In 1924, restauranteur G.F. Brazier reported the following story to his local newspaper, the Silverton Appeal-Tribune.

In 1923, Brazier and his family including their dog Bobbie set off on a cross country drive starting from their home in Silverton, Oregon. While they were in Indiana, some 4000 km from home, their dog was chased off by some other dogs. The Braziers looked around but couldn’t find him, so they went on their journey.

Some six months later, early in 1924, the dog came back to them in Silverton, Oregon, emaciated and mangy, with cuts on his legs. He reported that his daughter, Nova, had first noticed that the dog had returned.

The newspaper printed the story and Bobbie became a famous dog, appearing in films and taking part in ceremonies, being given keys to various cities etc. The conclusion was that the dog had walked at least 4000 km, finding his way to the out of the way village of Silverton.

This version of events, that the dog did manage to achieve this, is reported uncritically in various official account, without any qualifying phrases or adverbs.

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There are a couple of relevant questions:

a) Is this remotely possible?
We can conceive of a dog being familiar enough with its local area to make its way back home from another suburb or neighbouring town. If the dog were regularly taken on a longer trip, then we could accept that the dog could remember various cues from the multiple iterations of the journey.
Or conceivably if there were a single highway or fairly direct route connecting the drop point to the home town, then the probability that the dog could make it back would become significant, even if the journey were 1000s of km.
But in this case the dog was supposedly in a place he’d never been before, and would have to make its way back via a complex path over 4000 km on minor arterial roads to the village of Silverton.

b) If we were to consider that it is according to Hoyle possible, given what we know about the behaviour of dogs and humans how does the probability that the dog achieved this compare to more prosaic explanations?

e.g.

• The dog was never lost. The whole thing was set up for a publicity stunt to draw traffic to a restaurant
• The dog was lost and the family found a stray, and perhaps with a wishful heart took it to be the missing dog.

Yes it has a sniff of moon landing about it.

I am prepared to believe it, as I have seen and heard many stories about birds and animals that cannot be explained except by the concept of sixth sense.

bob(from black rock) said:

I am prepared to believe it, as I have seen and heard many stories about birds and animals that cannot be explained except by the concept of sixth sense.

seeing dead people?

stumpy_seahorse said:

bob(from black rock) said:

I am prepared to believe it, as I have seen and heard many stories about birds and animals that cannot be explained except by the concept of sixth sense.

seeing dead people?

Well yeah, in the old days after a hard night on the piss, there have been mornings when I have woken up and thought I was dead, or wished I was.

bob(from black rock) said:

I am prepared to believe it, as I have seen and heard many stories about birds and animals that cannot be explained except by the concept of sixth sense.

Yep, other animals seem to have better homing ability than man.
Heading in the right general direction would be easy enough.
Dogs have a sense of smell hundreds of times morse sensitive than humans and could easily pick up on the smell of flora percular to it’s home area at that time of year etc etc
It’s believable.

Bobbie may have been a talking dog who could ask for directions. And he wasn’t too proud to work in menial jobs, washing up, flipping burgers etc to pay his way.

as far as i am concerned this story is a bonafide feel good story

As PWN suggests, all the dog needs to do is head in the general direction of home and as it draws closer it would pick up the changes of the flora and fauna, being greatly assisted by its extraordinary sense of smell. When closer, other senses would also come into play to direct it to its home.

Whilst walking my dog in the bush, you can tell she knows more about who’s there than I do, when I have lived there for many years. Not only can she determine the different species, but probably individuals as well, knowing were they live, probably what they eat and the places they visit.

All in all dogs have a highly intimate understanding of their surroundings, far beyond our comprehension. We largely rely on sight, which gives us an understanding of space and distant objects and unless we have that to use, we are greatly disadvantaged, but when working with a dog both species are enhanced, a distinct survival advantage that made the dog “man’s best friend.”

There has to be other cases of dogs that have been lost and eventually return to their owners.

the story is about a dog finding its home from 4000km away.

. Is it possible to walk 4000kms in six months ?

approx >1km per hour. if they walk 24/7

dv said:

—-

There are a couple of relevant questions:

a) Is this remotely possible?

There is a book called “the incredible journey” about a similar event with two dogs and a cat crossing 480 km of Canada together. As a story I found it to be believable, eg I could see how the book could have been composed solely from eyewitness accounts. Then found out later that it was completely made up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Journey

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

—-

There are a couple of relevant questions:

a) Is this remotely possible?

There is a book called “the incredible journey” about a similar event with two dogs and a cat crossing 480 km of Canada together. As a story I found it to be believable, eg I could see how the book could have been composed solely from eyewitness accounts. Then found out later that it was completely made up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Journey

Mmm.

This is what is swaying me to think that the BTWD is probably a concoction.

