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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
Ghost Dogs And Gentle Hauntings
A wet dog smell with no dog. A food bowl scraping the ground after it’s been packed away. A bed dipping to make space for four familiar paws. Our Halloween special dives into the most compelling Reddit stories about ghost dogs—some tender, some chilling, all unforgettable—and asks what these moments might mean for people who loved a pet and had to let go.
We start with a skeptic’s tale that ties rain, timing, and a suitcase full of mysteriously soaked clothes to a beloved spaniel who “found” her human and led him home. From there, we share a series of intimate accounts: a dream that delivered a goodbye before the phone rang, a late-night closet disturbance that left someone frozen in a trance, and the eerie comfort of a guardian dog who reappears to lick tears and calm a shaken child. We also step onto the trail of the Black Dog of Hanging Hills in Connecticut, exploring how folklore, shared perception, and the outdoors amplify the uncanny.
As trainers and dog people, we balance belief with behavioral insight. Why do dogs stare at corners, growl down stairwells, or bark past your shoulder as if someone’s standing behind you? We talk sensory triggers, patterns, and grief’s imprints—while acknowledging that some events resist neat explanations. You’ll hear practical Halloween safety reminders for living pups too: crate or tether at the door, manage greetings, keep chocolate and wrappers out of reach, and update IDs.
If you’ve ever felt a familiar weight settle at your feet or heard tags jingle in an empty hall, you’ll feel seen here. Press play for a thoughtful blend of folklore, training perspective, and heart. Then tell us your story—subscribe, share with a friend who loves dogs, and leave a review with your take: comforting visitation or just a very good ghost?
Visit us on the website here to see what we've got going on and how you can join our pack of good dogs and owners.
Hello and happy Halloween. Welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. Today's episode is a special Halloween episode. I have a bunch of spooky stories involving dogs that I got from Reddit. So we're gonna read those stories. I'm joined with Toma. You ready?
SPEAKER_00:Ready.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, let's do it. Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet us back here. Welcome guys. I've never done this before, but in honor of Halloween being on a Friday, I decided that we needed to do something, something themed for for Halloween. So I dug through Reddit, and I've I've read an overwhelming amount of dog haunting stories, and I've handpicked a few that we're gonna go through and read. So if you are sensitive to spooky stories, I would say this is not the episode for you. We also talk a lot about like the dogs are ghosts, so they've died. So if you're sensitive about that, I would say also don't it nothing crazy, right? Like I'm I'm kind of a baby, so the stories aren't like crazy scary. I listened to another podcast that was reading scary stories off of Reddit, and those were like actually terrifying. So no nightmares, just like you know, dog-related, spooky stories, funsies, just for funsies.
SPEAKER_00:I'm interested to see what you found because we haven't really spoken about this.
SPEAKER_02:Nope.
SPEAKER_00:Just diving into this podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, ready? Okay, so this first one is titled Ghost Dog, a skeptic's story. Just wanted to share this, maybe not so little story, about my childhood dog. I considered myself a skeptic, but I've always been obsessed with the unexplained. This is one of the very few events in my life I cannot explain. We got our first ever dog many years ago when I was still a kid living at home. She was a friendly cocker spaniel, but she really loved me for some reason. She would never let me out of her sight and followed me everywhere she could. All our neighbors knew her well because she would hang out at their houses with me until my mom shouted for us to come home from dinner. Fast forward a couple years and I was ready to head out on my own and find a job. This involved me moving to a different city and saying goodbye to my parents and my dog. I couldn't help but think how she would be looking for me and wondering why I wasn't coming home, but that's part of life. So as hard as it was, I moved on. A few weeks later, I got the terrible news. She was gone. I didn't even really catch what happened. My mom was too emotional to explain, but I gathered that it was raining heavily, and she was hit by a car. I don't think I've been sadder. I hadn't been home since I left, and the thought of not seeing my dog when I got back was almost too much. But life goes on. A few weeks later, I found a place to rent, and my parents came to help me move in. It ended up being a perfect bachelor pad, and me and the boys would go out drinking and crash at my place often. One of the very first nights end with a ends with four of us passed out after some heavy partying. That's when it started. I wake up the next morning to a large puddle in the corner of my bedroom. Immediately, I'm upset because it looks like one of my friends has drunkenly peed in my room in the middle of the night. We're arguing about who did when I take a sniff to confirm. It's not pee, but it smells like wet dog. Weirded out, but too hungover to really care. We all forgot about it soon enough. Then it happens again. This time there's no one else around. In fact, I see the wet patch on the carpet after getting home from work. The only thing that makes sense is a leak somewhere, so I investigate as much as I could, but no luck finding the source. Anyway, being young and irresponsible, I ignore it and hope for the best. Then the final time. I decided after my first few weeks alone to fly back home to my parents for the weekend. Bag packed, ready for an early flight, I go to bed. When I wake up, there it is. This time, the wet patch is under my packed bag with the bag in the center. Weirdly, the bag itself is perfectly dry, but the carpet underneath is soaked. I double-check the contents of my bag, everything looks fine. So I decide to ignore it again and head to the airport before I miss my flight. Next, we pick up again in my hometown, made it there no issues, left my bag in my old room, and went on with the day. Finally, it's time for bed, and I go to unpack my bag and get ready for the night. All of my clothes are soaking wet. The distinct smell of wet dog again. The bag itself is still dry, and I did check my clothes earlier that morning, right? This makes no sense. Looking back, every other part of this story could be misremembering, misinterpreting, whatever you want to go with. But I'll never forget the wet clothes and the fact that I had to throw everything into the washing machine that night and dig out some old kids' clothes to sleep in. I also let my parents know, and they also agreed with the wet dog smell. The next morning, I'm chatting to my mom about this, and naturally we end up talking about our dog. I explained how this has been happening back at the new home for the past few weeks, and then she tells me her story. Apparently, they've also had strange occurrences. Our dog had a metal food bowl that stayed outside. When she ate out of it, you could always hear it scraping against the ground as she did. After she passed, they said they would be woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of the bowl scraping against the ground. After the first few nights, they figured it must be the stray cats, so they packed the bowl away, only for the sounds to continue almost every night still. After that strange weekend, everything stopped. No more wet patches around my apartment, no wet clothes or wet dog smell. Even the strange sounds at my parents' house stopped after that. It's been 12 years since then, and I have never experienced anything similar ever again. I've thought about this incident many times over the years, and I can't find a way to explain it without the paranormal. But there's some clues, I guess. The wet dog smell, the fact that she died in the rain, the fact that it didn't start immediately after she died, but a few weeks later, and ended after I went home for the first time. I can never say for sure, but I like to think she couldn't rest until she found me and brought me home. It's almost like she hung around after she died, eating out of her bowl, trying to figure out where I was until my parents came to help me move. Then she found me in this strange new place and was finally able to rest after she came back home with me in my suitcase, knowing I was safe. Awww.
SPEAKER_00:She was at peace.
SPEAKER_02:She was at peace. That one's like a cute one. Do you what's your take on it? On the paranormal dogs.
SPEAKER_00:It's crazy that like the metal bull sound continued once there was no metal bull outside.
SPEAKER_02:But like, do you believe in that? Do you believe that like your dog can come back and haunt you?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I'm a skeptic, but it's interesting when like you know, both the son and the parents like in different towns kind of have their own thing. You can't really argue with that.
SPEAKER_02:I believe it. Yeah, I believe it. I believe that there's so much that is not visible to us. You know, why not? Why can't our dogs come back?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, even him, right? He's saying like in the story, he's like questioning whether or not it's true. And I guess, like, like you said, everything else you could kind of second guess and wonder, but then if you checked your clothes and they were dry and then all of a sudden they're wet, you're like, well, that's trippy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. This is just like a short little comment that somebody posted, but a little story. I was eight years old when my sister gave me my first dog, Pierre. I went through every big change in life with Pierre. He lived to be 16 years old. I had grown up and gotten married and had a child of my own, lived on the other side of the country when he passed. The night before he died, I dreamed of Pierre. I dreamed we were both young and healthy, running and playing the way we used to when he was a pup. And I was just a small girl with no other friends. I woke up to the phone ringing, and my mother on the other end of the phone line, she said, I have some awful news. I said, I already know. You don't have to tell me. My boy came and said goodnight to me last night. And then we both cried for hours. I'm crying right now while I'm typing this because I loved that dog, and I always will, no matter how many other pets I've had or how many years he has been gone. I only hope that Doggy Heaven has nutter butter, peanut butter cookies because they were his favorite.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Toma's crying. No, it was sad.
SPEAKER_02:It was sad. Okay, next one. My dog came back to haunt me. Back in 2019, around February. Oh, Toma's wiping his eyes. Toma's a crier. Sometimes if I just say nice things to him, he'll start crying. Sheesh.
SPEAKER_00:But we had the spot like that. I know.
SPEAKER_02:It's good. You're sensitive.
SPEAKER_01:Sensitive.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god. Are you gonna be okay? I'm sorry. They're kind of like they're sad. Like it's like dog. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01:That's funny.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, my dog came back to haunt me. Back in 2019, around February, my dog passed away. I was young and kind of stupid, and I used to ask if there were any spirits or ghosts around me, just messing around. But over time, small things started to happen. My fan would turn on by itself randomly. It was weird, but I brushed it off. Then it got stranger. I started to hear the sound of a dog caller, like the metal tags clinking together and footsteps outside my bedroom at night. We had just gotten a new dog, but since she was a puppy and liked to chew everything, we always kept her in her cage at night.
SPEAKER_00:Damn, this is great dog training.
