Originally Posted by
Labradorks
I had the weirdest situation pop up with Linus a few years ago.
There was a murder on the sidewalk on my walking route. Guy got off bus in the middle of the night, was then robbed and shot. Really sad and senseless and not something we see on a regular basis around here. I avoided that area for several weeks on my walks. One day, driving home from work, I noticed that it was back to normal. Flowers and balloons and stuff were all gone, so it had been two to three weeks. I decided I'd go back to our regular walks.
I had the two dogs, Sam and Linus. Linus was probably two. As I was walking by that spot, Linus spooked really hard. More like a horse, because he jumped sideways and was all riled up. I can't remember if his hackles were raised, but with the way he reacted, I would not be surprised. I had actually been distracted (probably by my phone) and it took me a second to realize that we were at the murder scene, so I am certain he did not react to me.
It was probably the smell of gunpowder, blood, cleaners or maybe he could smell the masses of people that had been around that spot somewhat recently. I don't know. He's a very aware dog, a thinker, and he notices stuff.
Another time last year there was an armed and dangerous guy on the run and the cops were all over the neighborhood on foot patrol. I went to bed and about 20 minutes later, Linus went from sleeping to barking aggressively and jumping the wall where the backyard is. Something he'd never done before and hasn't done since. I was semi-awake and didn't hear anything obvious (a knock, for example). Knowing about the guy on the run, I called the police and sure enough, the guy had been in the backyard of the neighbor's house on the other side of a 6 foot privacy fence about 50 feet from my bed. I don't know if Linus heard something (windows were closed, obviously) or smelled something or what. He could not have seen anything as the curtains were drawn and he was curled in a ball asleep on the bed.
Dogs are amazing!