Freaked me out today!

No_Angel

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2003
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Ireland
So I was out walking my Dalmatians in the woods and around the winter fields today, and we walked further up the fields than we usually do to check out a place I was thinking of putting a new shelter for the horses, as I was just preparing to walk back, Cooper stopped and looked at something on the other side of the lane, and barked. Cooper never barks, so I walked over to the other side of the lane to explore as I had heard hounds howling earlier and wondered if one had ended up on our land again (we had 2 of them roaming around the fields and yard last week), Cooper and Darcey joined me and barked in the direction of a tree growing on the chest height old stone wall.
We walked closer and stood in front of the tree,Darcey just went around barking like she usually does but Cooper was looking at this tree and play bowing, wagging his tail and barking at it
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:eek: I looked in the tree and there was nothing there, no bird or anything. Then his gaze moved to the right side of the tree, still on the wall, then he ran and jumped up the wall and looked off into the field like something had run off into the fields, I walked behind him and looked over and couldn't see anything at all, Darcey jumped the wall and stood in the field barking and on alert, but there was nothing there. The horses were stood in the field just down from us, not reacting to anything either.
Really freaked me out
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o_O
 
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I’m sure they can see things we can’t!
Ted will often sit and stare at a point on the wall behind me. Every single time, I turn and look to see what is there. Nothing! I’m sure he is laughing to himself ‘made you look!’
 
Sometimes I think it is that they hear things we can't - Scully and all the other horses on the yard here in the UK used to hear horses coming along the bridleway while they were still a mile away and out of sight - suddenly they would all lift their heads and turn to point the same way - sure enough after 10 mins the horses would come into sight.
 
My first thought was a ghost dog! lol The only other time he has really barked like that was at my last house when he barked at the bathroom at the top of the stairs one night. I used to hear one of the bedroom doors open and then foot steps to the bathroom at that house when I was the only one there. :eek:

The lane way leads to one of my fields, and it has my winter fields on one side and summer fields on the other and then has forestry half way up it on one side. We are half a mile away from the road and have no near neighbours, so it's not likely it was anyone random walking around. I was expecting a bird, a squirrel or a cat or something in the tree but there was nothing around, but i'm not sure he would have play bowed for them, he's nearly 9 and not so easily excited anymore,lol.
 
My first thought was a ghost dog! lol The only other time he has really barked like that was at my last house when he barked at the bathroom at the top of the stairs one night. I used to hear one of the bedroom doors open and then foot steps to the bathroom at that house when I was the only one there. :eek:

The lane way leads to one of my fields, and it has my winter fields on one side and summer fields on the other and then has forestry half way up it on one side. We are half a mile away from the road and have no near neighbours, so it's not likely it was anyone random walking around. I was expecting a bird, a squirrel or a cat or something in the tree but there was nothing around, but i'm not sure he would have play bowed for them, he's nearly 9 and not so easily excited anymore,lol.

Spooky:eek:
 
Maybe a fox? - ours go loopy if they hear a fox calling in the park next door to us - usually starts with excited whimpering and rushing about and ending with both dogs barking at full volume till I yell SHUT UP at them, then they go back to whimpering. If I open the patio door they crash into each other as they try to get out, then go hell for leather to the back fence. :rolleyes:
 
Would have freaked me out a bit too to be honest! Ive had quite a few 'unusual' experiences that I could never explain so totally get why you would think 'ghost dog'
 
So walked the exact same route as yesterday and no barking or anything today, had a look around the tree and can't see any holes or signs of anything.

Here's a pic of 'the ghost tree' as it will be forever known now,lol
 

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Weird for sure, although it does look like quite a spooky tree, we've one down the lane by the Ford that when I drive past at night I always feel like it's a person standing there at the side of the road in the shadows. Which reminds me I must try and photograph the 'camel' tree growing down there too.
 
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Weird for sure, although it does look like quite a spooky tree, we've one down the lane by the Ford that when I drive past at night I always feel like it's a person standing there at the side of the road in the shadows. Which reminds me I must try and photograph the 'camel' tree growing down there too.

Omg that sounds creepy! Where we used to live, on the track leading to our house there was a point where when I was driving past just out of the corner of my eye it always looked like there was a dark figure standing there:eek:in broad daylight too! But when I "looked" properly it would be goneo_O
 
Weird for sure, although it does look like quite a spooky tree, we've one down the lane by the Ford that when I drive past at night I always feel like it's a person standing there at the side of the road in the shadows. Which reminds me I must try and photograph the 'camel' tree growing down there too.

Need to see the camel tree!
 
Weird for sure, although it does look like quite a spooky tree, we've one down the lane by the Ford that when I drive past at night I always feel like it's a person standing there at the side of the road in the shadows. Which reminds me I must try and photograph the 'camel' tree growing down there too.

Def need to see the camel tree! lol :D
 
I’ll try and get a photo of the camel tree, it’s just some small trees with ivy growing on them but it looks just like a camel to me lol
 
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Our present dog (shitzu/yorkie), never spooks me, but our Springer, years ago, did this all the time, indoors and out. We lived in the highland wilds for a few years, and in one particular house, in one particular room, he'd stare at the wall behind where I sat, hackles up, teeth bared. Whatever he saw, it wasn't friendly! Scared the bejabers out of me.:oops: I suppose dogs are like people - some just have that ESP?
 
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Years ago I was walking a previous dog in some large forestry commission woods near our home. It went completely silent in the wood - no birds singing or anything. The dog wouldn't leave my side. It was that kind of spooky wintry day where everything is in silhouette and I kept imagining I could see the figure of a man hanging from various trees (that was completely my overactive imagination). But it was very creepy in the woods that day, I couldn't wait to get out.

Another time a dog we had went out in the garden and started barking and barking as though we had an intruder. When I looked out I saw he was facing a wall and apparently just barking blindly at the wall. A bit spooked I went out to have a look and found it was actually a snail crawling up the wall that had offended him so mightily.

Oh, and there was that other time when I took Raf for one of our days out and he didn't want to turn down a particular road. We had to go that way so he proceeded along snorting and huffing and puffing all the way. When we got nearly to the end I looked back and saw a bunch of flowers tied to a tree, turns out some poor kids had died there in a car crash fairly recently.

Dogs apparently can detect smells ages (I think it's possibly years) after whatever left them has gone. Maybe horses can too? Maybe your dog was 'seeing' something with his nose that had long since disappeared from human view ...
 
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