Марія Бровінська PetTech 9 December 2024, 09:58

AI, gadgets, applications already "understand" the language of animals. What about pet parents? Life hacks and tips for owners of tails from a zoopsychologist

What does your dog want when he stares you straight in the eye? And what does a cat feel, incessantly meowing and trying to touch your feet with its tail for the umpteenth time? Pet behavior is a mystery to pet parents, and to understand it requires certain knowledge and skills. Currently, scientists and developers from all over the world are working to learn to understand the language of animals, conducting numerous studies and creating «smart» applications that can supposedly read facial expressions or understand meows and barking tails. However, no technological tool has yet reached a perfect understanding of pets. And currently, the surest way to understand an animal is interaction with it.

dev.ua within the PetTech partnership section with the largest Ukrainian cat and dog food manufacturer Kormotech has collected the most popular tools that pet parents should pay attention to in order to better understand their little friends, and also talked with zoopsychologist Oksana Galan about what we most often want say animals

Will technology help us better understand the animal?

In today’s world, technological solutions and artificial intelligence are developing so rapidly that, probably, in a few years, the language barrier between a pet parent and a pet will not exist at all. Currently, developers offer pet owners hundreds of interesting solutions that supposedly help to understand the meowing and barking of tails. However, these tools are currently imperfect, but it is quite interesting to experiment with them — for real or in jest.

Here are some modern developments that, according to their owners, help pet parents better understand four-legged friends.

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How to learn to understand animals

And is it possible to recognize the emotions of animals without gadgets and technical solutions? Zoo psychologist Oksana Galan tells.

— Currently, there are many technological solutions in the world, in particular, based on artificial intelligence, which allegedly make it possible to decipher either the meowing of cats or the barking of dogs. Have you tested any such things in your practice?

My scientific colleague and I talk about this often and a lot. But, from my experience, unfortunately, so far such services and devices generate a lot of errors. That is, the device or service can partially analyze the voice or facial expressions, body language of the animal. But many questions arise before the interpretation. These developments, in my opinion, are in the test phase, and the developers need more information.

— Very often, pet owners focus on the fact that a dog or cat has only a few basic needs: to eat, sleep, walk, etc. Is it really so?

Well, it is so primitive to put a stamp that an animal only wants to eat, sleep and play — it is like saying the same about a person. There are other needs. A dog as a social animal learns a lot during its life, it analyzes a lot, it likes to learn. That’s why I don’t really like when such primitive things are said about dogs, as well as about cats. A cat in general is not a couch cushion, it is a predator. And lying down, just eating, going to the toilet and sometimes playing is definitely not about them.

— So what are the basic needs of four-legged friends and can we recognize them?

There is a concept of the five freedoms of animals, and this concept applies to all animals that live under human control: dogs, cats, horses, goats, chickens, zoo animals, even wild animals in zoos, in rehabilitation centers, in shelters.

These five freedoms are the basic minimum. Psychologists don’t like it very much, but we often compare it to Maslow’s pyramid of needs, because these are mandatory things to satisfy the needs of the tails. And only after these needs are satisfied, we can expect the animal to behave adequately. It is important that adequate is not the way we like it, but the way it is characteristic, as laid down by nature.

These needs are freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from illness and injury, freedom from discomfort at rest, freedom from atypical behavior, and freedom from distress, that is, from excessive grief or fear.

— Are there any algorithms for pet parents to read the problem, to understand that something is wrong with the pet?

In fact, often the animal cannot let you know, especially if it is a cat, that it is in pain or that something is bothering it. Ponytails can even hide it. Therefore, the main task of a responsible pet parent is to spend time with the animal and observe its behavior. Because when we understand that, for example, our cat is less active today, behaves somehow differently, it should be a wake-up call for us. Here we very often fall into the illusion that we know our animals very well. However, we live our lives, and we have very little time for an animal, so this is a misleading feeling. Attention in this case is the key to timely diagnosis of the disease.

— How to react correctly if we understand that the dog may have received some stress, for example, from explosions?

If it is a short-term stress, that is, just now the pet was scared of something, it means that there was a surge of adrenaline in the body, there is a lot of glucose in the muscles. And if the animal reacted to something so short-term and sharp, then it is better to give it the opportunity to spit it out. Because life without stress does not exist either for people or for animals. We all have to adapt to some level of stress. Of course, each person and each animal can adapt to a different level. And after some time it may happen that the animal will no longer be taken out.

If we understand that the animal is stressed several times every day, then we definitely need a specialist to understand where and what we can improve.

Antidepressants may also be needed. Teamwork between an animal behavior specialist and a veterinarian is most effective. Here it is important to understand that those medicines that are suitable for a dog are not suitable for a cat, and vice versa. Plus, you need to combine, analyze how the animal reacts to the medicine, adjust the dosage, taking into account the diseases that the four-legged friend has. However, there are still very few doctors who specialize in animal behavior.

— Is it true that dogs sense good and bad people? This is what they say if a dog barks at a stranger.

Many people think so. And when, for example, this person, who is called «bad», communicates with an animal, he does it in a way that the animal does not like. And all because she lacks knowledge.

People who attract the attention of animals are often aggressive towards them themselves, or have a very strange look or smell, and the dog does not like it. The animal can react even to a visual image, for example, to a tall guy in shorts. But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad person. This is exclusively the perception of an animal, most likely, at some point it became not very comfortable with such a person precisely because of the visual image. And for him or her, it’s anxiety.

