Ooh, creepy! Can dogs sense spirits??

Wow, these stories are giving me goosebumps and freaking me out a little bit I'm glad I'm at work w/ all kinds of light and other people.  I've never had any experiences like that.  We live in an old building and I'm told that the attic and basement are haunted, but other than feeling a little creepy from the stories I'd heard, there hasn't been anything unusual for me in those areas.

 Glenmar, how did you know it was a male you're dog was seeing?  I'm not disputing your story, I'm just curious how you know that.

 GordonsGirl, if you and Janet want more company next time your alone, count me in.  I'll bring Co-Co and we can have a lil dog party....who knows maybe Simon would want to come play too.

Years ago I lived in a very old cottage in England. I had no history of the house and cannot say that I ever thought it was haunted other than one single incident that occured with my dog Charlie.

 Charlie was first off a very friendly dog and although sometimes yappy he was not one to ever growl at anything. I was sleeping upstaits when he woke me barking and growling like mad. He was standing at the top of the stairs looking down. I was terrified as I was certain someone was downstairs. The door to the outside was at the foot of the stairs with the living room to the right and the dining room to the left.

 I grabbed an umbrella (it was all I had) and started working my way down the stairs slowly, the entire time Charlie is growling with every hair on his body sticking straight up. He followed me slowly down the stairs. I got to the bottom and opened the door (my intention was to run out to the neighbors if I saw someone inside. I looked to the left and right and saw nothing and heard nothing.

 I coached Charlie down and when he got to the bottom he ran into the living room, facing the dining room and growling and barking like crazy. I slowly went into the dining room and peered into the kitchen and saw nothing. Now I was very perplexed and trying to figure out what was wrong with my dog. I sat down in the dining room and tried calling him to me, he would not come so I went and got him and took him into the dining room, he was shaking and the second I let him go he took off back into the living room. He did this for about 10 minutes then he just stopped and walked into the dining room as if nothing was wrong.

I moved shortly after that and I never witnessed him behaving like that ever again. I have often wondered if it was possible that he sensed something that I could not.

I don't actually KNOW that the spirit who wouldn't show itself was male.  That was my feeling though.  To this day I think of it as a male.

It is often animals and children who see spirits, but I'm thinking that's because they haven't figured out yet that people will call them nuts if they share what they've seen.  As adults, I think we tend to close our minds to the possibility and therefore don't see.

glenmar

As adults, I think we tend to close our minds to the possibility and therefore don't see.

Our brains also have built in filters that will sometimes filter out what is there and replace the image with "what should be there." 

iggypop

I used to see and sense ghosts when I was a child. Now I just have eerie dreams that predict the future (and then come true) and occasionally see figures moving. Although recently I woke up in the middle of the night to the face of a demon smiling at me from the fan that was in the window. When my childhood dog died he would still watch over my mother and me. She would hear his tags jingling and his feet clicking on the kitchen floor. And 2000 miles away the same thing would happen to me. This happened for several years after his death. When I got my new dog I was reading in my bed in my apartment and my puppy went out into the kitchen. Then I heard the jangling of the tags (puppy wasn't wearing a collar). My puppy ran out of there so fast and jumped on my bed shivering and staring towards the kitchen. I think he saw the ghost of my old dog! After that incident I have never heard the tags jingling or his ghost feet clicking on the floor. It's almost like my old dog just came to pass on the torch and he could finally rest in peace knowing there was a new dog there to take over his job. If your dog is only know barking at the ghosts there could be other spirits in your house that aren't so good. Simon may only be one of them. Perhaps your husband leaving has made another spirit sense your vulnerability. I'm not trying to creep you out but be careful. Are you a person of faith? When your dog is growling at the ghosts I recommend saying out loud and very loudly a prayer to the Lord. I kid you not, this is how I got that demon out of my window fan.

my mom wrote a story similar to that when i was a kid. we had a Doberman named Trooper. he had been hit by a car and was killed and in order to help me and my brother cope with that loss she wrote a story for us...only the dog in the story was a white german shepherd and not a dobie lol and it was more dramatic than real life.... we got Trooper because we had a prowler one night and there were several break-ins in  the neighbourhood... so of course, being little kids of seven and twelve we were scared we would be robbed or killed in our sleep by bad guys... So.. my mom wrote her story about a dog who was killed in his prime - like ours- but was still there in spirit form protecting his family even saving them from a burglar when the dad was out of town. And yes it did the trick! we always imagined Trooper was still with us clickity clacking his way through the house, tags jingling... and in a way, i think he was!

 Eek. I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight