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I think if anyone's had any success decoding animal language, it's been in a personal setting, with a whole lot of listening, observing, and paying attention.
by forgotmypw17 5y ago
I think if anyone's had any success decoding animal language, it's been in a personal setting, with a whole lot of listening, observing, and paying attention.
Each individual animal has its own personality and language which they'll share with you, just like when humans who share a lot of time together tend to form their own language variants.
One of the most helpful books on the subject I've read is "Wild Animals I Have Known" (1898)
- blacksmith_tb 5y agoWhile that's personally appealing to me, I worry that we tend to understand what we want to understand - there's a reason we use the expression "if a were a horse" as a parody of empathy. Though of course that's even more true of trying to make sense of other human beings, which I don't think is impossible (just hard).
- forgotmypw17 5y agoI think it is very similar to human beings, except relying even more on the non-verbal. If you have doubts about interpretation vs "facts", then I can only guess/assume that you have not had this experience. The best advice I can give for establishing a relationship is to think hard about what the animal wants most, and try to offer it in a way that it can understand is connected with you.