SPEAKER_02:Love that. Every time I hear I'd hear the sounds, I'd go out to put her back in thinking maybe somebody let her out. But she was always already in her cage. And the cage wasn't even near my room. It was like two rooms over. Over time, my room started to feel off. If you've never felt this before, it might sound stupid, but the energy was heavy. I'd feel super uncomfortable for no reason. Like I needed to leave the room, like I wasn't alone, even when I was. Then came the night I'll never forget. It was June. I was in my bedroom again, feeling that same discomfort. But I'd gotten used to it at that point. I wasn't on my phone, but I had my TV on. For context, my closet had two sliding doors, those panel style ones. Out of nowhere, the two closet doors started slamming against each other. Normally I would have freaked out and ran, but this time I didn't. I didn't feel free, I didn't feel fear. I didn't feel anything. I just sat there in this weird trance-like state, staring up at the ceiling. I didn't even look towards the closet. It was like I wasn't in control of my body. And I know it happened because I took a 10-second video of the darkness during it. You can barely hear the clanking in the video, but it's there. What's even weirder is that after that, I just went to sleep like nothing happened. I didn't get up, didn't run, nothing. It felt like something had taken over and I was just detached. And no, it wasn't the air conditioning or anything like that. I've tried recreating that sound. It's physically impossible to make those closet doors slam like that unless you really force them. And even then, that trance feeling, you can't fake that. I've got a couple more stories, but that one sticks with me. It was real and something I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:So somebody else commented on that one and said, I think you have two separate hauntings. Your dog is video visiting you, and at least one spirit that isn't pleasant.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I was saying too, like, or thinking, like, that how's the dog slamming these these doors shut, you know? Like it's not very dog-like.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They said, I've had multiple spirits in my home, and none of them make me feel unwelcomed or uneasy. Two days after my cat of 16 years passed, I felt what I strongly believe was a cat curled up on my legs while I was laying in bed, winding down for sleep. I never felt it again, and I didn't think we had any special bond. You could always get white sage to see if that takes care of the undesirable spirit. Interesting. Spooky. You're gonna have to walk me down to the bathroom after this. Am I actually going crazy? What happened to my dog? I'm not a religious or spiritual person, per se. I believe there's usually a logical explanation for the weird things that happen to us. But this messes with my head and makes me seriously question my own sanity. If there are people out there who have experienced something similar, I would love to get in contact with you or just anyone who might have an explanation. I had a dog when I was a kid. He was a black shepherd type breed called Calm. I remember walking this dog, playing with him, feeding him, even taking him to the vet. He often slept in my room, chewed on my stuffed animals, and would sometimes wake me up with his snoring. One time he bit me real hard on my ankle after I tried to break up a dog fight with another dog. It left a pretty big scar, needed stitches, and a shot afterwards. Countless memories for years and years. Much later on, I would try to recount some of these memories with other members of my family, and not a single person knew of this dog. Our family never even owned a dog. We were a quote cat family. None of our neighbors or friends owed it owned a dog fitting the description. I couldn't believe it at first and went searching for proof, pictures, old toys, anything. I found nothing, not a thing. Even though I remember taking pictures with this dog, not just me, but with the rest of the family, there were no toys. Even the stuff the animals he used to chew on didn't exist. Eventually, I actually have separate. Oh, sorry, even though I actually have separate memories about some of those plushies as well. The one thing I do still have is the scar on my ankle. My mom, as most moms are, was always well aware of any new injuries and knows every story behind every scar I ever got until a certain age. But she has no memory of this scar, and it's still a mystery to her today. I can't explain it. The memories of my dog Calm are still very real, but there is no proof he ever existed. I don't believe he was imaginary. Imaginary friends weren't really my thing as a kid, and to be honest, I always suspected the dog liked my sister more than me. What kid imagines a friendship like that? I've heard people say maybe the dog died at some point and my family lied about it to protect me, but I'm convinced that's not the case. Sparing feelings isn't really a thing in our family, and they know how much this whole thing messes me up. I remember exactly what Calm looked like: the sound of him barking, the color of his eyes, the hanging tip of his right ear, the shine in his fur after I brushed him. I remember the time we took him to the vet because of a busted nose after fighting our cat. And I remember dressing him up on my eighth birthday to match my outfit. I remember taking him to my room to sleep next to me after I watched a scary movie, and I remember my sister once shaving his tail and his legs because she wanted to turn him into a poodle. But I don't remember what happened to him. I don't remember him dying. I don't even remember missing him at some point. I just kind of forgot. And it makes me sad. If Calm was never real, where did all of those memories come from?
SPEAKER_00:That's fucking wild.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I got chills. Okay, he added like a little edit. He said, I'm kind of amazed to see the number of serious comments to my post. I expect it to be ridiculed. Oh my gosh. Ridiculed, but a lot of people actually had some interesting theories and good tips. The Mandela effect is one I heard a lot. Other people suggest pulling hospital records. Uh vet records are long gone. Trying hypnosis or digging further into photo albums. Also, a lot of people referred me to the Retcond subreddit, and some suggest it may just be a faulty memory. I'm not really sure yet exactly how far I'm willing to go to figure this out for a few reasons. Mainly because my family already thinks I'm nuts. But you've given me much to think about. If anything, I feel a bit less crazy, for which I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, may just be a faulty memory, which is wild, but like a dog, it's not like one memory. It's like a ton of memories.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Somebody said, Not sure if anyone has asked yet, but did you check with the vet that remembered bringing him to? Hopefully that'll shed some light on the situation. He said the vet went out of business some years ago, unfortunately. Another comment says, Yeah, this stuff is fascinating. Read one yesterday that was pretty much the same scenario, except it was a boy that played with him and his cousins. They were too young to realize that they lived so far away out in the boonies and there were no other houses, much less kids or families. The three kids have vivid memories, but now that they're older, realize how amiss the situation was. Kid was always in the same clothes, but clean, and would only meet up with them in a certain part of the forest. When they left the area, he would stay behind. Parents oh gosh. Parents always thought they were just six-year-olds with an imaginary friend, eerie as hell. Oh my gosh. I know, I know the goosebumps, my hair is standing up. Okay, somebody else commented to that comment. I used to visit my grandparents at their trailer every summer with my family. We'd stay for two to three days. I would have been gone eight or nine. What? I cannot read. I would have been eight or nine when this happened. I have very detailed memories one summer of playing with two siblings from the park. I spent nearly three days playing with a sister and brother. I remember running a sack race with the sister. I remember going to the store and pooling our change to buy penny and nickel candies, but on the last day, I couldn't find them anywhere. We met in the park every morning and spent the day together until it got dark out. I ended up going back to the trailer, sadly, after waiting for over an hour for them to no-show. When I told my family, no one had seen these kids. My cousin then told me that I'd spent the weekend with either her or played by myself. My mom said that whenever she poked her head out to see what I was up to, she saw me quietly playing by myself on my bike. I even ran around asking every kid I could see if they knew these kids. No one knew who I was talking about. I felt insane. Ooh! These are spooky.
