What is an animal communication session with your pet really like?

Ever wondered about the secret language between you and your pet? Today, we unravel the mystery of animal communication with our special guest, Karoline from Dog Mom Mentality. As she shares her journey with her dog, Layla, we explore the powerful transformation of their bond. From the initial thrill of owning a puppy to the trials of managing a reactive dog, Karoline's story mirrors the experiences of many pet owners.

Karoline believes that animal communication can deepen our connection with our pets and even serve as a tool for self-discovery. During our conversation, she shares her "aha" moments from the communication sessions, bringing to light the feedback loop in their relationship and the unexpected impact of her own anxiety. She also introduces us to the concept of "soul contracts" with our pets, and how they can be our mirrors and mentors, teaching us critical life lessons.

Our chat with Karoline is not just about her personal journey; it's also about empowering you, the pet guardian. Stepping into the realms of animal communication takes bravery, as there are times when you may hear things that might be hard to accept. But Karoline emphasizes the importance of being open and authentic in these conversations. She also shares resources for pet owners who may be feeling overwhelmed, including her unique journaling tool. So, tune in and take the first step towards building a deeper relationship with your pet.

Connect with Karoline, Layla & Dog Mom Mentality:
https://dogmommentality.com

Get your own Dog Mom Mentality journal, shirt and stickers: https://dogmommentality.com/collections

Listen to the DMM podcast: https://dogmommentality.com/pages/podcast

Ready to schedule your animal communication session (and perhaps be featured right here on Let's Talk to Animals)? https://animallovelanguages.as.me

Transcript

Shannon Cutts: 0:12

Welcome to Let's Talk to Animals, the podcast about inner species communication. My name is Shannon Cutts. I am your friendly neighborhood hostess, along with Miss Petal Cutts, my four-month-old cockatiel. We are here today chatting about animal communication with today's guest, Karoline from Dog Mom Mentality, with Leila, aka Princess Beauty, And we will explain a little bit more about that. We're here talking about how animal communication can complement other growth opportunities and how it can fit in with the bigger picture of being a pet guardian or a dog mom or a cat dad or wherever you find yourself in your relationships with your own companion animals, rescue animals, animals you work with. Welcome, Karoline.

Karoline Edmonds: 1:06

Thank you, I am very excited to be here. We've had our actual session communication session. You've been on my podcast recording and now I'm here, So we've talked to each other a lot here recently.

Shannon Cutts: 1:20

And it's been so much fun and I'm learning so much. I highly recommend heading over and adding Dog Mom Mentality to your playlist if you haven't already. It's an amazing podcast with so many resources and so much real-world experience, especially if you have a dog who is in the least bit unresponsive to play or reactive or anxious in any way.

Shannon Cutts: 1:44

You can just get so much support. That's what we've really been focusing for the last several episodes here on Let's Talk to Animals. Is that feeling of compending doom or, at the very least, isolation or personal shame, that you feel like, oh, my pet's broken and it's like let's talk?

Karoline Edmonds: 2:03

about this Right? Yeah, you're not alone. Let's just say that you're definitely not alone. And that's actually how my podcast got started.

Karoline Edmonds: 2:14

Because Layla was a difficult, reactive dog And at the time I felt very alone, isolated, misunderstood. I felt like I couldn't go and do my normal things. I just wanted to be a normal dog owner walking their dog, but it just wasn't like that And found this community on Instagram at the time pretty small but very mighty, you know. I finally felt like I was being heard And I started the podcast because I was like I want to show people the behind the scenes of reactive dog owners and all of the hard work, the emotional labor, the actual physical training that we do with our dog that other people might not realize or might not understand why we do it the way that we do. And I kind of got a bunch of different people from various aspects of aggression or fear or separation, anxiety, just kind of like a wide array and started talking to them, eventually turned it into like this full blown podcast that now covers any way that your dog can emotionally affect you.

Shannon Cutts: 3:19

So it doesn't necessarily have to be reactive dog stories anymore, but that's still a really big piece of it And it's also interesting because our pets can be and you and I talked about this in our session with Layla, but our pets can be very much some of the closest mirrors in our lives, holding a rather comfortable mirror up to show us some things that may be going on within us that we may not either be aware of, or we may not think they're problematic, or we may have just given up on those aspects of ourselves. And they can also be some of our most powerful mentors and teachers, through modeling behaviors or just a ways of being in this world that we can learn a ton from. You and I talked when we were chatting about what Layla had to say. We were talking about soul contracts and how there really isn't any accidents. So if you're listening to this or you're watching this today and you're going, mind spoken, or how did I end up like this?

