Has anyone here experienced the "Black dog phenomenon"? My husband and I sure did, and I've heard that it happens to truck drivers.
Our experience happened when we were returning from California to Utah and we were driving north in between St. George and Cedar City. It was around 11pm. We were going the speed limit and all of sudden, at the same time, he caught some movement in the corner of his eye on his side of the car, and I saw something moving on my side. At first, I thought it was a deer but we were going 60 or 65 mph. I turned and looked, and it was a black dog with white eyes and teeth looking at me and keeping pace comfortably with our car! It looked to be a Retriever and it was moving over closer to our car! At the same time, my husband saw a black dog with white eyes and teeth, also keeping pace with us! the one he saw was a German Shepherd. No matter whether we slowed down or speeded up, they kept pace with us. They didn't leave us until we reached a lonely gas station that had lights on.

I have heard of the Black Dog Phenomenon but have never experienced it. In checking the Internet, I found that there are a number of articles about it. Here is a link to one of them:

http://anomalyinfo.com/Topics/black-dogs-phantom-hounds-legend-and-life



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2017 09:47AM by commongentile.

No. But I was warned by my father (who was raised with some old world superstitions combined with Catholicism in a Latino and Dine home) told me to ignore and not pet or acknowledge black dogs if I was walking out at night.

I don't buy into the superstition, I think it's just dogs that get loose or are dumped and fearful.

How about you just don't drive while fatigued. You would be doing all of us a favor.

My mom told us this story:

While she was a young bride in the 1940s, her huband told her that he began seeing "a mysterious black dog." To him, that was an omen of his death. Not long after that, he died of meningitis.

Maybe that's why she was superstitious.

This happened to us in 1980. We weren't tired or drunk, and my husband was used to being up late because he worked swing shift at the time. It was interesting because we each saw a different breed of dog. We had planned on staying in Cedar City and we did stay there afterwards. Before we drove off from the gas station, he did make the sign of the cross, though! :-D

That does sound like a strange and eerie phenomenon.

That you both experienced it seems more than illusory, because you both saw the same thing happening at the same time on different sides of the road.

I had not heard of this before now. It is strange on its face.

Maybe check out some of the local folklore between St. George and Cedar City that might help to corroborate your experience.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2017 12:29PM by Amyjo.

There are legends and tales about large black dogs all over the UK. It can be known as Black Shuck, Padfoot, the Grim, Barghest plus lots of others, Conan Doyle's " Hound of the Baskervilles" owes a bit to the legends.

Here's a couple links you may or may not have already seen about black dog sightings. Didn't find anything specific to St George or Utah (or US for that matter, when googling it.) You'd probably need to check with the locals in that area to see if there's been other similar episodes as you and your husband experienced.

http://www.simonsherwood.co.uk/blackdog.htm

http://theshadowlands.net/blackdog.html

My dad used to relay a story that happened to him as he walked home from high school one night in the dark, on a country road, in SE Idaho. It was a country high school, and he had a two mile walk home following his athletic practice to an even more rural place where his family lived.

It was a routine walk for dad to make. Nothing eventful about it. Except for that night. On that evening dad said he started to hear a great flapping of wings as he made his way home, but he couldn't see anything near him or beside him. But he HEARD it moving beside him as it followed him almost the entire stretch of his walk in the dark. He heard steps coinciding with the flapping of wings - but whatever it was he was sure it wasn't human. He didn't know what it was.

It scared him pretty bad, and he ran the last stretch of his way home. As he did the creature speeded up its pace with my dad and he heard the flapping and footsteps increase in pace with his own until he reached his home.

It only happened that once. He never did find out what caused the noise and movement.

I thought it was term for chronic depression

I haven't heard of this one, but I did get a visit from Hat Man when I was 16. There are some really strange things out there. I know what I experienced, but I make no claims towards what it was or meant.

Thank you for the links, Amyjo! What happened to your dad sounds so scary!! The black dogs that we saw weren't friendly; they showed us their large teeth! The Navajos have a superstition to never walk alone after dark and don't whistle after dark. Don't know why,but I'll take their advice.
All of our kids have seen Hat Man-that's another very strange thing.

" Navajos have an avoidance of thing of the night and darkness. They find lunar eclipses more significance than solar eclipses. Tradition dictates that Navajos do not eat when there is an eclipse, or they will have a swollen stomach or stomach problems. They also are not suppose to sleep during an eclipse because their eyes won't open again. Traditional Navajos are not suppose to look at an eclipse, or they will go blind. This taboo is a fact. People can go blind by looking too long at an eclipse.
The death of the sun and of the moon is a frightful and ominous thing."

"Do not walk alone at night or evil spirits will bother you. If a Navajo must travel in the dark, juniper ashes smeared on the face might help, or juniper berries in the mouth. Beads made from the husks of juniper berries found in packrat nests are strung together and might afford protection from the evil spirits. This type of necklace is referred to as “ghost beads.”

"Do not whistle at night because ghosts whistle at night and they might come to you."


This is my favourite one I ran across:
"Do not talk to dogs or other animals because they might talk back and you will die."

I thought that the Dine children might be messing with me when they said they cannot touch feathers, but that is also a taboo as supposedly many bird feathers will cause boils.