Communicating With Animals

[Bailey Guns]

Everyone here knows, like many of you, I really love dogs. I'm sure we all can "communicate" on various levels with our pets. With some pets it couldn't be easier even if they could talk. You and your pet just know what the other is thinking or wanting or whatever just by body language. And, of course, we talk to them just as though they were talking back.

But, taking it to a different level, I have a close friend who's profession is "Animal Communicator". She lives in eastern WA and makes a good living "communicating" with various animals alive, dead or unknown (as in lost). She has some very high profile clients (think A-list Hollywood types) and she also works for average, everyday people.

She's published a couple of books and featured my favorite Jack Russel, Stella, in her first. She had never met, nor even seen, Stella. But Stella was somewhat of a local celebrity from my shop in Bailey.She wanted a story about communicating with Stella for the book so she asked me to email her a photo. I did and she did what she does with the subject.

A few days later she said she had "talked" to Stella. She asked the obvious questions and such that anyone might guess and I was less than impressed and still very skeptical... Until she told me what Stella had said was her favorite snack or treat. She said Stella told her it was pretzels. I was floored. Two people (and one dog) in the entire world knew about Stella and pretzels.

"Dave", who doesn't know my friend the communicator, worked for me at my shop for about a year. Stella adored him. Almost every day Dave would bring a lunch with a little baggie of pretzels in it. Every day he and Stella would go through a routine...she'd beg for a pretzel and he'd give her one. Stella would turn her nose up if I, or anyone else, offered her a pretzel. But she'd eat them from Dave and we were the only people privy to that little tidbit of information about Stella.

So, as skeptical as I was and as I am about the "communicating" thing, I don't know how to explain that.

Anyone have a similar experience?


Stella begging for a pretzel

[Irving]

Can't say that I have, but you should read "The Story of Edgar Sawtell," as soon as possible if you haven't already.

[cstone]

I read this book by Julie Klam; YOU HAD ME AT WOOF: How Dogs Taught Me The Secrets of Happiness


She talked about attending a course given by the Omega Institute http://www.eomega.org/ on communicating with animals. The author is pretty out there, like many uptown Manhattan dwellers. Even she came to disbelieve the idea that people were capable of talking to or listening to the language of animals.

I do believe that dogs and humans have evolved to have a unique ability to read each other. Dogs, unlike any other animal, can read emotions on human faces in a way that many humans don't even try to do.

I don't have an explanation for how the communicator was able to determine Stella love of pretzels, and I generally don't like coincidence as an explanation.

People and dogs just relate.

[GilpinGuy]

Dean Koontz wrote a great nf book about his dogs. The title escapes me though. He has a thing for Goldens....me too.

[Skully]

Woof woof, ruff ruff


(too early?)

Mysteries of the unknown. I find that the most interesting and truthful are the ones that are simple. I am like you, a serious skeptic, I like to weight all the facts before proceeding with an opinion. Though sometimes you just cannot explain it.

I have had many strange experiences that are unexplained. The most notable when I was 13, my dog Sammy (Lab/?? Mix, smart as hell), only dog I had that would chew bubble gum correctly. My dad said if that dog blows bubbles he has seen it all. She just was always there, always knew what the other was going to do like we could read each others mind (not actual communication.) One school day while in class I had this strange gut wrenching feeling of dread and sadness come over me. Short time later I could smell/sense my dog, even though I was in my classroom. I know sounds weird, but when school let out and I rode home as fast as I could as I still felt this dread over me about Sammy. My dad was at work, but as I approached my house our neighbor came out crying, she said somehow my dog got out of the yard and ran across the street and hit by a car. Sammy did not suffer and was killed instantly.

Never forget that feeling though, did she visit me after she was hit, I'm I psychic? Wife says I am psychotic? I may never know.

[Irving]

I've experienced those overwhelming feelings of dread, where you rush home before. For me, I get there and everything is always okay. I try to tell myself not to be disappointed and that I just got home in time or something. Sorry to hear your time you weren't able to make it home.

[funkymonkey1111]

Son of Sam heard from a dog....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Berkowitz

(Don't get me wrong, I love dogs more than most people)

[Skully]

I've experienced those overwhelming feelings of dread, where you rush home before. For me, I get there and everything is always okay. I try to tell myself not to be disappointed and that I just got home in time or something. Sorry to hear your time you weren't able to make it home.

Yes the feeling of dread that you cant explain and nothing happened. I experience Deja Vu a lot, I experience Deja Vu a lot.

I have had maybe 4 dogs through out my life but Sammy was the closest. Runt of the litter, puppy to adult. She was the only one that would sing while dad played the guitar badly, not sure if it was to drown out Jungle bell rock for the 300th time or she wanted to join in.

[Aloha_Shooter]

When we moved back to Hawaii, we got a cat with the house. It was kind of a package deal -- the cat just wasn't moving. She was already pretty mature (I think about 12) when we got the house and for years the only person in the family she paid any attention to was my father. She would sit and watch him for hours when he was doing working on the yard or some other project but about the only thing any of the rest of us would get was a "meow" when she felt we hadn't refilled her dish on time or with the right food.

Years later after I'd graduated from college and was on active duty, we had a scare when my father collapsed from an undetected ulcer. It was so bad, he never made it out of the kitchen but dropped right on the floor. My mother was at work so nobody knew Dad was there on the floor until she got home from work but the cat went to him and curled up by his head to keep him company. I think it was 5-6 hours later when my mother got home to find Dad with a pool of blood near his head and the cat watching over him, purring away. Dad got fixed up pronto and after that, the cat was his baby more than ever -- the two had almost a telepathy going.