Can we Speak to Animals?

a reply to: Astrocyte

We have made inroads in trying to translate dolphin and whale languages. And we have proven that dolphins use and pass along specific sound combinations for objects. Linguists combined dolphin sounds into a brief structure never heard before, and played it to selected captive ones when giving them their play ball. Eventually the dolphins began to repeat the sound when the ball was given to them. They also passed along the sounds to other dolphins which had not been exposed to it before, and always only in apparent reference to a play ball.

I don't know that we will ever be able to communicate with less intelligent creatures like insects or arachnids, etc. Self-aware animals, or those at least capable of it, would seem to me to be our best bet for the near future (next century or more).

Now, I'm speaking from a scientific and technological standpoint, as in developing machine translation of animal language with AI or something similar. As far as a metaphysical means of communication, I have no idea. I don't delve deeply enough into that realm to know what is or isn't possible.

I believe that one individual and one animal can become bonded closely enough for essential communication to flow both ways. Such as with a dog you've had for years. You get to know their mannerisms and what the different types of barks, etc mean, and they learn to interpret your words and gestures. But it's not the same as being able to say "Hey, Rover, do you think it will rain today", and expect it to be truly understood or replied to in a fashion you can clearly grasp.

originally posted by: MissCoyote
a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha
Then explain to me how all 3 of my dogs learned how to spell..... :')

Dogs are like eager students until they mature. The more attention you give them, the more they will learn from you.

I used to train dogs to hunt. What I taught those dogs they could do for me. Their owners could get them to hunt, but when they hunted, it was more like they were using old memories ... not like they were working 'with' me. I made a helluvalotta money doing that ... and I might get back to it when I retire from this job.

a reply to: Snarl

Dogs are and always will be scavengers their keen sense of smell leads them to their next meal... there is no loyal in such an animal except the drive their nose gives them to their stomachs.

So of course humanity has seen them as a useful "tool" over the ages. Of course at one time they were much like the wolf something to fight against as a food source, not being a creature of the night... like the cat?

They never like walking alone.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

My cats got a keen sense of smell too that fool can smell a steak a mile away and start trillin til it drives us crazy.

Cat people lord .
Cats are rarely vocal we ( Humans expect them to be and they learn to be from us )
dogs can be vocal sometimes but that part carry's little meaning .
Having said this cats and dogs do have language But it mostly done with body .
and very very easy to learn . So your cats knows every kind of bird ( must be a collage expert even in your front yard there could be 50 types passing through .
point one cats purr when happy when sad when injured .
so just because the cat is purring does not means every thing is hunky dory .
as for dogs one easy to learn dog word you can do at home .
get down on your hands and knees now bend your arms so you are lower your head to teh floor your but will be still high head low .
this in dog language means lest play . try it

originally posted by: midnightstar
Cat people lord .
Cats are rarely vocal we ( Humans expect them to be and they learn to be from us )
dogs can be vocal sometimes but that part carry's little meaning .

This is quite literally true, regarding pur expectations of cats and dogs being vocal. On an entirely separate level. There is almost no chance that you will see a dog or cat in a movie that some sound engineer hasn't tacked an errant meow or something to for every action or movement it performs. It's like Hollywood thinks we wouldn't know what in the blue heavens that furry quadraped is unless we hear it.

Having both a cat and dogs, it's my experience that neither are as noisy as sound editors insist they are unless something is wrong with them.

a reply to: MissCoyote

Likely there is a nutritional requirment lacking that is being craved on your plate. Kindness of the heart instead of greediness of the tongue will leave the chords purring while your can opener gets to whirring.

Some people feed their kitty nothing but tuna and even though the smell drags their belly there it lacks a huge deal of nutrition. And leads to a biafra state (starving but still fed).

I usually enjoy eating what I am craving and other animals are no different... B vitamins are typically what cow meat is full of.

My daughter taught sign language to our dogs-they respond perfectly. We have no yelling or barking orders-it's a great way to communicate and they understand many words other dogs just twist their heads at.

The cats on the other hand just are constant manipulators. They tell you what they want and when. They only talk to you when they want food. It's been said if cats could open doors they would have no use for humans.

Since you asked I shall try to not go on for pages but this covers a great deal of ground. To your original question: Yes, we can and do "speak" with animals. Not simply speaking "at" them but enter into actual dialogue on various levels. Interesting that there are German words for which there are no English equivalents; Umwelt and Gestalt. People should look them up if unfamiliar as they are germane to this discussion.

Let's start with the example of a San (khoiKhoi) bushmen hunter of South Africa. His life is much more than simply a human hunter who tracks the gazelle, stalks it, spears it and takes it back to his clan. His worldview, practices and tribal mythologies place him and the gazelle in mystical participation together. They share each other's Umwelt as it were and their lives are spiritually linked - the hunter and the hunted in which the gazelle gives itself sacrificially to benefit the Bushmen hunter and his clan. Having performed the proper rituals both before and after the hunt ensure that another gazelle will spring from the Earth to keep the cycle going.