— Are animals capable of manipulation?

Sometimes so. However, usually everything that we consider manipulation is our own mistake that we once made. For example, if the animal asks for food from the table, then, most likely, you have made it clear that it is okay to do so. The same applies to some moments that we perceive as revenge, for example, when the animal went to the toilet at home or damaged something from the furniture. In fact, these are all signs that indicate that something is uncomfortable for the animal.

Also, when we call dogs «stubborn» or «harmful», it’s not true. They, like people, simply may not want to do something, for example, go somewhere, follow a command. And this is normal: a dog, like a cat, will try to spend less energy and get more bonuses.

— From my experience, dogs are more understandable than cats. They are easier to understand…

You are right because dogs are social animals and cats are solitary animals. Dogs are tuned to group communication, it is important for them, they learn a lot from the members of their group. And cats receive information genetically or in communication at an early stage. Therefore, of course, it is a little more difficult for them to communicate, but this does not mean that they cannot do it.

— But they are probably more difficult for us to understand, since they are not so active. Are there any life hacks to understanding the cat?

Now there are many applications that explain the facial expressions of cats. Yes, they have it, albeit minimal. I recommend that owners play with it, watch it, and start to see what the cat is saying with its facial expressions.

In addition, it is cool when we teach cats at least a little something, for example, tricks of some kind. This is very bonding, and if we give a signal, the cat understands it, gives us feedback. And we are glad that he did what we want. And the cat — because he was able to do what was asked of him. Then such a pendulum begins: both we and the cat become a little more predictable.

— And how important is such an element as a reward for an animal? For example, he did a trick or the dog followed the command. How important is a piece of food or a favorite toy as a reward for them?

It is very important. As much as the salary is important to us. We cannot volunteer all our lives. We volunteer for a while, and then we want money. So are they. And food is just a universal tool, so we use it almost always. But, in principle, animals, especially dogs, always want something. It can be a game, interaction, food, etc.

— Many dog schools have appeared in Ukraine now. If the animal is sent to this school, how traumatic or beneficial can this experience be for her?

It can be adequate in a situation where, after training, everything was explained to the pet parent, demonstrated how it works, and the person understood everything. That is, it is not one activity after such a boarding house. And if a person began to integrate everything into his life with that animal, it could be the kind of thing that would work.

And if we simply hope that now we give the dog to someone, and it will be returned to us corrected, it will behave perfectly, then, most likely, we are deceiving ourselves.

And the dog can very quickly return to its previous behavior or choose a different model, which will not satisfy us enough either.

— Are dogs and cats offended? Can they take revenge for something? And how to react to it correctly?

There are quite a lot of discussions about this now. After all, resentment is a rather complex feeling. We need to understand the cause-and-effect relationships in each specific case: what happened before, what the animal wants and what result it is striving for. Our pets can, of course, be a little sad due to some circumstances, and because of this they become less active. But I would not talk about the offense.

Usually, we are used to thinking that if an animal does harm in the apartment, does some things that we do not consider normal, then it takes revenge. Actually no. For example, if you return home, where the animal has been alone for a long time, and you see a puddle or torn shoes, this does not mean that it is taking revenge. She probably feels anxious when she is alone, and in order to calm herself a little, she leaves more of her scent, or keeps herself busy.

There are many situations that people interpret as revenge, petulance, because the animal is simply trying to help its condition in the situation in which it found itself. And it can be because of fear, because of anxiety, and you need to work with it.

— Is it true that an animal must have one main pet parent?

No, an animal can establish affection not only with one person, it can be several people. And it’s even cool, because situations in life are very different. It is very good if the animal has the opportunity to stay with several people. Because the person with whom the animal has established attachment, it feels as its security base, such an island that will satisfy all the animal’s needs. And here it is important to understand that for dogs the security base is a person, and for cats it is the territory.

— Now there are a lot of animals that ended up on the street because of the war. How should a new pet parent communicate with such tails? Are there any algorithms that will make it possible to organize the process of integration into a new family in the least painful way for the animal?

First of all, everyone — both the person who decided to shelter a four-legged animal and the animal — needs time. It is impossible to adapt to new conditions in two or three days. Time is purely for biological processes. And secondly, it is necessary to treat with respect the experience of animals that she had before meeting you. After all, every animal has already lived its own life, so I would recommend to be patient and get to know the animal, teach it. And the smoother the interaction, the faster it adapts to new conditions.

— Oksana, I have one last question to help those who dream of having a pet at home, or who have just dared to get a tail. Advise on what to read and watch from available content to make the process of adaptation of an animal in a new family as organic as possible, and for new pet parents as stress-free as possible.

The book «With whom I live. A short course for understanding the dog.» It will help facilitate the process of adoption by the owner of the animal.
The film «Temple Grandi». This is a film that very qualitatively explains the concept of the five freedoms of animals.
The site pethelpful.com — here you can find practical advice on caring for your pet.
Free vet service. concerns of Optimeal Expert 9100. Here, specialists will quickly assess the situation, find the nearest veterinary clinic and will stay in touch and provide the necessary information on how to alleviate the condition of the animals.
«The Secret Life of Pets» is an entertaining cartoon that will show the life of pets from a different perspective.
Blogs of zoopsychologists, cynologists and veterinarians.

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AI, gadgets, applications already "understand" the language of animals. What about pet parents? Life hacks and tips for owners of tails from a zoopsychologist