SPEAKER_00:It's wild.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. This one's spooky, but not as spooky. My encounter with the black dog of Hanging Hills.
SPEAKER_00:What's up with these black dogs? Oh black dogs. Black Shepherd.
SPEAKER_02:In Meriden, Connecticut. I'm sorry if I butchered that. About 40 minutes outside of where I live, there exists a range of mountainous trap rocks called Hanging Hills. Okay. That in the first place is don't love that. The easiest way to get I cannot read.
SPEAKER_00:You're doing good. You're doing good.
SPEAKER_02:The easiest way to get them is to park in a wooded mountainous park. Pause. The easiest way to get them is to park in a wooded mountainous park called Hubbard Park and take a trail that starts with a slightly intimidating passenger bridge that crosses over the highway. I'm afraid of heights, but always try to challenge myself by going hiking and putting myself in slightly uncomfortable situations to overcome my fears. In the spring of 2014, my wife, girlfriend at the time, and I decided to go take our umpteenth hike up Hanging Hills to see Castle Craig, a stone tower that stood at the end of the main trail and overlooked the cliffs, the city of Meriden, and Quinnipiek Valley. That sounds like a French word. For the umpteenth time, we launched into a discussion on the drive there about the legend of the black dog. I find ghost stories that have any shred of historical reality to them intriguing because most representations of ghosts on TV or YouTube these days involve people becoming easily scared by shaking or noises in an abandoned location. The legend of the black dog is an exception because it involves the legend itself and a story of two geologists from the late 1800s encountering it and actually documenting it. The legend has that you see the black dog of Hanging Hills once for joy, twice for sorrow, and three times for death. There are plenty of legends of black dogs and folklore that tell a similar tale. The two geologists, WHC Pinchon and Herbert Marshall, were conducting research of the area in the winter of 1891 when they encountered the black dog. According to the story, Pinchon had seen it once and Herbert twice before. Herbert didn't believe the legend. After ascending the hills again alone, Herbert supposedly fell to his death. Ooh.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, hey, hey, they said three times for death. Two times for death.
SPEAKER_02:That was his third time.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I got you. I got you.
SPEAKER_02:I remember the image of the black dog from WHC Pinchon's story very clearly every time we hiked up the mountain. This time was no different. That particular day, my girlfriend and I encountered a hiker on the trail that was letting his black dog without a collar roam loose. The scariest part of the story. We weren't sure of a dog. We weren't sure whether it was to mess with people or not. The dog wasn't little like the one depicted in Pinchon's story. Rather, it was a bigger, like lab terrier mix and friendly too. It came up to us and started panting at our legs. Sorry about that, the hiker said as he caught up to the dog and us. Not at all. I bet you love having a little legend with you around here. Oh yeah, the ghost dog, the hiker said, forcing a laugh and grimacing as if he had heard that one too many times before. As he walked away, my girlfriend made a comment about my obsession with the stupid dog and not wanting to hear about it. We made our way to Castle Craig about 20 minutes later. Unlike trails off the highway, the main trail from the park is not long or difficult other than a trail at the end of it. We took pictures on top of the tower and by the cliffside, not really thinking anymore about the black dog. We had made so many trips up to the lower and seen so many hikers with black dogs that the legend almost seems like a joke at that point. Wanna take the mail trail wanna take the main trail down on the road? I asked as we finished up taking pictures and drinking whatever water and Gatorade we had left in our packs. The road, she insisted. We can see that river. The road leading up to Castle Craig is typically taken by cars and bikers. We sometimes hiked down it to catch a glimpse of the Quinnip Quinnipiac River on the way back to the park. Despite it being a warm April day, there were several few cars and bikers on the way down. It was nice and quiet. About a quarter of a mile into our walk, my girlfriend tugged me on the shoulder and pointed to a figure on the side of the road between some shrubbery. It stood about ten feet ahead of us. What the hell is that? She said. I took a step forward, but she tugged on my shirt and shook her head. Is that what I I nodded. All I could do was nod. The figure was small and resembled a black dog with floppy ears and a hot dog tail, much like the one in Pinchon's illustration. I wouldn't thought much about it if not for the fact that the figure was blurry. It wasn't the distance between us that made it blurry. There weren't any fog-related conditions that day. It was almost as if Mother Nature had taken the dog in a Photoshop program and used the blur effect on it. Even when I took a step closer to my girlfriend's hesitance, it still looked blurry. We were frozen, otherwise, though, and didn't think to take a picture of the figure. There was an unknowing understanding between us that we shouldn't approach and just wait for it to cross. As the figure crossed the road, it didn't look at us, it just dawdled with the snows to the ground. For the rest of the hike, we were silent. We booth booth. We both knew what we saw, but couldn't put it into words. It was only after a while that I said I should have taken a picture, but deep down, I felt it was a good thing that I didn't. Seeing the figure wasn't frightening, but it wasn't pleasant either. We've been back to Hanging Hills many times since. We never countered any luck or sorrow, just a memory of a little black dog and an understanding that when you see an actual paranormal entity with someone else and understand what it is, there isn't really a question about it. I've read many stories posted online since about the black dog. Few have described what we saw. Black dogs run loose in the park all the time, and a number of the encounters we read about seemed like fabrications or just encounters with stray dogs. If you live in the area or have a similar story, I'd be very interested in hearing yours as well. I haven't met or spoken with a person who had had a similar experience. I also haven't been able to objectively rule out what I saw. I'm open to any scientific explanations on collectively seeing blurry figures in a shared experience. It would be disappointing but interesting to know about a more logical explanation. Have you ever seen a ghost?
