Do you talk to animals?

[FayetheAspie]

 

[Shevek]

I sometimes talk to an animal to tease the owner, as in "Hasn't anybody petted you since I was here last?" When I had a dog, no words were usually needed, unless I had to tell him something his dog senses could not pick up. I do "listen" to body language, though. Recently, a friend had to work, but I saw their dog just make a quick sniff at the door, and knew they wanted me to take him for a walk. He liked that I didn't then ask him if he wanted to go out several times to elicit ever more excited confirmations.

 

[All-Rounder]

Oh my so cute and likes to be active, can't wait to do all sorts of things.

 

[Mono]

I do, but preferably when there are no other people around.

 

[Shevek]

I sometimes tell herds of cattle near my bicycle route that in India, they would be sacred, but the grass there is scarce. Bovine is a very simple tonal language, but most cowboys can't hear the difference between "hello darling" and "help!!" For a supposedly intelligent species, I'm dismayed at how many people will use many words even to a wild animal, even though many other humans don't know their language. Expecting most communication to be verbal, and blind to body language themselves, they never learn how animals do communicate. A "horse whisperer" does their magic by knowing how to orient their bodies.

 

[Mary Terry]

We had a blind Australian Blue Heeler for many years and communicated verbally with her as she (obviously) couldn't see hand signals. I swear she had a vocabulary of at least 200 words and even knew the different names of all her toys. When she went blind, we taught her new words to help keep her safe, such as "careful" when she was getting into an area where she might get hurt, "step up up" to tell her to go up a step, "step down down" to warn her to go down a step.

All my dogs always loved for me to sing to them. I called them the "silly dog songs". They would lie down facing me, cross their front paws, and stare at me while I sang. Their favorite was my doggy version of "Old McDonald had a farm". Instead of singing "chicken" or "horse" or "cat" as is traditional in the song, I'd sing each of my dogs' names. They would patiently wait till I got to each of their names and look blissed out when it was their turn for their "verse".

 

[AprilR]

Yes i do, or at least i did before my cat died.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Talk to my cats all the time slowly starting to understand them. They are getting more vocal as they see I'm starting to understand them.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Yes i do, or at least i did before my cat died.

I am sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[All-Rounder]

I try not to talk to dogs that aren't really close, it helps with training, anxiety and communication to be silent and only speak when necessary.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I wish my female cat would be quiet, she is mixed meows like a siamese always complaining about some thing,
or demanding attention.

 

[All-Rounder]

Apparently dogs can tell praising words but also if the tone of your voice means it's teasing or praising. Much like kids they like being spoken to in a baby voice and singing tones. They're very tone perceptive.

But they communicate with eyebrows and when you raise your eyebrows and have a relaxed smile they consider it as when they do it and it means you love them.

When they don't want their paws touched they pull them away. Paws are covered in nerves and are very sensitive, so touching them may be uncomfortable. On the other hand, the inside of their paw has pleasure nerves between their toes.

The back of the ears have pleasure nerves that when gently scratched send pleasure throughout their bodies and relax them. And their bellies are a great spot for pets as well.

Touch is superior to hugs and kisses as hugs can feel trapping and kisses can seem like you're trying to nip them to challenge or tease them.

 

[FilterFreq]

My dogs seem to love hugs and kisses. The small ones will jump right into your arms or lap and love to be held closely. Actually, even my big dogs will lean up against you until they get hugs. They demand it sometimes, lol.

Using falsetto and talking to them like they're babies makes them super happy, too. I talk to mine all the time because they respond so happily to me and seem to feed off of my energy quite a lot. Singing to them is also a great stim, and having them reciprocate is really rewarding.

I'm also a bit of a magnet for other peoples' dogs. I have pure puppy energy and they can pick up on that, or something. Usually they respond to me acknowledging them like they wish they could be acknowledged more by their own humans, but maybe that's because I never get tired of hanging out with dogs.

Oh, the things we do when we don't have friends.

 

[Shevek]

Cats, OTOH, show you their bellies to say they trust you, but actually touching it does not feel safe.
"If your cat could text you back, it wouldn't."

 

[tree]