Dogs that know when their owners are coming home...

sat in by the doing some

Heh, sat by the window doing some work... when nextdoor's dogs erupt into lots of howling and occasional barking... their owner is a  single lady 50+ y/o, who dotes on them, trains and enters them into fly-ball competitions etc... 10-15 minutes later an unfamiliar car pulls up outside the house... out gets the dogs  owner and she goes inside the house. :-)

It's the dogs nose, Max. Smell things miles away .....

[Pollux]

Animal Telepathy Studies with Dr. Rupert Sheldrake - P1/3
(try to ignore the insane text that covers half the screen. I thought it was some ads at first, but they are actually subtitles, in like 59 different languages)





Animal Telepathy Studies with Dr. Rupert Sheldrake - P2/3
(ignore the 2min intro, which is almost the same intro as in video 1)





Animal Telepathy Studies with Dr. Rupert Sheldrake - P3/3
(same here: ignore the first 2min intro, which is almost the same intro as in video 1)





Jaytee - a dog who knew when his owner was coming home:
The ORF Experiment





Richard Wiseman's failed attempt to debunk the "psychic pet" phenomenon

Heh, sat by the window doing some work... when nextdoor's dogs erupt into lots of howling and occasional barking... their owner is a  single lady 50+ y/o, who dotes on them, trains and enters them into fly-ball competitions etc... 10-15 minutes later an unfamiliar car pulls up outside the house... out gets the dogs  owner and she goes inside the house. :-)

Again, nothing scientific, but here's my doggy story for today. I have been dog-sitting my son's dog for the weekend. He knows me well and I often take him for walks. I've noticed that he seems to know when I've decided to take him (there is absolutely no routine involved). So today, as I was thinking about where I might take him for a walk he started to get a little excitable. Then I sat down to put my shoes on but hadn't actually reached for my shoes or even looked at them yet but he was already running around the room in anticipation. I sit down in the same spot dozens of times a day and he can hardly be bothered to lift his head off his paws but this time, when I sat down, he just seemed to know it was in preparation for his walk.

This is not the first time this has happened. I've commented on it before to my super-sceptical son but he laughs it off as coincidence or some unconscious signals. He might be right but I'm damned if I can think of how I signalled my intentions to the dog.

On the off-chance that someone wants to dig up the old debate about Sheldrake's work with dogs, I put together a timeline of the most pertinent events in the controversy (I'm a big fan of timelines: I find they help a lot) and so I thought I'd share it here:

1994
Sheldrake’s book “Seven Experiments that could change the World” is published in which he writes about psychic pets, and how they’d make good subjects for experiments

July 1994 – February 1995 
Preliminary experiments with Jay-Tee. Notes taken by PS’s parents.
Measure of success was a reaction at the time that Pam Smart set off on her journey home. “In 20 cases Jaytee reacted at the time PS set off, or within 2 minutes of this time” (p7 of pdf of Preliminary Investigations paper published in 1998, hosted on sheldrake.org)

November 1994 
The Science Unit of Austrian State TV filmed an experiment. Video showed Jay-tee going to the porch when PS began returning home, and staying on the porch.

1995 
Early 1995 Sheldrake invites Wiseman to attempt his own replication
Sheldrake carries out 30 observations in PS’s parents’ flat, May 1995 – July 1996
Four experiments carried out by Wiseman at PS’s parents’ house: 12 June, 13 June, and 4 December, 5 December
50 experiments carried out in PS’s own flat May 95 – Sept 97.
5 experiments at PS’s sister’s house Oct 1995 – June 1996

1996 
September. The Times reports that Sheldrake is about to present his findings to the Society of Companion Animal Studies.
Wiseman presents his negative findings at the Parapsychological Association in August.

Sheldrake meets Wiseman to discuss Wiseman's results.

“In September 1996, Wiseman and I met to discuss these findings. He raised objections to the way I had plotted the data on graphs, and suggested an improved method, dividing up the experimental period into 10-minute intervals. The graphs shown here (Figure 1) use this method suggested by Wiseman. I sent copies of these graphs to him before he and his co-authors submitted their paper to the British Journal of Psychology and suggested that they draw attention to the fact that the dog spent most time at the window while PS was actually on her way home. But they did not mention this striking effect either in their paper or when they publicized their sceptical conclusions.”  Commentary On A Paper By Wiseman, Smith And Milton On The 'Psychic Pet' Phenomenon, JSPR 63

1996 
12 Video taped randomised 'beep' experiments: 19 Nov 1996 – 8 Oct 1997

1997 
Series of 10 experiments at PS’s parents’ flat when PS was not returning July 97 to Nov 97 (ie, this period overlaps with the 12 video taped experiments)

Psychic Pets: A Survey published in JSPR 61

1998
A Dog That Seems to Know... (preliminary experiments with Jay Tee) is published in the JSPR

November 98, The Times reports on Wiseman’s findings, as published in the British Journal of Psychology.

1999 
“Commentary on a paper by Wiseman Smith and Milton...” written by Sheldrake is published in JSPR 63

2000 
Results of randomised video taped dog trials published in JSE 14
Wiseman, Smith and Milton's reply to Sheldrake is published in JSPR 64


the controversy continues long after this...

Heh, sat by the window doing some work... when nextdoor's dogs erupt into lots of howling and occasional barking... their owner is a  single lady 50+ y/o, who dotes on them, trains and enters them into fly-ball competitions etc... 10-15 minutes later an unfamiliar car pulls up outside the house... out gets the dogs  owner and she goes inside the house. :-)

maybe you could do some experiments with her.

arrange for yourself  to give her a random call when she's out next , suggesting she return & watch the dogs response while you do.

Wiseman had no chance in hell against Rupert's charm...

Heh, sat by the window doing some work... when nextdoor's dogs erupt into lots of howling and occasional barking... their owner is a  single lady 50+ y/o, who dotes on them, trains and enters them into fly-ball competitions etc... 10-15 minutes later an unfamiliar car pulls up outside the house... out gets the dogs  owner and she goes inside the house. :-)

Just to rule out the obvious, is there a regular time the owner comes home?

So let me quickly add my story to the list, non-scientific as it is-

Our cat used to jump up off the couch 5-10 minutes before my wife would get home, and stand by the door on a pretty regular basis. The cat would never stand by the door at any other time or for any other person. She was an "indoor cat", meaning she wasn't waiting to go outside, because that never happened.

After lots of examples of my wife coming how at odd times, and the cat still predicting here arrival, I next surmised it perhaps was via sense of hearing that she got her information. There must be some identifiable sound the car made that could be detected from a few miles away. Unlikely but what else to think, right?

Then one day my wife's car broke down and needed to go into the shop. She picked used a shop a loaner car to use for the day. She went straight to work from the auto repair place, and you guessed it, that night when she arrived home in her loaner car, there was my cat, sitting by the door.