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_02:No?
SPEAKER_00:I don't think I don't have like a they only saw the dog once, they experienced joy, they're now married happily ever after.
SPEAKER_02:Oh the last one was too spooky. We gotta make that one happy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I don't really have any ghost stories, but my dad has some crazy ghost stories. He like lived in a uh haunted house like in the middle of Missouri. Okay. Yeah. He said that like the blankets would get pulled off of them and like cabinets would open and close, and like one of those like poltergeist shit.
SPEAKER_01:Fuck that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and what's interesting is like it's so just like a a family memory for everybody. Like, even his, like my grandma, like his mom is like, oh yeah, that house, that house was haunted, you know. It's literally just like another thing. Damn. Yeah, isn't that wild? I definitely am open to that.
SPEAKER_00:I would move out.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not gonna say that here because I would that would be so horrible if the facility was haunted.
SPEAKER_00:It's that modern building. Yeah, I wouldn't stay.
SPEAKER_02:No, I've never gotten bad vibes from here, but sometimes I do go into places and I'm like, ooh, this is bad vibes. I've always been like very sensitive to that as a kid, but I don't have any personal experiences with uh ghost stories. My mom's old uh my mom had a kind of similar to this, like a facility, a photography studio, and it was an old train depot, and it was for sure haunted, but not like bad vibes haunted, just like we're not alone.
SPEAKER_00:Old building character.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we like when I was in high school, we had like a sleepover and stayed there on Halloween, but like it had like a sketchy attic. Like you would go upstairs and it's like dark and creaky, and there's like old mannequins and shit, like that kind of scary. It was terrifying, to be quite honest. But nothing it like ever really happened, and my mom would stay there at night all the time. Okay. Yeah. That's that's as close as I have to my own ghost story. All right. This next one is called My Ghost Dog. I saw someone post a more positive ghost experience, and I wanted to share mine too. There you go, Toma. When I was in middle school, we had this dog that had been in my life for longer than I could remember. He was the best dog in the world and a beautiful one too. A German Shepherd Chow Chow mix. He was an amazing guard dog and protected everyone in our family with his everything, which eventually cost him his life. He was mauled to death by two pit bulls who were going after my mom and he jumped in between them. The dogs dragged mine under our house and ripped him to shreds. It was horrific. A couple months later, I was still struggling to come to terms with his death. I felt a uh okay. I felt a brush of fur on my leg, and when I looked down, I didn't see any of our other animals anywhere near me. I thought I was crazy, so I ignored it, but it kept happening. Then one day, I was sitting on the kitchen floor organizing canned goods and I hear a noise. And when I look up, he's there, standing in front of me, clear as day. I reached out to try to touch him, but I kind of phased through him and started crying. As he walked closer to me and licked my face where my tears were and then disappeared. Ever since then, before we moved out of that house, I'd feel him around, brushing against my legs or jumping into my bed with me at night like he used to when he was alive. I think he knew how fragile I was from hearing how horrific he died and wanted to comfort me and let me know that he was okay and wasn't in any pain anymore. Nobody in my family could see him or feel oh my gosh. Nobody in my family could see him or feel what I was feeling, but each one of them always said it felt like he never left us. Like he was still around protecting us even after even in the afterlife. I haven't seen his spirit in years, but I still think about the days he stuck around to watch over us, and I can't wait until the day I get to see him again. Aww.
SPEAKER_00:That's happy.
SPEAKER_02:I mean Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Damn, that's crazy. I don't know. You hear stories like that, you can't really argue with that, you know? It's like, alright.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, this next one. I just saw a ghost dog. I can't explain what I just saw in any other way. I pop home from work every day for lunch, so I just saw this in clear daylight as I was in my kitchen. Some background. I live in a rented house which shares a huge but pretty empty garden with the landlords next door. They did have three dogs, but now have two. There is one girl and there were two boy dogs, who were twins called Teddy and Gizmo. Sadly, Gizmo was killed last Christmas time when he was run over, leaving just Teddy and the other dog. So anyway, today I stood in my kitchen and I've just turned away from the fridge when I see what I assume in the moment is Teddy running back from the gate in the garden, past my kitchen windows and around to the right of my house. He is running left and presumably back to the house to the left of mine where he lives. I thought he looked a bit odd, as he was running very smoothly, and Teddy always runs with this adorable little skippy gallop, as if he isn't quite sure where all his feet are at any one time. I didn't think much of it. I glanced to the gate he was running away from, as the dogs only ever go around the side of my house to where uh to there when they are greeting someone at the gate. There was no one there. I started to walk back to the door and open it, expecting someone to come around the corner from the side of my house with the windows at any second. I wanted to give him a little bit of chicken. After a few seconds, he doesn't come around the corner, so I stick my head out the door and look into the bit of the garden where I know he must be, and it is totally empty. It's just a square of grass surrounded by walls on three sides with a gate at the top. There is concretely nowhere that Teddy could have gone to either hide from me or to pass me as I went to the door and opened it after seeing him running down the side of the house. Then I realized that the little dog I had just seen ran exactly the same way that Gizmo did. I have never seen Teddy move in a way that was really lolloping and awkward. I then immediately looked around at the rest of the very large garden, expecting to see Teddy there somewhere, as he definitely hadn't had enough time to get back to the house he lives in and out of sight, even if he had someone slipped by me. Nothing there. I know this isn't a terrifying story about an angry spirit, so I'm sorry if it's not exciting enough, but it genuinely just happened and I wanted to share it. I'm a huge skeptic about things like this, and knowing the layout of my garden as I do, I know there is no explanation where that dog could have gone past my window and someone past my glass doors at the back without me seeing it. It had to have been the side of my house still. And to think that the fact, the way, wait, and to add to the fact, the way that it moved like Gizmo did rather than how Teddy does, and I have to admit, I think I just saw a tiny little ghost dog. Someone commented, we have a ghost dog that frequents our house. Come to find out, the man who lived there before us passed away recently and loved his big dogs. The man built the house and got a dog to go with it. The man's cousin said he had golden he only had golden retrievers and each passed away at that house after long lives. Too many times my wife and I my wife and I will hear a collar jingling, see something medium-sized, move in the hallway into rooms, never aggressive, but there. We have dogs of our own and keep thinking it's our dog, but then we realize they're outside. If it isn't causing problems, I would leave it alone. From what we are told, dog spirits generally generally protect a dwelling and its occupants, so not a huge deal. Aww. I hope Zoe haunts us.
