Why Does My Pet Do That? An Animal Communication Perspective on Common Pet Problems

As pet parents, we have such high hopes when we choose our pet and bring them into our world and family. When things are going well, it is easy to take credit for that. When things are not going well, it is easy to blame ourselves and spiral into anxiety, fear or even hopelessness. Animal communication offers a different perspective for the question of “why does my pet do that?,” whether the issue is simply a pet who is staring at us or a pet who is visibly acting out or reacting in ways that don’t work well for them or for us.

In this episode, I take you on a journey of answering the “why does my pet do that” question as seen through the eyes of three dogs, all miniature Australian shepherds, who share a common goal but handle it in very different ways and for very different reasons.

As you listen, you will learn….

• The different layers to look at when trying to decode a confusing or distressing pet behavior
• The role that species and breed can play in why our pets act the way that they do.
• How our own “tinkering” into breed genetics can create really difficult lives for our pets.
• The influence of nature vs nurture (genetics vs environment) in shaping pet behavior
• How to know when to look deeper than a physical health issue into mental or emotional drivers for pet behavior
• The influence of your soul agreement with your pet and two key relational triggers for problem pet behaviors
• When to add holistic care to the mix to help a pet cope and some ideas for where to start
• The vital role that only animal communication can fill in helping your pet work through challenges and realize their full soul potential in your family
And so much more.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

7 Days of Noticing: https://www.animallovelanguages.com/7daysoptin
Past podcast episodes mentioned in this episode:

Pet Soul Agreements: https://letstalktoanimals.buzzsprout.com/2105365/episodes/16658714-8-types-of-pet-soul-agreements-wh...

What Animals Say About Enduring Trauma and Abuse from Humans: https://letstalktoanimals.buzzsprout.com/2105365/episodes/16634240-what-animals-say-about-enduring-t...

Pet Charades: Decoding Problem Pet Behaviors: https://letstalktoanimals.buzzsprout.com/2105365/episodes/18752190-pet-charades-decoding-problem-pet...

Transcript

Welcome And Host Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to Let's Talk to Animals, the podcast all species can enjoy together. My name is Janon Cutz. I am an animal sensitive and intuitive, a Reiki master practitioner, and an animal communication teacher with Animal Love Languages.com. And for our purposes here today, I am also your friendly neighborhood hostess and guide through the wild, wise, and wonderful world of interspecies communication. Call me crazy, but I truly believe that animal communication has the power to save, heal, and restore our planet for all species to enjoy and share. When we learn to communicate with one another, we begin to realize we are so much more alike than different. We care about each other. We become friends. On this podcast, we talk about what the animals have to say and share and why our pets truly are our partners, empathic friends, and teachers. I am so glad you have joined us here for this fresh new episode of Let's Talk to Animals. So let's dive in. Welcome back to Let's Talk to Animals. Shannon here, your friendly neighborhood hostess, and we are diving into a topic today here on the podcast that doesn't often feel enjoyable when it first crops up. And that is the topic of why is my pet doing that? What we sometimes call problem pet behaviors or worrisome pet behaviors or distressing pet behaviors or just curious pet behaviors. If you've ever caught yourself watching your animal and thinking, why the heck do you do that? Then I want you to note this episode is designed specifically for you. So a little background if you're new here at Let's Talk to Animals, if you're new to me, my name is Shannon. I'm an animal intuitive and animal sensitive, I'm a Reiki master practitioner for pets and their people. And I am an animal communication teacher, coach, and mentor. So I bring the animal communication lens and perspective to conversations that are probably already going on in your life in your inner species family. Questions about food, questions about behavior, questions about quality of life, questions about end of life, questions about pet reincarnation, questions about inner species family dynamics, questions about anxiety and trauma and inappropriate elimination. All of these questions are questions that we can approach from multiple perspectives. So my perspective is the interspecies communication and the energetics of these types of questions that we face as modern pet parents. And in today's episode, what I want to focus on is the why is my pet doing that specifically from an animal communication and an energetics lens. So imagine you're slipping out your veterinary or your medical or your training or your behavior modification lenses in your glasses, and you're slipping in the communication aspect, the energy aspect, the relational aspect, and most especially the soul aspect of the bond that you share with your pet. And that is how we are going to walk through today's conversation. So at any given moment, your pet may be going through something, right? Life is challenging for all of us, regardless of species. Life can be particularly challenging for our companion animals. Why? A couple of reasons. Number one, they are living in our world, they are living according to our rules and our perspectives and our schedule, our flow, our way of life. And they are doing their best to adapt eon, millennia of wild genetic programming to situations and daily circumstances where what they might do naturally in a wild setting, either it doesn't work, it doesn't work as well, or it isn't allowed, it isn't tolerated. And we're going to talk about a couple of examples of this as we go through today's conversation. This is what I call adapting your pet's inner wild. And when I run my seven days of noticing and my 28 days of intuitive pet parenting workshops and challenges, this is often a focus where we're looking at our pet's inner wild. We're taking a look at it not just from the pure wild perspective. Your pet once upon a time was a wild equine or feline or canine or avian or reptile. And today they have morphed, they have evolved into the companion animals that we love and crave the company of. And then we have to look a little bit closer into the timeline, starting from that ancient wild beginning. We look a little closer into the timeline and take a look at how our tinkering, our deliberate manipulation of their gene pools has changed certain fundamentals of their personalities, of their behaviors, even of their bodies. And dogs is a perfect