I just got a package. A regular box, sitting on the living room floor. I didn’t pay any attention to it, but my Golden Retriever, usually so calm and affectionate, suddenly started barking at it as if he had seen a ghost.
He walked around the box, growing softly, and staring at her with extraordinary concentration.
My first reaction? I laughed. I thought, “He probably smelled a toy or food.” But the barking wasn’t his usual kind.
He was persistent, almost as if he was trying to say, “Hey, be careful!”
Intrigued, I knelt down next to him, trying to figure out what had him so wary. His behavior was too strange to ignore. And then it hit me: My dog was trying to PROTECT ME… or warn me.
Dogs have a sense of smell that is thousands of times more powerful than ours. They can smell things we can’t even imagine: familiar scents, chemicals, the scent of fear or stress.
And that day he felt something.
I decided to open the package. Slowly. Carefully. And here it is… a surprise: inside is an old dog toy that I ordered second-hand.
Exactly the same as the one he had when he was a puppy. The scent remained all these years later. He was not recognized. He barked not from fear… but from excitement!
I was shocked. This dog recognized the object after several years – only by smell.
It was a simple moment, but it touched me deeply. I realized how sensitive, smart and, most importantly… attentive our four-legged friends are.
Since then, I have become much more attentive to what he is trying to tell me.
When he barks or insists on something, I no longer ignore him. Because he sees – or rather, feels – something that I cannot understand.
