What do you suppose a dog talker wears, my friend and I wondered. We were chatting over coffee at Nina’s in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill, shortly before animal communicator Janet Roper was due at my new apartment. It was a silly question, really, and not one intended to be disrespectful. But it isn’t every day that you get to meet with an animal communicator. What we were really asking was what she would be like, and in all honesty, coming face to face with our own open-mindedness. A long flowing skirt, we decided, and a healthy amount of jewelry. But not too much—working with animals all day, you don’t want too many distractions. It was our vision of someone in tune.
Janet had already sounded completely down to earth on the phone. And as a trained yoga teacher, I have spent enough time studying energy and practicing meditation to understand her theory that we are all made of energy and, if receptive enough, we can tap into that energy to learn more from each other—even animals. I was really intrigued but still a little uncertain. I was open to trying, though.
I was having some issues with my dog, Mica, and our transition into an apartment after months of squatting at various people’s houses during my divorce. She is a herding dog who has always considered it her duty to patrol her house and her yard; as in, she barks. As soon as I was able to get my own place again (an apartment), I worried constantly about barking and eviction. For the first week, I didn’t even give her a chance to show me that she could stay home alone without barking. I took her everywhere with me—even Nina’s—or arranged for her to go to my parents’ house while I was at work. When I finally got up the guts to leave her at home while I met friends for a drink, she of course complained because I’d set the expectation that she could go everywhere. I couldn’t even bring myself to wait and see if she stopped. Instead, I did something crazy: I called my friends and told them I wasn’t coming. Because my dog was barking. When I hung up, I cried. I was doomed to spend the rest of my life in the apartment with the dog. I didn’t share any of this with Janet; I was too embarrassed.
When Janet showed up at the apartment, she actually was wearing a flowing skirt and jewelry. But what intrigued me even more was to see that her skirt and her jewelry were turquoise. In yoga, both the color and the stone are associated with the energy center connected to communication. I decided it was a good sign, as was the way my dog reacted to Janet. When Mica meets new people she is a little shy and suspicious. She warms up with treats and will certainly check the person out and let them pet her, but with Janet she acted in a way I had never seen before. No barking, no talking, no turning in circles around her legs. She just sat down and sniffed like crazy.
“She must smell my horse,” Janet said, very matter of fact. I couldn’t help but think it was more than that, especially as Mica continued to act like Janet had been to our house a million times. If Mica was that comfortable around her, than there had to be something special. In fact, Mica lay by Janet’s feet until she told me that, when I am home, Mica barks to protect me. At that point, Mica got up, stretched, let out a few half-barks and sauntered into her kennel. “Did you see that? The best thing to do is just say, ‘Thank you, Mica.’” She turned and thanked Mica, and Mica was quiet the rest of Janet’s visit. When I’m not at home, Janet went on, it’s like Mica’s time off. She can rest and take it easy.
According to Janet, she can tell me this because when she communicates with dogs, she often gets a word followed by images (thankfully, she admits, no smells!). And with Mica, Janet also saw a lot about our walks through the new neighborhood.
“She’s not back walking with you,” she said. “She’s out ahead, prancing and trotting along, sniffing, checking things out.” And this is indeed exactly how Mica walks. She also, Janet went on to say, loves the stairwell.
I wanted to laugh. It had been taking forever to get up and down from our third floor apartment. Mica would pause at each landing, look at me and wait. I thought she was being hesitant. One time, she even lay down on one of the landings. I thought she hated our apartment so much that she didn’t want to go back. But Janet pointed out that with all the smells in the stairwell, it’s kind of like a kid going into a candy shop; she just can’t decide which one to check out first. And sure enough, since then I have noticed Mica sniffing along the stairs, acting more curious than hesitant.
As Janet talked in her comfortable and down to earth way, I looked at my dog relaxed in her kennel, and I felt like crying out of pure relief. Divorce changed every familiar part of our lives. We have lived in four different places since January, and I have been a stress ball negotiating the process of selling a home and extricating my life from my husband’s. The day I canceled plans? It was the day we closed on the sale of our house; I cried all day. I was the mess, not her. Mica just went along with every change, sleeping at the foot of my bed, waking me up in the morning with her nose in my face and making me smile on our walks. She has been my sense of peace, and ultimately I understand that this is what Janet is telling me. I also understand that I don’t have to completely understand how it is that Janet communicates with animals to see the benefits.
The way Janet sees it, she’s a translator, and I believe her. She gets messages from the dog and puts it into language that people can understand. This echoes a sentiment I’ve heard a lot lately. Whether you’re talking to an animal communicator, a vet or an animal behaviorist, it’s often the human that needs help understanding the pet. And whether you can grasp the idea of energy and communicating with dogs or not, Janet showed me there is a definite role for communicators. She helped me go from believing that I would need to bring in an animal behaviorist to teach me to teach my dog not to bark, to a relaxed dog owner creating a familiar routine for my dog in our new home. I now marvel every time I thank Mica after she barks, and she stops. I let her take her time in the stairwell. And we both enjoy our walks.
Janet shared an interesting tidbit before she left; when she gives talks, the room is usually silent once she gets to the Q & A. But afterward, in private, people will ask all sorts of things. It makes me think that we’re hungry for communication with our pets. We want to understand them because they play such huge roles in our lives. We buy them dog beds and treats and toys; we talk to them when we get home and while we cook dinner. We treat them like humans until someone tells us we can actually communicate with them; then, we balk.
I can’t pretend to completely understand how Janet does it, but I do know this: she’s straightforward and kind, not at all “out there,” as the title of animal communicator might lead some people to think. And she gets dogs. And she will help you understand your own.
I told my friend that we were right about the skirt, but that really, when it came right down to it, talking to dogs was about so much more than that. I would recommend working with Janet without hesitation.
Alissa J. , St. Paul, MN
