Dogs sense earthquakes?

Question

This is a random question but i'm curious. I'm from Northern Illnois up by the city and we had an earthquake about a week ago. The epicenter was down south in Illinois 5 or 6 hours from here. The night it happened my dogs were acting strange. They wouldn't come to bed which never happens and one of them kept getting up from the livingroom floor and whining. He finally came to bed but about 30 seconds to a minute before the quake hit he jumped out of bed and started whining. Both of the dogs did actually. Is it possible they could sense it coming or is it just random? It was a pretty good shake but not as big as others around the world. it was a strong one for this area 5.2 I believe.

I know i've read that dogs can sense storms and bad weather bc of the pressure changes in the air but idk if they can sense quakes too?

Like I said, random. And i'm pretty curious

Answer 1

I live about 70 miles from the epicenter, and my dog acted strange too. He woke me up whining about a half hour before the quake. I thought he wanted outside, but he wouldn't go out. I gave him a treat and he just ignored it. He usually gobbles them right down. He was actually walking in circles whining for a while. He acted the same before the aftershock the next day. My in laws said their dog acted strange also. So yes, I think they can sense something is about to happen.

Answer 2

They could have felt the tremors even if they were really small.

Answer 3

Many case reports cite instances of animals behaving in strange ways before natural phenomena,but few scientific data exist on the matter.

Domestic animals,dogs and cats in particular, do have hearing and other sensory capacities that are greater than ours.It would not be surprising if they were able to sense these kind of things better.

Their hearing is more sensitive and covers a wide frequency range,and they have a much better sense of smell.With these advantages, they may be able to sense the vibrations and even hear the vibrations when earthquake is about to occur.