Preparing For and Getting the Most Out of a Consultation with Your Animal About a Behavior Problem

Living with our companion animals brings us a great deal of love and joy, but can also present challenges. The culture of every species, our natural ways of living on the earth, vary greatly. Conflicts often occur when an animal acting naturally—according to their culture (e.g. barking, digging, jumping up in greeting, sharpening little claws on furniture, urinating to mark territory, bucking when frightened)—clashes with our preferred way of living (e.g., wanting peace and quiet, a yard without gaping holes, an un-frayed sofa, unsoiled carpets, and remaining safe). Everyone’s tolerance level for certain behavioral conflicts varies, as does how we approach attempting to resolve them varies.

When we ask our animals to change a behavior, it’s important to remember that by having companion animals live in our homes (or horses living on our property or horse facility), we are expecting them to adapt to living in our culture, with the rules of our species and our way of living on earth. Considering that, do we have a right to have certain expectations for our companion animals’ behavior, and to set boundaries in our relationships with them? Of course we do. Along with that right is a parallel responsibility to make sure their needs are met, and that our expectations for their behavior are realistic ones given their species and their living situation. For an animal communication consultation to be effective in helping change behavior, it must be a collaborative effort between the human and the animal, with the animal communicator providing translation and facilitation of the process.

This purpose of this article is to help you better understand how to best utilize the specific tool of animal communication consultations as one strategy to help resolve behavior problems with the animals you love. It describes in detail the importance of examining our expectations, learning more about why our animals are behaving the way they are, what feelings and needs are related to their behavior, and discussing and mediating potential solutions and potential consequences when behavior does not change.

What we’ll cover:

What Elements are Needed in an Animal Communication Consultation to Create the Greatest Chances of Influencing Behavior Change?

1. An animal communicator who facilitates an interactive conversation

2. Clarity! Clarity! Clarity! What’s the specific behavior concerning us and how is it impacting us? What’s the specific behavior that we WANT?

3. Realistic Expectations

4. Listening! Listening! Listening! All voices need to be heard, all needs deserve to be acknowledged

5. Negotiating Change

6. Creating and Committing to a Follow Up Action Plan Beyond the Consultation