The Various Ways Animals Communicate

In honor of Jane Goodall (who passed away yesterday) and the profound impact she has had on me my whole life - I dedicate this blog to her. As a little girl, she was someone who inspired me to keep following my heart when it came to animals and my belief that they really do have feelings. Her life's work validated everything I sensed about animals and have continued to learn about them. She inspired me to keep trusting my path and my intuition, to keep having the courage to educate people about animals - about both their intelligence and their emotional capacity and to speak up for them whenever I could. Her loss hit me hard yet I also know it is a call to keep advocating for animals, sharing what deeply wise sentient beings they are and to continue encouraging pet parents to develop and strengthen the relationships they have with their own animals. I have found that many pet parents just need some encouragement to trust the inner-knowing / intuition they have when it comes to their own animals. That has long felt like part of my role here . . . to help animal guardians build their animals communication skills. 

People often ask me exactly how animal communication works. They want to know if I actually hear answers to the questions I asked animals or if I got the information another way. I really had to think to answer the question at first, because it wasn't a simple answer and because I have been able to communicate with animals since I was a little girl, it's not something I even thought about anymore. 

I get information in so many different ways . . . by actually feeling what the animal is feeling, by pictures they share with me that I see in my mind (that then often need to be interpreted), by watching their reaction to the things that are said in their presence and sometimes just by "knowing" the answer without having to even think about it - as if information was just put into my head. (You could call this telepathic communication).

Chances are other animal communicators get information in other ways as well. There isn't just one way to communicate with animals as we each have their own styles - and animals have their own way of sharing information with us.

I believe we all have the ability to communicate with animals, it's often just a matter of developing the skill, so maybe this information will help you in your own quest to communicate with your animals. In the event that any of you are as curious to learn more, I thought I'd share a few examples of how I pick up information. 

When I pick up what the animal is feeling, I literally feel their feelings. It is often in response to a question or what someone has said, like the time one of my clients asked me how their dog was feeling about an upcoming trip and I immediately felt anxiety running through my body. Or the time I was working with a dog and one of his guardians made a comment about how dumb he was, and I immediately felt sadness and some frustration. When I said, "I don't believe he is dumb at all, in fact I believe he is quite smart" the dog immediately ran over to me and licked me. 

Sometimes the information comes from pictures I get in my mind. The other day, I was giving a reiki treatment to a dog who had never had one before, although the humans and other animals in the house have had reiki treatments before. I was commenting to the guardian that I was surprised at how calm he was, as often animals are a bit guarded the first time they get a reiki treatment and as soon as I said it, I got an image of one of the other dogs in the house. I laughed and said, "Oh, Gus told him what to expect, that's why he isn't nervous." 

Another way I get information is just by watching the animal I am working with. This used to be much more prevalent when I was working with animals in person rather than the distance work I do now but I still notice it quite a bit in my interactions with animals that visit my yard (birds, squirrels, cats, etc) or when I am at a friend's house who has animals. I have learned over the years that it is important to pay attention to what is being said in the presence of animals because their behavior will often tell you how they feel about what they are hearing. 

One time, I was working with a dog who had severe separation anxiety. The dog was relaxing on the floor with me and her guardians, enjoying the energy healing, when the guardians brought up a recent incident where the dog had chewed up the inside of their car during a bad bout of separation anxiety. The dog immediately jumped up and hid on the other side of the room. There wasn't any other interpretation besides "the dog feels really bad about doing that to your car." Her guardians assured her that they weren't upset with her, they were just worried about her and wanted to help her feel less anxious. Once they said that, she walked back over to where we were sitting on the floor and laid down in front of me, ready to resume her energy treatment. 

It's a little harder to describe the last way I pick up information . . . when something is just in my head. One day I heard the buzz of a hummingbird and looked up from what I was reading. Right there in front of me was a beautiful hummingbird, idling steadily at eye level for a minute. The next thing I knew, I was saying, "I'm sorry, I'll take care of it now." It took me a second or two to figure out what I was responding to because my response was so automatic, but I quickly realized the hummingbird told me that the water in the feeder needed to be changed. As I had promised, I immediately got up, washed out the hummingbird feeder and refilled it.  With telepathic communication, we don't always "hear" something yet we seem to "know" something we didn't know a second earlier or we suddenly have an idea that just pops into our minds. 

As I mentioned before, I believe we all have the ability to communicate with animals. It's just a matter of paying attention to what we sense and then learning to trust that information if we are interested in exploring this. So, when you are talking to your animals or other animals you encounter, watch how they react to what you say, pay attention to how you feel and what pictures pop into your mind. You may be surprised by what you can pick up yourself. From experience, I would say, learning to trust what you pick up is actually the more difficult part of learning to communicate with animals, but in time, that trust will come. 

