So...I'm labeled an animal communicator by my clients. If you could see me right now you would see me blushing so hard I look ill! I did NOT label myself! Word just got around that my partner and I were really good with all animals and people started calling us to "Communiate" or "empathize" with their pets.

So I figure since I really feel uncomfortable making money I'd offer fellow veg*n's and animal luvers my thoughts on thier cases FREE!

So er.... I guess post your issue or ??? and I will try to check daily and get back to you.

ANIMAL LIBERATION!

Are you claiming ability to remotely communicate with non-human animals?

Sorry, just a little confused by what you are offering...

I am also confused, your good with animals, so you got labled a communicator, and then, NOT labling yourself you offer these abilities free of charge? Is this what you are saying?

i dont get what cases? huh confused

Here is my guess: Let's say for instance my dog has problems with seperation anxiety. She or He can "tune in" or communicate with my dog and tell my why my dog has seperation anxiety - such as - my dog might say that he feels I go away too long or that he is bored, etc etc

Am I right?

I don't call myself a "communicator" and I never charge for helping people.

I DO believe I have a very unique understanding of animals just based on my childhood and personal and professional experience.

I labeled the thread as a communicator because often people knowm the title, perhaps I should have used whisperer?

I didn't mean to be offensive! Truly I love animals and have veterinarians that have worked with me telling me often that they wanted me to do home visits with rescue animals because I had a way of transitioning the animal from being afraid and having behavioral issues to a well mannered, lovable, and happy pet.

I just wanted to help fellow veggies with their pet questions.

I know that other places charge up to 50 to 100 bucks an hour for these "training services" and the owners end up feeling ripped off and the plan fails because they didn't address underlying issues of behavioral and emotional respects individual to each animal.

So If you'd like to ask me a question please do! If you are offended and wish not to, I respect that. :)

Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask personally please feel free to send me a message.

This is just my way of "paying it forward"

Vegan Keen Kitty:lovesign:

Here is my guess: Let's say for instance my dog has problems with seperation anxiety. She or He can "tune in" or communicate with my dog and tell my why my dog has seperation anxiety - such as - my dog might say that he feels I go away too long or that he is bored, etc etc

Am I right?

Perfect...I'd also want to know the history of the dog, the breed, and any other strange quirks. Here is an example I just was asked today!

"My cat is a rescue, she was rescued from a dumpster in bag of TJ Maxx, She is sweet and doesn't elliminate outside the box, but recently she has been eating plastic rings, bottle caps, and containers. I'm worried! Should I be worried?"

My response?
How old is she? 3 yrs. approx.
How long have you had her? 1 year.
How many hour a day (awake) do you have to be with her? 6 hours or more
What toys has she shown preference for? Rattle mice, string nothing else
Is she declawed? yes, we found her like that.
Does she eat everyday? Yes
Does she have any other strange of funny things she does? Yes she likes to pretend she is clawing our pants or the hamper.

After meeting the cat and looking at her teeth I observed that she willingly let me touch her gums and there was no sign of gingivitis or tarter. Also she seemed to ENJOY chewing my fingers and chewing her toy mice.

I asked if she was ever allowed outside anymore, no.

I asked the woman to go to the petstore and get Fuax suade and Kong cat toys.

2 weeks later I was informed that cat loved the new toys and stopped Happy ending!

I don't think anyone is offended, just some of us didn't know what you were offering. Asking a question isn't a sign of being offended, it's asking a question. :)

So, sort of psychic pet communication?

I would be hesitant to say Psychic. I have never really understood people saying they were "psychic" Not that it isn't true, I just don't know if that is the best way to describe it.
I guess the best way to describe it is just to say somehow I just get ideas about the animals I am asked about when their stories are told to me. Whether it is because of my lifelong involvement with animal rescues,sactuaries and personal adoptions or just some sort of err..."divine" intervention or just insight. I don't know. I only know that we (my husband and I) are called daily with difficult bhavioral/emotional questions and usully between the two of us we can approach the animal ans figure out a plan of action that helps in short order.

