If I Could Talk To The Animals

[msconduct]

My best friend and housemate T, although a cat person to the core, used to own and race a five-husky sled team. (It's a long story.)

The thing about having a big bunch of dogs is that as well as picking up a humungous amount of poo, you also get to learn a lot about how dogs relate to other dogs. And T got very, very good at this. So much so that she learned to speak some pretty fluent dog.

Today a dog with golden curls (goldendoodle, I think) came racing into my garden and starting having a good nose round. It was a pretty cute dog, but we'll be getting kittens next year so I don't want to encourage any dog to think I'm OK with it coming into the garden. It really wasn't that keen to leave, but it was a lot faster than me so I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to encourage it to go home.

So T talked to it. The conversation went like this:

T: Bark!

Dog: Bark?

T: BARK!

Dog: ...bark...

And then, from halfway across the garden, it turned tail and raced out of the garden and away down the drive.

When I'd picked my jaw up off the floor and also stopped laughing, I asked T to translate. Apparently this was the conversation:

T: This is mine, get out.

Dog: Seriously?

T: SERIOUSLY.

Dog: Oh, all right...

Honestly, this was MASSIVELY impressive. I've seen T talk to dogs before: if neighbouring dogs are barking repeatedly or howling, she barks back and they always stop. And it's kinda nice that she's comforting them by convincing them there's another dog close by, especially when dogs are clearly at home alone during the day and lonely. But this was in a whole other league.

Comments

[crazycrone75]

Great stuff. The dawgs seem to react favourably when I do that affection-whimper, but that's the only 'dog' I know. I have some basic cat.

[msconduct]

Oh yes, I bet they love the affection-whimper! I'm good at the eye-closing part of cat communication, but I'm not a great meower. With my last two I did learn to purr although I doubt they were fooled, cats are just too smart.

[echomyst]

Very cool. A useful skill to have!

Also: kittens!!!

[msconduct]

Yes, we're waiting till we get back from Japan in February as we'll be away for a month. We were planning to foster in the meantime, but we have had to recognise the cold hard truth that we're not the type of people who can give cats back. So we'll have to put up with an empty-feeling house until then.

[kaishin108]

That is very impressive, hee hee! She is good dog-whisperer. :)

[msconduct]

It's almost scary:).

[spiffikins]

That is an amazing skill :D

[dandylover1]

Can we please hire her to calm our obnoxious Shih Tzu? Sometimes, he's okay, but usually, he barks like a maniac to the point that, if one of my parents can't watch him in the car or if he can't go inside with them, I have to watch him, and even then, he may or may not behave. And even when they are getting ready to go out, he goes nuts. He's obsessed with Mom and follows her everywhere.

[msconduct]

Yappy dogs are definitely a trial!

[dandylover1]

Absolutely! I'm so glad I don't have pets of my own, particularly such a vocal dog. I adore cats (including vocal ones) but I don't want the responsibility of caring for them. Alli is great in small doses and when he behaves while I'm watching him. Last time, he was an angel. I don't know what happened. I'll be watching him again tomorrow, so I hope he is the same. I played some opera for him and it seemed to calm him. He hseems to have the same love of leggero and lyric tenors as I.