It’s long been thought that animals have instincts that stretch beyond the here-and-now. Laura Greaves meets three dog owners who are certain their pets have a sixth sense.
Don’t go in there!
Bruiser the Golden Retriever had never shown any signs of a connection to “the other side” until, at the ripe old age of 12, he suddenly became terrified of a particular room in the family home. “One day he would not go into our back living space. He simply refused to step through the door for no apparent reason,” says Bruiser’s owner, publicist Brian James. “Normally he would follow me everywhere, but he stayed at the end of the garden, as far from the house as possible.”
Brian had never experienced anything otherworldly himself in the 100-year-old house, in Malvern in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, but he says instinct immediately told him something supernatural was going on. He and his then wife, Rhonda, had separated just days before and he felt the upheaval had attracted a dark entity to the house.
“I do believe in the spiritual world. We all have energetic bodies as well as physical, and in times of vulnerability or emotional trauma we can sometimes unwittingly ‘allow’ dark energies into our environment,” he explains. “Bruiser was very sensitive to my feelings. He obviously detected something in the house and this was his way of telling me. It was so unusual, like he sensed something inside and just didn’t want to go near it.”
Although Bruiser was eating and drinking normally, and enjoying his daily walks, he was clearly very uneasy at home so Brian and Rhonda turned to an animal communicator for guidance. “I had enlisted her help before for health matters concerning our dogs,” continues Brian. “This situation was inexplicable so I asked her to ‘talk’ to Bruiser to see if we could find out what he was afraid of.”
The communicator revealed that spirits had indeed taken up residence in the house; she could also sense them very strongly. She attempted to ‘clear’ the space and encourage the spirits to find new accommodation, and it seemed to work: Bruiser finally entered the room again. The next day, however, he refused to go inside once again. It seemed the unwelcome entities were determined to stay put. This time, Brian called in a spiritualist who used crystals to cleanse the house.
“She had to use very powerful crystals to clear the area and then she set up a very powerful crystal grid in the entire house,” he says. The change in Bruiser was almost immediate. He came inside the house that night without persuasion, and never again showed any signs of fear or discomfort in the haunted room. Bruiser passed away in 2012, at the age of 14.
Brian encourages all dog owners to be open to the possibility that animals are sensitive to spirits and otherworldly energies. “People who are sceptical will think I’m stupid, but it’s no different to a child picking up on something strange in the house. These things are not always malevolent but certainly can be,” he says. “If your dog starts behaving in a strange manner and it is completely inexplicable, I think it is in everyone’s interests to question why.”
Want more ghost dog stories? This story was originally published in DOGS Life issue 138. To purchase the issue or subscribe to the magazine, click here.
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