The secret language of pets

A while back, I was invited to a podcast with Sonia Jahshan and Simon Bags from the Sonia & Simon pod.

I thought our discussion was worth sharing, so without further ado, here it is:

The title is perhaps a bit misleading – our conversation went all over the place!

Here’s what we cover:

• What is ethology, and why is it relevant?
• Why animals sometimes don’t get along
• How mom’s behaviour impacts how optimistic or pessimistic the offspring turn out to be
• How animals communicate
• How TEMP can help us understand animals’ feelings and intentions
• Why we misinterpret dogs’ facial expressions
• Which species is the most intelligent, cats or dogs?
• How to interpret different tail wags in dogs
• My take on cartoon animals
• Anthropomorphism and anthropodenial
• When most dogs go missing in the US
• Managing fear of thunder and fireworks (the link I mention is here)
• My thoughts on how animals recognize human’s emotional states

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