Reading body language

I often tell people that even if they can't receive telepathic messages from their animal, they can still communicate with them. It's just a matter of watching their animals' body language when they talk to them. Animals will give you answers and show you what they think of what you are saying, through their body language. By watching them, and their reactions to what you say, you have a wonderful way to enhance your own communication with your animal.

I find that I coach my clients a lot, to help them better communicate with their animals, so that they don't always need someone like me. It's not that I want to put myself out of a job :-) I just believe very strongly that the better we can communicate with our animals, the stronger our bond can be and I want to do what I can to help strengthen the bonds between humans and their animals.

Recently, I was at a client's house and she was telling me that one of her cats was driving her batty because she didn't know what she was asking for when she would meow loudly. She was telling me that when her cat starts meowing like crazy, it makes her crazy because she doesn't know what she needs . . . Is she hungry? Is she in pain? Does she just want attention? Is she trying to tell her something else?

I suggested that she tell her cat, "If you're trying to tell me this, then this is what I need you to do." She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face and just as I was trying to figure out a better way to say what I had just said, her cat came into the room and started meowing like crazy. Her guardian said "See, this is what I am talking about." I asked her, "What do you think she's trying to tell you?" and she said, "I don't know, maybe she's hungry" so I said, "Well, then tell her, "If you want food, I need you to go stand by your bowl" and immediately, her cat walked over to her bowl. Her guardian giggled with delight over the clear communication she was receiving and promptly opened a can of cat food and put it in the bowl. All was quiet, as her cat happily devoured the can of food.

The next time I was at her house, she said, "I need you to talk to my other cat Niko, he's been beating up one of my other cats recently and I don't like it." So, when Niko came into the room, I started to talk to him, explaining that it wasn't ok for him to beat up his brother and immediately he turned his head the other way, refusing to look at us. His mom and I couldn't help but laugh, seeing his obvious reaction to what I was saying to him. We started to talk about something else and Niko began having eye contact with us again, but when I went back to talking to him about how he needed to stop beating up his brother, once again, he turned his head away, refusing to look at me while I was talking to him. Clearly, he was telling us that he didn't want to hear what I was saying.

That was just a few days ago and I'm still waiting up an update from Niko's guardian. If there hasn't been any change in his behavior, I'll need to talk to him some more the next time I am there and see if I can find out why he's suddenly so intent on beating up his brother.

I think you will find that you can increase your understanding of your animals if you observe their body language more closely. Talk to them and see how they respond. They may surprise you, by showing you they know exactly what you are saying to them.