How does my dog know about deliveries before they arrive?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Whenever something is due to be delivered, my dog seems to know when it is en route. That is, when Amazon would start marking the number of stops as 3 or 4 away, or UPS or FedEx would be about 15 minutes away (but not when USPS is close, albeit, they deliver to a box about 150 meters away from the front door, where there are several hundred boxes; rarely to the front door).

Anyway, when something is close, but there is NO visible indication-- we live on an inside corner, so you don’t see trucks heading down the street-- of their imminent arrival, she starts barking up a storm, and scurrying between the side window, where she can see the front door, and the front door itself, sniffing madly under it.

If I call her off, or distract her with something, it just lasts a few minutes, and then the package arrives, and she’ll leap up a couple of feet, now in FULL watchdog mode (I have never had a dog who takes being a dog so seriously before), and run from me, to the door, me to the door, ad infinitum, until stupid human me finally gets it, and brings it whatever it is, while she sniffs it frantically to make sure it is safe, and find out if it contains dog treats.

Such a production.

She is very rarely wrong. Occasionally, our neighbor has gotten a package, or the valet pick-up has stolen our garbage AGAIN! and she can’t believe I’m not more concerned. Once in a while, there’s an OMG! other human there, and whether I open the door or not, I don’t let her satisfy her desperate need to sniff this person down for safety (and probably dog treats).

Once in a great long while, there is nothing, and I wonder what she heard or smelled. But I’d say she hits it 9.7 out of 10 times. And .2 out of 10 are the neighbors getting something.

Now, there are usually visual clues. If I order groceries or DoorDash, that occurs shortly before the delivery, and even when it is an Amazon delivery, I am usually expecting it, and checking my laptop-- but I am on the laptop a lot just checking email, or here, or working, so I don’t know what kinds of clues she gets from me being on the computer.

What can a dog smell or hear that can cue her into a delivery?

Or is it my imagination?

2

My dog starts barking at the mail truck before it comes in sight, he must hear it coming down the road.

3

My last set of cats could hear and recognize my lovely wife’s car blocks away.

4

We had a cat that could do that. My wife was taking a computer course, miles away. From wherever our cat would be, she would trot over and perch herself in the front window and watch the parking lot. My wife would arrive within five minutes. It’s not like she came home at exactly the same time, every time. The time she would return varied. We never could figure it out. It was like our cat could hear the sound of my wife’s car from miles away and knew exactly when she would arrive.

5

Ultrasound and infrasound are likely candidates. They can hear ultrasound, and feel the vibrations of infrasound. Ultrasound can be very loud without humans noticing, and infrasound travels a long distance.

And dogs are really good at some kinds of pattern recognition. It’s quite possible that they can, for example, feel the vibration of a vehicle approaching a long ways away and recognize it as the kind of vehicle that delivers things.

6

I’ll have to see if she misses deliveries (she has very rarely, but occasionally, slept through one after a grueling day at daycare) when they are delivered by Amazon drivers using their own cars. I seem mostly to get the big trucks, which I assume is because I don’t live near one of the dispatch centers for POV delivery drivers.

And thinking back, she wasn’t quite as good at this back when we lived at a place with an inside door-- she got plenty freaked out over anyone who came in the main entrance, wherever they were headed, but there was a lot more foot traffic past the main door that had nothing to do with us, and she didn’t bark at any approaching vehicle.

We’re sort or at an end now, because we’re on a corner.

7

Its possible that you are behaving in a manner that your dog has picked on and associated it with food delivery. Like the way you act when placing the order on your phone and the checking of the delivery progress. Then food shows up. Positive reinforcement.

8

For my dog, this is clearly how it works. If he’s in a back bedroom, far from the front door and the street, he won’t hear it coming, but if he’s in the kitchen or living room, which are close, he will alert me as the vehicle approaches and then parks in front of my house. How does he know whether a random car or truck driving by is coming to my home? He must hear the brakes as the vehicle slows down and parks. He can’t see or smell what’s in front of my house; he can only listen to it when he happens to be in the right room of the house.

9

Quite possible; dogs are really good at reading body language.

10

Same. I work from home and have to work out of the basement because it’s the only place where he won’t bark at every passerby and delivery truck. There is a guy who walks his dog past our house and Bartleby starts barking when the guy is coming up the hill, but not yet in sight, for that one it might be smell.

11

Is she logged onto your wifi? She may be accessing tracking data without your knowledge.

Particularly if she’s microchipped.
:wink:

12

My dog does have a pretty good sniffer, because any time there is a new dog in the apartment complex, she’ll go nuts wanting out, and when I take her, she’ll go nose-down, and track the smell to that dog’s door, a pees in the grass in front of it. She does that for about a week. She’s not a fighter-- she want to play with every dog she sees-- so I don’t know if this is a warning or an invitation.

13

The only thing she has access to is an old Chromebook that is really slow.

14

Piper Mutt: “There are people out there! They’re stealing all that snow on our driveway and sidewalk!! Why aren’t you doing something!!! Let me out – I’ll handle it!!! !”
:dog_face:

15

While outside with the dog, she will react to a delivery truck (or similar vehicle) that is way down the road. She may inside but I don’t notice it.

I work from home and the previous dog would sit by me. As soon as I started closing down things at the end of the work day she would get up and get ready for outside time. He obviously knew the approximate time, but not the exact time. I figure it could be my mood, and maybe how I was moving around. Maybe closing a bunch of windows looks different than other work stuff.

While I was working both dogs would leave the room whenever I got stressed. It actually helps for an indicator i need to calm down.

16

Are YOU aware it’s coming, like are you tracking something? If so, the dog could be picking up on something you’re doing. Dogs are very, very attuned to their masters’ vibe.

17

My grandparents had a dog when I was a kid who would always know when my uncle was coming over. My uncle lived about five minutes from my grandparents’ house. The dog would start barking a certain way- which he never did otherwise- and five minutes later my uncle would show up. The dog didn’t do that for anyone else.

18

I already said this is sometimes the case-- but other times, she has been barking and sniffing the door, and I have NOT been expecting anything-- but I open the door because it’s the only thing that will calm her down-- and sure enough, there’s a package. Something sent by family I wasn’t expecting, or something I ordered that has come early.

19

BTW, while the dog is a mutt, she’s almost certainly a good deal of Pointer, with some Beagle, and some Pit Bull (every mutt in Indiana has a little Pit Bull), and those are all dogs that are particularly good at sniffing, even among dogs.

Pointers and Beagles are hunting dogs, and Pit Bulls have focus-- they are good at tuning out distractions, and paying attention to one stimulus. That certainly describes this dog:

Ignore mess in background-- it’s from when I was moving in. Oh, and if it’s visually confusing, she’s chewing a rawhide roll, and highly focused.

20

Several of our current cats do the same.