Dog barking at nothing?
No they don’t. Dogs don’t bark at nothing, they bark at something you just can’t see or have not seen yet. Dogs have good eyesight, smell and hearing, way much better than any human being. What your dog detects and barks at you may not see because of your poor vision, sense of hearing and smell. It is also believed that dogs are able to see spiritual beings. Let me tell you a story about a dog I have named Venom. He is a cross breed between a Labrador retriever and a German shepherd.
At nights when Venom was left outside to keep watch, he had this habit of barking at irregular hours when everyone was sound asleep. Sometimes it got quite annoying because the barking would go on for long stretches of time before he would give up. So we tended to ignore him barking as simply “Dogs being Dogs” until one day.
On this peculiar day, we were all in bed sleeping when Venom started barking as usual; by now everyone was used to it so we all ignored him as usual, covering my head under the pillow. I could not muffle his barking for long and got up and sat in bed. But I being the closest to him, I noticed something different about his barking; it was deeper than usual and way more aggressive.
I tried ignoring it but couldn't shake off the feeling that something was up, so I got up, grabbed a flash light and a baseball bat and went out to check on what the heck was all the deep barking was about. Immediately after I opened the door I noticed he had taken his “attack” stance with all the hair on her skin raising up, and then I noticed her barks were directed at a specific direction, a dark corner beside the main gate.
I immediately knew something was definitely wrong so I went back inside and grabbed ditched the baseball bat and grabbed a machete and came back to Venom. He immediately started taking deliberate slow steps towards the dark corner while still barking aggressively and I walked behind her, flashing the light in the direction he was taking me. When we finally got there and I lifted the torch to inspect that area, there was someone at the extreme end of that corner trying without success to hide himself.
It was a thief that had jumped into the compound without realizing a dog of was in the compound. And on seeing the dog, had run to the corner but could not immediately jump back out thanks to the height of the fence. He was apprehended and handed over to the authorities. I did not have to let the thief know how skilled a machete wielder I was that day.
But we learnt on that day that Venom had a reason for every bark he made at night. And to experiment further I would stay awake beside the window at night just to confirm my theory, and for every bark he made I would observe what he was barking at. Most times it would be a cat or a rat crossing the fence. Otherwise it would be in response to another dog’s barking and other times it was in response to the footsteps of someone walking past our gate or a noise made in our neighbor's yard. But for certain, dogs do not waste barks and do not bark at nothing.
On this peculiar day, we were all in bed sleeping when Venom started barking as usual; by now everyone was used to it so we all ignored him as usual, covering my head under the pillow. I could not muffle his barking for long and got up and sat in bed. But I being the closest to him, I noticed something different about his barking; it was deeper than usual and way more aggressive.
I tried ignoring it but couldn't shake off the feeling that something was up, so I got up, grabbed a flash light and a baseball bat and went out to check on what the heck was all the deep barking was about. Immediately after I opened the door I noticed he had taken his “attack” stance with all the hair on her skin raising up, and then I noticed her barks were directed at a specific direction, a dark corner beside the main gate.
I immediately knew something was definitely wrong so I went back inside and grabbed ditched the baseball bat and grabbed a machete and came back to Venom. He immediately started taking deliberate slow steps towards the dark corner while still barking aggressively and I walked behind her, flashing the light in the direction he was taking me. When we finally got there and I lifted the torch to inspect that area, there was someone at the extreme end of that corner trying without success to hide himself.
It was a thief that had jumped into the compound without realizing a dog of was in the compound. And on seeing the dog, had run to the corner but could not immediately jump back out thanks to the height of the fence. He was apprehended and handed over to the authorities. I did not have to let the thief know how skilled a machete wielder I was that day.
But we learnt on that day that Venom had a reason for every bark he made at night. And to experiment further I would stay awake beside the window at night just to confirm my theory, and for every bark he made I would observe what he was barking at. Most times it would be a cat or a rat crossing the fence. Otherwise it would be in response to another dog’s barking and other times it was in response to the footsteps of someone walking past our gate or a noise made in our neighbor's yard. But for certain, dogs do not waste barks and do not bark at nothing.
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