Shannon Cutts: 4:20

Or it's just not matching up with my vision, one thing I would really encourage you to consider, other than going over to dogmommentalitycom, the other thing I would invite you to consider, is that if you can imagine it, you can create it, and so it's already out there. Consider that this is your life, knocking and inviting you out to play, maybe literally, definitely metaphorically, inviting you out to grow, to learn, to evolve, to transform, and that you and the particular animal you're keeping company with, whether for a reason, a season or a lifetime, so to speak, is the perfect partner for that, absolutely the perfect partner. I love Don Miguel Rue as the four agreements, and one of the four is don't take anything personally.

Shannon Cutts: 5:02

And so your dog has come into your life, or your cat, or your parrot, or your turtle or whoever it is. They've come into your life as a part of their look at her. You're watching the video.

Shannon Cutts: 5:16

She's got the four agreements right there. Don Miguel Rue has amazing, amazing, amazing. I follow him on Instagram. I've known about him through a mentor of mine for many years. Obviously, Karoline, you do as well, so highly recommended homework for you today, or playwork, if you will just try. On these four agreements for size. We can make the same mistake with our kids anyone with whom we regularly encounter and engage in relationship with that.

Shannon Cutts: 5:42

We take their behavior or their stuff personally, as if it's a reflection of us And in reality, your animal came to you already fully engaged in their own story and their own stuff. So, Karoline, i didn't really prep you for this but I'm sorry about that. But I always love to invite our guests to take us back to the beginning, because I have come to know you and absolutely treasure who you are and your story and Layla's story. But our listeners, they, may not know you and Layla at all yet. So can you just share a little bit about how you got to where you are today and also how you became a little curious in adding animal communication to Layla's toolkit and your toolkit together? So just take and rewind us a little.

Karoline Edmonds: 6:29

Yeah. So I love talking about this and I kind of call it my dog mom phases because I think about, like the different stages that we went through. So my husband actually got Layla himself and it was kind of like a hey, i want to get a dog we're dating, so like it's going to be our dog, but like hey, i'll take care of it, i'll do all the potty training, i'll do the feeding, all of that. I was like, okay, great, at the time we were in college and it was February of 2020. So we were in our senior year of college and we lived separately. So the remaining college months, which would have been about four at the time, she was going to stay with him, she was going to be his dog, all good and dandy. Well, the next month, the pandemic hit And so we all moved from college to my mom's house and me, my husband, my boyfriend at the time and Layla started to live there And I started to grow kind of a connection with her.

Karoline Edmonds: 7:32

But it was a lot of like the I'm the fun parent kind of thing. I'm just going to take pictures of her. She's just like going to be like a cute little asset. I had no intention on like having this big of a relationship with her. Growing up I had dogs, but it was kind of the same, like they were just there. I didn't have like a ton of connection with them, never really been like a big animal person, if you want to know the truth. And so at that time she was a puppy. We were doing like the cute sit shake, like cute tricks, not a ton of like functional training, especially because the world was shut down. So she's going to have a lot of the social training that puppies at that stage normally get fast forward a little bit And she's in her like adolescent stage, which is like the eight months to like eight, nine months to like a year ish old, and that's the time that they're getting a little bit more rowdy, right.

Karoline Edmonds: 8:28

And you know, we didn't really do much of training. I she was just kind of there all day. We just kind of coexisted. And my husband started to go for work trips where he would go for one to two weeks And I would be the one responsible for Layla. He was also working at an office and I worked from home. So I started to become more responsible for her and you can blame this on whatever. But we got to this point where we had zero relationship. I was asking her to do things, i was taking her out and she wasn't listening to me. Or I would ask her to get off the couch and she would just look at me. And it eventually got to this point that I would describe us as a step sisters living in the same house. So you know, step sisters have like a really weird dynamic where it's like a power dynamic and they're like a little bit like am I allowed to curse?

Shannon Cutts: 9:23

Absolutely Okay.

Karoline Edmonds: 9:24

They're like you know they're like, you know, they're like maybe a little bit bitchy to each other, like how stepsisters do, and they're like I don't want to be here, but I'm here. That's kind of how me and Layla were, quite honestly, that's the best way that I can describe it. And so we ended up getting to this point that, besides in the house, you know, she was super fearful on walks So we couldn't really take her out off of our street And she started to have create aggression, which was kind of the tipping point for us, because having a dog react towards you bark at you, snarl at you, growl at you, snap at you That's like a whole different experience. It's just like the lowest of low that you could get. I like, in terms of like emotions from a dog owners perspective, it was awful. It was awful. So that was really the tipping point.

