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Animal Communicator Animal Communicator Partnerships

How Animal Communicators Work With Animal Behaviorists

When your pet encounters health or behavioral challenges, determining where to seek assistance can be a difficult decision. Your primary choice should generally be your veterinarian. Veterinarians possess extensive training and experience that allows them to identify the underlying causes of health issues. They are skilled at pinpointing illnesses or injuries that might be responsible for sudden shifts in behavior.

The Role of Veterinarians and Specialists

While many of our pets’ issues aren’t strictly health-related, such as alterations in behavior or difficulties in communication during training, your vet can guide you. Once health-related causes have been ruled out, your veterinarian might refer you to other specialists like animal behaviorists, trainers, or animal communicators to address problems like:

  • Aggressive tendencies
  • Anxiety-related behaviors
  • Excessive barking or digging
  • Inappropriate urination indoors
  • Compulsive licking or pacing
  • Lack of focus during training
  • Heightened sensitivity

Working with Animal Behaviorists

Working alongside an animal behaviorist can assist pet owners in comprehending and reshaping unwanted behaviors. These professionals possess substantial education and a deep comprehension of a dog’s psyche. They leverage psychological principles to achieve desired behaviors and might devise treatment strategies and training methods to correct behaviors as needed. Common responsibilities of behaviorists focused on training include:

  • Identifying specific problematic behaviors
  • Investigating the causes of these behaviors
  • Analyzing case studies to better understand specific behaviors
  • Collaborating with pet owners and animals on behavior modification, training, or conditioning
  • Recommending treatment plans or medications when necessary
  • Educating owners about behaviors and modification techniques

In each unique scenario, behaviorists collaborate closely with both the pet and the owner. They gather information from the person who has witnessed the behavior, delving into details about the environment, triggers, and observed postures. The behaviorist might also spend time directly observing the animal’s behavior and testing strategies for modification. Throughout this process, information is exchanged verbally based on visual observations, and conclusions are drawn from past experiences. This method, however, doesn’t offer the animal a chance to express its own perspective, thoughts, emotions, and experience of the situation.

Now, envision a scenario where the pet can provide its insights into the behavior. Allowing the pet to contribute its experiences can enrich the overall picture with greater depth and clarity. This is where an animal communicator comes into play, enhancing communication among the pet owner, behaviorist, and pet.

Gaining Insights from Animals

By communicating telepathically with animals, an animal communicator facilitates a conversation using thoughts, emotions, images, and sensory information. This allows them to interview the pet about its firsthand experience effectively. Just as a doctor interviews a patient about symptoms or a therapist discusses emotions, animals can be engaged to share their experiences.

Questions such as:

  • Where do you feel discomfort, and how would you describe the sensation?
  • When you growl at other dogs, are you motivated by fear or anger?
  • How do you perceive being asked to enter the car? What expectations arise?
  • What kind of relationship do you share with the family cat? As a friend, teacher or as a foe?

These queries help us comprehend intentions, emotions, and perceptions directly from the animal rather than relying on our assumptions. This level of detail clarifies misunderstandings, promotes dialogue and collaboration, and defines expectations in a way that the pet can grasp and partake in.

For instance, consider a family pet that regularly growls at approaching dogs. The owner and trainer might assume it’s due to aggression and develop a modification plan based on that assumption. However, in conversation with a communicator, the pet might reveal that fear and uncertainty are its primary emotions. Armed with this new insight, a completely different plan can be devised, one that nurtures the pet’s confidence and facilitates more socialization and growth.

In another scenario, a dog exhibits considerable anxiety during car rides, even for short distances. Based on observed behavior, the owner might conclude that the dog fears the car or experiences motion sickness. Through communication, the dog might share its past experiences of abandonment. It recalls being driven away, left in an unfamiliar place, and never reuniting with its family. The dog incorrectly associates each car trip with abandonment. The animal communicator can correct this assumption and instill an anticipation of enjoyable rides ahead. This illustrates how animal behaviorists, communicators, and caregivers can collaborate to construct a comprehensive, detailed understanding of an animal’s behavior. When training or modification plans include insights directly from the animal’s viewpoint, they are more likely to yield quicker and more successful results compared to plans based solely on observation. 

