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Original poster

Do you think animals have a sixth sense ?

61 replies

WildRosie · 16/04/2022 18:52

I don't have any pets but in the family home decades ago, our three Cocker spaniels seemed to know when somebody wasn't well. Our eldest spaniel especially paid particular attention to the 'patient', making more of a fuss than usual and taking position by their side. Perhaps it's a dog's acute sense of smell or perception of unusual body language that gives them this apparent edge but I like to think it's a magical instinct that only they possess. Conversely, I don't recall our last cat ever noticing if someone was poorly. That's cats for you. More recently, I have noticed that the feral pigeons that perch on the roof opposite my front room always dive for cover whenever a thunderstorm is about to strike. You certainly notice when around fifty birds suddenly take to the air en masse and tear past your window. I wonder if they detect variations in magnetism in the atmosphere ? Following magnetic north is believed to be a method of navigation for the ferals' relatives, the homing pigeons.

OP posts:
Soubriquet · 16/04/2022 18:56

Yes

That’s why they are fantastic as service dogs

AwesomeSauce4 · 16/04/2022 18:56

Yes, I do think that animals (and also small children) have a sixth sense.

MyMumsJenjenn · 16/04/2022 18:57

I had a cat who knew when you opened a tin, even when he was in the garden.

Soubriquet · 16/04/2022 18:57

Not just dogs

But yes. Animals are able to sense a lot more than us

They know when a volcano is going to erupt or an earth quake will happen

Scientists will use animal behaviours in their study as an early warning.

Like canary’s down in the coal mibe

Soubriquet · 16/04/2022 18:58

My cat always knows when she’s supposed to be fed and gets very grumpy if she isn’t fed on time.

The dogs know it’s time they have a treat because they have it at the same time every day. Heavens help me if I don’t do it on time. I get jumped on

IncompleteSenten · 16/04/2022 18:59

No. But their 5 senses are better than ours.

LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana · 16/04/2022 19:09

Dogs have been known to smell cancer.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/04/2022 19:17

@IncompleteSenten

No. But their 5 senses are better than ours.
This. The usual number of senses but some very much heightened.
Original poster
WildRosie · 16/04/2022 19:18

I remember a tv advert from the 1980s with the line, 'cats know when there's a storm brewing'. I don't remember the product but evidently the sixth sense idea wasn't new even then. Wild animal instinct booting in ?

OP posts:
ozymandiusking · 16/04/2022 19:19

My cat hasn't been anywhere near me this week whilst I'm suffering from covid.

CaptainMyCaptain · 16/04/2022 19:20

@LetsGoCrazyPurpleBanana

Dogs have been known to smell cancer.
My sister's dog detected her breast cancer before she had it diagnosed after a routine mammogram. He kept sniffing her breast and wouldn't leave her alone and she had no idea why. It was a heightened sense of smell though not a sixth sense.
uncomfortablydumb53 · 16/04/2022 19:20

Yes, I believe they do

TCMolly · 16/04/2022 19:36

Yes, my cats know when I've put chews in my trolley in Lidl ha ha.

One of my cats knows when I'm nearly home in the car, maybe he knows the sound - but he's always there when I pull into the drive.

BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation · 16/04/2022 19:37

My cats will give me extra cuddles if I'm depressed and my eldest cat used to go into bed with me if I had gallbladder pain and felt unwell. I think they can interpret body language.

Carbiesdreamhouse · 16/04/2022 19:39

Cats have a tuna tin about to be opened sense

freshcarnation · 16/04/2022 19:39

Horses definitely read our body language, can tell when our pulse rate goes up, breathing changes etc and react to the most subtle things.

pastypirate · 16/04/2022 19:40

I know they are much more acutely attuned to routines abs rhythms and all sorts really.

All our dogs can tell a family car sound being different to any car pulling up. My cocker is very aware we are expecting a visitor even if I say nothing to anyone. He will stand sentry in the living room window several hours before anyone arrives. He has good hearing but he can't hear dm starting her car 40 miles away!

zhivagodr · 16/04/2022 19:43

There is anecdotal evidence of birds knowing that the tsunamis from the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster was about to hit. Survivors had reported that the birds had flown inland and started chirping wildly before it hit.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 16/04/2022 19:47

Animals don't have a 'sixth' sense or any sort of extra sensory perception, they're entirely instinctual beings so the rely on, and make far better use of their superior senses than humans do.

Ponderingwindow · 16/04/2022 19:47

When I had cancer, my cat kept trying to sleep on that particular spot on my body. It was not a natural sleeping spot or one she had ever slept on previously.

I actually had to lock her out of the room eventually for her own safety because of the type of radiation I had. She found a spot in a cabinet in the adjacent room that was basically as close to my bed as she could possibly get and barely left that spot for the duration.

TooManyAnimals94 · 16/04/2022 19:48

I don't think they have a 6th sense, as PP said, their 5 senses are more highly tuned. I spend my life outdoors so I can normally tell its going to rain and you can definitely smell lightening, but my towny friends look at me like I think I'm a witch or something 😅
When our survival depended on it I'm sure humans were much more attuned to weather, sensing emotions etc.
Dogs' sense of smell fascinates me...I can't comprehend being able to smell 10000 times better than I do, must be overwhelming!
The one I find weird is dogs always know you're about to reach your destination in a car, even if they haven't been there before.

WestminsterCrabby · 16/04/2022 19:58

@ozymandiusking

My cat hasn't been anywhere near me this week whilst I'm suffering from covid.
I've got covid too and my cocker spaniel has hardly left my side. I can only think he senses that I'm feeling rotten because he usually sticks to DH like glue and can take me or leave me!
Original poster
WildRosie · 16/04/2022 20:04

OK. I accept that the sixth sense notion is a fanciful one and we humans derive that from the fact that the animals have more finely-tuned or much more efficient senses than we. Has human evolution eradicated what we once had whilst the four-legs and wingers have retained their wild ancestral senses ?

OP posts:
PrincessPaws · 16/04/2022 20:08

If I am suffering from a bout of insomnia or anxiety my girl cat (who usually curls up in her basket at night) will break into the bedroom to lay on me and purr until I fall sleep

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 16/04/2022 20:09

We are no physiologically different to the very first homo sapiens. Our senses haven't been dulled at all, we just make up for our comparative lack of 'super' senses in other ways. We have enormously powerful brains, we are capable of conceiving abstract notions that animals can not, and we can perceive and anticipate potential threats and sources of harm far in advance of an animal that is reliant on directly sensing them.