Celebrating Halloween with your puppy means cute dog costumes and costume contests, dog-friendly Halloween treats, parades, and other memory-making opportunities. What’s a Halloween celebration without scary stories to tell in the dark? Cultures all across the globe hold myths, legends, and ghost stories with some of the scariest featuring dogs. This Halloween, gather around the campfire to scare your friends with spooky dog ghost stories by telling terrifying tales that would make any tail tremble.
5 Spooky Ghost Stories About Dogs
Black dogs and hounds are featured prominently in tales involving dogs in cultural folklore, myths, and legends. Embellished characteristics of ghost stories about dogs keep people in shivers when listening to the details change to become scarier over time. From ancient church services to the battlefields of Gettysburg, these dog ghost stories are sure to produce a hair-raising experience.
Castle Peel
1. Moddey dhoo, Black Dog from the British Isles
On a small island between Ireland and Great Britain in the Irish Sea, the sleepy town of Douglas on the Isle of Man is home to a canine ghost named Moddey dhoo from Castle Peel. Traditionally, black dogs are bad omens in British folklore, as they are mysterious apparitions that bring shipwrecks and even death.
Moddey dhoo struck fear in the hearts of soldiers who always guarded Castle Peel in the 1600s during Charles II’s reign. The guard room was connected to the Captain’s Guard Room via a dark, old tunnel through a church. They began noticing a large black dog with a huge, shaggy body like a Cocker Spaniel in various rooms, but no one claimed him as their own. This black dog would appear from the dark passage and lie at the hearth until morning when he would disappear. The Soldiers always traveled in pairs for safety. But because the black dog didn’t bother anyone or acknowledge the soldiers, they began to let their guard down and lose their fear of it even though they remained quiet.
One unfortunate night, a drunk soldier foolishly decided to brave the tunnel alone to carry the key to the Captain, boasting that he wasn’t afraid of the Moddey dhoo. After he stumbled away, the black dog got up from the hearth and followed him down the tunnel. After a while, the other soldiers failed to hear from him, and he didn’t return. As they grew more and more worried, they heard a blood-curdling scream from the drunken soldier. The soldiers were too terrified to go rescue him, but he burst through the door with a pale, terror-stricken expression. He was covered in blood, and his clothes were ripped to shreds. For the next few days, the terrified soldier kept the same expression on his face, and he didn’t speak a word. The soldier was dead in three days. No one knows what his encounter with the black dog was like, but the Moddey dhoo has never been seen again.
Hummelbaugh House
2. The Hummelbaugh Howling Hound
Gettysburg, PA is considered one of the most haunted places in the United States based on Civil War activity where soldiers on both sides suffered gruesome deaths on the battlefield. The legend of Hummelbaugh’s howling hound is just one of countless ghost stories coming from the area during the 1860s. Jacob Hummelbaugh’s house was taken over by Union soldiers and turned into a field hospital. Confederate General William Barksdale was waiting outside on the steps pleading for water but succumbed to his wounds from a charge across Seminary Ridge. It is said one can still hear Barksdale crying out for water at night and that blood runs down the walls of the field hospital. His loyal dog refused to leave his side even after Barksdale was buried on the property. Legend says the dog didn’t even leave after Barksdale’s widow exhumed his remains to bring him back home to Mississippi. The dog refused to eat, drink, or move from his master’s body and starved to death where his owner’s spirit remained. To this day, the faithful hound can be heard howling incessantly on the property, especially on the anniversary of Barksdale’s death.
3. The Black Dog of Newgate
Another series of stories involving a black dog apparition occurred in London’s Newgate Prison near St. John’s Cathedral. Dating back to the 12th century, the prison was notorious for horrid conditions throughout the years. In 1596, a man thought to be a sorcerer was thrown into prison during the time of a great famine, leading prisoners to turn to cannibalism due to extreme hunger and desperation. Prisoners preyed upon the weak who could not defend themselves, and the sorcerer fell victim to their attacks, becoming dinner in a violent feast.
Several nights later, it’s said that the spirit of the sorcerer came back in the form of a malicious specter of a giant black dog. This canine apparition roamed the prison for many torturous nights in a row, ripping apart the attackers limb-by-limb and ending in gruesome deaths. The remaining attackers lucky enough to live tried to escape due to going mad with fear, but the Black Dog of Newgate hunted them down, too. To this day, visitors to Amen Court report the black dog’s ghost slithers along walls and drags its feet in a shapeless form, giving off a nasty odor.
4. Legend of the Blue Dog
Thought to be America’s oldest ghost story, the legend of the Blue Dog has haunted Port Tobacco, MD since the 1700s. A man named Charles Thomas Sims and his canine companion, Blue Dog the blue tick hound, drank at a tavern, bragging about his deed to land and gold. Henry Hanos and his friends were listening carefully, and the group led by Hanos followed Sims out of the tavern. They robbed him of his money and deed and killed Sims in front of Blue Dog, who died trying valiantly to defend Sims from his attackers. Hanos buried the stolen gold and deed under a tree on Rose Hill Road for safekeeping to return to later. However, when Hanos returned, the huge, menacing ghost of Blue Dog ran him off, and Hanos died a few days later. Every February 8th on the anniversary of his death, people claim to see Blue Dog’s ghost protecting the spot where his owner’s treasure was buried.
The Devil's Fingerprints on the North Door
5. Black Shuck, the Suffolk Coast
Said to be named after “scucca,” the Old English word for “devil,” Black Shuck is a huge, imposing black dog called a hell-hound with hateful glowing red eyes the size of dinner plates and savage claws that has terrorized East Anglia for centuries. Some said he was calf-sized, while others claimed Black Shuck was as big as a horse. Regardless of his exact size, Black Shuck reigned in terror and appeared sometimes as headless and other times floating on mist. He is said to have brought death and destruction along crossroads, lonely paths, isolated coastlines, dark forests, bodies of water, and graveyards, letting out chilling howls but making no other noises.
In 1577, there is an account of Black Shuck wreaking havoc on two East Anglian churches. He burst through the doors of the Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh where he ran up the aisle, killing a worshipper and boy while the church steeple collapsed around them. Black Shuck left claw and burn marks on the north door, and to this day people can see what is now called “the Devil’s fingerprints.” At St. Mary's Church in Bungay, Black Shuck killed two people in prayer and violently slaughtered many more in the congregation. One account of the terrible day reads, "All down the church in midst of fire, the hellish monster flew, and, passing onward to the quire, he many people slew.” Today, one can see evidence of this chilling tale around town as reflected in coats of arms and weathervanes.
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