example of this. How we got a dochin from a wild wolf. I happen to be living with a dochin. So I think about this question every single day. So that was us. That's all on us, right? So we have whether we meant to do it or not, along with certain traits and even appearance considerations that we found desirable, we may have brought through other traits and other genes that we might not have been as aware of that are coloring the behaviors that we see in our domestic pets. So there's an aspect of our animals today, regardless of species. We can see this most prominently in dogs and cats, but regardless of species, there are elements in our pets' ways of being with us in our families, in our lives, in our worlds, in our communities that feel alien to them and will never not feel alien. And that is where that empathy, what we call clear empathy, clear feeling and sensing into the life perspective of another being, is invaluable. Why? Because number one, it's very healing for your pet. Number two, it's very calming for you when you're dealing with a pet problem. When you're dealing with a why are you doing that? Why won't you do that? Why won't you stop doing that? It's very calming for you to recognize that this problem or this challenge that you're facing with your pet, it's not of your own construction. Sure, you may play a role in it, and we'll talk about that because we're all living our challenging, wonderful lives alongside of one another. And nobody is asking you to show up as the perfect pet parent every day. That is why I teach from the four agreements, really the five agreements of the Toll Tech way of life. And one of those five agreements is always do your best. Your best will change from one day to the next. Your best will look different when you are healthy, strong, calm versus when you are unwell or stressed or struggling in some way. So the best is just about the intention that you bring to it. It's not about perfect pet parenting. There is no such thing. It is about your intention and your attention because where your intention sets your focus, your attention naturally flows. And so if your attention today, as you're listening to this, is I want to do right by my pet. I want to do the best that I can for my pet. I want to help my pet through whatever challenges and opportunities are cropping up in their life at present. Just know that you are doing your best. So it's very calming for you as the pet parent, doing your daily best, your daily changeable best, to understand that these problems that we face in our interspecies families, they weren't created by us, or at least not solely by us, or even by our species. They're a unique blend and mix of this ancient inner wild, our tinkering somewhere along the way. And this is the part that animal communication brings in that gets left out of almost every other type of conversation we could have for our pet. The choices that our pets have made to keep company with us. This is what we like to call a soul agreement or a soul contract. This is the relational aspect. This is where animal communication really shines, where we take a look at our pets' personal agency. So often we have this tendency to look at our animals and think they are helpless victims of our choices. Even if we love them to the moon and back and beyond, unconditionally. We wake up in the morning just to see their cute little faces. We still have to recognize that our pets chose to be with us. Your pet chose to be with you with all of the wonderful colors and flavors of their personality, with the unique challenges that they brought into your life together, because you are the perfect pet parent for them. You're the one that they chose. So giving our pets their personal power back is a key to unlocking these why does my pet do that behaviors? Because they are in relationship with us as well as in relationship with themselves and in relationship most importantly with their choices. So your pet chose you. Your pet oddly chose this strange alien, domestic, human-centric life with you. When you think about, and I talk about this a lot here on the podcast, when you think about the number, the sheer number of animals of all species alive on this planet right now who literally want nothing to do with our species. Literally, they want to get as far away as they can and stay there. And then we have this beautiful, empathic, unconditionally loving subset of those animals, those non-human animals who have deliberately chosen to come here precisely to spend time with us. If that isn't a miracle, I don't know what is. And they've come here and they've come into our lives and they've come bearing gifts that sometimes sound like, why is my pet doing that? So, with that as a little bit of a primer, if you will, kind of to set up our conversation today, I want to talk about the different types of drivers that can be present when our pet is doing something that we can't figure out, whether it's a simple attempt to communicate, whether it is a symptom or a sign or a trigger or something else or even a physical health issue that's going on. We want to look at it from this lens of our relationships and from the lens of my pet is my partner empathic friend and teacher. That comes straight from the pet's mouth. That is what they told me when I asked them, what does the word pet mean? Why do they call you pet? Why do we call you pet? And they said, that's easy. We're your partner's empathic friends and teachers. It took like two seconds for them to answer. And I've been unpacking that ever since. I've been unpacking that here on Let's Talk to Animals with you ever since. So recognizing that odd as it may sound, that very challenge that's keeping you up at night, that's making you worry, that's making you doubt yourself, that's making you have all these feelings that are really uncomfortable, that's making you run around like a crazy person, looking for answers, looking for a cure, looking for relief. To reframe it as a gift can be a little challenging to try on for size at first, but from the relational and the soul level perspective, from the perspective of there are no accidents in this world as to who we keep company with in the very limited time we have here and who we never get to meet. There are dogs and cats and horses and birds and reptiles out there that you will never meet, who are living their lives with other humans. And there are the animals in your life that others will never have the privilege of meeting because they came here just for you. So, really recognizing this and understanding whatever you're facing with your pet right now, it is by design at that soul level, at that energetic level for mutual benefit so that you can both grow in wisdom and learn to love better. I did an episode not too terribly long ago about why would animals come here and choose to go through abuse or neglect or abandonment or the other