growling or barking. In most cases, the spot that he focuses on is where the critters are residing in between the walls.

Seeking Attention

Sometimes a dog will bark or growl just to get some attention because he knows that his owner will give it to him. Dogs don't always separate good attention from bad attention, so if you scold your dog for growling at the wall, he may just do it again in the near future in order to get you to pay more attention to him.

Senses an Outside Threat

Dogs can see and hear things beyond the scope of human perception, so it is not uncommon for a dog in the back room of a house to growl or bark when he "senses" someone, like the mailman, outside at the other end of the house. Although it may appear that your dog is growling at the wall, he may just in fact be growling in the direction he is sensing something out of the norm.

Breed Peculiarities

Certain breeds of dogs, like Jack Russell terriers and other small breeds, sometimes exhibit odd behaviors that can borderline on the compulsive. One such behavior is incessant growling at nothing in particular. Sometimes this behavior can include an obsession in which the dog licks one spot on the wall.

http://dogcare.dailypuppy.com/mean-dog-stares-wall-growls-1843.html

Edited by Sakari
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Do you have a window in or near the en-suite area - maybe something from outside is casting shadows on the wall - like a tree, shrub or whatnot.

Or there maybe an odour of some kind - that she doesn't like ?

Can you close a door to the area - to keep her away from that particular spot ?

When we first got our golden retriever, he was like that. A lot of the times, he can sense whose outside. But there were a lot of times he just barked at one spot all of the time, and no one was outside. I will never forget the one time he and I were sitting in the living room and I heard what sounded like footsteps on a wooden floor at our vestibule area of our front door. My dog looked up at the time and growled there too. At the time of the footsteps, there was a carpet over linolium. It wasn't until years later, that both were yanked up to reveal a wooden floor. ( :o ) But, I digress. The thing is, our dog stopped growling and barking there now, so I wonder. *shrugs*

This was extracted from pets.thenest.com. In a nutshell, always the wisest advice is go to visit the vet :B

http://pets.thenest....growl-8579.html

that was a helpful link. Might explain our dog years earlier. Hell, he was intimadated by our three cats.

No one can convince me that ghosts don't exist, because my family lived in a haunted house throughout my childhood. We had numerous cats and dogs, but never for long! The one cat we had, he froze solid one day, and stared (with a fixed focus) at something head-height moving across the room from one end to the other. He looked terrified! He ran to the outside door, scratched frantically to be let out, and never came back.

I believe they can see things we can't.

And I'm with you there as well. LIke the example of the growling at the bodyless footsteps I even heard. I have had cats in this house, and the house in Jersey, react to something that wasn't there. My husband even witnessed that twice.
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