12/08/2026
๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ฒ๐๐ป'๐ ๐ธ๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ'๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐น๐ถ๐ฝ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐.
But they might notice that something about the world feels a bit weird.
I remember the big eclipse in 1999 really clearly, and one of the things I remember is how oddly our animals behaved. We had cats and a dog at the time and they definitely seemed to know that something wasn't quite right. Obviously they had no idea that the Moon was passing between us and the Sun, but something in their environment had changed and they noticed it.
Then in 2005 I was lucky enough to experience another eclipse while I was in Kenya, and I remember that one vividly.
It was weird.
As the light changed, everything seemed to go quiet. The birds stopped calling and the monkeys started behaving differently. There was just this really peculiar change in the atmosphere around us. I was surrounded by animals at the time, so perhaps I was particularly tuned into it, but I remember being fascinated by how much seemed to change in such a short space of time.
And, as it happens, there's some rather cool science behind what I saw.
Researchers studying the 2017 total solar eclipse in the US watched 17 different groups of zoo animals. Around ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐พ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐๐ฟ in some way.
A lot of them simply started doing things they'd normally do in the evening or at night. Others did things the researchers hadn't seen them do before, and there were behaviours in several species that were considered consistent with anxiety.
Then we had the 2024 North American eclipse, which gave researchers a brilliant opportunity to look at birds on a much bigger scale. They combined more than 10,000 observations with almost 100,000 recordings of bird vocalisations.
One of the findings I particularly love is what happened when the light came back.
Around half of the species studied started singing what was basically a ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ป ๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐.
Their unexpected "night" had only lasted a few minutes, but apparently that was enough.
And I think that's the interesting bit when we think about our dogs.
They don't need to understand what an eclipse is. They're just experiencing all the things around them suddenly being slightly different.
The light changes quite quickly. Shadows and contrast change. The temperature can drop. Birds and insects may start behaving differently. Other animals might change what they're doing.
And then there's us.
People are outside when they might not normally be, staring at the sky, talking about it, getting excited and generally paying a frankly ridiculous amount of attention to the Sun.
Our dogs are taking all of that in too.
๐ฆ๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ด๐?
Mostly, probably nothing!
I really don't want to turn tonight into another thing that dog guardians need to worry about. We don't have good evidence that pet dogs routinely become frightened or distressed during eclipses and I'd imagine plenty will snooze through the entire thing without giving it a second thought.
But some dogs are incredibly tuned into changes in their environment, and those dogs might notice that things aren't quite as they normally are.
Perhaps they're a little more watchful. Maybe they keep looking outside, become restless or want to stay closer to you. They might bark at something you can't identify or decide they'd much rather be indoors.
Or they may conclude that somebody has unexpectedly switched evening on early and suddenly disappear off to bed.
๐๐๐๐ ๐น๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ด.
If they want to come inside, let them. Make sure their usual resting places are available and don't feel that they need to come outside and "experience" the eclipse with you. If they'd rather sleep through this particular astronomical event, that's absolutely fine.
I'd keep things pretty normal and let them make their own choices.
And actually, if you get the chance, watch the other animals too. I certainly will ๐
I'm really interested to see what the birds around here do, particularly after the rather extraordinary few days we've already had in the New Forest.
We've had the fire, smoke, emergency vehicles, road closures and lots of disruption. I don't want to make assumptions about what individual animals have found stressful, but the environment certainly hasn't been particularly normal. For some of our more sensitive dogs, tonight may simply be one more unusual thing to process.
So I'm not suggesting we need to prepare our dogs for the Great Eclipse of Doom.
Quite the opposite.
I'm going to watch it, watch the wildlife and probably spend an unreasonable amount of time watching my own dogs to see whether they give a toss.
And if they don't? That's interesting too.
Because our dogs don't need to understand ๐๐ต๐ the world suddenly feels different. We can simply give them the choice to respond to it in whatever way works for them.
Words are mine. Photo by Mark Tegethoff via Unsplash
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ / ๐ณ๐๐ฟ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด
Hartstone-Rose A, Dickinson E, Paciulli LM et al. (2020). Total Eclipse of the Zoo: Animal Behavior during a Total Solar Eclipse. Animals, 10(4), 587.
Aguilar LA, Miller-Crews I, Dobris JM et al. (2025). Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science. Science, 390, 152โ155.