horrific things that our species puts them through. And if they're pure and perfect, then why do they have to endure that? And I can link that episode up for you here in the show notes. But the too long didn't read version or didn't listen rather version. If you were a pure and perfect empath, if you were unconditionally loving to the depths of your beings, and you saw that other beings were suffering and that you knew you could help lead through example by being somebody's partner, empathic friend, and teacher, as a pure and perfect empath, as an avatar. You might choose to incarnate and go through some stuff in the best interests of helping and easing suffering of others. And so that is what the pets have shared with me thus far. There's always more to learn. I welcome your perspectives as well. But that is what I have learned thus far about why our pets might go through some of the things that they go through, especially for you as a pet parent. If you are currently sharing your interspecies family with a pet who has endured trauma, who has endured abuse, who has gone through really hard things, things that you and I might think, I don't know if I could survive that, then taking a look at it from an empathic point of view, it becomes even clearer that there's a soul opportunity for you as the pet parent to witness the tremendous level of forgiveness of second chances, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances of courage to transcend a sense of self that is defined by suffering or the actions of others. That is a tremendous soul lesson for us. It is a huge ask of our animals. And it is also absolutely possible for us to rise to the occasion. If it wasn't, your pet wouldn't have chosen you. Your pet wouldn't be in your life at all if you weren't ready for the lesson, ready for the opportunity to shed your own limiting sense of self, to shed your own identity as a victim of life, as somebody whom life happens to. And please know as I share this, this is not delivered from the energetic perspective of a lecture. This is a self-reflection for me as well. I have also been in a position of actually causing harm to my pets, my tortoise multi in particular. There, we that's a whole other story of a long road through health challenges that I, as a pet parent, did not understand, did not recognize early enough. Some of you listening, you might be able to relate to this. And so watching our animals forgive us and love us through that is one of the most profound lessons that they can offer us. So going through challenges is a primary teaching tool that our animals bring to the table. And this is especially the case when we don't know the universal language of interspecies communication. Once upon a time, and those of you who are listening who have come to Let's Talk to Animals through my free trainings, intuitive development for pet parents, you already know that once upon a time, our species, Homo sapiens and all of the previous iterations, we could also speak this universal language. It is a sensory, nonverbal, intuitive language. And once upon a time, we could all speak it. And modern humans have forgotten how, which is my primary driver for teaching you. Because once you learn this interspecies, nonverbal, sensory, and intuitive universal language, it becomes easier to decode and transcend and work through pet issues and pet behavior problems and pet health challenges and pet end-of-life transitions and all of the things that we go through together as an interspecies family when we can talk directly with one another. But until you get to that point and you make the decision, you make the commitment to relearn this ancient language, a language that you actually relied on for the first couple of years of your life until you had verbal words, until you step into that soul calling and decide to embark on that journey to fluency. Pet behavior is one of the best communication tools that you and your pet share together. And it comes in the form of what I call pet charades. And I did a whole podcast episode on that, that I will link up for you in the show notes as well. So you can go back and listen to that when you have time. But what we have to understand is that number one, when our pet is doing something or not doing something that makes us scratch our head or wring our hands or go into our heart with questions about why, why, why? Number one, there is always a reason and there is always a message. Always, always. This is what it means to be in a relationship with one another. This is not something where you need to spend any more time asking yourself, is this just a random thing? Does this have anything to do with me? Does this have anything to do with our life together? The answer is yes, yes, yes. Your pet wants to communicate with you and is efforting in that direction every single moment of every single day of your life together. As are you doing the same, whether you consciously realize it or not. If we weren't, we wouldn't crave one another's company. So that's number one. There is a reason, there is a message, there is a lesson in it. Number two, the reasons for that can be as diverse as the number of fingers on my hands and then some. So I've talked before here on the podcast about how in my private practice as a professional animal intuitive, I tend to see themes in my weeks. And I have come to believe that this is yet another mechanism through which the animals are trying to teach me because I am in the role of teaching you. And so I am always in the role of learning from my master teachers, our master teachers, the animals. And this particular week was mini Aussie Problem Behavior Week. So Australian Shepherds, if you're familiar, adorable, soulful, delightful beings. We crave their company, they're very, very popular as companion canine breeds. And I was able to speak with three different mini aussies this week. So I really do mean it when this was mini aussi week for me. And these three different mini aussies had very different set points. They had very different histories, they had very different experiences, and they had very different behaviors to communicate to their people, to their humans, to their pet parents, that they didn't want to leave, that they wanted to be with their human 100% of the time. Now, first of all, we look at species. Oh, you're a dog, you behave this way. We can see this most clearly in are you a dog person or are you a cat person? As a communicator, I get the perspective of dogs that act like cats, cats that act like dogs, birds that act like dogs. My bird likes to get on the floor with our dog and run around. So we pop the hood and we start to see that those surface-level blanket statements aren't always a really good fit for our animals. But on the surface, we can look at the mini Aussie. Cute, personable, portable. They're pint-sized, they're very intelligent and very loyal. And so