Recently, I was perusing Paranormal Wisconsin’s Facebook page, and I came across this entry from March 14, 2024, by Jim Hohler: “Heard of a nearby Dogman sighting by Dodgeville. Apparently, it was lurching down the middle of Hwy 133 in the early morning hours yesterday. The driver knows nothing of cryptids and described it as a huge 6ft+ dog that got up and ran on 2 legs. When offered pictures of Dogman, she stated that is exactly what she had seen.”
The late, great Linda Godfrey did some investigations about the Dogman phenomenon. In her blog – LindaGodfrey’s Blog – she retold this encounter between a Dogman and a truck. “Shelby, a small town in Oceana County that lies halfway between Ludington and Muskegon, is only a couple of miles from the western edge of the forest and six or seven miles from the Lake Michigan shore. In February 2009, at about 11:30 pm, recently retired law enforcement officer Laura Love was a passenger in a car headed north on Highway US-31 near the West Webster Road overpass. Her friend, “C” was driving. In Laura’s own words:
“We were just talking about general things…there was a small truck in front of us, no other traffic on the road, in either direction. The road itself was mostly clear, but did have areas of snow/ice spots. The weather was cold but there was no snow falling, and it was a cloudless night.
We saw a large, tall, dark, and oddly shaped creature run out from the left side of the overpass and hit the rear quarter panel of the small truck in front of us, causing the truck to fish-tail. Luckily the small pickup did regain control, but it didn’t stop to see what collided with it. If anything, it seemed to speed up as if it got a view of what hit it and wanted to get the heck out of Dodge.
It looked like a giant dog or wolf. It was bipedal, not on all fours. It was at least 7-7.5 feet tall. It had a kind of mane around its head (much like a lion’s mane). The hind legs looked like dog legs when they were up on two legs…like the knees were backward, which seemed more pronounced as it was running across the two-lane highway from left to right. The front legs were swinging freely as it ran.
The face was definitely canine, much like a collie face… elongated with a snout and nose protruding from the face. The mouth was slightly opened as it ran…and the creature was covered by longish dark hair, but in varying lengths. It had pointy ears that seemed to be more on the top portion of its head rather than on the sides. We watched as it ran off to the right side of the highway and disappeared into the small trees and weeds along the road. It seemed to pay us no heed whatsoever as if it was unconcerned that we were fast approaching it.
‘C’ kept driving but was silent.
I asked her, “Did you just see….?”
She replied, “Yes, I did.”
I said, ‘OK.’
We drove the next ten minutes in silence until we got to my driveway.
We went into my house, and I made some tea. We sat and discussed what we had seen. I am not sure if it was a relief to have the other confirm what was seen, but we agreed on all aspects that I have described.
I was concerned about her trip back to her house, as she naturally was. So, we decided she would call me from her cellphone and talk as she drove so that if anything happened, I would know as it happened. She also gave me frequent location updates as she drove. Thankfully, she made it home without incident.
Our encounter was brief, but it was fully illuminated, affording us a good profile view of the creature. We have always heard the stories, but normally from someone who knew someone who knew someone who saw something. Now, I can honestly say WE saw something, and it wasn’t a man in a costume, nor a large dog nor wolf… it was a Dogman. I can still see it clearly in my mind’s eye like it happened just last week.
Thank you for replying back; it was nice to see an actual email from someone…
I am fine with you sharing my encounter. I am also fine if you want to share my name… I retired from law enforcement 2 years ago, so I am not worried about the backlash anymore.”
I always give more credence to reports from LEOs because they are trained observers. Laura not only gave a thorough and concise report of the event, but she also made sure that her observations were confirmed by a separate witness.
The website “Absolute Michigan” shares another encounter with a Dogman. “17-year-old Robert Fortney was fishing on the banks of the Muskegon River near Paris, Michigan, when a pack of what appeared to be large feral dogs emerged from the woods:
Fortney remained silent, but the sensitive noses of the dogs quickly picked up his scent. Since he had been small game hunting earlier in the day, Fortney had his loaded rifle nearby. As the dogs approached, they assumed the group posture of a pack on a hunt. Fortney picked up the gun and fired a shot into the air.
The dogs cringed and turned to slink back into the forest, all except one: a huge black dog with unusual eyes.
“They were blue,” said Fortney. “What kind of dog has blue eyes?” The big dog and Fortney considered each other for a long moment, less than ten feet separating them. Fortney fired another shot over the head of the strange dog. Then, to Fortney’s shock and amazement, the black dog stood up on two legs and cast a glare that sent shivers down his spine.
“It reared up on its hind legs and stared at me,” said Fortney in a phone interview in 1987. “It may be that I was just scared, but I swear that dog was smiling at me.”
So, that’s creepy!
Northern Michigan History.com shares a little more about the Dogman legend. “The origin of the Dogman legend in Michigan can be traced back to the late 19th century. The first reported sighting of the Dogman was in 1887 in Wexford County, Michigan, by a couple of lumberjacks.