Karoline Edmonds: 10:13

And the time we were having these really hard conversations of like what do we do? Do we re-home her? Do we try training? Like how much do I want to be involved with that in this? How much can my husband be involved with this? Like, what are we going to do? So we did a few different, we went through a few different trainers and we ended up finding a solution, or not a solution, but something to work towards, like a hopeful, hopeful thing to work towards, right, and we were starting to get something under our belt to give us a little bit of confidence. Like okay, like, maybe we can keep her, maybe we can work through this. I don't know how long it's going to take but, like, all I want is for my dog to listen to me and to like be able to walk off of her, off of our street like a normal dog. So that was kind of like the first two to three phases of like us not really even liking each other, to us being at the lowest of low because of her reactivity and behavioral issues. So then we started really getting into training and I became obsessed with it And it's part of the perfectionist in me and the people pleaser that I started to take her out and I didn't want to look like a bad dog owner.

Karoline Edmonds: 11:21

I I wanted everything to be precise, tight, managed, nothing wrong, so I wouldn't get blamed as the bad dog owner. It wouldn't be on me. And a lot of the times I saw her as a reflection of me and my work And you know I've always been a hardworking person but at the same time, i've always been very independent. I was a, a um, an only child growing up, so like I literally only depended on myself to get what I wanted and the outcome of things, you know, i I determined how well it was going to be, and so for her to be the first thing in my life that I put so much work into but the outcome wasn't what I expected just because she's her own living, breathing thing was really really hard on me. So we were making some progress with the training, but I was having a lot of judgment, a lot of shame, a lot of bad, negative thought patterns, and not only about her but about myself and about us as a team.

Karoline Edmonds: 12:23

And I eventually got to this point that we had come to so much progress. but I felt like we had hit a plateau, and that's where I really discovered um play and it's what made us just kind of get over that plateau, get over that hump. It really started to build that connection between us that I didn't even know that we needed. Right, i was so, so worried about getting us to the point with training that she could walk beside me, not pull, not bark, not look at another dog, only look at me. You know all of the like, quote, unquote perfect dog things that I totally missed out on like the actual like let's have fun, let loose, like and be playful a little bit. This power of play, which I'm on a big kick right now because I'm doing this claim reflect 30 day challenge to encourage others to play with their dog and learn more about play. But throughout all of that, that really got us over the hump on this connection that we were really really missing out on, and I was able to finally catch my breath a little bit and like able to like reflect and like look back on, like everything that was happening and like be more aware, to like make changes in the moment.

Karoline Edmonds: 13:30

And so, from that point on, we're really at this stage now that, like, we're living the life that I envisioned, we're living the life that I had wanted. Right, it can only go up from here, you know, as long as we keep putting in like the consistent maintenance practice and training. She just totally exceeds my expectations every day now and it's so amazing. But now you know I have the time to focus on myself a little bit more, on other things and like, yes, she's still a top priority for me, but whenever I was so worried about her training, i completely lost myself to that. It was like my whole identity was being this reactive dog mom, like I had to take care of my dog. And now I'm in this phase where it's a little bit more chilled with her, i'm in a very, very good place, but like I'm able to focus so much more on myself and explore other things that I am besides being a dog mom.

Karoline Edmonds: 14:28

Which kind of leads into your second question, which was you know, how did I get into this animal communication? So one of the things that I've been exploring in the past year is this spirituality land, like this woo woo land, like what's going on in this. You know, holistic world, spiritual, and I'm in a mentorship program right now that has to do all about the spiritual and energetics of running your own business or being an entrepreneur, and all of the topics in it really, really interests me And it's all about taking care of yourself, because you have to take care of yourself for your business to really thrive. And so in that we really started to dive deeper into spirituality, holistic health, astrology, intuition, all of these things And I was like that's really cool. And my mentor had mentioned that she had done a pet communication session. It's like that sounds right up my alley, like let's look into it.

Karoline Edmonds: 15:31

And I'm all about being more intentional and anything that can bring me more awareness, like just sign me up, whether it's journaling, talking to somebody else, having them kind of be a mirror back at me. You know, that's why I'm doing my mentorship program being more intentional and intuitive, with Layla watching her movements, trying to see, like what's going on there. And so I was like sign me up for animal communication. So I was shopping around a little bit and I hadn't really found anybody that I liked. And then you popped into my inbox and I was like perfect, this is such great timing. And so I decided to book a session with you. And now here we are And it's so cool.