Harmonious Living

Subsequent communication sessions can further clarify any misunderstandings the pet might have, fine-tune expectations for future training, acknowledge the pet’s progress, and further strengthen the evolving partnership. When animals and humans work together as partners to problem-solve, negotiate, plan, and execute, harmony prevails in the entire household. Adding an animal communicator to your team of supportive pet professionals can offer remarkable benefits.

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Cats Dogs Horses Pet Resources

Beyond the Barks and Meows: Decoding Pet Body Language

Can you imagine being in an age where verbal communication wasn’t prevalent? All animals on Earth today, including the Human animal, evolved for most of its history relying solely on non-verbal communication. Some studies show that it was not until perhaps 50,000 years ago that humans developed a spoken language, while others say it could have been around for well over 200,000 years

Today, Humans Focus On Verbal Communication, Not Body Language

Despite when scientists believe verbal language started being used, we have, by this time in our evolution, become quite focused and reliant on our verbal skills to communicate with others. Becoming ever more distant from our earlier knowledge and familiarity of the non-verbal, or body language of our ancestors. This deep ancestral knowledge of reading body language has not, however, gone away completely. It has just faded into the background of our awareness while we focus on the busy and loud human world we live in.

This loud, verbal world has left little attention remaining to focus on and “listen to” the subtle, silent, non-verbal “language” of our animal companions. The animals, however, have had little attention or use for our loud babble and have been developing and refining their non-verbal communication skills over thousands of years. 

Each species has developed its own unique set of body language skills that include 

  • Eye contact and pupil dilation
  • Head posture
  • Ear position
  • Body stance
  • Facial expression
  • Tail carriage and movement 

These can be combined in an infinite number of combinations to express the feelings, intentions, and ideas that they need to convey to friends or foes.

Animals Rely on Body Language and Sounds

Many species have also developed sounds to use along with their body language, such as barks, meows, nickers, and chirps, but these are used as a nuance to the primary non-verbal language in most species. In fact, many scientists still do not qualify them as language because they lack some of the defining characteristics of language, such as grammar and syntax.

Some animal species are considered “vocal learners”  that can mimic human speech, such as parrots, dolphins, and beluga whales, yet this is usually not considered “language” but an excellent imitation of human speech. These animals do not use human speech to communicate with their own kind, just with humans as they are taught.

Miscommunications Between Pets and Their Owners

“Whether we speak the same language or not, the most important thing is that we strive to understand one another.”

Many of us train verbal commands to our pets in an effort to make ourselves understood, and I believe that we should be making an equal effort to understand the unique signals of communication that are native to our animal companions.

In consultation with my clients, I find that many of the “problems” pet owners experience with their family pets are due to miscommunication between the two species. We speak and expect our pets to understand our meaning, yet we are often completely unaware of the language they are attempting to share with us – the non-verbal language of their own species.

The Importance of Understanding Your Pet’s Body Language

One might see a dog wagging its tail and assume it is relaxed and happy, but that signal does not carry over to the language of a cat or horse. A cat wagging his tail conveys excitement or annoyance, and when a horse “wags” his tail, you better step back because he is quite irritated and may follow through with a kick. 

Whether you have adopted an adult dog, are training a young horse, or trying to negotiate with the family cat, having the skills to notice and respond non-verbally will help to develop the relationship between you.

Developing a deeper relationship with our companion animals relies on developing accurate communication between us. After all, when traveling in a foreign country, speaking louder and slower in English is not the best way to break through the communication barrier. Take the time to learn about the subtle nuance of language and communication that is used by the one you wish to communicate with. 

Any individual, whether human or animal, feels better when they can express themselves, be heard and understood, and understand in response. Developing this common communication system helps to develop trust in relationships and fosters a feeling of belonging and safety.

Resources for Pet Owners

Dog Owners

Imagine being able to tell when your dog is stressed and preventing a bite based solely on the dog’s body language. Well, you can! Here is a general guide to interpreting stress signals from your dog.

Cat Owners

Cat Daddy Jackson Galaxy breaks down what you need to know about cat body language in this video.

Horse Owners

To handle a horse safely, it is important to understand the changes in expression and posture that can tell you what they are thinking. You can read more here.

An animal communicator can also help you cultivate a deeper understanding between you and your pets by translating your thoughts and ideas into images and feelings that your pet can understand. Consider scheduling your personal consultation now.