these three mini aussies entered my world, and each one of them had the same fundamental message of I love my person so much, and I would do anything to stay with them. But they came in with three different backgrounds and histories. The first mini Aussie that I talked with had no history of trauma. He was very balanced in his temperament and his personality. And he was a natural leader. He wasn't what we would call highly sensitive, and we'll talk about that here in a bit. He was well adjusted, and he had every confidence that he was in his forever home. And the commitment that he felt to his person was fully reflected back to him by his person. And they had what we might call in human terms a secure attachment. So he had one set point for his message. I want to stay in my forever home forever. I don't ever want to leave my person. I want to be by their side always. Mini Aussie number two. He had come to his person at eight weeks old. So as a young puppy from a breeder. And he had no known history of trauma. And I wasn't able to detect any history of trauma when I talked with him because we can have even early birth trauma, weaning trauma. Our dachshund, Flash Gordon, experienced getting trapped in the birth canal. He experienced getting bullied by his older siblings when they were going to nurse. He had experienced not being chosen by the breeder to continue the lineage and basically being kicked out of the family. So by the time he came to us at eight weeks, he had had trauma. Often we look at a young animal who comes into our family and we think, well, they came to us so young, they must not have any trauma yet. They can have trauma. The only way to know is to ask. So I popped the hood with this second mini Aussie that I was talking with and did not detect any history of early life trauma. But what I did discover was high sensitivity that was manifesting in the form of separation anxiety. And what this little boy told me, he had just lost his older brother, and he just told me flat out, I cannot tolerate being alone. So he had a high sensitivity, he had separation anxiety, and he could not tolerate being alone. So we had to have the conversation with mom about adding a second dog to the family. And just recognizing that not all of us are wired to do the solitary life. And recognizing that sometimes what we're labeling as separation anxiety, which we typically look at from a trauma lens. Oh, you were crated and confined and left alone. Oh, you were taken out of the home and dropped off at a shelter and left unattended. Oh, you were abandoned in the backyard. Oh, you experienced a person leaving you in a traumatic way. Sometimes it's linked to a genetic trait like high sensitivity, where there is high sensitivity, what we're now calling sensory processing sensitivity. And there's actually a known genetic trait for humans. There's one for canines called canine sensory processing sensitivity, and it's been detected in over 100 other animal species as well. This is a genetic trait. It affects about 20% of an average species population. And when we take a look at how high sensitivity manifests, the research thus far has focused on sensitivity to external stimuli, such as lights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensation, and emotions. But where it hasn't quite delved into yet is relationally. I just don't tolerate being alone very well. This mini Aussie had a very strong intolerance to being left alone for more than about five minutes at a time. And we saw this all across his history. If mom would leave him with a dog friend, with someone who would come into the home and be with him, with a daycare where he had other dogs for company, he was fine. If she left him home alone, anywhere alone for five, 10 minutes, he would howl loud enough to wake the neighborhood. This wasn't a trauma thing. It wasn't a veterin. It's a set point. This is again where we have to look back at our animals' soul agreements. Who do they decide to be? The bodies they choose to inhabit when their souls, when their energetic self enters this 3D earth school plane where we need these physical bodies to get around and interact with one another. And this little mini Aussie chose this highly sensitive temperament trait for a reason. And so taking a look at all of the different factors, Occam's razor tells us this is a scientific principle, it tells us all else being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one. And in this case, the simplest and the right explanation was I just can't tolerate being alone. Luckily, that's not a difficult problem to solve. We can get this little guy a friend. And also having the recognition that for our animals, and this will take us in a little bit of a tangent, but I promise you I'll come right back. For our animals, when they lose a canine or a feline or an avian or an equine or a reptilian sibling, someone they have kept company with, it impacts them at even a deeper level than it impacts us. Why? Because that's the only point of reference for them in their world for who they are. Imagine if you lived in a world where you were the only one, the only one who looked like you, talked like you, walked like you, ate like you, acted like you, drank water like you, slept like you, everybody else in the family had all of that in common except you, because you were the only one of your species in that family. So when our animals lose an animal companion, and we have some of these confounding factors like this perfect storm of high relational sensitivity already at work, the impact, the ripple effect on their life can be not always. So we're talking about one specific animal here. I am not making a blanket statement, and I really want you to hear me on that. But when we are taking a look at each individual animal and how they respond to the grief of losing a close interspecies family sibling of their same species or breed, we have to recognize that it disrupts many aspects of our world to lose the one that we love. It disrupts every aspect of their world to lose that other family member who was their sole point of reference for the way that you are and the way that you do things is perfectly normal because I do it that way too. And so, there again, we want to step into that clear empathy. Take a walk in your pet's paws or claws or wings or scales or shell or fins. Take a look at life from their perspective, take a look at how life has changed from their perspective. Now I want to move on to Aussie number three. As I mentioned, this has been an Aussie week for me. Aussie number three presented with instead of the whimpering, howling, cowering separation anxiety level of I never want to leave you and I never want you to leave me. Aussie number three presented through aggression. Specifically biting, specifically biting anybody who came into his space, anybody who came onto his property. He couldn't get there