Is Man's Best Friend Psychic?
by Richard Webster  In the United States there have even been government-funded experiments to
determine if dogs are psychic. In 1952, representatives from the army asked Dr.
J. B. Rhine if he thought that dogs could locate hidden land mines. Obviously,
if dogs could sense them, many lives would be saved. Dr. Rhine agreed to conduct
some experiments to see if dogs did possess the necessary clairvoyant
skills.
The tests were conducted on a beach north of San Francisco, California. Five
wooden boxes were buried in the sand to represent hidden land mines. A dog
handler, who had no idea where the boxes were buried, led the dogs across the
beach. The dogs were trained to sit down when they felt they had detected one of
the boxes.
Two hundred and three tests were conducted over a three-month period, and the
dogs successfully located the boxes slightly more than 50 percent of the time.
However, the handlers noticed that the dogs achieved better results at the start
of each test, and that the accuracy rate declined after a short period of
time.
Finally, the Army stopped the tests because the results were not consistent
enough. The other problem was that the dogs needed to be accompanied by a
handler to successfully locate the mines.
Remi Cadoret of the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University studied
Chris the Wonder Dog in the late 1950s. Chris, a mongrel, was able to answer
questions by pawing the correct number of times at his master's shirtsleeves.
Remi Cadoret introduced the dog to Zener cards, a deck of twenty-five cards that
were frequently used in psychic experiments. The deck consists of five cards
each of five designs (circle, plus sign, square, star, and wavy lines). The
cards were placed in black envelopes and thoroughly mixed to ensure that no one
knew their correct order. This eliminated the possibility of Chris reading
anyone's mind. Chris was able to determine which card was in which envelope
clairvoyantly. In one series of tests his results were in "the order of a
thousand million to one against chance expectation."
Another scientific test was more conclusive. Aristed Esser, a psychiatrist at
Rockland State Hospital in New York, was inspired by rumors that the Soviets had
been testing animals for ESP with good results. Dr. Esser decided to find out if
dogs responded telepathically when their masters or canine relatives felt
threatened in any way.
One of his first experiments was to place two beagles who had been trained as
hunting dogs in a room at one end of a hospital. Their master was placed in a
room at the other end of the hospital. His task was to fire an airgun at colored
slides of animals that were displayed on a wall of the room at random intervals.
His dogs began barking and whining as soon as he fired the gun, even though they
could neither see nor hear what he was doing.
A later experiment utilized a boxer dog and his mistress. The dog was placed
in a soundproof room, with a device that measured his heartbeat. The woman was
placed in another room. Suddenly a man charged into this room and began yelling
at her. The lady had no idea that this was part of the experiment and was
terrified. At the exact moment that this occurred, the heart rate of the boxer
in the soundproof room increased dramatically. Another test involved two boxers,
a mother and son. Again, they were placed in separate rooms. When one of the
experimenters used a newspaper to threaten the younger dog, the mother dog
immediately cowered.
YOUR PSYCHIC DOG
Your dog is likely to be much more intelligent than you think. He or she will
enjoy performing psychic experiments, as it will be seen as yet another way of
pleasing you. Do not keep practicing these tests for hours on end, as the
success rate will decline as your dog tires and loses interest. Twenty minutes
is about the right length of time. Regular short sessions are much better than a
lengthy session every now and again. Be lavish in your praise every time your
dog succeeds in any of these tests.
Be aware that psychic abilities do not develop in a steady fashion. Your dog
may start out well, and then appear to lose ground. This is normal. Keep on
practicing and further progress will be made.
Most people want to show their dog's skills off to others. Your dog is
extremely aware of the thought processes of everyone around him or her. If you
try to show your dog's talents to someone who is skeptical, your dog will
probably refuse to perform or will perform badly. However, when surrounded by
pleasant, open-minded people, your dog will be keen to demonstrate.
For years it was thought that dogs could see only black and white. However,
it is now known that dogs can see tints of color, similar to light pastel. They
can easily recognize a red ball from a blue ball, but have problems similar to
people with red-green color blindness and find it hard to determine the colors
from greenish yellow to red.
For this test you need six large wooden blocks, each painted a different
color. I use the primary colors: red, blue, black, green, yellow, and white.
Place these in a row several feet away from you. Show them to your dog, picking
them up one at a time and telling him what color each one is. Choose one color,
and show this one to your dog several times. Mix the blocks up and place them in
a row. Ask your dog to fetch you the block of the color that you had chosen.
Once your dog can do this, do the same with the other colors.
Now you can start on the test proper. Mix up the blocks and ask your dog to
fetch, say, the blue one. Be lavish with your praise each time he or she is
successful. Keep on practicing this until it is obvious that your dog can
identify each block by its color.
Up until now, this has been an intelligence test. Your dog will enjoy
fetching the correct colors for you, and will consider this experiment to be a
wonderful game. In fact, you can expand the game even more. You can ask your dog
to fetch the block that matches the colors that you are wearing. You can ask
your dog to bring you his or her favorite, or least-liked, color. You will find
that these choices remain constant. Now it is time to turn this game into a
telepathy test.
