Can dogs really predict earthquakes?

Edit (whoops)

No they can't.

Rand B Schaal at the University of California at Davis did a study on it.

His Conclusion:

"This study shows that a significant positive correlation does not exist between the behavior of pets in the San Jose area and the occurrence of earthquakes within the same area over the three year period from January 1983 through December 1985."

Additionaly, Uncle Sam agrees:

http://interactive2.usgs.gov/faq/list_faq_by_categ...

Can Dogs Predict Earthquakes

While there's plenty of evidence that some dogs behave strangely just before natural disasters, most researchers agree that it's hardly a systematic method of prediction.

Japanese doctor Kiyoshi Shimamura announced this week that for years he has noticed a jump in dog bites and other dog-related complaints before and after earthquakes. He examined records of complaints from public health centres in western Japan affected by the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, a disaster that killed more than 6,000 people.

He found that accounts of dogs barking "excessively" went up by 18% on average in the months before the earthquake. Above the epicentre on Awaji Island, there was a 60% increase in complaints compared with a year earlier. Later this month, he will present his idea that dogs are somehow sensitive to impending earthquakes to the Seismological Society of Japan.

Scientists have a hard time predicting earthquakes. "We do not have the technology to really predict earthquakes in the sense of when, where and how big," says Sarada Sarma, an engineering seismologist at Imperial College in London.

So he is suspicious of the idea that dogs have some sort of prescience. "The animals do feel something, that is a fact," says Sarma. "But it does not have to be necessarily earthquakes." Dogs bark for all sorts of reasons, he says, so who knows whether an earthquake is on the way or if the poor animal has merely not been fed that day? Some animal biologists have suggested that dogs could react to high-frequency sounds coming from the straining of rocks in a fault, Not possible Sardar says, as usually the rocks make no such sounds.

Other researchers suggest that the dogs may be reacting to tiny changes in electromagnetic fields or the microscopic deformation of the ground before quakes. But unless you are a dog, none of this is easy to prove.

I believe it is true.Many animals (not just dogs) can predict natural catastrophes. My cat would sometimes act crazy and run around before an earthquake. This is normal and other animals have their own ways of how to act before one actually. It is some kind of sense that they have and we don't.

But people sometimes do have these senses too...not many but I think there are people like that. Also babies and young children have very strange powers but not many might notice that. THIS might seem like an urban legend but I know from experience that children have a wonderful mind of their own. I,personally, could tell if the person was lying and I could read the mind of the person. Nobody had to complete the sentence to make me understand,I could...I don't know...guess!It was strange but I remember it like it was yesterday and I am 13 now, so it wasn't a long time ago. It was something trully amazing. I can't do any of teh above right now though :( Now that we all get used to the polluted environment around us and all these things, we slowly loose these strange phenomenal powers.

I might sound like I am crazy, but it is true and my final answer is, yes, dogs can really predict earthquakes.

It is NOT an urban legend.

A few years back a few hours before a strong earthquake my dog, but the neighours' dogs as well became restless and started barking. I am speaking from personal experience however I have read this as a fact in a scientific study.

I did some research on this and here is what I found....

Can dogs really predict earthquakes?

Alok Jha

Thursday October 2, 2003

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12...

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Accounts of such animal behavior prior to the recent tsunami in south Asia, coupled with the surprising lack of animal carcasses found in the aftermath, has revived speculation about four-legged forecasting. One possibility is that many animals, including dogs, can detect sounds inaudible to humans, as well as ground vibrations, both of which were likely generated by the massive quake that preceded the giant waves.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20050215.html

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Can animals predict earthquakes?

An interesting article by Matt Kaplan in the 17 February of the New Scientist is about the millennia old claims that many animals, including, dogs, snakes, elephants, can sense an earthquake sometimes days before it strikes.

http://snailstales.blogspot.com/2007/02/can-animal...

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Can dogs really predict earthquakes?

I've heard dogs start to bark a few minutes before earthquakes. Anybody know if this is true or just an urban legend?

Actually I think its true. Dogs sometimes do bark or act strange right before an earthquake begins. It has actually happened to some people I have heard of. One ladies dog started barking before an earthquake and a tornado. Dogs are good at sensing things that are going to happen. Like for instance an earthquake..

Considering the fact that no human or machine has been able to predict earthquakes, I would say the reactions of dogs right before an earthquake might be the only thing we have! I observed a dog whine and seek shelter right before the quake of 89. Too bad I didn't do the same!

From my own experience...yes! when I was 14 yrs. old there was an Earthquake back home, pretty big. The Earthquake hit about 2 or 3 in the morning, and that night before going to bed, all the dogs in the neighborhood were barking, it was crazy, they would not stop barking!

I was visiting my cousin's home for the weekend and she had a small dog - that was just barking and barking, I remember her husband going several times to the backyard and check what was going on.

A little bit before it hit - all dogs went quite and then it started to tremble...

So to answer, yes, I do think they can feel it, maybe the tremors that are approaching harder and harder is easier for them to feel than to humans and a sense of danger as all animal have in them. :)

Yes. Dogs are able to somehow sense when an earthquake is coming. How do I know? I'm a dog owner and she acted strangely before an earthquake.

About five years ago, one early morning my boyfriend and I heard our two year old husky/lab walking up and down the hallway between the kitchen and our bedroom. She was whining and seemed very agitated. We called to her, and she came into our room and before our very eyes, she urinated on our floor. At that time, our dog had long been fully house-trained. As we got out of bed to discipline her for what she had done, the house suddenly began to shake. That morning we experienced a 3.1 earthquake. We are certain that our dog had detected the earthquake coming and became nervous, agitated, and frightened enough to urinate on the floor. I believe dogs can predict earthquakes.