fast enough. If you were coming onto his property, if you were coming into his world, he was ready to bite you before you even knew that you were entering his world. So we had to again pop the hood. We had to have that conversation. We had to ask, what is your why? Not what is my assumption about what your why is, not what does the data show, not what is the research, not what does the vet say, not what does the trainer say, not what does the behaviorist say, but what do you say? Animal communication. There is no substitute or replacement for it as a tool in your pet parent toolkit. And what emerged with this third Aussie is a history of trauma and abuse, severe. I won't go into details, but there was physical and emotional abuse present. And when he landed with mom, he became so quickly attached, so deeply attached. So this is that unconditional love aspect. How can someone, regardless of species who's gone through that level of trauma and abuse at the hands of our species, ever come out of their shell enough to form a bond with somebody else, with another human? Well, this dog did it. He was bound and determined. Nobody was going to take him ever again. And when I tuned in with him, the image he kept sending me is of specifically these delivery drivers, these mail carriers, these people coming in with bags, arriving in trucks, making certain sounds, wearing uniforms, and how that was triggering his memories of his abuse, his removal, his relinquishment. And the energetic impression with the stored, trapped trauma, the emotion of that trauma was getting triggered every time he would see a similar scenario play out. And of course, he's rushing out to bite you before he's even saying hello. He doesn't need or want to know who you are or why you're here. He just wants you gone. He says, I am never leaving my mom. I want to be with my mom at all times, in all places. So when we took a look at his why, what we found was the trauma and abuse that's so often kind of our go-to when we see something like this. And we found that he had had this history of trauma, abandonment, relinquishment, rehoming before he got to mom. And he just was bound and determined that no one was going to take him out of his home again. So I wanted to share these three examples with you for a few different reasons. Number one, they're great examples of how the same species of pet, the same breed of dog, can have three completely different life experiences, temperament set points, and responses to the way their life has flowed and the experiences they have gone through. The second reason I want to bring you these three particular examples and take a look at the fact that they're all mini Australian shepherds is because, in all three of these cases, this very close bond that they developed with their person and this insistence, I don't ever want to leave my person, I'll do anything it takes to stay with my person. We have to look beyond environment. So we know that with any kind of issue, we need to look at both what scientists call nature and nurture, genetics and epigenetics, biology and environment. In Aussie Shepherd number one's case, he came from a stable environment. He came from good breed lineage, he came into the home very young, and he also had a unique genetic cocktail that predisposed him to being more of a leadership type of a personality, a calmer temperament. And because there was nothing in his world that indicated that he ever would need to consider being other than that, he never did. So he just was this beautifully well-adjusted, natural leader, very calm, help, meet, and companion to his human. Aussie number two, same breed, same genetic lineage, came into this world. He not only inherited the genetic trait of high sensitivity, which, as we've already covered, affects approximately 20% of an average species population, but he also experienced that through the lens of what we'd call more of a beta type of a personality. He was not a natural leader, he was a natural follower. And so this separation anxiety behavior that we were talking with him about really hadn't surfaced until his older canine brother passed. So sometimes what we see is everything's going along fine, everything's going along fine, everything's going along fine, and then boom, we have a sudden change in the family situation. In this case, it was his sole set point, his older brother, his older canine brother passed. And he found himself alone for the first time ever in his life. And that was the first moment that we got a heads up that there was something in his DNA, something in his way of being, something in his world that he literally emotionally could not cope with. Some animals cope really remarkably well with the loss of a pet sibling. This mini Aussie did not cope well. And when we looked at why, we didn't discover trauma, we didn't discover abuse, any of that, we didn't discover any glaring medical or veterinary issues. Although even with my medical intuition training, I'm always saying run, don't walk to the vet just to be sure. But mom had already done that. We didn't find any of that. What we found was an underlying sensitivity that was manifesting relationally as I can't tolerate being alone. And none of us had known this because he had never been alone up until that moment in his life. Then we look at Aussie number three. Same species, same breed, same basic genetic lineage. We don't see high sensitivity here. We see a ton of trauma manifesting as I've been taken before and I'm never gonna let that happen to me again. And I will bite you if I have to, and I feel like I always have to. So we have to look at it from the lens of what's going on with this individual soul. And the only way we can get to that directly is through animal communication, which is why it is an indispensable tool in our modern pet parents toolkit, especially in this era we live in now, especially with AI, where we're overloaded with information and other people's opinions and perspectives. And in 99.9% of those cases, those other perspectives haven't been shaped by a single moment of walking in our shoes and living within our unique interspecies families. So we need a way where we can go directly to the source to sense, feel, intuit, and know what is going on directly with your pet when they are going through challenges that you are going through with them. And that is why I call animal communication the modern pet parents superpower. It's the most undervalued tool in your toolkit. And fun fact, for several years before I discovered that I too can talk with animals, I was already hiring animal communicators to talk with my pet family because I already recognized this. I just didn't realize that I too could do it. So if you have never heard that before, and I am the first to tell you that you too can do this, I am honored to be the messenger, the bearer of good news. Now that we've taken a look