Relating to pets / other animals

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No, I am the Odd one by definition... But I do get along with animals better that people. isn't that odd?

1. Yes. My cat's body language is easy to interpret. It's very consistent. If she's alarmed, she'll flick back her ears and open her eyes wide. If she's angry, she taps her tail quickly. If she's content, she stretches out her front legs and closes her eyes almost all the way. And so on. The same behaviors apply to most cats, while human nonverbal signals vary from person to person. Also, it's easy to figure out why she's feeling what she's feeling. Like, she's annoyed because I won't let her sit on the couch.

2. Yes. She's only got a few sounds: hiss, growl, "I want something" meow, "Why aren't you paying attention to me?" meow, contented meow, and snoring.

3. My cat is shy and skittish, but not so much now that she's older. She keeps to herself and avoids other animals. She's easily scared by loud noises and sudden movements. She alternates between clinginess and independence. She's not very bright. For the most part she's lazy, but she does like to play outside sometimes.

I don't know if I'm particularly attuned to animals in general, although I do trust their body language signals to be more honest than humans. I'm afraid I'm not much better at paying attention to them than I am with people, but once I've been around them for awhile I do learn most of their signals very well, probably because they are fewer and less complex than human signals.

We have two dogs, a miniature Schnauzer and a Mexican Hairless and they both have specific personal signals and personalities. The Schnauzer gives a high pitched squeal yip when my wife's car pulls into the driveway (it's her dog) - very annoying, but completely different than the bark she gives at perceived threats. She's the alpha-bitch of the two and tends to bully the Hairless, but they seem to get along great in spite of that. The Hairless dances on two legs when she wants to be picked up. Both will come sit and stare at you when they want out.

The Hairless has two signals I've never quite been able to translate yet, but they're clearly meant as communication: She shakes her head back and forth, making her ears flap rapidly; and she snorts, sounding much like a sneeze. Both these signals are clearly playful communication - and used only toward people, not the other dog - but what she's specifically trying to say, I have no clue.

darby54 wrote:

Bingo.

I enjoy listening to my cat. I can tell when she's giving me the feline version of "What's up?" or "Where are you?" She'll sit behind you on the chair and give your head a good wash. If you move your head she tries to hold your head still with her paw.
I have a friend who is a total dog person who got scratched by a cat she was petting. She said, " I don't understand, it was wagging it's tail."

I classified cat personalities this way a while back:

Monitor - a cat who watches everything you do all day long, just out of interest. The cat doesn't interfere but simply has to watch.
Plotter - a cat who sits quietly but not asleep, seemingly thinking about things like world domination
Inspector - a cat who has to investigate everything, from cabinets and closets to new clothes or empty paper or plastic bags
Stalker - a cat who seems to see phantom mice or other targets, follows and attacks them, even though there are none
Defender - a cat who stakes out one or several spots, then insists that no other cat use them under any circumstances at all

These are just my way of looking at feline behavior. I don't know if they have any general applicability.

1. Do you understand your pet's / other animals' body (non-verbal) language better than people's?
Yes. Very well, i think.. Better than most people do. I can tell when my dogs want to play, and i can sometimes use their doggy body language back to them to initiate play. With my snakes, i can almost always tell when they're in a bad mood and right before they strike at something i can almost always tell what's going to happen. I don't know why this doesn't translate to relating to people, but it doesn't.

