A beginner’ guide to talking with and listening to animals

by Marta Williams

I went to visit a friend and her new kitten. I had my female Border collie, Brydie, with me. Brydie is over-curious of any new cats she meets and tends to follow them around obsessively. She doesn’t mean any harm, but most cats find her frightening at first. So as we went into the house I mentally sent Brydie the following thoughts: "Brydie, this kitty is new and not very sure of things, so back off, be gentle, and get him to like you." My mental instructions to Brydie worked. She reined herself in, carefully approaching and retreating, and finally got the kitten to play box and chase her around the house.

I have been communicating this way with Brydie since she was a puppy. We now have an intuitive rapport that allows us to tune into each other’s thoughts and emotions. Many people claim to have the same kind of relationship with their animals.

For years I have studied this phenomenon, which I call "intuitive communication." I now believe that each of us has an ability to communicate intuitively with animals by mentally exchanging thoughts, emotions, and images. I am certain that intuition is an innate characteristic of all life, the foundation of the spoken and written word, and the common link between all species. People of ancient cultures probably used intuition daily in interactions with animals. We modern-day humans are born with intuitive ability, but we are subtly conditioned to repress it as we grow up. However, it is possible to recover one’s intuitive skill. I did, and now I teach others to do so as well.

Intuitive communication is not the same as reading body language, for example when you know that your dog wants to go outside because she’s sitting at the door staring at you. It is completely different, a kind of communication that conventional science holds to be impossible, the ability to send and receive thoughts, images, feelings, and other sensory data mentally without using sounds or gestures, even over short distances.

Most of us can relate to the idea of intuition, having had hunches or gut feelings about people or events, like whether to trust a stranger we’ve just met, whether to take a job offer, or whether a person might be angry with us. Intuition is a useful survival tool, and even though suppressed, it will often surface in a crisis to warn us of a threat or critical event, perhaps an ill or dying relative.

Animals recognize the survival value of intuition and never disconnect from it. They constantly scan the environment for intuitive data, alert to changes, such as shifts in the emotional states of those around them. If your otherwise jovial dog starts acting suspicious of a stranger, take heed: your dog may sense something you don’t. You can communicate intuitively at any distance, and you don’t have to see or know the animal you wish to speak with.

Here is an example of how it works. A client asked me to talk to the dog she just adopted to find out about his previous owner and life experiences. I tuned in mentally to the dog from a distance and asked about his past. I immediately formed a mental picture of an older woman and assumed this was being sent to me intuitively by the dog. Then I had the thought that this woman loved the dog but that she become ill and died. I assumed this thought also was sent to me by the dog. Next I received an image of the dog being adopted by the woman’s son and images of the dog in a backyard, alone and despondent. The dog mentally told me that he and the son were not a match, explaining why the dog ended up at the animal shelter. My client was able to track down the previous owner and everything the dog had conveyed to me about his previous life proved accurate.

Sending information intuitively

There are two parts to intuitive communication: sending information and receiving it. Sending is by far the easiest. Try this experiment: For a two week period talk to your animal out loud as if he or she understands you completely. Tell your animal how you feel, or how your day went, just as you would tell a person. Politely ask your animal to change any behaviors that might be bothering you, and if there is something you would like your animal to do, just ask for it.

Keep a written record of any changes in your animal’s behavior. If your animal complies with your requests and suggestions, give lots of appreciation. Many people who try this exercise discover that it works so well they permanently change the way they relate to their animals. At a minimum, I recommend talking aloud to your animal to explain any changed circumstances or potentially stressful activities, before these events occur. This gives the animal a "heads up" and an opportunity to adjust.

After you’ve been talking for a few weeks, you can ask your animal to act in such a way as to provide you with indisputable proof you have been heard and understood. A client of mine, Geoffrey Levens, tried this talking experiment with his cat, Willie. Willie has his humans trained to put more food in his bowl when he rubs against their legs. One day, as Willie was doing this, Geoffrey said, "Hey, if you want food, why don’t you go point at your dish instead of coming to me?" Willie instantly stopped, gave Geoffrey a strange look, and turned and walked toward the dish. As he approached it, he froze mid-stride, stretched his head forward, and raised and bent his front leg, like a pointer spotting a bird. Willie got a lot of extra food that day!