at Aussie, A, B, and C, names protected for privacy, I want to take a step back even, return to what we were talking about earlier with the inner wild of our domestic companion animals and specifically with our tinkering with their ancient wild genetic lineages. Why? Because here we're taking a look at Australian shepherds. So this is where when I take students through the pet inner wild trainings that I do, and we take a look at your specific pets species, breed, and temperament, there are things that we need to know as pet parents that most of us do not know about why our animals are the way that they are. And in the case of the Australian Shepherd, these dogs were specifically developed, tinker with, and bred by we humans to do specific jobs, jobs that don't have any clear clock in, clock out time, jobs that required a high degree of synergy intuitively, and a high degree of independence and autonomy, jobs that were life or death, keeping other animals alive and supporting the livelihood of the humans they worked alongside. And these jobs were intensely dangerous when you're guarding, when you're herding other animals who are vulnerable and you're responsible for half the weight of a huge burden of keeping the family's livelihood afloat. And you know that you could lose your life at any minute doing your job, then we have a much clearer picture of the animal we created when we created the Australian Shepherd. So this dog is notorious for being incredibly intelligent, incredibly inventive, incredibly independent, very quick, very brave, very loyal, absolutely insistent on being a part of a unit, a working unit, a family unit, a pack, very keenly hypersensitive to where everybody under their care or in their family unit is. And typically not above using biting, nipping, nudging, running to keep everybody together. So we look at the Australian Shepherd and we think, oh, such soulful eyes, so cute. Look at their faces, they're so smart, they can do all these tricks. And we don't often stop in that emotional moment of making that soul level bond with someone to consider the ramifications of adding an animal who has specifically been bred by us over generations to do a non-stop, no holidays, no weekends, no breaks, life or death job with almost total autonomy and independence, and putting them into a pet setting and saying, now your job is to lay on the couch and be a family companion. And that can create a lot of what behaviorists call stereotypes, where we see these behaviors cropping up. We see dogs that have been bred to do these intense jobs. We've kind of created our own perfect storm in this sense when we take an animal who comes from a lineage where they're out in a wild setting and they have traditionally been valued indispensable partners, really, in the most important activities that a family or a pack can experience together. And we put them into our homes and we have 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to connect with them. And then we wonder why they don't just settle down when we're ready to settle down. And so that can be another part of it. That was another aspect. Remember, Aussie number two, who was highly sensitive and relationally highly sensitive. His canine companion had also been his playmate and his buddy. And with the absence of his canine older brother, he was just at loose ends, did not know what to do with himself. So we have to take a look at who we are bringing into our home from an inner wild and from a genetic tinkering perspective. And are we going to be able to meet their needs in a way where they can feel and remain healthy and balanced as a contributing member of our interspecies family? So that's just a little overview. We take three different animals who all come from the same ancient wild, the ancient Canis lupus, who have come through our genetic tinkering program and have wound up in many Australian shepherd bodies, have had three completely different backgrounds and experiences of life living alongside humans, and have had three completely different reactions to it, even though their underlying motivation was one and the same. This intense bond with their person, this intense loyalty to their person and their family, this intense craving for personal and family safety, and this absolute dedication to doing whatever it takes to make sure that that family safety and integrity is intact. So that's the power of animal communication added into the mix to pull apart all of these converging timelines and perspectives and go straight to the source to find out why you are the way that you are? Why are you doing that thing that you do? What is the message that you have for me? And what can I do to help? What do you need? And that's where we take a look deeper inside my toolkit as an animal intuitive and a Reiki master and an energy worker, and take a look at the different types of things that we need to look at and potentially add in to a whole pet wellness, care, recovery, transformation protocol to get us back to where we were hoping to stay when we started our family adventure together, which is happy, healthy pet, happy, healthy us, happy, healthy family. So we have to look at things like is there underlying anxiety? If yes, does that come from trauma? Does it come from environmental stimuli? Does it come from a genetic set point? Is there high sensitivity or what we call sensory processing sensitivity involved? So we take a look at all of that, then we have to look at the physical or the veterinary component. Is there a physical health issue at play or is it an emotional health issue? Are they intertwined? Is it a mental health issue? You can especially see this when there have been veterinary medications, when there is a certain genetic set point that predisposes towards heritable health issues. We can see this in the end of life phase. We can see this in the presence of certain diseases or illnesses. We can also look at a relational issue because we're going to end where we started at the soul agreement level, at that relational level. Is where animal communication really shines, taking a look at the way that your pet uses behavior to send you messages about you. So we could unpack all of that, everything that we just walked through with Aussie one, two, and three, A, B, and C. And we can also dive even deeper into the bond that you share together. Now, I've done a couple of episodes already about our soul agreements with our pets and our soul agreements with one another. And we saw that most especially with Aussie number two, with his bond with his older canine brother who had passed. But in the case of Aussie number three, when we carried the conversation even deeper, what we discovered was there was also a lack of harmony between his person, mom, and her human partner. So they were at loggerheads. There was a lack of emotional coherence. There was a lack of agreement, even