Extra sensory perception - Page 5

 In 1995 I nearly got killed (ambushed by an angry bunch) and my first dog (working GSD) heard the noises through the door, scratched the door in an attempt to come out but he couldn't. As a result I had to have almost half of my teeth replaced, had to have my nose and lips re-positioned and I ate through a straw for about 7 weeks. The first few days right after this, my dog wuld not let anybody get near me, except for my family. When going out for walks, he was yet more protective than he would normally be (and believe me he was one good protector)... as the years went by, I stopped and wondered HOW did he know I was in poor condition for a specific time length, HOW did he know to show extra care / protection in the first few days... and I could mention a few more questions I guess but I'll make this post too long. My point is, I am sure all these things have an answer and it's not necesarily psychologic stuff. I personally think in most cases, when it comes to dogs, it's a matter of asociating sounds with images. Bodylanguage, tone in the voice.. etc, all these things build up the dog's way of responding to the things of one's world (its owner's world). Again I will mention my first dog: I was able to point to him which person to go for out of say 10, by just calling the dog by name and as he looked up at me I looked to the person I wanted him t o "go for". No "special stuff" to do with that, it was a matter of continual exercise.

Trust, respect, fairness and honesty are key components to any relationship. The dog is way ahead of us in those respects.

True, and I for one believe things will not look much brighter in the years to come, for us. The dogs will stay the way they are, loving and faithful. But people grow from being selfish to very selfish, as crises strike in different shapes and timing, people think more of personal needs and not care much about the "neighbor" anymore. ...and with words in a forum like this I think we are only scratching the surface of someting so much bigger.
And so in a changing world like this, it's relatively easy to identify and appreciate the unconditional and pure affection of dogs. In my view it is a sad situation, as I believe people should start thinking about others again and not just their selves. MANY now love their dogs and even (to some point) idolize them, because they don't trust people anymore.

...my appologies for spelling mistakes, I am not a native English speaker.

The dog must've ate your microchip. ;-)

Good topic,
I do not know about ESP, but I do know that when you have a good solid bond with a dog, spend lots of time with them daily, they will learn to read you like a book.

I am just not sure where ESP and acute reading and sensing come together.  One of my dogs is a ddr dog and we have bonded closer than any dog I have ever owned.  Since I am home all day, we kick it all day.  He watches me through the windows of the house when he is out and I am in, and is constantly in motion looking for my point of entry into the yard.  I have never seen a dog that watches me soooo much.  He is quite civil, tough on crime (expression), fears no man, yet is puddy in my hands. 

This dog knows what I am going to do before I do.  I have never seen this.  Sometimes I am ready to give him a command, but pause to think what command I want to give him.  I am actually thinking it through as to what I want to tell him so as to keep him sharp and crisp to sudden, different commands.  As I am considering telling him X, he jumps and does X.  We go through this every day and it continues to amaze me that he seems to know what I want him to do the moment it comes to my mind and responds without a word.  I can see no reason for him to know what comes to my mind at the exact moment because I go out of my way to remain motionless etc. and as mentioned, I do not know myself until just before I give it.  I discovered this in him when he started to respond to me before I could tell him a command.  We then made a game of it.  When he wins, I laugh, then it is all over.

He makes me laugh throughout the day.  He has a sense of humor and he knows when he gets me laughing and likes to mob me because I am volunerable from laughing.  Before I got this dog I had heard ddr dogs could be quite close and loyal to their owners, but I had no idea. 

If I was to bet my life savings, I would have to bet that he simply knows me so well that he picks something up in my eyes or some little tell tail sign I give off that  I am not aware of.

If nothing else, he is my buddy, my best friend and he knows it.

 Daryl, I know what I'm saying  ;-)

Dani, you are absolutely right! Many dogs can associate looks / directions and know what to do. In fact, this is one of the tools dogs use in communicating. They look at you or another dog whose attention they want to get.. when eye contact is made, they look towards the thing they want you to pay attention to, and then they look back at you. You can do exactly the same thing with them. Once I had a horse get out of a pen late at night.. not my horse.. a trouble-maker, for sure. Broke a water pipe, too, and not the first time it had done this. The only thing I had to catch it was the leash on my bitch, so I unsnapped her and got the leash around the horse's neck, and got her up to the gate, but she would not go in.. brat! So, I cautiously leaned backwards a bit to see past the horse's rump, and there was my bitch. I made eye contact with her, then looked at the horse's heel, and she also looked there. Then we made eye contact, again and I gave a nod to my bitch. Cautiously she moved in and nipped at the horse's heel, making her jump forward into her stall. I never trained this bitch to do this. She was in no way a stock dog, but she understood exactly what I wanted, and all with eye contact.

The other thing they will do is move out towards or through a door or opening and then come back and look at you, back and forth, until you follow them. So, the dogs really do use their eyes and eye contact to communicate what they want you to pay attention to. The eye direction is like a pointer for them. Most dogs seem to understand this quite naturally.

About bonding with dogs and living with dogs - let's face it as dog enthusiasts we have one common problem.

We own too many dogs! It's a bit like an addiction. No, we're not the crazy dog collector but show me a GSD enthusiast who only has one dog. It's like the overbreeding that goes on and this forum contributes to it.

Another thought, Dani..

   You know, the thing about feelings of guilt.. The irony is that generally only decent people feel this. They may not have even done anything wrong.. It can be a carryover from childhood, parents disapproval and social rejection, etc..  Whereas the sociopath feels no remorse, no guilt. They never take responsibility for anything. They just don't care! Sociopathic tendencies are true precursors for criminal behavior. So, when you get right down to it, feelings of guilt don't mean much at all.. The time to NOT do something wrong is before you do it, and that requires a cool head, if you can keep it.

