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I wrote this article for the DierenAmbulance Nederrijn magazine #48 in English. I feel disconnected to it once it’s been translated into Dutch, so it’s here in its original format – and it’s mine!
Companion Animals are “People Animals”
Some of us might describe ourselves as a “dog person” or as a “cat person” depending on how closely our personalities and lifestyles align with those of dogs or cats. Or perhaps we define our animal type based on how closely we feel connected to a particular species. But have we thought about how these animals try to connect with us?
I was recently at a workshop organised by Dierenlot on honden en emoties. There I learned that dogs can recognise and react to our facial expressions because they have lived with humans for up to 40,000 years. As I sat there taking notes, I couldn’t help notice the irony of us humans learning how to understand dogs when they already understand us!
And how about cats? Their history of domestication with humans is much shorter; something in the region of 12,000 years. So one might argue that cats communicate less with humans than their canine counterparts. But this certainly isn’t true; they just communicate with us differently!
As an Englishman I struggle a lot with the Dutch language (this article has been translated for me…) but I love the Dutch word “Gezelschapsdieren” (companion animals)! And if cats and dogs are our companions, and we are theirs, it makes sense they want to communicate with us. Like us, gezelschapsdieren communicate a lot through body language. But reading body language, especially across species, is not so simple as you’d expect.
Even amongst us humans, there is a lot of variation in the meaning of our body signals – a toothy smile can mean happiness, but it can also mean fear (think of screaming down a roller coaster). Laughing can mean you find something funny, but it’s also a mechanism for dealing with nervousness. And the hand gesture by your mouth indicating something is tasty is interpreted in England as meaning you have a painful toothache!
Everyone is different and so are animals. And different websites tell you different things about what different movements of different body parts of different species mean.
The key to reading body language is often context. Pet owners might understand their own pet’s body language more than they would with someone else’s pet because they’re familiar with their personality and behaviour. They might also be familiar with the personal history of their pet, for example, understand the clinginess of a cat who was separated from her mother too early, or the defensive aggression from a dog who was mistreated as a puppy.
For deciphering more general behaviour and body language we might choose to turn to a professional who understands the deep-rooted behaviours that are linked to their lineage.
40,000 years ago, less fearful wolves scavenged near human camps. This ample food supply lead to a natural selection process which favoured the tameness and reduced aggression in these animals who were “self-domesticating” into the dog we know and love in the present day.
Today, dogs show many behaviours inherited from their wolverine ancestry that revolve around social structure, communication and predatory instincts. These might include a pack mentality with strong social bonding, howling, growling and barking to convey emotions and intentions, and circling before lying down to create a “nesting spot” that’s comfortable and safe.
In a similar vein, humans in Israel began storing grain in store houses 10,000 years ago which attracted house mice. These mice attracted wildcats which brought them into close proximity with humans, hence the self-domestication of the wildcat into the headbutting feline furballs we adore today.
However, cats, have not (yet) undergone significant domestication-related behavioural changes. This is seen easily in their intense predatory instincts and in their territoriality and scent marking. Their intense self-grooming is a survival instinct to remove a scent that might attract predators, and when threatened, cats exhibit wildcat reactions such as fleeing, hiding, or, if cornered, aggressive fighting.
The well-known body language of a cat (using different tail positions and ear alignment) as well as vocalisations like hissing and growling are also inherited from wildcats. But interestingly, adult wildcats rarely meow whilst domestic cats certainly do! Reason: cats developed the “meow” to communicate with humans!
So dogs and cats spent thousands of years learning to live with humans and have been rewarded for it. And isn’t it also rewarding for us to learn to live with our dogs and cats too!
