Why don’t dogs look up when a low-flying plane passes overhead? part 4

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Yet more readers share their insights from their own four-legged friends – and one proposes a more general theory

Why don’t dogs look up when a low-flying plane or helicopter passes overhead? I’ve never seen one do this. (continued)

Copyright: Credit: Lee Martin/Alamy

Guy Cox
Sydney, Australia

Most previous replies have been about individual dogs. I’m afraid this is another, but it may have a more general application.

My daughter’s dog Guffy, a kelpie/spaniel cross, is terrified of thunder. If he hears distant thunder, he runs and hides. However, he also mistakes the rumbling of a plane going over for thunder and does the same – with no thought of looking up.

There seems to be some logic to a dog fearing thunder, as it can indicate a coming drenching and loud thunderclaps that must be painful to a dog’s sensitive ears. Dogs have lived with thunder for much longer than they have lived with planes.

Harry Olund
Newport, Oregon, US

I have had four Labradors in the past 60 or so years. They all looked up when a plane flew overhead – if only for 4 or 5 seconds. It didn’t hold their interest for very long.

Ron Bennett
Yorkshire, UK

Reading about West Yorkshire dog Blu, who tracked low-flying planes (1 August), makes me think there must be something in the area’s air. We had a rescue collie that used to chase planes.

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