Tierisch Menschlich

“Horses are very keen on body language, and what I refer to as “presence”, and expression. They know quite a bit about you before you ever get to ‘em. They can read things about you clear across an arena.” – Buck Brannaman

The hill’s are alive with the sound of… music-al animals! I’d imagine most people wonder how animals interpret music. Do they enjoy the beats you blare out of your speakers? Has an animal ever made music? What’s the deal? There have been a few observations of animals dancing to music (for starters, take a look at the posts in the …

FALSE. It surprised me, too… But it’s just one of a long list of discoveries I made while reading Animals in Translation. Apparently in their natural environment, the wild, wolves live in families. Not packs. Perhaps another wolf will join or a family member will tag along, but it won’t get much bigger than that. It’s a pretty big twist …

This book captivated me right from the start. Absolutely fantastic! Temple Grandin, the author of Animals in Translation, is an autistic woman who changes the lives of domesticated animals every day. Particularly for those unfortunate enough to be cows in slaughter houses. Time and time again, she has found correlations in how autistic people and animals view the world. Her …

What gives so many mutts their wonderful charm? Their ability to learn tricks? I’ve always known that there’s something about mixed breeds that causes them to be smarter, low maintenance, and fun to be around. Pure bred dogs tend to not learn as fast, do goofy things, and, most commonly, have physical or mental problems. For example, health issues such …

I tend to shy away from using treats with animals. There are situations where they can be very useful, especially if I have an animal who is very food-focused. Using treats in your training does not replace your relationship. An animal will not take food if they are having extreme excitement or fear, in which case communication not based on …

There are times where the things that terrify an animal go unnoticed by humans. There are many contributing aspects to this, and I mused quite a bit on the visual aspect yesterday. Humans are unique in that we see a large spectrum of colors. Some prey animals, like cows, only see around two colors. Yellow pops out quite a bit …

“What Buck teaches you, through the horses, is that feeling sorry for something is only going to promote the same behavior. What you need to do instead is give them self-worth, give them a job, give them something to do. It doesn’t help to pity horses or people.” – Director (of Buck the Film), Cindy Meehl

The other day, my boyfriend introduced me to the old classic: Ring of Bright Water. A movie any animal-lover would adore! Right when I heard that it was about a man who adopted an otter, moved to Scotland, and it was a true story, well… It was even better than I had expected. Mij, the otter, is the cutest thing …

Dog parks aren’t really my thing. I love the dogs, and it’s easy to have a pleasant conversation with most of the people hanging around. But there’s something about all of them being together in a small area, everyone wanting to play and flirt and fight or flight, that causes a hectic, sometimes neurotic energy. My dog, Mowgli, had a …