SPEAKER_00:On the floor.
SPEAKER_02:On the floor.
SPEAKER_00:The slowest haunting.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. This is from a Reddit thread. Somebody asks, has anyone had experience with dogs seeing ghosts? In my living room, there's a chair in the corner opposite the side of the TV. Some nights when my dog is sitting on the couch, other wall entirely from both chair and TV, she will look over at the chair and whine or bark, or otherwise just stare at seemingly nothing. We had joked about it for quite some time until we got a new puppy. She did just the exact same thing, unprompted, just started whimpering and growling at the same corner and right by the roof, same as my older dog. The older dog was not in the room and hasn't done it since we got the puppy, so it isn't like it's some picked-up behavior. If anyone has similar stories, please let me know. Cheers. So the comment. I was 16, home alone, in my bedroom, watching a movie with my dog curled up on my bed, out of nowhere. His head jerks up and he starts making little barks like under his breath. I'm instantly frozen in fear. He stands up, jumps off the bed, stands in my doorway with the same barking. He walks out of my room and down the hall to the top of the staircase to our basement, ears perked up, same barking. He's not growling or showing signs of aggression or fear, just a vested interest in something. I go to the kitchen and find the biggest knife I can. My dog trots down the first few steps to the side door landing, where the steps turn 90 degrees and continue to the basement. He's looking down the stairs, same barking. I switch the basement lights on. Down he goes, step by step. I manage to creep down the door. I manage to creep down to the side door landing, holding my big knife, absolutely terrified. I see him go down the last few steps where he stops. Ew, Toma. Then he slowly walks to a corner in the room, looking up as if he's looking at someone. Same barks a few whines. Then he sits, still looking up into the corner. Then he sits up on his hind legs as if someone is dangling a treat for him and he's reaching in the airs with his paws, whining, I'm freaking the fuck out. Then he sits back down, gets back on all fours, has a little sneeze, gives his body a shake. Then he turns around, comes to the stairs, and trots on up, passing me in the process. I slowly went back to my room where I found him, curled up on my bed like before. I held that knife in my hands until my parents got home. It never happened again.
SPEAKER_00:That's trippy.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that one also is kind of scary.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like when it's animals, it's like almost worse. Like them picking up on something. Because you can't argue with that, you know? Like you literally see your dog pick up on something.
SPEAKER_02:You're like, oh no, I don't know. You think any of our dogs would? I think if Walter started being weird, I would be like, oh my gosh, we're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but like because he'll he'll pick up on anyone coming in, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Nobody else.
SPEAKER_00:No. But Walter's like a high alert.
SPEAKER_02:None of our other dogs. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I guess Hawk would also be kind of scary. But Walter's like on it. Ain't nobody getting through the property. Alright, next one.