2. Can you discern between your pet's tone of voice / intonation / sounds?
Yeah. That's usually obvious stuff, though.

3. What are your pet's personality traits, if any
My chihuahua is very neurotic. Hates storms or and gets nervous at any change from what he's used to(hey, maybe he's an aspie!). He can sometimes be a little pushy. He'll hit me in the face with his paw if he's laying on me and wants me to play with him. He does kind of go crazy when you make him mad, though. He has a demon side sometimes. My cockapoo is more easy-going and doesn't really care what's going on. He just wants to play and be silly. My Retic is easily startled(like most Retics), so if you make some quick movement in front of her face, be prepared for sharp recurved teeth coming at you lighting-fast. She's really interested in her environment, though, and likes to watch anything that moves very carefully. (adding more here, had to leave for work before i could finish) My Boa is the complete opposite. She's so laid back that even if something was actually about to hit her in the head, she would barely notice. My Corn is more like the Retic in that he's curious and likes to watch people, but he doesn't react so strongly if he's startled. He's more likely to become shy and slither away than to reflexively strike at something. My Leopard Geckos are opposites of eachother. One is reall chilled out, and likes to hang around under his heat lamp most of the time. The other one is jumpy and nervous, and likes to be in one of his hide boxes most of the time.

Last edited by ColdBlooded on 20 Jul 2009, 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

LOL Aoi, that sounds very accurate!

Willard, would the dog make the same noise if someone else was driving your wife's car as it pulls into the driveway?

About 2/3 of the time yes.

I'd say the body language here is very clear





Yes. When I was a kid we had a beagle and then a collie after beagle died: both had different pitched barks for different desires. Current cat has different calls, some with a trilling sound, some a bit squeaky, and one really irritating whine.

Cats Do Control Humans Study Finds


Oh dear, running into that thing where part of me knows the traits but the other part can't pin words on the knowledge.

And here comes a desire to launch into a long string of pet stories . . .

My Psychologist raises horses and she'll probably be okay with me quoting her here:

That's a beautiful photo ! !!

That's a beautiful photo ! !!

Petsmart topic

My cat is NT, and prefers my NT kids because they are all of the same mind.

The lovely dogs I used to have were puzzled with me. I think they knew that i was not attuned to their body language. I am just plain witless.

I need to find an AS cat.

One of our dogs - who died in the early 2000s - , was very unsociable toward other dogs, and had several other problems like fear of seperation... When my mother first saw him in the pet store, he was sitting in a corner looking sad, while the other puppy was happily playing and jumping around... And on top of it all, he also caught a nasty disease when he was a puppy, but he survived and fully recovered. But we sort of assumed that his 'off-ness' had a neurological cause, instead of a raising problem because he came into the household as a young puppy and the circumstances were very comfortable for him, he was just a bit of a strange dog, and my mother used to joke that she thought he might be autistic too. So it amused her that she had an unusual child AND and unusual dog.

One of our dogs - who died in the early 2000s - , was very unsociable toward other dogs, and had several other problems like fear of seperation... When my mother first saw him in the pet store, he was sitting in a corner looking sad, while the other puppy was happily playing and jumping around... And on top of it all, he also caught a nasty disease when he was a puppy, but he survived and fully recovered. But we sort of assumed that his 'off-ness' had a neurological cause, instead of a raising problem because he came into the household as a young puppy and the circumstances were very comfortable for him, he was just a bit of a strange dog, and my mother used to joke that she thought he might be autistic too. So it amused her that she had an unusual child AND and unusual dog.

1. Yes. When people come over to my house and meet my pets I can always tell if my pets are getting annoyed with them, like them or anything else. I will sometimes tell the person..."You should leave her alone, she's getting annoyed with you patting her." They say that the cat isn't and 1 minute later they get scratched. It's the same thing with all my pets, and even other peoples pets.
I can tell what animals are feeling by looking at them, probably because their non-verbal communication is very easy to read and straight forward compared to peoples.

2. I can tell if my pets are happy, scared, angry or demanding something from me depending on how they 'talk' to me with their barks, meows and chirps.

3. This will take too long to write because I have too many pets so I will give a basic answer.
Zhar (dog) is devoted.
Spice (cat) is accepting.
Sugar (cat) is timid.
Slinky (cat) is overly confident.
Lucky (bird) is bossy but motherly.
Squeak (bird) is passive.
The fish...well, we have 20+ so i can't write about them all.

1. yes

2. yes

3. very social for a cat. vocal and cuddly. we never trained her to play carefully w her claws+us, so wear gloves when playing rough

and how do you protect your face?