I just thought since Vets are asking me to do it and I can't be everywhere if I share this...thing ...I can do with fellow veg*ns and animal lovers for free that somehow I am paying it forward on karma.

I could easily sit around and do nothing and ignore the calls I get, but that doesn't feel right at all...

So yeah...

Maybe you can help me then. I have a HUGE problem with a large animal. My husband and I are taking care of my sister's 33 year old horse (actually she's a Connemara Pony). The horse is in relatively good health for such an oldster. Her heart is very healthy, her lungs are a bit weak. But her joints and muscles are beginning to degenerate and for the past couple of years she's had more and more trouble getting back to her feet after lying down. This has gotten increasingly worse in the past six months to the point now where we have to lift her to her feet with pulleys attached to padded straps around her hindquarters. Most of her strength is in her front legs, her hindquarters are extremely weak and delicate-looking. She's been losing a lot of weight lately and her ribs are starting to show in spite of us giving her supplements, Purina Senior Horse chow, and crimped oats with molasses in addition to alfalfa hay and coastal bermuda hay, pretty much on demand as much as she cares to eat, plus fresh grazing on grass all day. The past few days she was down, we got her up, then she was down again the next day. When she's down we leave her resting for a few hours so she gets the proper amount of deep sleep, so we were surprised she lay down again so soon, usually it's about every two weeks between these lie-down naps.

We also give her an analgesic paste when she's down, basically horse aspirin, to help with the discomfort.

What more can we be doing for her, in your opinion? She seems to enjoy life a great deal when she's up, and will even gallop into the grazing area in the morning, but when she's down she feels hopeless, clearly, and it's hard to motivate her to get up, we have to yell at her and sometimes try to spook her by waving bags and things at her. Sometimes she'll jump up with just shouted words of encouragement, but other times, she just hangs there with us hauling on the rope, which is tough on us middle-aged people lifting a 900 lb horse, even with four pulleys!

She's just the sweetest horse. In the evenings we walk with our dog down the field to collect eggs from our chickens, and the horse comes along with us, following without a lead. We call her "the big dog."

Sounds like a great gift to have! I've certainly always wished I could "talk to the animals."

Any idea how I can convince Starbucks (7 year old lab/dalmatian) that he doesn't have to protect me or my house? Basically I want him to trust strangers.

any tips on how i can get my cat to stop peeing on things? he doesn't like when we go away and leave him alone, and he's come to recognize certains objects as things we take with us when we leave. purses, jackets, camping gear etc. if we leave these items on the floor he'll pee on them. great motivation for us to remember to hand our jackets up and not leave things lying around but still, sometimes if we're going away for a big bike race weekend and have lots of gear, we'll have some of it out in the open while we're transporting from house to car. we'll go in for another load and find a fresh puddle on something.

he's 7 years old, just started doing this 2 years ago or so. it doesn't happen real often and he doesn't go outside his litterbox any other time.

so yeah, i know why he does it, i just wish i knew how to make him stop other than not going anywhere :P

Sounds like a great gift to have! I've certainly always wished I could "talk to the animals."

Any idea how I can convince Starbucks (7 year old lab/dalmatian) that he doesn't have to protect me or my house? Basically I want him to trust strangers.
Well first of all he is doing what comes naturally to him and it is a sweet thing that he cares about you so much that he wants to check people out first.

As far as making him trust strangers...There is ONE trick that comes to mind when I had a dog (rottweiler) who barked his head off when people were at the door and was VERY defensive of me.

I started this procedure when someone came over.

1. I told him firmly to sit, then to STOP (to stop the barking) when he stopped I praised him and made him keep sitting.
2. I had my friends come in, handed them a treat and had them give the treat to the dog. There is no faster way to a dogs heart than through his stomach.
3. Make him sit and let him sniff the person who is visitning. If he barks tell him to sit and stop. if he won't remove him from the room and lock him in a room or a crate. This is the LAST resort.