SPEAKER_02:Next one. Okay. Uh my dog saw a ghost. I once lived in a house that I'm convinced convinced was haunted. I never saw a ghost, but I had a puppy, and he constantly acted like someone else was in the room with us. It was an old one-story house that wasn't nice, but I was young, living on my own for the first time, and was working in a small town. Most landlords didn't allow pets, but one did, so I put up with the old house so I could get a dog. He was a shy Labrador mix who was very reserved and wary of people, likely due to abuse, but he quickly warmed up to me. There were three instances that I can still recall to this day, 20 plus years later, that terrified me. One, one night I was sitting in my chair watching TV while my dog lay at my feet chewing on a rawhide bone. The house had an L-shaped open concept kitchen, led to dining room, and then the living room to the right. All of a sudden, my dog stopped chewing on his bone, stared into the dining room, and started growling. He never made noise in the house, so I was surprised. Then the barking started. Low at first, then building in intensity. I sat, frozen in the chair, wondering what he was looking at and trying to calm him down. Eventually he stopped and went back to chewing on his bone. I brushed this off to his different personality because it if I didn't want to think uh because I didn't want to think I was living in a haunted house. Two. One night I woke up in the middle of the night to my dog pacing and growling beside my bed. I told him to be quiet and lie down. I heard him drop something. That's weird, I thought. The door was shut, and I purposely kept his toys out of the bedroom when I went to sleep. It was a rope toy that he had no interest in unless someone held it and pulled him around the room. It was almost as if someone was tugging at one end and playing with him. I told myself I was letting my imagination run wild and to forget it. 3. The last instance was the worst. One night I was getting ready for bed while he was out in the yard before going to bed. Suddenly, I heard him barking loudly. I thought there must be a dog on the sidewalk. This has happened before. So I went to the dining room window to look. It was a floor first floor to ceiling window that I put sheaths over that were pretty useless. You could pretty much see right inside, but I was young and trying to decorate. Anyway, I pushed the sheaths aside to get a good view of what he was barking at, and I jumped. He was staring, standing right at the window, staring back into the house, ears perked up and hair on his back standing up. He stopped barking, looked up at me, then stepped to the right and looked around me and continued barking. I whirled around, expecting to see somebody behind me, but no one was there. Heart pounding, I froze. My dog kept barking. I was staring into the kitchen, wondering if someone had broken in, and was now hiding in the back door or in the bathroom that was off the kitchen. It took every ounce of courage I had, but I charged the kitchen, grabbing a frying pan on the way, fully ready to confront whoever was in the house, but there was nobody there. I let my dog in. He quickly charged a few feet in, froze, stared in the kitchen for a few moments, then relaxed and went and lied down. That last one was it. I started looking for a new place to live the next day, and we moved about a month later. Could all of these instances be rationally explained? Absolutely. But that dog lived another nine years and he never behaved the way he did in that house ever again.
SPEAKER_00:That was fucked up.
SPEAKER_02:Somebody commented, your dog probably saw something in your house. Animals can see and hear things, spiritual things, that humans can't. Whatever it was must have only been at your old place, which is why when you moved, your dog never behaved that way again. He was reacting to whatever he was seeing.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, this is what he was assuming. Thank you. That's crazy. Especially the growling, barking through the window, and then you look and he looks past you. You gotta turn around.
SPEAKER_02:I would pass out. I would just collapse. Okay, this next one. My dog sees ghosts, or was it a demon? My most terrifying experience to date. When my husband and I first got married, we lived in a cheap apartment on the borderline of the quote bad side of town. We had our first dog in this apartment who is still alive and kicking after eight years. He has a black lab pit bull mix and is the sweetest thing on the planet. He's scared of everything, but is super affectionate once he warms up to you. He predominantly stayed inside since there wasn't much of a yard. One day, I was home alone cleaning up from the night before. We had friends over and the apartment was a mess. He was asleep on the couch curled up into a tight little ball. We didn't have a dining room, and it was more like a living room, and the kitchen was partially divided by a small portion of wall. We had no dining room table, but we did have a pool table that took up almost all of the room where a proper dining table should have been. Oh, this one's scary. You're gonna you're gonna die. Leaving barely enough space to squeeze between it and the portion of the wall dividing the kitchen from the living room. As I'm standing over the pool table that we cringingly used as a dining table, our dog started to growl and was peering over the back of the couch, which was directly in front of the kitchen areas. I looked at him confused. He had hardly made a noise, no barking, whimper, much less a growl since we brought him home. The hair on the back of my neck and arms started to stand on end, and I had a sinking feeling that something was very wrong. He began to bark, snarl, and growl, his hackles raised and his ears flat to his skull. I stood up at a as I was leaning over the table reaching for a glass, but my waist was still against the table itself. I looked at him in horror, trying to figure out why he was acting so strange. I soon found out why. As I stood there, confused, I felt a clawed hand grab my ankle from under the table. I know this sounds absolutely baddie, but I promise this is true. It scared the shit out of me and to this day gives me goosebumps thinking about it. I froze in absolute fear. I could feel each finger as it held my ankle in a tight and uncomfortable grip, its long claws wrapping around, and felt like they were cutting into my skin. I finally mustered up the courage to jump back, ripping my leg from its grip and look under the table. There was nothing there, but a black mass shadow about the size of a fat house cat darted from under the table, climbed up the wall to my left, and disappeared behind the refrigerator. My dog jumped over the couch back and was scratching at the wall between the refrigerator and the wall. Still growling and snapping his teeth like he was biting at something. I managed to squeeze back into the living room and just stood there in utter shock as my ankle and slightly up my calf started to burn. It was red and hot, but I had no scratches. It swelled up and was puffy and hot for about an hour. I finally got my dog to calm down and come to me. The rest of the day he stayed right by my side until my husband came home. I later found out he too had been experiencing strange things while we lived there, where the dog would bark at the wall, hackles raised and growling. We had no neighbors on the side of the house. He would face to bark as we lived on the end of the bottom floor. We never talked about it till years later, now living in our own purchase and heavily blessed and prayed over house. I don't know. They don't say somebody commented all the quote, don't let your leg dangle over the side of the bed when you sleep. Nightmares come to life.
SPEAKER_00:Jesus.
SPEAKER_02:Oof. Okay, this one. Are you okay?
SPEAKER_00:Are we good?
SPEAKER_02:Are you okay?
SPEAKER_00:I was yawning.