Give it a try and see what you able to do yourself! I think animals will appreciate the effort, regardless of how good you are at first. 

p.s. I also believe that it will become more and more "normal" for animals to communicate with us telepathically. Not just "animal communicators" but ALL of us. Therefore, I think the more open we are to "hearing them" the more easily their messages will reach us.

Animals know their bodies

One of the most important things I have learned in my work with animals is that they have a far greater understanding of what's going on with their bodies than most people give them credit for and if we're willing to listen, we have a better chance of helping them.  When I work on an animal, they will always show me what is bothering them the most - first.  Only after we have addressed that issue, will they show me what else is bothering them.  When I touch an animal, I physically feel the sensations they are experiencing in their body and I trust that what I feel first is always what is bothering them the most.  For that reason, I often refrain from asking their guardian too many questions about what is going on with them, because I know the animal will show me what is most important to them. 

With one recent experience I had, a new client told me her horse was dealing with lameness issues when she made the appointment.  She asked me if I wanted to know more and I suggested we wait and see what her horse showed me.  When I first went into the stall to begin giving her horse Reiki, my right hip started to ache.  I focused on that area first and within a few minutes, I began to get a sense of some of the emotions that were stuck in that part of his body.  I spoke to his guardian about what I was picking up (the horse had concerns that he wasn't able to perform his "job" at the ranch and feared he wouldn't be able to remain there if he wasn't "earning his keep" so to speak.  This is a horse that does therapy with children who have disabilities).  With his guardians help, we were able to reassure him that he wasn't going to have to leave the ranch and that our only concern was helping him feel better.  As his guardian spoke to him about her plan to help him get healthy so he could begin working with the children again, I could feel the tension easing in my right hip.  When the pain had ceased and I could feel the energy moving easily in that area again, I asked him what else he would like to show me.

I circled his body, slowly, as I continued to touch him.  Within a minute or two, I felt a lot of pain in my left arm.   As I began working there, more of his feelings started to come up and I shared what I was getting with is guardian.  He expressed concern about her and that fact that she hadn't been very happy lately.  He worried that she was unhappy with him.  Once again, with his guardians help, we talked with him about what was going on with her, reassuring him that her unhappiness had nothing to do with him, that it stemmed from trouble she was having in a relationship.  I suggested to her that she explain to him what was going on if she was having a bad day, so that he would better understand what was going on with her and not feel responsible for how she was feeling.  Eventually, the tension in my arm started to ease, although I sensed it may take a little time for his arm to heal.  It felt like muscle strain and I told her I thought he needed to take it easy for the next week or so.  

I suggested that she let him make the choice about how much exercise he would get and how strenuous the exercise should be.  As an example, she was worried that having him walk down a steep slope would be too much for him, so I suggested she give him the choice when they got to the top of the hill, telling him that if he was up for it, he should proceed and if not, he should stop and/or turn the other way.  I trusted that he would be able to tell her what his body would be able to handle from day to day.  

A week later, she called to give me an update.  She had been letting him decide what he was up for exercise wise and she said that for quite a few days, he made the choice to avoid the steep hill and that he let her know by stopping when they got to the top of it.  Eventually, he wanted to go down one of the less steep hills on the ranch and when he did so, he didn't limp at all.  The next day though, he stopped when they got to the top of the hill, so she listened to him and understood that he didn't want to push it that day.  

She was enjoying this new level of communication they were having and trusted that it was safe to listen to him.  She told me that she was also talking to him more about what was going on with her and she sensed he was happier and more at ease.  She admitted to me that the reason she asked me to come up to see him was because she was worried about his front left leg.  She also said she was glad she hadn't told me that, because she didn't know he was feeling pain in his right hip and might not have known that if we hadn't let the horse 'show me' what was bothering him.  

Animals really do know what's going on in their bodies.  They aren't dumb, in fact, in many ways, I believe they are even wiser than the smartest of us two-legged folks.  The key is learning to listen to what they are showing us.

Animals are more like humans than we think

My friend Craig gave me an article he found on Wikipedia.  It's a story about the second World War and a dog named Bamse.   The dog, Bamse, was a St. Bernard that became a heroic mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces.  

If you are still unsure if animals can understand everything can it going on around them and feel loving and protective of their human companions, if you are still wondering if animals can intervene to aid their human companions based on what they are observing without any specialized training for that intervention and if you are still unsure if a dog is intelligent enough to ride a bus by themselves, knowing where to get on and where to get off to find their sailor friends, then you need to check out this story.

Go to:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamse_(St. Bernard)

It is the sweetest story and one that is sure to touch you.  We would all be lucky to have a Bamse in our lives.  And fortunately for Bamse, his sailor friends had enough confidence and faith in him and all he was capable of doing that he was able to shine.  

I believe that as we give animals more credit for what they are capable of doing, they will continue to surprise and astound us.