Shannon Cutts: 16:14

You touch on so many important facets of not only just what is possible. I mean you literally write here in front of us. If you're listening or you're watching, you just heard the transformation that is possible and all of the wonderful perks that got added along the way. And in this particular case, you and Layla have already transitioned through so many facets of your shared growth and evolution together before you added animal communication to your toolkit. In many cases, someone like me is where a frustrated, isolated, ashamed, anxious or grieving pet parent will start. In either case, what I'm hearing from you is it added so much to your relationship, but it wasn't like the solution. I mean, sometimes it can be, but it's another wonderful opportunity to check something off your bucket list together and also have an experience that will deepen your appreciation and just your awareness of the fullness of the other being's life.

Shannon Cutts: 17:25

And I love it if you'd shared a few of your aha moments from your session with Layla, because it is so interesting how you say my identity was wrapped up in Layla's behavior and we were just focused on pretty much one aspect of our shared life together, which was making sure she did what I said when I said to do it, and even in situations where it was very compelling for her to want to do something different, and kind of forgetting about all the other ways that you could experience one another.

Shannon Cutts: 17:54

And I felt like your session with Layla, that she had a lot to say and share about herself, and not all of it was a surprise or was new to you, but it was extremely affirming and confirming for you in many respects. So I would love it if you would share a little bit more about how the session has affected you and impacted how you've continued to interact with your sweet soul dog.

Karoline Edmonds: 18:21

Right, yeah, and it's so interesting too, because if I would have done this two years ago, where we were still a little bit in the trenches, i don't know if I would have been open to something like this, open to hearing what you had to say. No, i think one thing about it is that if you're going to do something like this, you have to have your heart open to receiving this information and taking it in and filtering it a little bit. But then the other thing that I wanted to touch on is whenever I was so caught up in the behavioral side of it, making sure she's the perfect dog quote, unquote some of the perfect dog owner I just put so much pressure on us, it was just constant pressure. And I think whenever we were talking about the feedback loop and the soul contract during our session, we talked a lot about how, if my anxiety and depression increases, her anxiety increases And if my mental health gets a little bit better, then hers gets a little bit better. It's not really a teeter-totter, right, because if one goes up, the other one goes up, but it's definitely this feedback loop right. And so whenever we were in this place that I was doing all the training, doing all the things that I thought I was supposed to be doing with her. It was still so pressure-filled And so my anxiety was still very much heightened, and I think that's one of the reasons that we had a plateau, that we weren't able to get over the hump at some point, and it wasn't really until I let loose a little bit and was like I'm going to try something that I don't even know what it's going to do, but I'm going to try to keep playing with her. It sounds so simple to actually move around with her and be goofy and silly. It literally does, it releases endorphins and everything right. But it was so healing for me too, i think, just to be goofy with her Because, like I said, i was an only child growing up And so I played by myself a lot And I didn't have a little brother or sister to wrestle with, and now I'm out here wrestling and rolling around on the grass with Layla, so it's like a very healing aspect of it as well for me.

Karoline Edmonds: 20:34

Some of the other aha moments or really just affirming moments that we had during our session was she had the one thing that she said that I was like I don't even know how anybody would know that. Like that's wild. It was absolutely crazy. It's kind of personal so I'm not going to say it, but I just was like I can't believe that came up and it was so exact and direct, with the sole contract and the anxiety going up and her anxiety going up. That was very affirming.

Karoline Edmonds: 21:04

I very much had awareness of that. But then to hear it coming from you, from her, it just was like OK, this is the truth, this is how she interprets it as well. Some of the other things that really got me were the fact that she said that she loves being a canine ambassador. She loves knowing that she is part of the bigger mission And I have this mission with Dog Mom mentality which is to increase emotional intelligence, empathy and awareness and destigmatized mental health through the lens of dog ownership. And the fact that she knows that she's a part of that was really really, really cool to me and it made my heart really really happy.

Shannon Cutts: 21:50

Let's see some of the other things And I want to pause there for just a moment, because that's the kind of airy fairy thing where we just that gives animal communication its woo woo reputation. And in many ways gives folks who are on the fence, are actively skeptical of reason, not to even give it a seat at the table, not to even give a chance. And yet when I shared that, you told me how much she loves the camera She does.

Karoline Edmonds: 22:18

It's like, whenever you said that I was like, you know, i never really considered that, but like she definitely does love the camera. She loves performing. You know what I mean. She loves being right there with me And you know what. It might be because I have treats, but like it might just be because she knows she's part of something bigger.

Shannon Cutts: 22:36

Something that provides any kind of affirmation and opens up even more playful, more inventive, more creative lens for you both. It's like if it sings to your heart and you see any evidence anywhere in your life that there's a shared resonance. And I think we talked a little bit about this on your podcast and these episodes will be coming out at the same time, so as soon as yours goes live I will definitely link to it in these show notes to make sure everybody can go over and hear more of the full story. But it's really cool to take a look through the lens of mental health and say well, our fight, fight, freeze tend to be friend system.

