4/15/10 Response to Barbara Janelle
By Alli Harrod (04/20/10 17:26:23)
Related animals: Cat, Dog, Hermit Crab

Barbara Janelle’s activities to help the class learn more about animal communication were interesting and informative methods that anyone interested can use to apply to animals. I enjoyed her discussions on animal body language because I have found that many conclusions can be drawn about animal moods based on their body language and the individual personality of the animal in question. I think that since her workshop included animals like Ziggy, Napoleon, Snow-Bo, Leonard, and Hermes, we were able to very easily understand the differences in animals’ individual personalities, especially all of the named animals had such vastly different personalities. There was no way that the three dogs present could ever just be lumped under the category “dog” because they had such different energies about them. During Janelle’s exercise to help us to feel and imagine what it may be like to inhabit the particular body and experience of an animal that we know, I chose my cat Julius.

As I was attempting to get into the trance atmosphere that Janelle provided I imagined myself inhabiting Julius’ body and what it may be like to experience life through his eyes. Like I mentioned during the workshop, I felt that my face was a bit more triangular, like Julius’, and I could feel the pull of whiskers on my cheeks in my imagination. I can imagine that if I was able to feel this way during this workshop that with more practice and learning, I could learn more about feeling how a particular animal may feel. When I came home, I tried to imagine myself in Julius’ shoes again, this time both while looking at him and while not. I was not able to reproduce the same effect, but I’m sure in time, I might be able to. Other than that, I decided to use techniques that we were discussing in the workshop for communication with him face to face. Like I mentioned in class after her workshop, I was saying things to Julius in specific pitches and with each noise I made in that pitch, his tail would flick upwards in the same manner. Julius and I, however, are used to communicating in pitches anyways. For example, whenever he gets a wet-food can treat, I yell, “din” in a specific pitch, and he knows what is coming. The “din” pitch has come in handy a few times when Julius has been lost and I needed to find him.


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