on how to help their dog. And in the presence of all of these other confounding factors that we talked about with Aussie number three, with his history of trauma and abuse, with the re-triggering of the trapped emotion in his body that he had not been able to shake, literally shake off yet. So we actually did an emotional freedom technique session for him. We did a tapping session for him to help him release some of that toxic trapped energy from those trauma memories of those trucks pulling up and the uniform people coming out and people trying to take him and him being so afraid and then him being relinquished and re-homed and then re-homed again. So we had to help him clear some of that. But he was also being re-triggered by the disharmony between mom and dad. And he was acting that out quite literally in the form of aggression towards others. So luckily, when I was talking with mom, she was open to this perspective and she was able to acknowledge yes, there is also disharmony at the moment within the family. And there's no judgment about that. We all go through that, but we just have to recognize that our animals are very sensitive because they're inner wild, regardless of species or breed. Now we're moving way beyond dogs, way beyond Australian shepherds at this point, but regardless of species or breed, almost all companion animals live in communities. They live in groups. Even turtles and tortoises, even snakes. There are some snakes that are actually amazing mothers, alligators. There's a species of river turtle that sits offshore and vocalizes to their babies as they're hatching to guide them away from the land and towards the water. So we have to recognize that our animals come into our world wired for and craving at a deep survival level coherence and harmony in community with us. So when there is disharmony in our families, when there's disharmony within ourselves, that transmits as a danger message to our pets. Now, when everything is calm and okay, they may never act out because their emotions, their nervous system can handle it. It's this exact same analogy as if you wake up in the morning and you're on top of the world and you're in love with life and everything's going well, and then you drop your coffee and spill it on the floor. You might just laugh or go get a rag and pick it up. You might even feel grateful that coffee exists and you can make another cup. If you wake up in the morning and you just had a fight with your partner and you found out your house has mold and your pet is going through something with their health and you're late for work and you drop your coffee, you might have a meltdown. So that's the same analogy. When our animals are in our homes and we're living our lives and we're going through the disruptions that can come when we live in a family and community and everything else is otherwise okay. We weather those storms pretty well, actually. When everything is not okay and it's not been identified or addressed or addressed well enough, we don't weather those storms so well. So just to recap, as a communicator, when I'm talking with your pets, and I'm only gonna speak for myself, we communicators, we all do things in our own way. We all have our own unique gifts and our own backgrounds and experiences that shape how we work with your pets. So I'm gonna share what I do and my perspective as a point of reference for you. Whenever I'm connecting with your pets, I'm taking a look at the holistic life. I'm taking a look at physical, I'm taking a look at emotional, I'm taking a look at mental and at cognition. I'm taking a look at relational within self, with other animals in the family, with you and with their community and world. And I'm taking a look first and foremost at the soul level, your soul agreements together. Why are you in each other's world? Why did you pick one another? Why did you resonate so strongly with one another? Even if it seems like a happy accident, I have learned that it is not. It is all by mutual soul design. And I'm taking a look at the personal power aspect where we're not looking at your pet as a victim of XYZ, but as a powerful agent in their own life. If they've had experiences recognizing that some aspect of them at the soul level chose that for reasons that make sense to them that are for the highest and best good of you both, and that they do have the power to transcend whatever life has handed them, whatever they've signed up for in their 3D earth school adventure here with you, and that they're more than their struggles, they're more than their suffering, they're more than their story, and so are you. And taking a look at the big picture intention for the life that you're building together and the ultimate end game that you have in mind of happy, healthy pet, happy, healthy you, happy, healthy family, and anything that may be standing in the way of that, and what we can do to clear it. Now, sometimes this means having a simple conversation. Having a conversation can be incredibly healing, being heard, being seen, being understood, being valued, being reassured. Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes we add in the energy piece where we need to shift that stuck, held, traumatized energy in motion, emotion, feeling, as in Aussie number three. He had a lot of trapped emotion inside of him that he had not been able to shake off. Because instead of being out in the wild where his instinct to bite, to defend himself, to defend him his family would have been rewarded and respected, it was shut down. And it was actually creating a dangerous situation in his home. So we have to help him to let go of to shake off those traumatized memories so he can step fully into his life now, the life that he got himself to, that personal power again. He got himself there out of that horrific situation and into his life with mom. He did that. If he can do that, he can do this too. We have to remember that. We have to see our pets through that eye, through that lens of I see you in there beyond your suffering. I know what you're capable of, and I know who you truly are. And I will hold space for as long as it takes for you to be able to fully step into that for yourself. And not at all, ironically, they do the same thing for us. We also have to take a look at the relational and the soul level. So sometimes we do need that energy healing. Sometimes we need to add in Reiki. Sometimes we need to rebalance the energetic body. Sometimes we need to look at the relationships that our pets need and crave. For instance, with Aussie number two, he really just didn't do well as an only dog. Not every animal does. Not every animal is going to do well as an only pet, even if that's what works best or appears to work best for us in our situation and our life and our availability. Some animals do great. So just recognizing relationally, that wasn't working for him. It worked just fine