The Bushmen are world-renowned trackers who know their environment intimately, every mark in the dirt, every nibble from a leaf tells a story of the animals around him. I have studied animal tracking pretty intensively myself and I wrote this to describe their meaning:

Tracks are much more than footprints in the Earth, tracks show the very dance of life written upon the matter we were all created from. They are statements of who, where, when and even why. Tracks are delicate and soon vanish only to be appear over again and again on tabula terra - the dividing line between earth and sky where the story of life is written anew each day.

Starting as a young boy the Bushman learns to track and learns to identity not just the species but the sex, age, physical condition, rate of travel and much more. He knows when the animal passed, what it ate and general health by studying it's scats. Tracking is dependent upon the mental state of the tracker, normal every day thoughts are dispelled and a Zen state of openness is created. Like a still pond it can then feel and intuit the waves transmitted by the tracker's senses. A good tracker is much like an animal using sight, sound , smell, touch and intuition to a very high degree. As one tracks the animal it is common to begin the see the animal in the tracks and understand it's emotional state - to mentally enter in to the body of the animal one is tracking. In essence reading tracks is like reading a book written by the animal itself. This mindset can eventually lead to direct transmission of thought upon encountering the animal itself. Here is the meeting of the Umwelt between the 2 which become 1 for a time.

In shamanism there is a practice which was described by a medicine man named Frank Fools Crow which he called "becoming". To paraphrase his words he said: "Sometimes I sit quietly and I will speak to a rock, I imagine what it's like to be a rock, to live for millions of years and to see the world changing around it. If I am patient the rock will speak back to me and tell me things". In this way of being all of nature is part of his Gestalt, he does not see himself as separate from nature but participates as one with the greater whole. This is an avenue by which we humans can communicate not just with animals but with all parts of nature.

Nature does speak back. Not always, but there are times if one is participating in a deeply felt connection that you receive messages from nature - it isn't heard by your ears but through your heart and it's meaning is often very clear. These are rare moments I will admit and it is not always possible to make it happen. Force of will is actually counterproductive, the more ego you can release the easier it is to get messages from nature.

I could go on about primitive societies their various myths and dances in which they dress as animals, or the scientific studies showing ESP between pets and owners etc. In the end the answer is a resounding yes, we can and do communicate with animals though it's up to us humans to hear and understand their language. There is a direct corollary between the quality of attention we give and the level of understanding we can receive from the natural world.

a reply to: Astrocyte absolutely, The last 2 dogs I have had are Boxers, these dogs made me realize just how much we communicate, but it is reading actions, eyes, emotion and feeling. A Boxer has so many expressions, you can see the response to you on their face. I always talk to mine but he dosent understand words outside of familiarity, but my mood and tone. That's my take on it anyway. oh I forgot vibes

a reply to: Justso

I use signs with my dog also just a couple but I can make him sit and not talk. My little brother is deaf so it comes natural for me to use my hands a lot to communicate

a reply to: Justso

But can the dogs communicate back to her in distinct and in-depth ways? Learning commands by rote is not quite the same as actual communication between species.

Not to lessen your daughter's achievement. That's pretty impressive. I've seen guard and attack dogs trained in a similar fashion, and I don't believe I could ever train myself to be able to do that, much less my dogs.

a reply to: pfishy

Distinct and in-depth ways? Hahaha-they're dogs. They go to the door and sit to go potty-bring their food dish when hungry and lay in our laps when they want love-pretty distinct. Not sure if you are trying to see if they can carry on a discussion about quantum physics but neither can I.

I know my cat understands everything I say.

Funny stuff this - when I bought her the first bag of Temptations she craved them from the first bite.

I couldn't allow her to eat a whole bag so I told her - 'This has got to be a trade thing here. You bring me something for the Temptations and I'll give you one.'

Over 250 leaves later she's still bringing me leaves and I'm still saving them all.

peace

a reply to: Justso

That's my point. I do think, at least for more intelligent species that have complex communication skills between each other, the time is coming when hardware and machine learning will allow true interspecies conversation. Whether they perceive and relate to the world around them in a fashion we can comprehend remains to be seen. But the tools will exist before too terribly long.

Imagine your daughter's dog being able to actually express itself to her. "Hey, I don't like this person. He is cruel when you aren't looking", or "yeah, those noisy metal key things you are looking for? I can smell them in the laundry hamper. You're welcome."

a reply to: silo13

That's a wonderful arrangement.

My dog recognizes patterns when I talk to him and he picks up on key words and tone. You can tell when he understands something because his ears stand up or go down depending upon his interpretation of elation, happy, bored or sad. I can read him like a book sometimes just by looking at his ears. I have tried to interpret some of his different barks, but can only pick up on the extremes (stranger, animal in yard, wanting food). They do have a language they bark to other dogs in the neighborhood with and that would be cool to some day figure out what they are saying.

("Hey stranger, I have a bone and you don't !" )

a reply to: charlyv

I'm convinced half of what dogs say to each other is the equivalent of "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, I peed here fii-rst".

I think dogs are more loyal to their human owners than any other animal. I've read stories of them staying with the corpse until rescuers arrive.

a reply to: carewemust

Likely they are just waiting for the another pack leader to show up before eating it themselves... submission is a hell of a thing.