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How well can you communicate with your pet? Does a legitimate exchange of information exist between animals and humans, or is any perceived communication really just a response to a stimulus?
As a life long pet owner and animal lover, I am confident that Tsunami and I can read [interpret] certain actions and expressions found in both cats and dogs. For example, in most cats it seems that quickly and aggressively licking one’s left shoulder indicates something like annoyance or embarrassment [don’t mean literally but in a cat sort of way]. Several extended blinks made with eye to eye contact means that everything is okay – say when something startles the cat. The spontaneous licking of the backside of the front left leg indicates contentment – maybe a sign of approval of some sort…i.e. the cat is happy with me. Then we have the “I’m too sexy for my fur” hyper-extended strut along with a slow approach…just to make me wait and show me the pecking order. Obviously I can wait for the cat until he or she is ready to move along...even though the cat just ran 100 yards to reach me…up until the last 20 feet or so.
Many dog actions are obvious: Quick panting means I’m happy. Jumping up and down means I’m happy. Running in circles means I’m happy. Peeing on the floor means I’m happy. Removing the stuffing from the couch means I’m happy…etc . Really though, dogs are very much aware of our actions, pheromones [?], tone of voice, expressions etc to a greater extent than one might expect. When I was a teenager I trained one dog to respond to silent signals. All voice commands were given along with some unique aspect of body language. Before long the voice commands weren’t needed. Looking down meant “sit”, a quick upward motions with the eyes meant “come”, a rapidly extended arm to any direction meant “go” [run that direction], slumped shoulders meant “down”. In total I think there were about ten silent commands that Gypsy finally learned.
Oh yes, the eye to eye contact followed by several exaggerated blinks seems to equal “everything is okay” in dog language as well. Both dogs and cats will blink back and then relax.
As a life long pet owner and animal lover, I am confident that Tsunami and I can read [interpret] certain actions and expressions found in both cats and dogs. For example, in most cats it seems that quickly and aggressively licking one’s left shoulder indicates something like annoyance or embarrassment [don’t mean literally but in a cat sort of way]. Several extended blinks made with eye to eye contact means that everything is okay – say when something startles the cat. The spontaneous licking of the backside of the front left leg indicates contentment – maybe a sign of approval of some sort…i.e. the cat is happy with me. Then we have the “I’m too sexy for my fur” hyper-extended strut along with a slow approach…just to make me wait and show me the pecking order. Obviously I can wait for the cat until he or she is ready to move along...even though the cat just ran 100 yards to reach me…up until the last 20 feet or so.
Many dog actions are obvious: Quick panting means I’m happy. Jumping up and down means I’m happy. Running in circles means I’m happy. Peeing on the floor means I’m happy. Removing the stuffing from the couch means I’m happy…etc . Really though, dogs are very much aware of our actions, pheromones [?], tone of voice, expressions etc to a greater extent than one might expect. When I was a teenager I trained one dog to respond to silent signals. All voice commands were given along with some unique aspect of body language. Before long the voice commands weren’t needed. Looking down meant “sit”, a quick upward motions with the eyes meant “come”, a rapidly extended arm to any direction meant “go” [run that direction], slumped shoulders meant “down”. In total I think there were about ten silent commands that Gypsy finally learned.
Oh yes, the eye to eye contact followed by several exaggerated blinks seems to equal “everything is okay” in dog language as well. Both dogs and cats will blink back and then relax.