Shannon Cutts: 23:17

The way that it's designed is to keep us alive, which means it's always going to default to what is the worst that can happen And let's make sure that it doesn't And then we'll just go ahead and mitigate the whole range in between. But from this higher place more of the spirit focus and the intuitive focus we get a chance to use our higher faculties, tap into these higher frequencies where we can imagine what is the best that could happen and vision towards that. I also just love your awareness of the power of play. That sounds so cheesy, but we see it all around us. It's the kinetic movement inherent in play that not only does it release endorphins which is the best, that's the good stuff but it also helps us release, shake off cortisol which is the stress hormone, which is the silent killer, essentially the worst that can happen.

Shannon Cutts: 24:17

And you see animals all the time. If they've been under stress, if they've been under stress, if they've been under stress, had trauma, if they're anxious, you see them shake. If they've been predated upon. If we have a lot of feral cats and they prey on some of the little birds out and if they manage to escape, you'll see the little bird pick themselves up and shake their whole body And she literally shake it off because they can't hold on to that shit and survive through another brunch or lunch or dinner rush.

Shannon Cutts: 24:44

Giving our animals this opportunity, giving ourselves this opportunity to move our body, yeah, we feel good, but we don't realize it's also. We're literally exhausting the bad. We're reactivating our lymphatic system. Hey, get to work, move the garbage out of our system, and so that's the intuition at work. When you discover this, i feel like there's so much, and we talked about that. You are intuitive And I do tend to attract highly intuitive pet parents as well as highly sensitive pets, and we talked a lot more about that as well. It's just so. So many of your choices have been intuitive And now it's just bringing more consciousness to that and beginning to really anchor into the trust in yourself.

Shannon Cutts: 25:28

Far from being the pet parent who's eating the shame sandwich for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it's like this is the narrow way. This is the tough stuff that gets you to the really good stuff.

Karoline Edmonds: 25:41

Right, right, and I was the person eating the shit sandwich, or eating the shame sandwich. The shame shit sandwich, yes, exactly.

Karoline Edmonds: 25:49

Because it was the really bad stuff and nobody wanted Right. I was that person. I definitely was putting pressure on her, but pressure on myself as well. Constantly it was what am I doing wrong? Am I not strong enough? Am I not capable enough to be her owner?

Karoline Edmonds: 26:08

What I have found too and part of the reason that I'm so just passionate about this is that I have mental health in my family, and so I've seen what it's like to be misunderstood with severe anxiety and depression, and I've seen people I've seen it go from anxiety and depression Nobody's really supporting them to very severe anxiety and depression and you know other things.

Karoline Edmonds: 26:35

I've seen that, and so I just from from the bottom of my heart, don't want anybody to have to face that. I don't want anybody to have to feel that. I don't want anybody to have to see what I've seen from my perspective. And I know that these thoughts in one areas, even if it's as simple as dog ownership, that carries over. If I'm thinking about how I'm not capable with Layla the next day, i will think how I'm not capable of doing something at work or how I'm not capable of giving good advice to a friend, that stuff carries Like you have to start working on it in one area of your life at least, and then it's going to carry over. You will notice those patterns.

Shannon Cutts: 27:19

And the other thing that's really interesting is that so often we do look at the cookie cutter advice spent oh you're anxious, oh you're depressed. Bring a pet into your life. It will add instant joy and instant upliftment And it's like oh yeah, and extra stress and financial, financial and emotional And a whole. You're adding another life story, building a symphony, and you've got an instrument that's out of tune and you've got to stop everything and you've got to work with that And so it's. It's really important to consider is adding an animal to my world right now the next best step? or might it be that I just need to add some more nature to my world?

Shannon Cutts: 28:02

I need to add some more green space to my world. I need to perhaps just hang out with some wild animals for a little while or have a conversation. That's one of the things that really can be helpful about animal communication, too, is is this the right animal for me, or is this the right animal for me right now? I often wonder how it might change the relationship if introduced before. There's that big commitment that's made And, of course, in your case, you weren't the one making the big commitment, it was your now husband, right, i mean I was definitely there, you know.

Karoline Edmonds: 28:38

He definitely was like, do you like this dog or this dog? And I swear I don't even think I saw Layla like in a picture or anything before he got her. I wasn't even there whenever he got her because I was visiting my mom where she lived at the time, which was an airplane right away. So I wasn't there Like I didn't care to be involved. Now, did I help pay for her crate or her food? Yeah, like I will help do that, or I did help do that at the beginning, but I wasn't signing up for anything but cute dog pictures, cute puppy pictures.

