Been following this with interest from across the pond, and I'll say the pattern you're describing rings some bells.
I've been cross-referencing the Mississippi corridor reports with a few databases - BFRO, Dogman Encounters Radio submissions, the lot - and there does seem to be a genuine clustering happening, particularly around the river bluffs between Iowa and Wisconsin. Not just random noise either. The consistency of witness descriptions is what gets me. Bipedal, canine-featured, that characteristic ". Wrong gait". People always struggle to articulate properly.
What I find compelling is whether we're looking at a territorial displacement situation. Heavy flooding years push wildlife into unusual corridors, and if Dogman occupies a genuine ecological niche - which I suspect it does - it would follow the same pressure patterns.
The interdimensional angle is worth considering too. River systems have featured heavily in liminal space theories for decades. There's something about major waterways as potential boundary zones. I've noticed similar clustering behaviour in British Black Dog reports near ancient river crossings in the Midlands, not far from where I'm based in Staffordshire actually.
Anyone documenting these with trail cams? Curious whether people are getting thermal anomalies alongside the visual encounters, or whether witnesses are reporting any time distortion beforehand. That detail tends to separate the more interesting cases from straightforward misidentification.
What's the rough timeframe you're working with on this uptick?
