I don't think I need to tell you that dogs are special, wonderful pets who can make your life a lot more magical. Dogs are your number one buddy who never let you down, always bring a smile to your face, and make you feel so loved the second you walk in your door. There's even evidence that they can improve your health. They're a gift and we don't deserve them, honestly! But here's the thing: sometimes owning a dog can be a little weird.
It's often said that animals have paranormal sense that humans don't — or at least, one that humans don't want to acknowledge. There's no science behind this, of course, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Pet psychologist Marti Miller told Animal Planet that she believes both dogs and humans possess a sixth sense that connects them to some weird things. Miller said, "The simple answer is, we don't know that dogs see ghosts or spirits. If you observe a dog standing in the corner, barking at nothing visible, then there's a pretty good chance that he's barking at an entity, spirit, or energy that doesn't belong there."
That's slightly terrifying if you're a dog owner, because you may have probably witnessed your dog doing something like that. My dog will sometimes randomly wake up in the middle of the night and start barking and growling at the back door. When she's outside, it seems like there's nothing there, but she runs all around, sniffing. My logical side believes it's an animal. But my imagination tells me it's definitely a spirit.
If you don't believe that, here are 13 other creepy dog stories from people on Reddit. Just a warning: don't read these while you're alone in your home with your dog.
1The Dog That Inspects Every Single Room At 3 a.m. Each Night
The hour of 3 a.m. is said to be the witching hour, and the post by user OldRockingChair certainly seems to support that. They said:
"We have a dog — I mentioned him in my other posts. We spoil him a lot, too. He used to sleep outside, but after a few days of rainy nights in August, we allowed him to sleep inside. Additionally, he barks at practically everything that passes in front of our house at night, so to shut him up, we kept him in.
We used to have a collar and a leash to keep him in place at night — he once knocked over a table and nibbled on my sister's phone when he wasn't tied down. But he didn't like being alone at night downstairs. He used to wake us all up with his whining. We thought he just didn't like being tied down, or wanted to be with us upstairs. Finally, I relented and brought him upstairs to sleep — no collar, no leash. It stopped the whining.
But here's the thing. Quite literally every night at 3 a.m., our dog gets up and does an inspection of all the rooms. Not before 3 a.m., and not after. Our bedroom doors are always open, so he has free access all around. If he happens to be sleeping on someone's bed, he gets restless (waking up the person), and wants to be let down. Due to a small accident when he was a puppy, our dog is afraid of jumping down from places, even the small gap from the bed to the floor. But at 3 a.m., like clockwork, he wakes up. When we do let him down, he goes from room to room, then sleeps in the doorway of my parents' room.
It's happened every night that we could observe him. We started bringing him upstairs early September. I don't know what happens in our house at 3 a.m., but several times, when we do "catch him in the act", he looks at the doorway of the room (whoever owns the room he happens to be in would wonder what the hell he's doing), then stares at the person looking at him, then at the doorway again."
2The Dog That Knew Something Horrible
People often say that dogs are a true test of character — if they don't like someone, there's a reason. User ch0ding has a story that seems to support that idea:
"I don't know if this counts as scary, but when my dog was younger, she was always friendly (I'm putting this in past tense because she is an old grouch now) and would happily approach anyone who came into our house. But one day a guy that my brother worked with had come over to our house while it was just me and my mother at home.
As soon as my dog saw him, her hair stood on end, she took a defense position and started viciously barking at him. We kept telling her to stop, but she wouldn't let up. She is a small dog, but she looked so intimidating that the guy ended up leaving.. A few months later, no word of a lie, he was arrested for several counts of rape."
3The Dog Who Got Freaked Out By A Ouija Board
This story from user VeritasWay certainly seems like evidence that dogs really can feel spirits in a room. They said,
"As a teenager my best friend would come over and play the Quija board with me. One day we decided to play at his house and we 'summoned' a spirit of a little boy named John. We thought nothing and ended the game. My best friend walked me home. When we got to my place we decided to play again. We did this outside. My dog, Lucky, joined us; laid at my feet while we played. Well, we summoned a spirit. Asked for his name and we starting spelling J-O-H-N. Right when we where at the 'N,' Lucky jolts up and starts barking into the darkness of a long empty corridor. He goes crazy, as if he was about to attack. Lucky never ever barked, he was the most docile Shih Tzu you'd ever meet. This night though, he was on attack mode. My best friend and I immediately stop and burned the board. We never played again. A lot of other freaky shit happened, I lived across the street from a cemetery."
4The Dog Who Definitely Noticed Something
One of the worst things is when a dog notices something you don't in the dark. User octopoodle says,
"I'm laying in bed reading with my dog at night. My bedroom door is open, and my room is the only room in the house with the lights on. It's completely silent. I took a quick glance at my dog. My dog is staring out the door into pure darkness. I see him slowly tilting to his head to the side, which he only does when he sees or hears something that seems bizarre. He growls for a good minute. Then, he notices me staring at him and wags his tail."
5The Dog And The Closet
It's even weirder when the dog and the cat get together and do something creepy. User CityForAnts said,
"I woke up about 3:30 in the morning to a small bark, and dog doesn't come when I call her. I walk out to see my cat and my dog sitting by the hall closet door just staring at the door knob. The dog is wagging its tail just waiting for it to open like there is something on the other side. Could've been a scene from a horror movie."