Having said this. I actually would prefer to have a dog that was a barker to strangers. That way if someone entered your house that wasn't supposed to be there... but if you want him to be friendlier the treat way and obedience training is definately the way to go.

Good luck lemme know how it goes!

any tips on how i can get my cat to stop peeing on things? he doesn't like when we go away and leave him alone, and he's come to recognize certains objects as things we take with us when we leave. purses, jackets, camping gear etc. if we leave these items on the floor he'll pee on them. great motivation for us to remember to hand our jackets up and not leave things lying around but still, sometimes if we're going away for a big bike race weekend and have lots of gear, we'll have some of it out in the open while we're transporting from house to car. we'll go in for another load and find a fresh puddle on something.

he's 7 years old, just started doing this 2 years ago or so. it doesn't happen real often and he doesn't go outside his litterbox any other time.

so yeah, i know why he does it, i just wish i knew how to make him stop other than not going anywhere :P

Well first and foremost I reccomend that you get him checked for crystals in his urinary tract to rule out that he has an infection. Often that is the first reason for elliminating on things you own.

After ruling out an infection I had a cat who did this too. I began to realize that anything that was sweaty or that he had tinkled on before he was more apt to pee on. I would suggest that you wash anything that he pee's on in Natures Miracle or White vinegar.

Including the floor around where he urinates.

Cats noses are SUPER sensitive. They can smell a trace of other cat pee, or their own and they feel the need to re-mark it with their pee. (appetizing)

Also if you are like me and don't wear traditional deoderant sometimes when I am sweaty or musty my cat will get really interested and look like he is going to go potty on something but I've caught him.

What I'm saying is strong odors or dirty clothes or even a less than sanitary litter box can make it so cats will pee on things to get your attention.

If you use clay try Pine. It helps with litter pan odor, doesn't get on their paws and is better for the environment. If he has an accident clean the area or item THOROUGHLY. And if you have dirty laundry, wash it also with vinegar or natures miracle.

Hopefully that might curb the peeing on your belongings.

Hope this helps!

Maybe you can help me then. I have a HUGE problem with a large animal. My husband and I are taking care of my sister's 33 year old horse (actually she's a Connemara Pony). The horse is in relatively good health for such an oldster. Her heart is very healthy, her lungs are a bit weak. But her joints and muscles are beginning to degenerate and for the past couple of years she's had more and more trouble getting back to her feet after lying down. This has gotten increasingly worse in the past six months to the point now where we have to lift her to her feet with pulleys attached to padded straps around her hindquarters. Most of her strength is in her front legs, her hindquarters are extremely weak and delicate-looking. She's been losing a lot of weight lately and her ribs are starting to show in spite of us giving her supplements, Purina Senior Horse chow, and crimped oats with molasses in addition to alfalfa hay and coastal bermuda hay, pretty much on demand as much as she cares to eat, plus fresh grazing on grass all day. The past few days she was down, we got her up, then she was down again the next day. When she's down we leave her resting for a few hours so she gets the proper amount of deep sleep, so we were surprised she lay down again so soon, usually it's about every two weeks between these lie-down naps.

We also give her an analgesic paste when she's down, basically horse aspirin, to help with the discomfort.

What more can we be doing for her, in your opinion? She seems to enjoy life a great deal when she's up, and will even gallop into the grazing area in the morning, but when she's down she feels hopeless, clearly, and it's hard to motivate her to get up, we have to yell at her and sometimes try to spook her by waving bags and things at her. Sometimes she'll jump up with just shouted words of encouragement, but other times, she just hangs there with us hauling on the rope, which is tough on us middle-aged people lifting a 900 lb horse, even with four pulleys!

She's just the sweetest horse. In the evenings we walk with our dog down the field to collect eggs from our chickens, and the horse comes along with us, following without a lead. We call her "the big dog."