Mentally decide on a color and send a telepathic message to your dog, asking
him or her to bring that particular block to you. Focus your thoughts on your
dog walking over, choosing the specific block, and bringing it back to you. Your
dog may seem puzzled or perplexed at first, as he or she will be used to you
asking for them out loud. However, after a possible slight resistance to begin
with, your dog will fetch the color that you are thinking about.
Naturally, this test can be performed with any group of objects that your dog
can pick up and bring to you.
Time for a Walk? Test
This is another test in telepathy. Sit down somewhere in a different room to
your dog. Close your eyes and think about taking your dog for a walk. Picture
yourself making the usual preparations and then stepping out of the house and
starting the walk. Visualize your dog and what he or she would normally be doing
at the start of a walk.
It is likely that your dog will be standing excitedly in front of you, ready
for a walk, before you have finished thinking about it. Of course, this test
should be done at a time when you do not normally go for a walk. Reward your dog
by taking him or her for a walk.
This test can also be done for anything else your dog likes to do. It also
works in reverse. Whenever I thought about giving our dog a bath, he would
disappear.
While taking your dog for a walk, think about a place on the route that you
would like to visit. It needs to be somewhere that you do not stop at regularly.
If your walk takes you past a friend's house, for instance, think how nice it
would be to visit him or her. See if your dog leads the way into your friend's
home without any verbal or physical cues from you.
What Would You Like to Do? Test
This is a more advanced test. Sit down quietly somewhere, close your eyes,
and send your dog a psychic message asking what he or she would like to do.
You may find that your dog immediately appears, excited that you are going to
do what he or she wants. At the same time, you may receive a clear mental
impression as to what it is he or she wants to do. If the mental impression does
not come through, follow your pet and see if that provides enough clues for you
to carry out the desired response.
Bruce, our Labrador, usually wanted to go out in the car. Sometimes he would
ask for a game with his ball. Occasionally, he would decide on a walk, but most
of the time, a request for a ride in the car would come to me. He always sat on
the back seat, looking from side to side, making the most of the
journey.
Multiple Request Test
This fascinating test involves mentally suggesting that your dog does a
number of actions. You might, for instance, suggest that he or she go to the
bedroom and fetch your slippers before picking up a plaything so that the two of
you can have a game.
I find this works best if the dog is sleeping and the tasks are pleasant
ones. Sit down in the same room as your dog and think about the actions you want
him or her to perform. Think about each action in turn, saying mentally to
yourself something like this: " I want you to fetch my slippers first, and then
go and find your rubber banana so that we can have a game."
When you first experiment with this, you may have to think of the first task
until your dog has done it, and then think of the second task until it has been
successfully performed, before going on to the third. However, in time, you will
be able to think of a whole series of activities and your dog will faithfully do
them all in order.
The Find It Test
If your dog has a well-loved toy, you will be able to conduct this
experiment. When your dog is out of the room, hide the toy in a place where he
or she will be able to find it. Call the dog to you and ask it to find the
object.
If the toy has a place where it is usually kept, your dog will go there
first. It will probably be reluctant to look anywhere else. Think about where
you have hidden the toy, and try to send these thoughts to your dog.
Telepathically, lead it to the object step by step.
Do not repeat this exercise more than once a day. When your dog finds the
object, spend some time with your pet enjoying a game with the object.
Obviously, well-loved toys develop an odor that can be picked up by our pets.
To avoid this, try placing the objects in airtight containers, and see if your
pet is still able to locate the toy. I find that plastic kitchenware works well.
This partially replicates tests done with cats at Duke University in Durham,
North Carolina, in which cat food was hidden in identical sealed containers,
eliminating the senses of sight and smell. The researchers at Durham felt that
the results of this test "make clairvoyance in cats the most likely
explanation."
Clairvoyancy Test
This is a variation of the previous test. You will need five or six identical
boxes. Place the toy inside one of them. Place other items in the other boxes.
Close the boxes, mix them up, and then ask your dog to find the box that
contains his or her toy.
Bath-Time Test
Our dog, Bruce, hated having a bath and always disappeared as soon as we even
thought about it. He always responded to a call, except when it was bath-time.
If your dog hates a specific activity, you can try the following test in
telepathy.
Your dog must be out of sight. Sit down, close your eyes, and think about the
task that your dog detests. With Bruce, I would think about giving him a bath.
Think about it for at least five minutes. Then call your dog and see if he or
she comes. Your dog may do as Bruce did, and simply not respond at all.
Alternatively, he or she may respond but come up to you looking distinctly
unhappy. This is a success, also, as your dog obviously read your thoughts. The
experiment is considered a failure if your dog bounds up to you in his or her
normal fashion.  This article is excerpted from Is Your Pet Psychic, ?2002, by Richard
Webster. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Llewellyn. www.llewellyn.com
Info/Order this book.
About the Author Richard Webster was born in New Zealand in 1946, and most of his earliest
memories relate to animals of various sorts. Currently, Richard and his wife
have just two cats, a rabbit, and three fish. They also have three children and
three grandchildren, all of whom share Richard's love of animals. Richard has
written many books, mainly on psychic subjects, and also writes monthly magazine
columns. He would write more, but his pets tell him when it is time to stop and
play. Visit his website at http://www.psychic.co.nz
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