  I think that many of us always wonder how we could do better, and I suppose we always could do so. I am not perfect. I look back and see many things that I have done wrong and other things I have done very well. We are not born knowing what to do in life. We learn by our mistakes.

  Good that you could laugh off that incident with the shoes and electronics. Sometimes that comes easy for me. Other times I really have to work at it, or even walk away and come back later when I'm in a better mood. Today was not a good day for me. LOTS of work to do!  It rained here last night and every time this happens there is a lot of trouble, just cleaning up. I have one bitch here who is pretty much good for nothing.. LOL.. LOVES to run in mud and smears it all over everything! She was absolutely covered with mud like a pig and I didn't even want to get near her. Towards the end of the day when it had dried up a bit, she looked sort of ghostly, covered in dried mud. I prepared a crate for her with clean straw and put her in that. By then, she was just happy to have a warm, dry place to lie down. I'm glad she didn't expect to come in the house!

  One of the little things that REALLY irks me about the concrete kennels when they are wet (or mud) is that when a dog jumps up on the gate to greet you, invariably they will shoot a bit of dirty water or mud in your face.. sometimes, right in your eye!!! Also, the crud gets on the gate and has to be hosed off. The gates rust up pretty bad, just from all this moisture.

Seriously, though, about the psychic stuff.. I know that there is something to it. I've experienced it, myself, and I think a lot of people have.

I've had the experience of "hearing" what someone is thinking or hearing them call my name and come to find out they were looking for me. This doesn't happen often, but it has happened, so I know it's real.. Lots of stuff like that, including thinking of someone I haven't thought of for a long time and then there they show up or call me.

I've also had the experience of seeing "auras" around people.. usually just a soft, faint glow, and only if I look for it, but a few other times I've seen a bright.. BRILLIANT, really (and quite beautiful).. envelope of light around someone's head or entire body, moving along with them, a pretty golden-yellow color, and one time it was a black man with extremely dark complexion, but his face shone with a strange light which must have been a form of infra-red light. Now, you can really think I'm crazy, but this is true, I swear... one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen. This man appeared to be north African, dressed in a "dishdaki" garment.. also saw the same effect years before that on a man who was probably a Jesuit priest, and one other time on an old white-haired lady, from a distance.

I have actually given this sort of thing a lot of thought, previously, and I am now pretty well convinced that we may have a rudimentary ability to see and sense bandwidths of light above the visible light spectrum.. infra red light.. which actually may explain why humans have red eye-shine in photographs! I've heard that it was because of blood vessels in the back of the eye, but I don't think so. Most animals have a more reflective tapetum at the back of the eye, which allows them to see better in low level light, but I do believe that we may actually have the ability to see part of the rather broad infra red spectrum, if we tune in to it. Infra red is also used in TV remote controls and so on, so it is quite possible that this is what we sense when we pick up things that we don't believe we have the senses to know.. Something to think about, isn't it?

Yes, DDRshep, you are absolutely right! I was always happiest with one or two dogs, and that suited me for many, many years. Then, I decided that I wanted to have a breeding program, and all hell broke loose! Let me tell you that it gets out of hand really fast! This is something for another thread, but I'm sure it's been addressed before.

My problem (one of them) is that I am really too soft hearted to be raising dogs. I know it may not seem like it.. But, I have the hardest time putting a dog to sleep. I debate it for months, and finally when I make the hard decision, it's almost unbearable. I am ashamed to admit this, but I cannot even stay in the same room with the dog. I just come unglued, and I'm normally a stoic about so many things. I could do it, but I know that I make things very uncomfortable for the vet assistants, so it's really better that I don't. I think it's hard on everyone, except maybe the assholes that tend to find jobs at the local dog 'pounds..

I'm having this problem now with a mother cat and five kittens that I found. I discovered the kittens in the bushes, eyes not open yet, and it was easy to catch the mother. She would risk her own safety and freedom to save those kittens, so she walks right into a trap. How can you betray that kind of character? My family says to just take her to the 'pound, but I look at her and every fiber in my body tells me that it is wrong to kill her and her kittens. She is a good soul.. and I do believe that animals have souls.

If not for this dilemma, I would have no problem raising dogs. But, it is a problem, isn't it?

I have a couple of older bitches here that I would be just as well to put to sleep.. Today, I was sorely tempted by one. But, when I look in her eyes, I see that she is completely innocent and wants to live.

In spite of my many misgivings, and all the ethical dilemmas, this is still a planet of life.. and death, and joy and pain, and all the risks that go with it. I always ask people when considering these things, if the lifeless planets are more ethical, or in some way better.. superior.. to our earth. Of course they are not. And, there is no way of separating life and death, joy and pain. These things go together. It is our feelings which cause us so much conflict and confusion. "Nature" is completely impartial about it all.. The only goal of all living things is to survive and pass the DNA to the next generation. Who are we to say this is wrong? It is NOT our place to decide whether life is ethical, and it really doesn't matter what we think about it. Our real problem is to make some little bit of sense out of the chaos.

  Good that you could laugh off that incident with the shoes and electronics. Sometimes that comes easy for me. Other times I really have to work at it, or even walk away and come back later when I'm in a better mood.

In my case, chosing to laugh at thiese things it's a decision I am making from the start of the day. Life's too short to get angry at these little things plus, they are dogs, they never intend to do you harm, they're just having fun. That is why I believe it's good for a person to get their thought processing in order before actually having a dog. It is dangerously easy to download anger on to an animal and anger may be there in different forms just waiting to come out. Maybe this is not exactly the topic to talk about it, but I believe this is an issue and it's out there.

About the psychic stuff.. don't want to clame I know it all.. there are some things I can't explain to myself when it comes to dogs.. if we're talking about people only, I got a different opinion but this is not the place to bring it up.