Dogs as Prophets?

(23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of YHVH. (24) He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.

The Sages taught: If the dogs in a certain place are crying for no reason, it is a sign that they feel the Angel of Death has come to the city. If the dogs are playing, it is a sign that they feel that Elijah the prophet has come to the city. These matters apply only if there is no female dog among them. If there is a female dog nearby, their crying or playing is likely due to her presence.

Dog (Kelev) in gematria is Eliyahu, for within the dog is stubborness of holiness like Eliyahu.

but not a dog shall snarl at any of the Israelites, at man or beast—in order that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

Perhaps we should understand this as an allusion to a well known proverb quoted in Baba Kama 60 that when one hears the dogs bark it is a sign that the angel of death is in town. The Torah wanted to tell us that the angel of death did not cause the death of a single Israelite during that night. The Torah added the detail about the dogs not whetting their tongue against Israel as evidence that they did not even attack a Jew. The reason was "so that you shall know that G'd will make a miraculous distinction between Egypt and between Israel."

And signs of the transition between each of these watches in the upper world can be sensed in this world: In the first watch, the donkey brays; in the second, dogs bark; and in the third people begin to rise, a baby nurses from its mother’s breast and a wife converses with her husband.

לא יחרץ כלב לשונו, “not a single dog will whet its tongue;” it was customary for the dogs to bellow at midnight as midnight was the time when the watches changed as we know from the Talmud in B’rachot folio 3. When the Israelites made ready to leave, each one with his walking stick in his hand, these watchdogs did not raise their voices in protest and gave no alarm.

Our sages said (Bava Kama 60b) If Eliyahu is in the city, dogs will laugh and play. If the Angel of Death is in the city they will cry. It is written, "I will strike down all the first born of the land of Egypt." "I" and no some delegate and for that reason the dogs didn't cry. The Israelite realized that all of the firstborns of Egypt were killed and the dogs did not cry and it was by this that they recongized that it was God in God's glorious self who struck them and not the angel of death...

The Dogs are saying, “Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before YHVH our Maker.”

[Yalkut Shimoni, Bo 187:] Rabbi Yeshayah, student of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa, fasted eighty-five fasts. He said, “Dogs, about which it is written, ‘the dogs are brazen of spirit; they do not know satisfaction' — shall they merit saying a song?” An angel answered him from Heaven and said to him, “Yeshayah, until when will you fast over this? It is an oath from the blessed Holy One; from the day that he revealed his secret to Havakuk the prophet, he has not revealed this matter to anyone in the world. But because you are the student of a great man, I have been sent from Heaven to assist you. They said that dogs have written about them, ‘No dog sharpened its tongue against any of the children of Yisra’el'. Furthermore, they merited that hides are tanned with their excrement, on which Tefillin, Mezuzot, and Torah scrolls are written. For this reason they merited saying a song. And regarding what you asked, take back your word and do not continue in this way, as it is written, ‘He that guards his mouth and tongue, guards from afflictions of his soul.’” Blessed is YHVH forever, Amen and Amen.

(7) “What sort of man was it,” he asked them, “who came toward you and said these things to you?” (8) “A hairy man,” they replied, “with a leather belt tied around his waist.” “That’s Elijah the Tishbite!” he said.

(4) In that day, every “prophet” will be ashamed of the “visions” [he had] when he “prophesied.” In order to deceive, he will not wear a hairy mantle,

(23) Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD. (24) He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction. Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the LORD.