Speaking Their Language by Cindy Huff & Terri Noftsger
One definition of communication is “two or more individuals sharing and understanding an idea” (Parelli Principle #3). When you consider this definition in the context of the relationship between a human and an animal, it seems almost impossible to understand how even the possibility of clear communication could exist. But, as we all know, it does. How? The first thing that we have going in our favor is that both we and animals use body language to communicate. We humans tend to rely more on shared verbal or sign language when we communicate with each other, but when it comes to our animals, this can get very tricky. Our cat may not comprehend what “get off the counter top now!” means, but they do observe us having a tense body posture, gesturing hands, grimacing faces, and terse vocalization at that moment. They can tell we are not pleased about something involving them. Over time, if the cat repeatedly gets on the counter top, and we repeatedly ask them to get down in the same way, they come to understand that “off” and “countertop” has something
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to do with where they are. Being cats, of course, they may or may not choose to please you by getting down. However, you and your cat have communicated. Our animals, no matter if we are talking about a teacup Poodle or a horse or our pet iguana, read our body language and glean a lot of information about us from that. They learn that certain body postures and facial expressions mean we are pleased or upset or relaxed. When we add vocalizations that we repeat consistently in certain situations, they begin to associate those words with the matching body language as our cat did above. What makes this so fascinating is that we learn to read their body language and vocalizations too. For example, if you live with a dog, you come to understand the difference between the body posture and bark of “I see the barn cat!” and “Intruder! Danger!” and “Let’s Play!” If you work with horses, observing their body language, facial expressions, and ear and tail positions tell you a lot about what kind of mood they are in. If you are thinking about riding that same horse, your life may depend upon
Summer’s Twilight 2020