for Aussie number three, but it wasn't working for Aussie number two. So we have to look at that. We have to look at mental. And a lot of times mental is tied in with physical. And at this point, a lot of times where I head is towards diet and supplementation and referring out to trusted colleagues who work in these areas who can help us course correct, whether it's something simple like shifting the protein to better suit your pet's temperament or detecting hidden pain and identifying possible supplementation to address that, to give a little bit more physical and mental ease. And then we look at that soul level, that relationship that they have with you and a possible mirroring or modeling aspect, mirroring being where they're literally acting out in front of you how you're being and maybe don't recognize it. A perfect example of this is my cockatiel pedal, which is why she's not in here right now as I'm recording this for you. Because when I get excited, she gets excited. And you would hear more of her than you would of me. Some of you, you might prefer that. And I understand, but she is very much a mirror to me. When I've had my own coaching and I've been on with my coaches and I get upset about something, I have had coaches say, Your bird is screaming her head off. Tell me how you really feel about this. So you might notice that with your pet as well. You might also see what we call modeling, which is they are acting out in front of you the behavior that would work better than what you're doing now. So my tortoise multi is an excellent model for me when I am getting all deranged with emotion and she just walks out from her she shed and stands in the middle of the floor and looks at me. Like, how about trying a different way through this, mom? And the moment I look at her, I just feel calmer. I get it. I understand. She's showing me I don't have to do it this way. I don't have to go through life kicking and screamings. Maybe some of you can relate to that. But we can look at this as well. And there's many ways that our animals can serve in this role for us to help us reach our highest and best good, to do the same thing for us. And we're just talking about we do it for them, looking inside of them, seeing who is there underneath the struggle, the truth of their soul. And our pets do a wonderful job of doing this for us, which is the big carrot at the end of the stick of why are you doing that, or what's broken and is it my fault and how can I fix it? And what do you need? And all of these questions that you come to me with when we have animal communication sessions, and that drives so many of you to say yes to learning animal communication so that you can do this on a daily basis with your own inner species family. Our pets are so good at seeing our potential, at seeing what we're capable of, of seeing who we truly are. Once upon a time, in a previous career of mine, I founded and ran a charity that worked in the field of eating disorders and mental health. And it was a pretty dark time for me. It was very intense. It was like an Aussie Shepherd out herding a bunch of vulnerable sheep. And that's what it felt like day in and day out for about 10 years. And at one point in our online community, I've started a little group trying to add a little lightness, asking our members to share their pets with us. And that group became such a beacon of hope and light. And at one point, after reading a few of the stories, I dropped a comment in and said, you know, the animals you're describing are so amazing. And we had llamas, we had alpacas, we had birds, we had turtles, we had geckos, we had snakes, we had dogs, we had cats, we had horses, we had guinea pigs, we had rabbits, we had all these beautiful animals, and their parents were there describing who they were. And I said, you know, with beings as wonderful as these in your life, surely you can see that there's something within you that's pretty wonderful too. And given where our community was in their healing journeys, that was tough, that was hard for them to take in and to own. And yet I knew in every cell in my body, in every cell in my soul, that that is true. And so just understand that as we close out today's episode, no matter what you are going through with your pet, no matter what you are facing, no matter what you have been saying to yourself about what you're going through or what your pet may be facing or what you're facing together, understand your pet sees you. I see you. You would not be here listening to an episode like this and still here if you did not possess every capability of navigating this towards that ultimate big picture intention of happy, healthy pet, happy, healthy me, happy, healthy life together. And if there is any way that I can be a part of your journey and support you and your pet through that, just know it would be my honor. You will find the links below if you would like to schedule a session, or if you would like to schedule an energy session, or if you would like to learn animal communication, or come and join us and practice animal communication, you will find all of those links below. Just know it is my honor to serve as your hostess here at Let's Talk to Animals. I endeavor to drop a new episode every couple of weeks and am very responsive to your ideas, your questions, your topic requests. So I love to hear from you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, if this has added value to your life, please do take a moment, leave us a review, offer some insight, let me know what your big aha moment or takeaway is. I absolutely love that. And I look forward to being back with you here again in two weeks for another fresh new episode of Let's Talk to Animals. So for now, I send you all my love. I have so enjoyed sharing this episode with you. If you're new to the Let's Talk to Animals community and you've enjoyed this episode, please do leave us a review on your favorite streaming service or drop a comment wherever you'd like to listen. I love to hear from you, and your feedback truly helps me shape future episodes based on your interests and needs. If you're not already in my weekly love letters community, head over to Animal Love Languages.com to opt in. Your welcome email will include$25 off your first pet session with me, and you'll be the first to know when a new podcast episode drops. If you're interested in learning more about the work I do communicating with animals, offering pet reiki, and teaching animal communication, please visit me at animal love languages.com. Click on Schedule for Pet Sessions and Programs for all the information about my new animal communication adventure to master your student program and the live animal communication practice circle I run for student practitioners. And I look forward to welcoming you back here very soon for a fresh new episode of Let's Talk to Animals. Okay, all my love. Bye for now.