They described the creature as a seven-foot-tall monster with a dog’s head and the torso of a man, and it was said to have blue or amber eyes with a howl that sounded like a human. He is said to walk upright on his two hind legs. There have been numerous sightings throughout Michigan, but mostly in the Northwest Lower Peninsula.”
Finally, here’s a story from a 2022 article in the Midland Daily News :
“Trucker Joe Barger, 59, recently recounted his story, “Even if you don’t believe what I’m saying is truthful, it might be something you can draw on in the future in case you ever do have an experience with the Dogman, which is an advantage I never had,” Barger said. He explained he thinks it’s important for Michigan residents to be aware of what he saw.
Barger, a six-year army veteran, was transporting a 43,000-pound load of paper from a mill in northern Michigan through the forest on his typical route when he encountered the Dogman on an evening in June. He said he had never heard of the cryptid before the incident, which took place within 15-20 seconds at most.
“I would swear, as a Christian on a bible, that this is all 100% factual, truth,” Barger said.
Leading up to the encounter, Barger realized while driving he had an air leak. Wanting to fix it before he got too far into the forest, he stopped to look at it. He found the air leak by the back brake chamber on the trailer.
With the materials to fix it, Barger positioned himself underneath the trailer and began to get a “bad feeling.”
“I was hearing a vocalization that wasn’t natural,” Barger said. “It wasn’t a sound I had ever heard before. I was looking around, and I saw some shadowing in the wood line. But there was plenty of light to see. It was nowhere near getting dark yet. I was in bear country, so I perceived the shadowing to be a black bear at the time.”
When he realized he could be near a black bear, Barger got back into the truck and checked out the air, which was good to go.
“It held and took me not even five minutes to fix,” Barger said.
The woods continued to give Barger a bad feeling. But he thought everything was normal until he started driving again. He checked his driver’s side mirror for any traffic on the two-lane road at the bottom of a hill. There was no traffic.
As he started going up the hill and looked in his right-hand mirror, he saw it was darker than it should be.
“There was a wolf head the size of my window, and my windows were down,” Barger said. “He was trotting along next to me, and I was doing about 20-25 mph at that point. And he was stooping down on two legs looking down inside of my cabin. I’m at nine feet tall in my seat. His hands were coming up, scratching my window. On my door handle, I could hear his claws.”
“Time slowed down,” Barger continued. “I thought I was in like an alternate reality or something because a creature like this doesn’t exist in a reality I’ve ever known of,” Barger continued. “I have heard of Bigfoot, and I know those are things that are talked about. This is a whole different thing altogether.
Bigfoot has nothing on the Dogman, according to Barger.
“It has a lot of sharp teeth, and the teeth on this thing are like brilliant white,” Barger said. “Three-inch long fangs bottom and top. Pure black pointed ears. It had yellow eyes. With human-like hands, probably 14 inches across. It was at least ten feet fall from how it was stooping into my cabin. His yellow eyes were darting all over the place. And looking at me.”
“How this creature looked was mad and determined to get to me,” Barger continued. “He was sneering. He wasn’t making any noises vocally. But the looks he was giving me and the intelligence in his eyes was telling me, ‘I’m here to get you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.'”
Barger thought about trying to roll up the window, but he decided to focus on keeping the truck on the road.
That is when he remembered his handgun. Barger pulled his .45 Colt strapped to his waist and took two shots at the creature.
“He instantly went down,” Barger said. “I was looking at him as he was sliding into the weeds. I was at almost point-blank range, so I’m pretty sure I got him through the eye orbit. His head was huge. Everything on this animal was black except his teeth and his eyes. I wasn’t really panicked, but it’s the scaredest I’ve ever been in my life.”
Barger, assuming the creature to be dead, wanted to turn around and check on the carnage to make sure he didn’t “lose his mind.” About a mile up the road, he found a spot large enough to turn his truck around in.
“I wanted to make sure I killed it,” he said in the video. “I wanted to know more about what just occurred.”
As Barger was coming back down the hill, at most five minutes after shooting it, it was gone.
In its place was a jeep and two people. Barger said he was concerned about the people being somewhere potentially dangerous, so he stopped to talk to them.
“They give me a story that they were watching a few bears fighting each other. I was worried about them being outside with what had just happened. But I didn’t want to let them know what I had just done, so I left.”
Barger thinks that because the other people claimed to have seen two bears, there could be more Dogman in the area besides the one he shot.
“I was really in shock for a good while,” Barger said. “I was still driving the truck, and I didn’t even know how I got back. I shouldn’t have been driving the truck in this state of mind, but I wasn’t going to stay around or park anywhere near there.”
“It was the most terrifying thing I think anybody could go through. Worse than even any combat situation. Because at least you know what you’re dealing with there.”
Barger had nightmares for six months to a year on and off. The nightmares got less prevalent as time went on, and he doesn’t deal with them anymore.
“I’m in a lot better shape now, and I thought it was important to get this information out. That’s why my story is out now. It just took me this long to get with the right people that I know have my back.”
The good news is that according to legend, the Dogman appears to humans in a ten-year cycle that falls on years ending in the number seven. Kind of like cicadas, only bigger, hairier, and they can eat you.
Happy Friday!!!