Shannon Cutts: 29:16

It's just so interesting to rewind and take a look at how it started and how sometimes, when we realize that we've got a really strong soul bond with another being we may not like you shared, you weren't necessarily what you'd consider to be an animal person going into this, and so sometimes they have to kind of sneak in the back door and they really surprise us.

Shannon Cutts: 29:37

And yet, if you're listening to this right now or you're watching this and you are struggling in your relationship with your animal and you're thinking what is my next step, i feel like changing the conversation to add that animal's voice to the mix and find out. You know what's going on for them and what ideas do they have.

Shannon Cutts: 29:57

Let's say you and your husband were having an argument or a heated discussion over something and you can easily hear one another, you can talk to one another, you can use the words that you both share. In common With animals, it can be tougher. It can be tougher to have those conversations and we try in so many different ways, and you've had a lot of those conversations. You've worked with different trainers. You have worked with different mentors. You've created your own journal with prompts where pet parents that are frustrated or struggling can hopefully get in touch with what's going on. Has there been anything else that's crossed your path that has made you feel like you could really hear from Layla in the way that animal communication has done? or has it all been just different aspects of having a conversation with her?

Karoline Edmonds: 30:49

A lot of the things you know, we kind of already knew. It was that very affirming, confirming aspect of it validation, right. One of the things that I asked you was and this was like a true question that I really needed to know the answer to was does she want or does she care if we added a different dog to the family? And she said heck, no. And you know, we kind of thought like 70% she's probably going to say no, 30% she might say yes, it was not a definite 50-50 split, it was more towards like we don't think like that she would want one, but we weren't sure, right. And so I'm so glad that like that was one of the questions that I asked and we got like a definite answer And like now I know that that's definitely what she wants.

Karoline Edmonds: 31:37

You know, this week I've been dog sitting my best friend's little dog. He's two, he'll be three in July, i think, and they've gotten along really really well together. But yesterday Layla and I had this moment where she just like came to me for affection, like she's never came to me for affection before. It was like she's never had a pet in her life, and she just crawled out of like a dungeon or something. And she was just so like wanted to be next to me, couldn't get enough. Like Insani, who is the dog I'm sitting, was right there And one of the things that we've had to work on so much in our training was her excitement and reactivity around other dogs And you know, i thought I don't know if I'll be able to have them in together.

Karoline Edmonds: 32:22

Layla might be too much because he's just like a 10-pound puppy and she's a 10-pound dog and she's 55, 60. Like she might be too much. And in this moment that she came to me and was just like wanting all the love, couldn't get enough. I felt in that moment I thought back to the question of like would you want another dog? And in that time I felt like she was like it was just coming up again.

Karoline Edmonds: 32:45

I was like I know that, like she wants me, like all to herself, like she's my girl, i'm so proud of her, and it was just kind of this thing of like, like I want to spend this one-on-one time with her, like I want more of that. And so, yeah, you know. Just after that, and then asking you the exact question, i'm like no, i don't want to, i don't want another dog anymore, but we'll stick with just Layla for now. That was one of the questions that, like you know, i really didn't know the answer to. I had no idea what was going to come out of your mouth And so, yeah, that was.

Shannon Cutts: 33:15

That was really really great to know And it's very revealing because we have our very analytical, very logical reasons And you and I talked about that for why we cook up these ideas Right, and sometimes they're great ideas And sometimes we have that conversation and we discover they really are heart-centric ideas or there really is a way forward if that's really wanted. But in many cases it's really just a function of our analytical, logical left brain lodging its way to a conclusion We like okay. Well, what is adding another animal really going to add to Layla's life?

Shannon Cutts: 33:52

to your life. Is this the only way to create an environment where this becomes possible? And then just recognizing that it's not all about making sacrifices so that someone we love and have been working on our relationship with so diligently can have an enhanced experience of life with us. It's like maybe they don't want that either, right Right, or maybe as one of my intuitive teachers on your show, kett, talks about how good can you stand it? because sometimes we're not comfortable with that level of joy and bliss and closeness And so we actually work against what we're visioning for, so what we really, really want, because we're afraid that we can't handle it. There's just nothing in our worldview and our frame of reference that said it could ever get this guy. I didn't vision it to be this good. I was only seeing us get to about C minus. I was never thinking A plus, plus, and so when it comes we're like, oh, let me just add a little more chaos, let me just, you know, back it up.

Karoline Edmonds: 34:56

It's a little bit of self-sacrifice, Yeah absolutely.

