Relating to pets / other animals

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1. Do you understand your pet's / other animals' body (non-verbal) language better than people's?

2. Can you discern between your pet's tone of voice / intonation / sounds?

3. What are your pet's personality traits, if any?

My answers:

1. Yes. Animal behavior is simpler and more consistent than human behavior, in my observation. I have two cats, and their "social" demands on me are well within my comfort zone most of the time.

2. Usually. But sometimes my younger cat seems insistent on something but I can't figure out what.

3. That's hard for me to describe, except in the usual and uselessly general terms. But each pet I've had or animal (higher mammal anyway) I've gotten to know has a distinct personality. I require significant time with people and animals before I get to know them well enough to say anything specific about personality traits.

Hi Aoi and welcome here! Care to give any examples of your answers? Sounds very interesting!

1. Do you understand your pet's / other animals' body (non-verbal) language better than people's?

Yes. I can look at my cat and tell if he's going to come to me to be petted, if he's had enough, etc. Granted, I've had him for 12 years, so I know him very well.

2. Can you discern between your pet's tone of voice / intonation / sounds?

When he actually uses his voice, yes. My cat is very quiet. He has a short half-meow he will often use as a greeting. If you say "Hi" to him, he'll often respond with that. When he really wants something, though, he'll let out this long, mournful cry. Since he does this so rarely, I immediately pay attention.

3. What are your pet's personality traits, if any?

Well, he's a Siamese. Very smart, very good at communication. If he wants something, he'll show you exactly what. He'll lead you to it, even to the point of herding you. He's a very loving cat. He's a bit. . .odd, though. He doesn't really like to be picked up, or held for any length of time. He generally prefers to be petted on the floor. He also goes crazy for pepperoni (from pepperoni pizza, no less), cottage cheese, and some french fries, to the extent of climbing all over you to get it. It's cute, but annoying at times because you have to guard your food if it's something he likes. Good cat, very smart, just strange. Good fit for an aspie.

1. Yes, easily

2. Yes, usually

3. I can tell when my cat is hunting or excited because his pupils will dialate fully. I know when he wants attention because he'll roll around on the floor and constantly look over at me to see if I'm watching him. When he runs back and forth apparently chasing nothing I just assume he is pretenting to chase something. I know when he is really enjoying me petting him because his eyes will get more narrow. I can tell when he's mad at me. I can tell when he's happy with me. I can usually predict whether he's going to get up and leave, or curl up and go to sleep, depending on how tense his body is. Whenever he's annoyed he'll make a quick sharp meow. When he wants me to talk to him it's higher pitched meow with three "syllables". We've actually learned how to play hide and seek together. I'm always the one who hide though.

1. No.
2. No.
3. Pets don't seem to have much of a personality, I thought their breed determined that.

1. He's not my pet and I haven't seen him for a long time, but my neighbour's cat used to visit me a lot and I'd sometimes feed him for his owner. I learned his body language heaps better than a person's complex ditherings. When he wanted something, he'd approach me then walk off to what he wanted to get me to follow.

When patting him, I was allowed to pat for a certain time then he'd turn sharply at me - this was a signal that he was suddenly feeling less comfortable being touched, and if I didn't remove my hand from him he would attack me. As soon as he jerked I'd remove my hand, hold it up still for him to look at and sniff, and he would respond by approaching my hand again and rubbing his face on it. Stroking was then allowed to continue.

2. Yes. There was a short plaintive regularly repeated meow when he had a mouse, rough loud choppy purring when he was really into feeling a furry blanket or eating something, normal purring when relaxed, a whining howl when he wanted food/attention, and a 'brrt' when he got suddenly woken up.

3. He's pretty uncertain I guess. He's a sook and wants to cuddle, but often can't because he's afraid of people and inclined to be paranoid or have rage attacks. I think he may also be Aspergers

Man, I obsess way too much on cats. I get on so much better with them than with people, and it worries me

Oh yes. And I can make friends with cats compared to people. Closing you eyes almost shut means that you have friendly intentions. Later on touching noses means wishing to be friends. They bob their faces on me if they think I am safe enough to recommend me to other cats.



Yes, we and my cats talk a lot



I have four of them, and they all are different...

Oh, yes. One of my cat-friends is like that. He is not a Siamese, though.

1. Definitely

2. Most of the time. It is a learning curve, refined over time. Some are more vocal than others and have a surprising tonal vocabulary.

3. Of the five I have now, the old male (17) is very territorial. We call him the Security Chief and he is very affectionate, but a bit paranoid, and fixated on the state of the perimeter. The elder female (15) is very shy, doesn't play well with others, and is a loner. Not very demonstrative, but you feel very honored when she displays affection. One of the younger males (almost 3) is shy, panicky, very vocal (limited vocabulary--mostly one type of vocalization), is getting more relaxed as he gets older. The other male (also almost 3) is very outgoing, affectionate, curious, very intelligent, athletic, very vocal with a huge vocabulary, needs constant human attention/interaction, seems to have a sense of entitlement. Female (1 year old) is extraordinarily confident, affectionate, and quite curious. She plays almost exclusively with the previously-mentioned male and they are sort of rubbing off on each other. Of the two younger males, the first one's motto is "We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die!", the second's is "Lookit me, lookit ME!! !"

I adore them all.

Interesting how all of you seem to be so attuned to animals' body language, verbalizations and character, yet we miss those things in humans... I think I miss them in animals too, by the way. But I wonder if the difference is because we like paying attention to animals, and we don't like paying attention to humans...

Yes. But that's simple, me dog's body language desn't ever say anything like "I'm upset with you, because of something you did a few days ago"...



When one of my (two) dogs bark I mostly immediately know what he or she whants. My male is more 'needy', he barks when he wants food/fresh water/a treat, when his toy rolled under some furniture or when he's bored, and I can recognize any bark



Well you can't describe someones personality by a list of traits, but...
My female is a realy gentle and shy dog, but she is very affectionate and loving to the people and dogs she likes, and my male, well, he's a realy special dog. mostly he is in his own world (someone once said to me "That's funny, you're an autistic person with an autistic dog!" ),
but when he wants something - he'll get it. He has his ways...

I think animals body language is just easier, and they are less complicated.
They're like "Level 1" and people are level 10, or somthing like that...

Makes sense to me. I'm also extremely attuned to my critters (dog, cat, seven horses) and can read even subtle differences in their body language, facial/eye expressions and vocalizations. I know what my dog is barking/growling at, or at least the severity of the threat, just by her tone of voice. And actually, I can read people very well, too. I'm almost telepathically attuned to my husband... it's downright eerie at times... and I have no trouble reading people's moods/emotions, tone of voice, and figuring out their intentions. Most of the time I understand them just fine. My problem with humans is MY deficits in communicating and interacting with them and my inability to relate to them/their "world."

I think this describes my situation rather well. Also, I do like paying attention to most animals better than to many humans.

I'm the odd one out again, it appears; well, beside buryuntime, but I DID always notice the different personalities of our pets; cats, dogs, even the turtles.

I had no less or more problems understanding the social behaviour of our cats than I did that of human beings. I felt as 'mind-blind' for them as I did for people. Of course, I did feel very comfortable around our cats, but I wasn't any much better attuned to them.