One of the things I’ve noticed in my work as an animal communicator is that humans tend to tell themselves stories about their pets’ behaviors, but that these stories generally originate from the human’s experience, rather than the animal’s. I’ll give you an example:

A client got in touch because her Golden Retriever seemed depressed. The client had adopted a rescue dog from another state and that dog had “taken” the Golden Retriever’s bed. The client was very worried about how sad and dejected this was obviously making her sweet, old Golden. She was to the point of wondering if she should find another home home for the new dog. She didn’t want her original dog to be unhappy. What could be done?

When I talked to the Golden about the bed, he was so clearly not upset. In fact, this gentle dog didn’t consider that bed “his” at all. He was not territorial or possessive about it. He was, in fact, a caring nurturer, so he actually enjoyed sharing the bed, or letting the other dog have the bed. In the same way sometimes little kids are really happy to share their toys or snacks, this dog really enjoyed sharing the bed. Sharing feels good.

My client was perplexed. She was sure the dog was depressed. But I was sure it wasn’t anything to do with the new dog or the bed. The old dog really liked the new dog and was happy he was there and genuinely felt unfazed by the bed situation.

I usually finish a session by asking the animal if there’s anything they want to ask their human. And this sweet Golden said, quite glumly, “What happened to my food?” His food, he said, had lost its taste. And there was less of it. He was SO depressed about this. It was like most of the joy had gone out of living. What’s life without good food? He was very sad.

So, I asked my client, “Have you changed his food lately? He’s incredibly sad about this food situation. He says the food has lost its flavor—and there’s less of it. It’s a very depressing state of affairs.”

She gasped. “Oh my god,” she said. “Yes! We had to put him on this diet food!”

“There it is,” I said. “Your dog is not depressed about his bed. He’s depressed about his food. If there’s any way that you can keep to the healthy eating plan, but perhaps do something to make his food more flavorful—perhaps another brand–he will be so much happier.”

She said she definitely would find a food he could eat that made him happier.

In this case, the human was totally in tune with her animal’s feelings. Loving owners usually are. It’s just that our human-ness gets in the way sometimes of understanding *why* a behavior or feeling is happening. We think about it the way *we* would think about it; not necessarily the way the animal we are caring for is thinking about it. And that’s where I come in.

Animal Communication with Naomi: “Helping dogs get better food since 2011.” 

(To read more stories, click on the stripes icon above to open a menu of archived posts.)