Do Animals Sense Your Negative Words Spoken About Them?

by | May 22, 2023

This a story about a friend of mine who has many times helped people by house-sitting so that resident pets could be cared for whilst their owners were away on holiday and we chatted on the phone about, do animals sense your negative words spoken about them, which was a very interesting topic.

In this house-sitting case, there was a resident cat, not a dog.

Initially when my friend, Marilyn (not her real name) went over to talk to her friends about what was expected of her and if there were any particular idiosyncrasies with their cat that she needed to be aware of, her friends started going through the issues that their cat has from their perspective. 

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As Marilyn listened to the issues her friends expressed, her thoughts started revolving in her head.
Could this be, she wondered, if their concerned attitude was being passed on to their cat?

These thoughts were not judging, simply thoughts that this scenario could be quite possible.

Marilyn was just listening, not chatting, but noticed their unkind and swear words about their cat could contribute to the cat’s unease. They were saying that the cat was ‘this and that’, ‘did this and that’, and was on medication, the reason being unknown to Marilyn.

Her friends, then started apologising and saying “Sorry, the cat would get all funny at night and wake them up and saying it was a little annoying, so what they did was give her more foo

And my friend was responding and saying, “yes, okay, no worries I can deal with that, I will Just get up and deal with it!

However, Marilyn was noticing that there seemed to be some anxiety issues within this house with the owners and her thought was getting stronger, “do animals sense your negative words spoken about them?”

Remember, animals can sense our demeanour and emotions extremely well.

Marilyn was feeling that this is such a sensitive issue, and was not about to make any comments, however, when their cat was coming up to them, they were saying stuff like, “oh, you little so and so” and Marilyn was thinking, don’t speak to your animal like that.  Marilyn wisely didn’t say anything to her friends about how they were speaking to their cat, but sometimes she does speak up and voice her concerns.

Marilyn loves animals and when she went to their house to stay, she played uplifting worship songs, to not only put peace in her heart but knew her peaceful mind would help their cat bond with her.

Marilyn just loved on the cat, spoke kind words to her, and showed the cat respect.

On the first night, Marilyn was looking forward to her sleep and then at about 2am in the morning, the cat wakes her up and Marilyn was about to get up, then thought this is ridiculous.

Marilyn said to the cat “I love you” so that the cat could recognise her loving tone and Marilyn also used her God-given authority, and literally just said firmly “no, you go back to bed, I bless you, you are fine.  The cat responded and went back to bed without an issue. 

From there onwards Marilyn had no issue. Her friends were initially texting every day and then every second day or so and asking are you okay, and is the cat okay? “Yes, the cat is fine, there are no issues, and she is a totally beautiful angel”.

Marilyn’s friends found it difficult to realise that she had no issues.  Marilyn wisely thought that she, personally, could not take credit for this, as this was her prayer to Jesus.

Her friends returned from their holiday and asked again, what happened with our cat?   Marilyn simply said she was fine, that she just loved her and was firm with her, gave her time to get to know her and kept telling the cat how beautiful she was.

Marilyn was respectful of her friends and did not want them to feel that they could not look after their cat and toned down her replies to them so that they would feel confident to enjoy their cat with Marilyn’s encouragement.

Let me ask you a question, do animals sense your negative words spoken about them?  From the above story, yes, they certainly do!

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Until next time…

With Love, Success and Inspiration

Robin Oliver

www.robinoliveronline.com/blog

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With Love, Success and Inspiration,

Robin Oliver

Robin Oliver Pet Dog Training
Professional Dog Trainer

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