Shannon Cutts: 34:59

One of the things that I'm continually just floored by and very inspired by is the amount of brave that it takes to have an authentic first person conversation with your animal, and I remember the days when I was hiring animal communicators and I waited with bated breath to hear the answers to questions like what do you think are your food or is your habitat okay? And agonized when one of my reptiles said she wanted two pools instead of one and that would have taken up her whole habitat. We have to recognize there are so many layers to a conversation And yet it's a negotiation as well. So coming into an animal communication conversation, it's easy to forget that we already know how to have conversations. We're just a little bit unaccustomed to having a third party translator present. A lot of the fear factor for people can be. Well, what if my animal says they don't like me or they don't like something in their environment or they don't want something that I want, right.

Karoline Edmonds: 35:59

And you know, that's one of the things that I thought about, because I'm very open about our relationship used to really suck And I recognize during those times that I was part of the problem. I put a lot of pressure on us, i made a ton of mistakes And I thought about that before our session. I was like I wonder if Layla's going to say something about like how she used to not like me either. It was kind of like a little bit like I had to prepare myself because if I had heard that, i would have been very upset. Even though it was in the past, i still I still would have been upset. So like I did have to kind of prepare myself for that a little bit, because I knew that it could be a truth, like it could come up And that's so important to hear, especially if you are listening right now or watching, and you have never had this experience.

Shannon Cutts: 36:46

One thing I can share to that point is that I have not found unless there's a direct question involved from their person, I have not found animals to be too interested in talking about what has happened before.

Karoline Edmonds: 36:59

Right.

Shannon Cutts: 36:59

They're very present, focused. And the other thing I can share and I've had animals say things pretty bluntly, and yet there's always a note of kindness. And I'm thinking of one particular client whose soul dog passed and he was struggling with a lot of guilt about some of his perceived shortcomings as a pet parent and some of the things that he felt hadn't gone right at the time. And when I talked with his soul dog, what she said was you're the kind of person that I wanted to spend my whole life with, because when you know better, you do better, and that inspires me. You didn't know then, so of course you weren't doing it, but you understand now.

Shannon Cutts: 37:40

And that's why you're asking these questions. I'm getting goosebumps because I can feel it.

Karoline Edmonds: 37:44

I know I'm making me tear up a little bit Yeah.

Shannon Cutts: 37:48

And just so. Yes, there can be an awareness of things that weren't perfect. I have yet to even find another human relationship where I can say, man, i nailed that one, like I did everything right. But it's the way in which the animal views how everything unfolded, and so when they do share, you almost are glad that it didn't go well, because you grow like the yeah, sniff, sniff, like there's, like your heart, it's like oh, i'll never forget that. I will go to my deathbed and I will remember that conversation.

Karoline Edmonds: 38:22

Yeah, you had to have those tough times in order to really grow, and the definition of love is to be able to see who's really in their past.

Shannon Cutts: 38:30

At least this is my definition. I don't know how everybody defines it, but to be able to see past the person or the being's limitations to the essence of who they are. And that captured how his soul dog really saw him for who he is, for his heart, not for his learning curve, right. And so that's an example, one of many, of how animals will respond. if, in this particular case, there was a direct question involved as well Are you mad at me because I didn't do fill in the blanks? I don't think that the dog would have shared anything about it. it would have even been interested to discuss it if it hadn't been for that direct question. So animal communication can be its own healing process when we discover that there's more than one way to see ourself and to see our growth. And there's beings in our life who willingly stay, who see us in so much of a higher and more unconditionally accepting place than we see ourselves.

Karoline Edmonds: 39:31

Yeah.

Shannon Cutts: 39:32

That's why one of the reasons I'm so excited to have you on the show, karen, let's talk to animals is because I do feel like when the time is right to add these direct conversations with our animal companions to the mix, we will know, but I love that you were so aware and you were trusting yourself and that, even though there was this fear factor thing kind of going in, that you had built up enough self-trust currency and that you were you said okay, now is a good time Now is the right time, rather than just going up into the head again and going well, does this make logical sense?

Shannon Cutts: 40:07

Animal communication isn't about logic. You know logic our way there. We heart our way there. Yeah, And you've added so many other experiences into your life that you have really kind of paved the way for your own intuition to have a bigger seat at the table as well.

Karoline Edmonds: 40:24

Yeah, This was a little bit of a treat for me, you know, to do the animal communication session because, like I said, we aren't in the trenches, layla isn't going through any kind of illness right now, and so I think typically like those are when people come to do an animal communication session.

Shannon Cutts: 40:43

Yeah, you must.