My favorite story about how animals actually do understand us comes from a Canadian newspaper article about a cat named Pierre ("There’s a Real Cat Burglar on the Prowl," The Evening Telegram, Mattawa, Ont August 22, 1998, p.7.). Pierre had a peculiar habit of going to all the neighbors and bringing clothing and sheets back home to his person. She in turn would wash the articles and put them in a basket on her back porch, informing her neighbors that if they were missing something they were welcome to check the basket. The neighbors took to leaving their dirty laundry outside for Pierre to fetch. Pierre’s person said that she was spending a fortune in laundry soap.

One day the woman’s daughter came to visit. The two women were sitting in the living room with Pierre when the daughter remarked that she had forgotten to bring her jogging suit, and she was disappointed that she would not be able to go jogging. The mother turned to Pierre and said, "Pierre, did you hear that? Why don’t you go get her a jogging suit?" They both laughed, and the daughter told Pierre that she wanted it in a maroon color. The next morning, a maroon jogging suit was on the floor in the living room, in exactly the daughter"s size.

Problem solving through intuitive talking

The technique of talking to your animals as if they can truly understand can be helpful when dealing with behavior problems. I used it recently to get my older cats to get along with a new kitten. For a long time I had wanted a kitten but resisted because I already have two cats. I felt sure my oldest cat would not appreciate a kitten. But I met a kitten I couldn’t resist, so I brought her home. I was hoping she would play with Tule, my two-year-old cat, which would give Hazel, my twenty-one-year-old cat, some respite. I also hoped the new kitty would respect Hazel and give her a wide berth. I talked to all the cats, showed them endless mental movies of how I wanted them to act, and asked them please to get along.

After a few weeks I put them together. They didn’t try to kill each other, but they weren’t being chummy either. There was a lot of hissing and acting horrid. When not refereeing, I would sit quietly and imagine them all lying curled up together with the dogs or nimbly chasing each other about the house. I even imagined the sound of cats happily running back and forth in play.

I really didn’t know if this experiment was going to work. In my bleaker moments I figured that instead of two cats who disliked and avoided each other, I would have three. But I hadn’t given enough credit to the intuitive process nor had I factored in the unique character of the new kitten.

I named that kitten Phoebe, but soon nicknamed her the Phoebmonster because she was pushy and had a fearless personality. She had no fear of the dogs, wanted the two other cats to be her friends, and was not going to give up until she had it all. She waded calmly through all kinds of aggressive behavior in pursuit of her goal. At the end of three months all my visions had been realized: Phoebe and the dogs were good friends. All three cats were playing and chasing each other through the house. They also were sleeping peacefully together on my desk, which made me happy but left me with virtually no space to work! Hazel not only accepted the kitty, she loved her. It was success beyond my wildest dreams, courtesy of intuitive communication and a radical little cat.

Receiving information intuitively

Receiving intuitive information is harder than sending, because you have to learn to recognize incoming information. Once you initiate an intuitive dialogue with your animal all information that pops into your head is potentially about or directly transmitted by the animal. Information can come in the form of visual images, feelings (both emotional and physical), ideas, words, or phrases that pop into your mind. The art of receiving is to trust incoming information and record it without question. Then you can check with the animal’s owner to verify what you received.

Here is an example of how information can be received intuitively. A woman who had read my books tried out my techniques for talking intuitively with her friend’s Rottweiler. She mentally greeted the dog and told him he was handsome. In response she felt that he sent her thoughts, feelings, and images. First she got the impression that he thanked her, then immediately she got the impression that he was worried because his person was exhausted from working too hard. Th n she formed a mental image of this woman falling asleep on a green plaid dog bed. The dog’s owner confirmed everything the dog had communicated intuitively. It even turned out the dog had three different-colored dog beds, and the one the woman had fallen asleep on was green plaid.

Hearing your own animals

Oddly enough, it can be easier to receive information intuitively from an animal you don’t know than from one you do. You know so much about your own animals it may be impossible to get around the feeling you are just making things up. Also, there is no easy way to verify the data you receive from your own animals. To counteract this, I recommend you try this experiment: Ask your animal, "Do you have a question for me?" If a question pops into your head, no matter what it is, assume it came from your animal and answer it as best you can, either vocally or by sending thoughts. Ask for more questions and keep answering until your animal is finished. If you are successful, you will bypass your inner critic and experience what it feels like to receive information intuitively. You may also find that you and your animal end up discussing a subject that she has chosen. If don’t get a question from your animal just let it go and tell your animal you will ask again another day.