Have you ever wondered what your pet is thinking?
As an owner of 2 dogs – Lilo, a 12-year-old Maltese, and Cookie, a 2-year-old Pomsky mix Shetland, I have always thought “what if I can understand why she’s doing this or that, etc etc.” Hence, I decided to share more about my journey in engaging an Animal Communicator (AC)!
As Lilo got older, I was making a conscious effort 1 year ago to search for a good AC in hopes of understanding more about Lilo so that I can make her remaining years the best ever possible, but my main motive was to know her bucket list! I also got the AC to check in with Lilo about her health conditions and some behavioral issues. As for Cookie, I wanted to understand more about her; her character likes and dislikes.
While I was researching on which AC to engage, most AC allows up to 10 questions per animal, which I feel that it is enough to know everything important about the animal. For 10-15 questions, ACs usually charge between 80~180 SGD. Most ACs are able to communicate with any kind of animals, be it dogs, cats, reptiles, birds, etc.
I chanced upon Nicole, from @pawsandcrystals on Instagram as she was launching a “pay as you wish” initiative to kick off her animal communication journey. Nicole is currently doing this full-time and her current rates are as below which is super affordable! I felt this instant draw towards her and decided to drop her a dm. We clicked off and immediately set an appointment date for her to do her sharing via a video call. FYI, Nicole usually discusses with her clients over WhatsApp messages or IG DMs, and this special arrangement to do a video call was made as I wanted to share more about some questions you guys might have while contemplating to engage one.
But first, some funny stories that Nicole shared with me! An owner wanted to know why his pug kept getting shocked by his own fart sounds, and the pug told Nicole that he did not know that the sound was coming from himself LOL! Nicole communicated with the pug that not all sounds are scary and the sound came from him. The owner then updated Nicole that the pug smiled at him when he farted the next time! How cheeky is that!!
Nicole also shared that when she first started her AC journey, she chanced upon a chicken near her residential block that looked lost. To practice her AC skills, she proceeded to take a picture of it, went back home, and tried to communicate with it but there wasn’t any response. She thought that her AC skills were not working and then proceeded to bring her dog, Bubbles out for a walk. The moment she opened the door, the chicken was right at her doorstep! HOW IN THE WORLD?!
According to Nicole, there are different ways that an AC communicates with animals. Some of them do it through visuals, taste, smell, etc.. For Nicole, it was visual while her friend was through taste. Example: to ask a dog what it likes to eat, Nicole will show different visuals of various foods and get the dog to show her the visual of their favorite food, while her friend will get a taste of the food in her mouth. Cool right?!
So… What do you need to prepare when engaging an AC?
In order for Nicole to communicate with our dogs, we sent her an individual photograph of the dogs that we took recently. Do make sure that their eyes can be seen clearly! We also sent her images of us (the dogs’s main caretakers) so that Nicole would know who the dogs are referring to when she gets the visual replies from them. You should prepare a list of questions which Nicole will communicate with the dog and share her findings with you via IG Dm or voice memos.
When Nicole starts her communication with the animals, she’d say hello, introduce herself to the animal as their papa/mama’s friend and give them a heads-up that she’ll be asking them some questions. For our dogs, Nicole shared that Lilo was more aloof like “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before, what do you want?”, while Cookie was really excited like “HELLO! OK! ASK ASK!!” reaction!
Now some of you might wonder ‘What questions should I ask an AC’? There is really no fixed set of questions to ask. You can really ask anything you want, really!
Here are some of the questions you may consider:
- What do you like/dislike
- Any pain in your body or discomfort
- What is your bucket list
- What activity do you enjoy the most
- Do you have anything to say to us
- Who do you love the most
- Why do you do this (behavioral issue)
- What type of food you prefer
- What do you enjoy most that we are doing for you now
- How can we improve your quality of life
Whilst Nicole was sharing with me her visuals that she got from my dogs, I basically went “omg ya omg ya omg yaaaa!!” the whole time because she was quite spot on! For example, she asked Lilo what she likes and Lilo showed her a visual of the milk balls that humans eat. This treat choice is pretty uncommon among dogs and I did not share any videos of Lilo eating the milk balls on any platforms, ever!
We also asked about her behavior of lunging at other dogs first when we are outside. Lilo told her that she is territorial and now that she’s older, she wants respect from other dogs. What a diva! Lilo also told Nicole that she doesn’t like grass and does not understand dogs who chomp/eat grass on their walks LOL! You may want to ask about bucket list because Lilo expressed that she wanted to eat a plate of sausages but she has never tried sausages! So Nicole explained that sometimes, animals want the food that they see or smell when the humans eat.
For Cookie, she communicated that she really loves zoomies, running in dog runs without leash. She also loves to come to me for sayang, and to play rough with hoodad. Quite spot on as this is what she does daily! This girl even complained that she hates the hairdryer because it’s noisy… which explains why she keeps trying to run away after a shower hah! Cookie also expressed her preference for meaty and dry food. Just for fun, we got Nicole to ask Cookie who she loves more, mama or papa? Interestingly, Nicole said that she saw Cookie jumping between us and told her that she can’t choose, she loves both of us a lot!
At the end of the session, I felt that I knew more about my dogs and how to improve their quality of life. I would suggest for all pawrents to try out AC as it does help to understand your pets better. Afterall, we all want our pets to live the best life possible, right? If you ever feel that there is a sudden change in your dog, you may want to consider speaking to an AC or feel free to reach out to Nicole. She’s super friendly! We are all learning how to be better pawrents for our furkids, so hang in there because you are doing great now!