I mean it is possible that a dog did this remarkable and baffling thing … but on the other hand, every minute of the day there are humans making up bullshit of one kind or another.

But weren’t people more pious back in 1920?

ChrispenEvan said:

approx >1km per hour. if they walk 24/7

There’s nothing remarkable about the distance walked. It is easy to believe that a wandering dog could cover 4000 km in 6 months. That’s not the incredible part.

Arts said:

There has to be other cases of dogs that have been lost and eventually return to their owners.

Yes there are thousands of such stories.

But not travelling 4000 km to an out of the way village across a path they are not familiar with.

dv said:

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

—-

There are a couple of relevant questions:

a) Is this remotely possible?

There is a book called “the incredible journey” about a similar event with two dogs and a cat crossing 480 km of Canada together. As a story I found it to be believable, eg I could see how the book could have been composed solely from eyewitness accounts. Then found out later that it was completely made up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Journey

Mmm.

This is what is swaying me to think that the BTWD is probably a concoction.

I mean it is possible that a dog did this remarkable and baffling thing … but on the other hand, every minute of the day there are humans making up bullshit of one kind or another.

True, but OTOH if a sufficient number of dogs are abandoned 1000’s of km from home we should not be surprised if at least a few of them make it back home.

Also it’s possible that dogs would know the general direction to head from the direction of the sun.

dv said:

ChrispenEvan said:

approx >1km per hour. if they walk 24/7

There’s nothing remarkable about the distance walked. It is easy to believe that a wandering dog could cover 4000 km in 6 months. That’s not the incredible part.

If we deconstruct this one bit at a time we could get to a conclusion, of sorts

I find it hard to believe that it could possibly have been making its way home
. Incredible sense of smell or not. Tracking dogs often lose scents? So unless there is a series of rather fortunate unrepeatable events that allowed the dog to find its way home.. I’m skeptical.

If he was just Bobbie the Dog, sure I’d be sceptical too.

Peak Warming Man said:

If he was just Bobbie the Dog, sure I’d be sceptical too.

should’ve been Bobbie the wander dog…

Peak Warming Man said:

If he was just Bobbie the Dog, sure I’d be sceptical too.

Yeah I’d be less so if he were Bobby the Super Dog but I guess a daydreamer might be good at covering a lot of distance……….

Also it’s possible that dogs would know the general direction to head from the direction of the sun.

I’m happy to concede that the dog could probably go in a general sense back in the direction it had come from.

I take your point about the 1000s of dogs that likely get lost on journeys.
We have to weigh that up against 1000s of publicity hungry restauranteurs.

dv said:

Also it’s possible that dogs would know the general direction to head from the direction of the sun.

I’m happy to concede that the dog could probably go in a general sense back in the direction it had come from.

I take your point about the 1000s of dogs that likely get lost on journeys.
We have to weigh that up against 1000s of publicity hungry restauranteurs.

There is also the question of exactly how much information a dog can extract from it’s greater sense of smell.

If we allow that this happened, it’s highly likely it didn’t take a direct route. Sidetracked by other animals, hunger, weather.

They also have an acute sense of hearing in ranges outside our limited otic capabilities.
They could probably pick up a wind turbine hundreds of miles away.

Only lived 6 years

Any relation to Charle the Wonder Dog? They do have the same surname.

Charlie the Wonder Dog

Even if it was a hoax, it obviously worked for the owners. They got the fame and the dog was buried with honours.

There’s some great dog tails out there.

Lampo was a dog in Italy that was known far and wide on the Italian rail network.
He used to ride the trains and was fed and watered by the rail staff.
He travelled far and wide, changing trains at various stations.
But he always came back to a train station at a port town where he’s walk out to the port and sit down and gaze out to sea for hours.
They speculate that he was owned by a sailor who met with a mishap and never returned.
Terrific book.

Perhaps the distinct difference in landscapes between Oregon and Indiana provided a degree of coherency between his sense of direction and memory of journey?

Postpocelipse said:

Perhaps the distinct difference in landscapes between Oregon and Indiana provided a degree of coherency between his sense of direction and memory of journey?

How long would he have sat in the back of the car watching the Rockies recede into the distance?

their claim of ‘4000km’ is a bit off

nowhere in indiana is more than 3700km by road from Silverton OR

If a dog or any animal is to find its way home, it needs to have acquired sufficient information from its home environment to enable it to do so. So being locked up in a suburban backyard (like many dogs), I doubt they would get this. City dogs I suspect would have the greatest problem in finding their way home due to their lack of local information and many changing and confusing smells.

A neigbour’s cat went missing soon after they moved here, but was found back at its old home (more than 10km away through suburbia) a few weeks later.

…but on the other hand, every minute of the day there are humans making up bullshit of one kind or another.

i took last friday off!!!