Karoline Edmonds: 40:45

Right, this is almost a little bit more like a treat, like a fun thing and like maybe a little bit pervinative for us to just keep me on my toes and keep me aware of things, to look out for, things, to appreciate. I mean now, every time that I go to post something, i literally think about how Layla said that she loves being a Canaan ambassador and being a part of something bigger, right? So it brings up a lot of little things in our day to day life. Now that just makes me smile.

Shannon Cutts: 41:14

It makes my day to hear it, because preventative is it's what I'm all about And, as I'm developing courses and new offerings for my clients who are becoming students of animal communication themselves, that dream of doing myself out of a job, because there's some at least one person in every family who can serve in that role for the family as a whole, because it is definitely possible And it is very much. Just like you don't want to let anything stew with your partner or your bestie or your boss or your coworkers, we don't want to let anything stew with our pets, we want to have that preventative conversation and that's a skill set in all and of itself. That would be a whole other podcast probably. There are so many beings in our life where we can practice being brave and discover that, far from it being worse than we could imagine, it's better than we ever expected.

Shannon Cutts: 42:08

No, i really appreciate you're taking the time to come on. Let's talk to animals and share a little bit more. I share about what it was like for you to have a session and to be able to talk with Layla and share some of the behind the scenes of how you prepared and your reasons and just acknowledging you for being such an open book and being willing really to try everything that offers the promise of you and Layla Knowing really how good can you stand this Right Totally.

Shannon Cutts: 42:37

It sounds like it's getting pretty darn good, Karoline. we are at the point in our show where I've mentioned it here and there throughout, but please tell us a little bit more about how our listeners and viewers can connect with you, especially if they're feeling a little isolated or a little overwhelmed or eating that very untasty sandwich we talked about and some of the resources that you have for them.

Karoline Edmonds: 43:01

Yeah, so you can find me on all social media. At dogmommentality, i'm primarily on Instagram, so if you want to message me, that's the place to do it. My website is dogmommentalitycom. On there there are a line of shirts that are inspired by being an empowered dog owner. There's little stories behind each of the shirts, and then there's also a journal.

Karoline Edmonds: 43:28

So the journal comes in spiral or are hard bound. It is comprised of four different sections and intention setting section, a goal setting section. The actual beef of the journal is broken down into 10. Common emotions dog owners face from frustration to bravery, to anxiety alone, anything And so they each have prompts with each emotion, and so that guided aspect of it really helps a lot of people that are new to journaling. But it's all from the eyes of a dog owner, so all of the questions kind of relate back a little bit to the situation that you were going through with your dog. And then the last section of the journal is a wins tracker for you to just write down all of your wins being in small. And then the last place that you can find me is on Apple or Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, for the dogmommentality podcast.

Shannon Cutts: 44:18

I love this and I love the wins, because that gratitude and it's also a way to really take a look from where you are now And it's like, yeah, maybe it's not perfect, maybe there's a little tweak that we could make here or there, maybe a big tweak, but shoot, wow, we're getting to the point where we are tweaking rather than well, that didn't come out right, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, the minor things. Yeah, it's not the big things Exactly. And if you're listening in or you're watching and you're in the big things thing, i can't encourage you enough to connect up with Karoline and her community as well and just really recognize that the animals that we keep company with are complex, highly evolved, intuitive and empathic beings. And I truly, the more I do this work, the more I have come to not just believe but experience that there are no accidents in who we cross paths with. So if you have been thinking to yourself, man, i wish there was somebody I could talk with or just vent to, or I just feel so alone After this, a happy, not accident, and an invitation to step out of the isolating shame and the shadows and into a supportive world of new friendships where you can really own that being partnered with any being of any species is a pretty big deal. Brave you, and let's get you some support and some encouragement so that you continue that journey not just with a brave face but with a brave heart. So, Karoline, thank you again. I'll, of course, put all your links in the show notes and the link to the journal, but just absolutely delighted to have had a little window and a little spot in your life with Layla Princess Beauty is an absolute delight. I just adore her and what a gift to meet you. So thank you again.

Shannon Cutts: 46:12

And for those of you who are listening or watching and you have found let's talk to animals out of all the podcast, and the podcast just fear. And you are listening for the first time, you're watching for the first time. Welcome, or so delighted to have you. The animal communication is no more or less than having a hunch or a vibe or an aha moment And I invite you to continue your journey with us. We are releasing new episodes every two weeks this year for season four to give me a little more time to prepare and really dive in deep. You've got three amazing seasons before this one and feel free to reach out either via your favorite streaming service or you can always find us over at animallovelinguagescom back slash podcast and that can get you wherever you need to go or to reach out to me directly. If that's your intention, i'd love to hear from you. So we'll be back with you in two weeks for a fresh new episode and sending you and your inner species family all of our love. Okay, bye for now.