If you have a dog, there\u2019s a good chance that, at some point, they have exhibited some unexplained behavior. Running through the house as if chased by \u2026 something. Growling at unseen things. Intently staring at walls for no reason. There\u2019s probably a rational explanation for every time your dog appears to be reacting to something that isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
But we have to ask the question: Have you considered that your dog is seeing ghosts?<\/p>\n
Since this is an educational article, we\u2019ll amend the question and then try to answer it. Can<\/i> dogs see ghosts?<\/p>\nCan Dogs See Spirits?<\/h2>\n
It would explain a lot, really, and it might even be comforting to pet parents to know that there was a reason<\/i> for the 2 a.m. zoomies. Maybe it\u2019s easier to accept that your dog has a sixth sense than just assuming that they were bored and decided to race through the house for no reason at all. Unfortunately, since there\u2019s no scientific evidence that ghosts actually exist, it\u2019s impossible to determine whether or not dogs can see them. But what we can <\/i>determine is that usually there is a reason for dog behaviors like whining, staring and barking.<\/p>\n
And that reason is that dogs have powerful senses, at least compared to humans. If your dog is reacting to something that you can\u2019t see or hear, that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s nothing there. It just means that humans simply don\u2019t have the same scope of sensory awareness that dogs do.<\/p>\n
Dogs can hear higher frequencies than humans can perceive: the average dog can hear things at pitches more than three times higher than the average human. That opens up a whole world of possibilities. Mice, for instance, do produce sounds that humans can hear. But research has proven<\/a> that they\u2019re also capable of producing squeaks well out of the range of human hearing: if your dog is staring or growling at \u201cnothing\u201d in the corner of the room, they might just hear a mouse (which is maybe even scarier than a ghost) or some other high-pitched sound on the other side of the wall.<\/p>\n Although there\u2019s no definitive research on the limits of the canine sense of smell, researchers think that it\u2019s anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than the human sniffer. Even if we\u2019re going with the more conservative number, that means that if you can smell meat being grilled out on the patio, your dog can conceivably detect those odors more than two miles away. Many dogs would find it pretty easy to sniff out cats scurrying around the backyard, even from your bedroom in the middle of the night. The presence our pets sense may actually be present!<\/p>\n Comparing a dog\u2019s vision to a human being\u2019s is tricky because a human eye is designed for different things (dog\u2019s eyes also have a third eyelid!<\/a>). By human vision standards, dogs are technically nearsighted, but they have greater peripheral vision than people. Dogs also see a lot better than humans in low light. So if something is<\/i> out there in the dark, they\u2019ll likely see it before you.<\/p>\nA Powerful Sense of Smell: The Dog\u2019s Nose Knows<\/h2>\n
What Can Dogs See That Humans Can\u2019t?<\/h2>\n
Some Dog Behavior Needs Another Look<\/h2>\n