You know. I have degenerative disc disease, Crohns disease, a spinal cord tumor and life threatening food allergies. And I can tell you there are just some days where I really don't feel like getting up!

Between pain, and depression (yes animals get depressed!) it can be tough.
Add in cold weather and having to depend on others to help you get up or down, one could easily see she could have her days.

But you may want to try some tricks. Horses are very food motivated. sometimes just giving her some time (if possible) to eat out of your hand some apples of grain, just pet her and tell her how pretty and sweet she is, what a beautiful day it is. She won't understand your words maybe but she will understand that you are there for HER and that you bring treats!

When she does get right up or is easy to get up encourage the hell out of her!

And you might even want to see if there are any items that she finds curious or amusing.

My horse used to love when I let her play with a frisbee...I had to make sure it was reallly sturdy, but she loved it. Another goat I had loved this hard plastic ball. even odd veggies or unusul fruits! Try tempting her with something unusual, a sugarcube with peppermint oil on it, collard greens, sliced turnips, ANYTHING!

The point is, she is going to have days where between the pain and the fear of getting up (its scary trusting tiny people and a pulley to haul your butt upright! even for a human!) she is going to be stubborn.

Your other option is to leave her alone for a bit and let her think you aren't going to lift her, then come back. She may have the will to "help" you get her up as much as she can.

She sounds like a sweetheart and very lucky to have you. Send me a picture!

Thank you KeenKitty!

We've tried treats, we try to let her pick the time to get up (if she isn't helping, we know we can't get her up - it's really entirely up to her). I guess it will just take more patience. :) Thank you for your help.

Well first of all he is doing what comes naturally to him and it is a sweet thing that he cares about you so much that he wants to check people out first.

As far as making him trust strangers...There is ONE trick that comes to mind when I had a dog (rottweiler) who barked his head off when people were at the door and was VERY defensive of me.

I started this procedure when someone came over.

1. I told him firmly to sit, then to STOP (to stop the barking) when he stopped I praised him and made him keep sitting.
2. I had my friends come in, handed them a treat and had them give the treat to the dog. There is no faster way to a dogs heart than through his stomach.
3. Make him sit and let him sniff the person who is visitning. If he barks tell him to sit and stop. if he won't remove him from the room and lock him in a room or a crate. This is the LAST resort.

Having said this. I actually would prefer to have a dog that was a barker to strangers. That way if someone entered your house that wasn't supposed to be there... but if you want him to be friendlier the treat way and obedience training is definately the way to go.

Good luck lemme know how it goes!Treats and obedience training have helped. Unfortunately it's not that easy. He's in advanced obedience/agility classes, show quality, smartest dog I've ever fostered... but he just has such a strong inherent distrust of strangers that he's very high liability. I've gotten to the point that I can introduce him to people and after one or two meetings he'll be your best friend, run up to you and give you kisses, but it's not good enough. I want him to ignore people I haven't introduced him to. I'm going through the aggression protocols, so I guess I'll slowly train it out of him, but it sure would be nice if I could communicate this and get him to just understand. :book:

What would it "think" in the wild-- hint-- Wolves

Are you talking to me, Gita? If so, I didn't understand your post.

Treats and obedience training have helped. Unfortunately it's not that easy. He's in advanced obedience/agility classes, show quality, smartest dog I've ever fostered... but he just has such a strong inherent distrust of strangers that he's very high liability. I've gotten to the point that I can introduce him to people and after one or two meetings he'll be your best friend, run up to you and give you kisses, but it's not good enough. I want him to ignore people I haven't introduced him to. I'm going through the aggression protocols, so I guess I'll slowly train it out of him, but it sure would be nice if I could communicate this and get him to just understand.

Honestly, your dog is just trying to take care of you. As soon as he knows that these strangers are safe he will be nice.

