Dogs that Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals

by Sheldrake, Rupert

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New York: Three Rivers 1999. 352pp $14.00

Rupert Sheldrake is renowned for his theory of morphogenetic fields. These fields are species-specific collections of experiences individuals have, which are available to all members of the species. These fields provide information on knowledge and behaviors that are helpful to the species, such as migration routes and other learned behaviors. For instance, mice have learned paths through laboratory mazes, and members of the same species who were not direct descendents of the original lab animals subsequently learned the same mazes much more quickly.

In this book, Sheldrake has gathered several hundred reports of dogs, cats and other pets that evidence telepathic and precognitive communications with humans. These occur most often with the animal's primary caretaker, but may also occur with other people who have close bonds with them.

The evidence is presented engagingly, with many examples from the very broad spectrum of phenomena reported in Sheldrake's survey. Pet owners describe not only dogs and cats who show clear alerting behaviors prior to their owners returning home, but also intuitive anticipations and acknowledgments of death of someone close to them; intuitive homing behaviors; and applied/ trained assistance to owners who are blind or have epilepsy or diabetes.

Sheldrake's hypothess that morphogenetic fields explain all of these phenomena is an interesting variation on the themes of intuitive/psychic awareness, collective consciousness, and spiritual dimensions of reality.

Sheldrake's book is highly recommended to anyone interested in animal communications that extend beyond the ordinary physical world of visual and auditory channels. 

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