SPEAKER_02:This one is titled, This is a wholesome dog haunting. We'll we'll end it on a high note. When I was six years old, my family bought our first black Labrador. We named her Magic and we were inseparable. When I was 18, she passed away from a heart tumor. I was absolutely devastated, and I had a really hard time getting to sleep afterwards because she always slept in bed with me. A year later, we got another black labrador, and this weird phenomenon started happening. It should be noted, the new lab refused to sleep in my room. He didn't even really like going in it at all. He'd always leave, look he'd he'd always look intently at spots and then quickly leave. I'd bring him in on my bed to try to get him to sleep in my room and he'd jump off right away and cry to be let out. I sleep with my door closed, so I know it wasn't him coming in later. One night I was tossing and turning and all of a sudden it felt as if someone had jumped on the bottom of my bed. It freaked me the hell out. Then, just like she would always do when she was alive, it felt like four paws were moving in a circular motion, trying to figure out trying to figure out that sweet spot before the covers would gently press down at my feet. This happened every night for a few weeks. I sort of felt like I was going insane, but one night it was really annoying me. It woke me up. So I said out loud, Magic, go bug mom. I was half joking to myself because I didn't actually fully believe it was her. But the next morning over breakfast, my mom looked at me and says, The strangest thing happened to me last night. I swear it felt like magic jumped on my bed, found a comfy spot, and laid down. I had never told my mom that I thought magic was jumping on my bed every night because I thought I was insane, but my mouth dropped when she said this. I told her how it was happening to me and that I had sent magic to bother her that night. We cried because we didn't want Magic to think we replaced her. Later that week, it just stopped all of a sudden, and I told mom I hadn't felt magic jump on my bed the last few days. My mom told me that I when I wasn't home, she went up to my room and told Magic that we loved her and we will never forget her and she could never be replaced, and it's okay for her to rest now. Ever since then, my new Labrador has slept in my room every night. I like to think Magic gave him permission. My mom and I still tell people this story. We have no explanation for it, and we like to believe she came back to spend just a bit more time with us and show the new pub how to be the goodest boy.
SPEAKER_00:Aww.
SPEAKER_02:Aww.
SPEAKER_00:You notice how every single story about ghosts and dogs was a black dog.
SPEAKER_02:Was that a black dog?
SPEAKER_00:I said black lab.
SPEAKER_02:Are black dogs like spiritual?
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. You always hear about black cats, but maybe there's a thing here.
SPEAKER_02:Somebody commented, that's beautiful. My dog passed away in November due to old age, and a few nights later her kennel rattled like she was getting up from laying down and it spooked me. The cat reacted and started growling, which he never does, and I called out my dog's name and I told her, I miss you so much, girl. I'd hear her walking downstairs. I felt her head rest in the bed when she wanted attention. I'm a light sleeper, too. I've since took the kennel downstairs, and I haven't heard her since. I adopted her in January 2015 as a senior dog already, and she passed away in November of 2019. Aww. Another comment. We lost a much-loved Roddy called Truffles to Cancer. A few days later, I was on night duty, and my wife was in the house with the kids. She was laying in bed when she felt truffles get on, get on, and do the twirl around and lay down. She did this for a few days, and then my wife said, as the OP's mom said, We're okay. We still love you. Now go and rest. Never had it happen again. I was told by a medium who knew nothing about me that I was always accompanied by a large black and tan spirit dog. We had had Rottweilers for 41 years this year, so I am not surprised. Another comment. This is beautiful. I had a schnauzer since I was five up to when I was 19. He was basically raised like my little brother. We all loved him. He passed away the day after my dad's birthday, and my sister's then boyfriend thought the best idea was to give us a new puppy. We were shocked but happy as he is sweet as he as he is a sweet, energetic beagle, but we felt so bad as we thought Stitch, that's how he was called, would feel replaced. I literally cried every night for almost two weeks because of this until one day I had a dream. Everything was like pink colored and was this sweet chocolate-like smell, and I heard the words, he's okay, he doesn't feel replaced, he's aware that all you love him so deeply. And I woke up.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just gonna say, Rottweiler, giant schnauzer, both black.
SPEAKER_02:I know that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_00:And out of all our dogs, the only one who would alert, Walter, black.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, I hope Zoe comes and haunts us.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, some of these stories were just about dogs alerting on other ghosts.
SPEAKER_02:That's true. That's true. Zoe wouldn't. I feel like a ghost could like walk up and give you pet Zoe and she'd be like, Oh, hello.
SPEAKER_01:That was funny.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, hello, you're for that? You're here for to give me pets?
SPEAKER_00:She she's the she's the one dog that ran down to the basement to get the treats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gets fed by the ghost. Yeah. Oh my goodness. But even the story about the dog like playing tug with a ghost is trippy. Ew.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. We're gonna have to watch Sex in the City.
SPEAKER_00:Something a little more lighthearted. Sex in the City after this.
SPEAKER_02:That's my new binge show right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But, anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Happy Halloween. If you are having trick-or-treaters come to your house, crate your dog, tether your dog. Don't let them rush the door at people. It's just not worth it. Any other advice? Don't leave chocolate out.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, for your dogs, yeah. Yeah. Valid.
SPEAKER_02:Any other any other safety things?
SPEAKER_00:Do people still trick-or-treat? Is that a thing?
SPEAKER_02:I think so.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's good. Eat lots of candy.
SPEAKER_00:Have fun. Enjoy.
SPEAKER_02:Go see some ghosts. And if any of you have a dog ghost story, I would kind of love to hear it. So send me a DM, send me an email, and maybe we'll read your responses on a future episode. But all right, guys. Happy Halloween. And we'll see you next week.