You can try to "train" it out of him but honestly a little hesitation to jump into the lap of a stranger is NOT a bad thing! the fact that he can differentiate friends from strangers show he is a very intelligent dog.

Truthfully trying to "train" it out of him would be akin to trying to change his personality.

You can try it, but honestly a lot of the time I say its easier to train people who visit YOUR home than training the dog who is just protecting you.

You can try to "train" it out of him but honestly a little hesitation to jump into the lap of a stranger is NOT a bad thing! the fact that he can differentiate friends from strangers show he is a very intelligent dog.

Truthfully trying to "train" it out of him would be akin to trying to change his personality.
Wanting to attack people is not a good thing! We're lucky his previous owners were not sued. We're lucky he hasn't been euthanized for his aggressive behavior. If training him out of it means changing his personality, I don't care. I'd rather have my dog alive and happy, than be sued over a dog bite and forced to put him to sleep.

hmm well no he's not peeing on things he's peed on in the past or things that smell like us or anything like that. just things that he sees us walk out the door with when we're gone for days at a time. like i said, i know why he does it i just need to make him stop. he's just mad that we're leaving him alone

My cat also gets funny when we go away, and as I would suspect yours knows it is being 'naughty' when it pees on your things, it will be a hard habit to train out of him.
Firstly make sure you dont give him any extra attention when he does it - the number of times I heard my father having a lovely "conversation" with my rabbit about how it is bad to pee on the floor was unbelievable, and it only reinforces the behaviour.
To try to break the behaviour, I would suggest trying to accustom the cat to the luggage - just a couple of empty cases etc. that are typical of one of your trips left around, then give the cat lots of attention so he doesnt feel abandoned at the sight of them, and put them away again after an hour or two. If he wets them during this time, ignore him completely until after they are cleaned up and put away again. Repeat daily until they can be left for a reasonable length of time without him showing interest.
Basically, rather than trying to fix your cat, you just confuse him so he doesn't know when you will be going away.

wouldn't that also make him think we're always going away? at least til he gets used to it anyway

it's wierd though, we have luggage in our bedroom out in the open almost all the time, and he's never peed on them. my fiance takes a big dufflebag to the gym every day and leaves it in the hall all the time, cat's never touched it. he goes biking and leaves all his gear lying around, cat doesn't touch it. as soon as we start hauling the tent and air matresses etc out of the basement we have to watch him like a hawk. he really hates us going camping lol

A few months ago I was at the vet, and this guy was there and said that his cat peed on him whenever he picked him up. He was confused as the vet was saying that there was nothing wrong with the cat (urinary, disease, etc).

So I interejected and told the guy the story of the man who goes to the doctor and says 'hey Doctor, it hurts everytime I lift my arm like this" and the doctor said...(wait for it) :boobies: "don't lift your arm like that!" :lol:

the guy just looked at me, even more confused (the vet laughed)

:brood: So I explained..."Maybe your cat doesn't like to be picked up. Peeing on you is a pretty clear message. Stop picking him up, and he'll stop peeing on you." :wall:

The same is true for the dog who is not friendly to strangers. My mother's dogs is very cute and very friendly.

My parents used to live in the country and the dog was pretty much outdoors with lots of other dogs all the time, and not around that many strangers. Now that my parents live in the city, everyone is constantly going over to her and petting her (without asking her or my mother) and she is starting to growl at people...well no wonder!

:help: I would get pissed off too if everyone always ran up to me and started rubbing my head.

Your dog has a relationship with you, not with strangers. From the dog's perspective all strangers are part of another clan and she does not WANT a relationship with them and it is not fair to ask her to have such a relationship. And in fact it is unnatural for the dog.

You wouldn't make your son or daughter go up and kiss strangers, so why would you make your dog do that? She is part of your family (clan) and I recomend that you treat her with the respect that all members of your family deserve.

Instead of focusing on how you can change your dog, try telling strangers to leave your dog alone! :deal: