No matter where you live, we all know stories about ghosts. We love those spooky tales about vengeful ghosts or guardian angels that watch over people. And, the best part is that there are many stories about ghost dogs!

In most cases, it is a story about a mysterious dog people hear or see late at night on desolate roads. Some are really spooky, and some make you think twice about whether there really is something after this life. Here are five dog ghost stories to enjoy this Halloween night.

1. The Blue Dog Legend

Many sources say this is possibly the oldest ghost story in American history. It is a story about a dog called Blue Dog and its owner Charles Thomas Sims. 

It was in the 1700s in Port Tobacco, Maryland. Charles T Sims was a wealthy man who liked to brag about his wealth, especially when he had a few too many at a local tavern. That fateful night was nothing different. Charles went into a tavern followed by his dog, Blue Dog. He bragged to people and drank. 

When they finished for the night, Charles and Blue Dog were not alone. They were followed by a man called Henry Hanos who wanted to rob Charles. Unfortunately, he didn’t just rob Charles but killed both him and his loyal dog. Henry took the gold from dead Charles and buried it under a tree on the same road. He wanted to come back later for the gold once the dust had settled about the murder.

However, when he came back to get the gold, he was chased away by a ghost dog. It is believed that it was the ghost of the Blue Dog. Some people claim to see Blue Dog guarding the treasure even today, after so many years.

2. Christopher Knight’s Ghost Dogs

Maybe you have heard of Christopher Knight through a TV show called The Brady Bunch or you heard of him through this story. Either way, it is one of those stories you have to retell every Halloween because it’s just spooky enough to give you a scary but cozy feeling at the same time.

Christopher said he was filming the show (the Brady Bunch) and during this time he had stayed at the friend’s grandparents’ house. One night he woke up to feel a dog’s breath on his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw two dogs at the bottom of his bed. Christopher said the dogs were not scary. They weren’t growling or barking, but calm. He also said there was a little girl calling the dogs to come to her while she stood at the doorway.

How he had not panicked, I don’t know. But, he remained calm and told the story the next day to his friend and his friend’s grandparents. They showed him an old photo of two dogs that lived at the property a long time ago. They were the same as the dogs he saw the night before. However, no one knew who the girl was.

3. Spot Comes Back

One of my favorite dog ghost stories comes from the Dodo interview. It is about a woman who spoke about Spot, her dog, who came back as a ghost to visit the house he used to live in. The woman’s name is Ellie Thomas, and she says they had a small dog called Spot. After many years, she and her family moved out, and a new family moved into the same place.

The new family asked Ellie whether she had a dog that was short, terrier-like, white with a black spot on its back. They asked her this because the members of the family saw the dog that looked like that standing at the end of the corridor next to the bedrooms. 

They described it as a ghost-like apparition that didn’t scare them. On the contrary, it looked as if the dog was watching over the family. And, yes – their description matched the Spot. It seems as if Spot couldn’t let go of the place where he and his family had so many wonderful moments. The story of Spot warms our hearts and really makes us cherish the time we have with our four-legged friends.

4. Preston The Boxer

A true Halloween story is about a Boxer dog called Preston. The story talks about a Halloween evening more than 50 years ago in the Belmont Hillsboro neighborhood in Nashville. A group of children was going down the street, trick or treating. They were followed by a dog called Preston.

One of the boys from the group didn’t pay attention and stepped onto the street to collect some candy that had dropped. The boy didn’t see the car coming fast at him and he didn’t have time to react. His sister rushed to pull him aside, but she was intercepted by Preston who pushed the boy and got hit by the car instead.

There was commotion and screams, but eventually, the boy and his sister were alright. However, Preston was nowhere to be found. The little boy’s sister came back to see if the dog was OK after she took care of her brother, but no one could find Preston’s body.

And, that’s when Preston started to watch over children every Halloween in this neighborhood. Children say they feel a slight nudge when they come too close to the street. Others say they see a Preston-like ghost dog in the distance, watching over trick-or-treaters. 

5. The White Ghost Dog From South Carolina

The last dog ghost story on our list is a more gruesome one with revenge at the center. It’s about a door-to-door salesman and his big white dog who followed him everywhere he went. The dog was his guardian and friend.

One day, there was a murder in a town a salesman was passing through. Everyone thought it was him, the salesman, who committed the crime because “no one in the community could have done such a horrible act!”. 

The mob caught the man and dragged him to the outskirts of the town to hang him from a tree as a punishment for the crime. The man screamed, telling everyone he didn’t do it. His dog followed the people barking and growling. But the dog couldn’t save the salesman. He was hanged from a tree and one of the men shot the dog too. However, the dog was wounded and he ran away.

The people from the town later found out the salesman wasn’t responsible for the crime and they wanted to give the man they wronged a proper burial. However, when they came back to get the body, they couldn’t come near it because the salesman’s dog was next to the tree barking and biting anyone who tried to get near. So they left the body hanging and rotting in the summer heat…until one day, both the body and the dog were gone.

After a few months, one of the men who was a part of the group that hanged the salesman was passing by the tree. He suddenly felt a horrible stench and when he turned around he saw a body hanging from a tree. But, there was a big white dog too under the tree.

The dog chased the man, ran after him into the woods, and eventually bit the man’s hand so hard, it was almost severed from the arm. The dog disappeared like smoke in the air as the man pulled his hand from the dog’s jaw.

The same man later found out that everyone who had something to do with hanging the salesman had a crippling injury. And some got it even worse — the man who shot the dog lost his child. His son disappeared and was never seen again.

The End

All of these stories are folklore tales with an example of the Spot and his “return” to watch over the house he lived in. No matter if you are superstitious or not, whatever your beliefs are, such stories give us hope there is something more out there and that it is not all in vain. 

They tell us that it is true that all dogs go to heaven, and cats too (if they want to).