6The Dog Who Senses A Ghost
If you have any doubts that dogs can sense spirits, read this story from Zero_Cool_72:
"The previous owner of my wife's house committed suicide in the house. She didn't know until the neighbors mentioned it a few years after she bought it. Her dog would randomly stare at a certain wall in the living room and growl. Like just the middle of the wall. Would be 6 inches from the wall. You would have to touch the dog to get her to stop. She would be in a zone and calling her name would have no effect. I'm so glad we moved."
7The Dog Who Barked At The Wall
The creepiest thing is when your dog wakes you up by doing something terrifying. User TheCyberTyger said,
"When I was a kid, my family and I lived in a house that was curiously active. Nothing too concerning, just the occasional creak of footsteps during the night and small knick-knacks that would mysteriously tip over out of the corner of your eye.
Anyway, one night I was sleeping in the bed that I shared with my two little sisters when our chocolate lab Remington lumbered into the room and jumped in between us. I was half asleep and scratching his ears when suddenly he jerks his head to the left and starts barking at the empty wall 3 feet away from me. After about 20 seconds of deep, back-bristled barking he relaxes, turns back to me, and continues licking my face. I'm not sure what he saw that night, but I'm pretty sure that dog saved me from starring in The Exorcist: Reality Show. My parents have long since moved away from that house, but I still have recurrent nightmares of waking up in my old room."
8The Dog Who Felt A Spirit In The House
Sometimes your dog will notice something that you can't see, which is very, very creepy. User _kupokupo said,
"My boyfriend and I swear our house is haunted. And if it isn't, then our dog is possessed. This has happened a few times but I remember one very clearly because it was far worse than the others. She has a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and growling at our doorway. I usually shrug it off as she growls at the slightest creak in the wood. But this night she woke up at 3:33 am on the dot. Growled loud enough that she starting drooling and snarling. She was up on all fours with her head lowered, looking at the doorway.
I nudged her and told her to knock it off but she persisted. After about 5 minutes of this, the TV service cuts out. (We sleep with it on for noise) but it went out and cut to static. At this time my dog lowered herself to the bed lying flat, pulled her ears back and whined. Then she slowly moved her head from the doorway to the TV as if something was walking into the room. The TV shut off as she fixated her gaze upon it. I noped the f*** out, pulled my comforter over my head and refused to look around until it was daylight."
9The Dog Who Heard Something In The Garage
Sometimes it can be hard to tell if your dog is barking at someone, or just at an animal. This story from user marroww is an example of how scary that can be:
"I have a Goldendoodle, and if you know the breed they're generally really goofy, energetic, happy dogs. My dog is particularly so, she tends to be very submissive, is afraid of anything bigger than her head, etc. I've also never heard her growl in my life.
One night I was home alone, upstairs on my computer, while my dog was downstairs. I suddenly hear some noises coming from the garage below. We sometimes get raccoon and cat visitors coming into garage because we leave a side door open, so shouldn't have scared me like it did. Something about the sound really freaked me out though, because it sounded almost..purposeful? I sat up and just listened for a few seconds and I heard more noises, so I go to stand at the top of the stairs to listen more, and as soon I do, my dog stands up from where she was laying, looks directly at me, and lets out the creepiest low growl I have ever heard. I could almost feel the blood run out of my face. When I went downstairs she runs to the door leading to the garage and I let her out into the garage and she races to the side yard where she proceeds to bark for a solid 5 minutes. I suspect that my imagination was running wild with the noises and it was probably just an animal, but it still gives me chills when I think about it."
10The Area Where The Dogs Freak Out
When two dogs do something similar in one random spot, you know there's something weird happening. User punt_a_gizmo said,
"We used to take our dogs for a walk along a fire break behind our house. One day we were walking one of them, he was off his leash and running ahead of us and suddenly it was like something was pushing him in his middle which caused him to start moving side ways until he fell over. We thought it was weird and kinda funny but we shrugged it off. A couple of weeks later we were walking another one of our dogs, we got to the same spot and the exact same thing happened to him as well. I always got a bit of a creepy feeling in that particular area"
11The Dog Who Stared At Something That Wasn't There
User grey1111 also has a creepy story about a dog staring at seemingly nothing:
"One night about two months ago I was doing some cleaning in our living room when all of a sudden, my bulldog who doesn't make a peep unless she sees someone starts barking full force at the wall. And it was as if she was staring at someone or something that wasn't moving.
About our house; it was built from one of the Sears catalogue s in the 1920s an it has stayed in the same shape since then. Everything is old fashioned except our furniture. It has the typical Hollywood spooky basement but I have never had bad feelings in the house, but you know what they say about a dogs instinct. And my dog has always been spot on about people and places since I got her when she was six weeks old."
12The Dog Who Is Definitely Seeing Something Bad
A dog backing up from something that isn't there? No thanks. User MisterPhamtastic said,
"My rescue dog sleeps outside (covered deck in a nice ass dog house) and there have been times where I've seen him bark at nothing and back up as if something was walking towards him since I can see him from my bedroom window.
I feel terrible but I'm always like NOPE you're on your own. Luckily when I leave for work I see he's still alive and all is well."
13The Dog With The Creepy Laugh
Sometimes your dog just has a really creepy trait. User p0werpuff said,
"My cocker spaniel has one particular snore that sounds like a little demon child laughing. In the middle of the night, I hear a 'he he he he he' at the foot of my bed and my eyes just fly open."
Cats get a bad rep for being spooky, but dogs definitely have their moments too — and these creepy dog stories from Reddit are proof.
