if we could speak the language of
animals what wisdom would they have to
share with us many folks are familiar
with the idea that the human animal bond
has therapeutic value and anyone who’s
ever had a beloved pet can probably
relate to this you may have also heard
about the benefits of therapy animal
visits to hospitals elder care centers
bas and other settings like this this
type of human animal interaction boasts
multiple scientifically supported
benefits both physiologically and
emotionally they calm our bodies ease
our minds and make us healthier simply
stated they make us feel good in ways
that are backed by science in fact your
brains and bodies have been responding
maybe outside of your awareness since
you first began observing my helper this
as humans evolved our highly intelligent
brains we had to sacrifice certain other
biological attributes and one of those
was our acute senses to help us survive
that transition we began hanging around
species of prey animals prey animals are
plant eating animals that are hunted by
predators you can still see this today
in some parts of India and Africa where
troops of primates stick close to deer
and antelope those prey species maintain
the highly developed senses that we lost
thus they can tell us that there’s
danger present long before we could
detect it ourselves
that means when we’re observing a
comprar animal in this case a rabbit our
brain is telling our body that we’re
safe this is one of the reasons I like
to include killer with me when I debrief
a client after a crisis while prey
species just for example horses and
rabbits can help our bodies feel calm
positive interactions with all species
of animals can help us create and
strengthen social bonds this is because
of the influence of oxytocin
affectionately referred to by some
oxytocin helps us feel warm and fuzzy
it’s a chemical that’s released by our
brain when we’re close to our loved ones
but more than that and of particular
importance to my message today it’s also
released when we’re having a positive
interaction with an animal the oxytocin
that’s released helps us feel calm happy
and safe and is associated with some of
the physiological benefits that you may
have heard of such as calming our
cardiovascular system what’s interesting
about human animal interactions is that
when we’re interacting with an animal
like killer and we experience an
oxytocin boost it helps us of course
build our social bond with this animal
here but interestingly it has like an
area of effect it increases our ability
to build bonds with the other people who
happen to be near us when we’re having
the positive interaction with the animal
so that’s one of many reasons that
working with a registered therapy animal
can help counsellors and
psychotherapists build strong bonds with
the clients they work with now outside
of therapy this has a lot of other
applications too other relational
contexts and you’ve probably experienced
this yourself at one point or another
anyone in here ever experienced the dog
park effect where it’s a whole lot
easier to talk to and interact with
strangers when you’re in the presence of
a bunch of happy dogs yeah it helps
families to may also notice that bonding
time with each other is much more
possible in the presence of the family
pet current research shows us at least
in dogs that this oxytocin boosts this
warm fuzzy feeling that we experience
when we interact with an animal is
reciprocal and that dogs experience
companion at love
similarly to the way people do that
means that your dog loves you all of you
in here probably had an intuitive idea
but we’ve got science to back that that
loving relationship we perceive with our
dogs is in fact real and accurate so one
of the first messages that your dog
clearly our animals have some pretty
important things to tell us and the
oxytocin boost and social connectedness
that our interactions with them can
bring represent only a fraction of how
the human-animal bond can be helpful
in a way it’s only the tip of the
iceberg if we can become aware of and
interpret what our animals are saying to
us accurately then we can become
empowered to encounter ourselves and
relationships in very new ways this is
because animals are incredibly congruent
that means that their feelings and their
behaviors match so they show us exactly
how they’re feeling without respond for
social appropriateness similarly to the
way killer peed on my blazer before we
walked out Thank You bunny for your
congruence so animals can tell us
honestly how we’re coming across to
others this is a rare and valuable
source of feedback because we’re so
seldom able to get this in human
relationships interactions with people
by their very nature are biased and
influenced by the norms and rules of our
culture’s interactions with animals on
the other hand are unfiltered and
unapologetically genuine the honesty
that that genuineness can bring us means
that animals are going to respond to the
way we’re coming across without being
concerned about hurting our feelings so
what do animals tell us they tell us the
truth many people who are experiencing
difficulty interacting with
communicating building a relationship
with an animal very often experience
similar difficulties with people but
here’s the thing the person usually
isn’t aware that they have similar
difficulties with people until their
that new awareness can empower us to
make different choices
and adapt our interactions accordingly
thus strengthening our relationships
with other people we’ve also learned in
some recent studies that dogs can tell
us what other people think of us
so it’s recently been confirmed that
dogs actively observe how other people
treat their owners and show a very clear
preference for people who are more
helpful to their owners so the idea of
if my dog doesn’t like you I probably
won’t either may actually hold some
water right killer right now killer is
being extremely genuine and you you all
have done something in here to make her
feel comfortable because she’s she’s
very comfortable showing her showing you
her backside I learned a lot of the
truth that our animals can tell us in my
relationship with my canine co-counselor
Sophie who’s a now retired German
Shepherd Sophie worked alongside me as a
registered therapy dog for a number of
years she helped me build strong
relationships with my clients she also
acted as a souped-up set of senses
allowing me to learn things about our
clients that I wouldn’t have been able
to without her and in many instances she
acted as a message bearer of crucial
relational information about our clients
because of that ability to respond to
our clients body language behaviors and
personalities in a completely congruent
and genuine way in that way she was able
to help me offer therapeutic services or
far beyond the scope of a human
counsellor I have so many Sophie stories
that would take all day to tell but a
few of them from our early work together
really clued
into this idea that animals can tell us
more than we ever realized one of my
specialty areas is working with
survivors of sexual assault
I had many clients on my caseload who
were working to reprocess the painful
memories of their assault normally
throughout our sessions Sophie would
curl up on the couch and cuddle up with
our clients until they began to
reprocess one of those memories every
time that happened without fail Sophie
would get up from the couch and go guard
the door
this helped our clients feel safe and
nurtured but it also clued me in to
emotional shifts that were happening in
session no matter how subtle they might
be another thing Sophie taught me was
that animals can tell when humans might
need medical attention one day as we
went to greet our client in the waiting
room
we happen to back pass by the client of
another counselor who happened to be a
young woman as we went to pass this
young woman Sofie responded with very
clear signs of fearfulness she cowered
tried to hide behind me and did
everything she possibly could to get
away from her
in all of our years working together I’d
never seen brave and stoic Sophie
respond this way especially to a young
woman we later learned that this person
was struggling with disordered eating
and that her body was in ketosis which
is a detrimental process during which
muscles are broken down for energy
although we didn’t understand at the
time Sophie was trying to tell us that
something was wrong and that this person
needed help she would also sometimes
tell me things about other staff members
and occasionally strangers every so
often and our work together and in our
personal lives together we’d run across
a person who is afraid of dogs which is
especially obvious in the presence of a
no matter how subtle this person was
trying to be in concealing their anxiety
I’d always be able to tell who was
afraid of dogs because Sophie would be
uncharacteristically insistent and
stubborn about I need to go and comfort
this person I know poor Sophie she she
had no idea that she was actually the
cause of the anxiety and she wanted
desperately to help alleviate it she’d
often be very confused and frustrated
with me that I wouldn’t let her go do
her job these are just a few examples of
this idea that clearly our animals have
some really important things to say if
if we’re able to accurately interpret
our animals information they can give us
important clues about our health our
relationships our emotions and how
others probably perceive us as I
mentioned earlier a lot of the concepts
that we’ve talked about today represent
only the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to understanding the power of the
human animal bond there’s still so much
we don’t know and so I invite you to
ponder these ideas with your own animals
in mind and to educate yourself about
how the animals in your life communicate
because the more expert you become at
listening to and then accurately
interpreting what your animals are
communicating to you the more expert you
become at navigating and improving all
of the relationships in your life human or animals