If only our pets could talk. But then, maybe they do. Our pets are constantly communicating with us. It’s just that we’re not always sharp enough to pick up on exactly what it is that they’re trying to say. “If you recorded all your dog says, the individual woofs would sound just a little different, and there are corresponding differences in your dog’s body posture, sometimes subtle, sometimes very obvious” says Stanley Coren, professor of psychology at University of British Columbia, and author “How Dogs Think Understanding the Canine Mind (Free Press, New York, NY, 2004; $17.99) ” And our pets have a lot to tell us. “They express real emotions and thoughts,” says Tim Friend, science writer at USA Today and author of “Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language“(Free Press, New York, NY, 2004; $25).” He says Lassie wasn’t so exceptional after all. “It’s not that Lassie had an extraordinary ability to communicate, it’s that the poor dog always seemed to have to the same thing to say, ‘Follow me, Timmy’s in trouble.” Friend says only a few months ago, Felix, the 14-year old year upstairs neighbor’s cat, recently sat in front of his door meowing. When Friend opened his door, Felix didn’t come inside, as he often did. Instead, Friend says he wound up following Felix to where he lives. Then the cat ‘explained’ with more meows, “The door to my home is closed, and I want to get inside.” Sometimes we pick up on what our pets are telling us because they communicate with an international speak common to many animals, ranging from birds to bears. Friend explains research (by naturalist Eugene Morton) shows we’re born to understand these sounds; after all our ancestors needed to recognize in order to survive. That’s how we know what a dog growl means, even without prior experience with dogs or actually seeing the dog. It seems to one has to teach human beings what a rattling tail of a snake means. “We’re born knowing this stuff,” Friend says. However, often times, much of the credit may go to the pets for reaching out to us. They’re capable of being quite inventive to be sure that we understand. Coren recalls how his now deceased flat-coated retriever created his own kind of bark for attention. About 15 years ago, Odin made a strange sort of bark – a forced single long bark which almost sounds like a cartoon character bark – and Coren proceeded to let him in the house, as he snickered at the funny bark. And that’s exactly what Odin wanted. Odin’s odd sounding bark always got Coren’s attention. Odin, who was no dummy; continued to do it whenever he wanted to come back indoors. He even taught the unique bark to other dogs, who then proceeded to teach the bark to puppies. In all, five dogs have learned the Coren family dialect, which is unique to his household. Communicating with people isn’t always easy. “We don’t always get it. Sometime we need a sort of sledgehammer approach,” says feline behavior consultant Pam Johnson –Bennett, author of “Cat vs. Cat (Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2004; $15). She offers one example, “I get dozens of people who say, ‘I was innocently petting my cat when the cat suddenly attacked me out of the blue.’ The truth is that it never happens like that. The cat is trying to tell you to stop. She may meow, her eyes dilate, her skin twitches, she stops purring, her tail lashes. Finally, she bites because she doesn’t know what else she can possibly do.” Beth Adelman, also a feline behavior consultant, and the author of “Every Cat’s Survival Guide to Living with a Neurotic Owner” (Barnes & Noble Books, New York, NY, 2003; $6.98) was the editor of Cats Magazine at the time she purchased a new ecologically friendly litter, and poured it into the litter box. She paid no attention when Yang Yang meowed loudly in the box, though he had never done that before. The next day, Yang Yang actually tossed litter out of the box toward Adelman. Finally, that night, Adelman was reading in bed when she heard the cat holler from the box, then he came running into the bedroom, jumped on the bed and urinated. “Now, I know what you’re trying to tell me,” she told her cat. “Oh my gosh, what an idiot I was,” says Adelman. “Yang Yang was telling me all along, ‘I don’t like this litter,’ but I wasn’t listening.” Adelman threw the new litter into the trash, returned to her old brand, and Yang Yang never complained again. Johnson-Bennett says such communication gaps explain how many pets are given up on. “Beth successfully figured out what her cat was trying to say, but others might misunderstand, thinking the cat is being vengeful, for example. “Our animals are constantly telling us all sorts of things about their emotions, and what they’re thinking, this is not beyond their capability,” says Friend. “Sometimes, though it’s beyond our capabilities to understand them. At other times, it’s amazing how well we connect with one another, a testimony to the bond we have with our pets.” |
