July 1, 2025, 4:17 pm | Read time: 9 minutes
What would my dog say if he could talk? This is a question that leads more and more people to consult so-called animal mediums. These are individuals who claim they can communicate with animals. For some, it’s pure hocus pocus; for others, it’s a source of fascination, as they hope to better understand their beloved pets through these mediums. PETBOOK editor Dennis Agyemang spoke with an animal communicator and had the self-proclaimed animal whisperer connect with his dog. Here is his account
Do I believe in the supernatural? No, not really. But I’m still curious. I admittedly haven’t really delved into animal mediums before, even though I knew they existed. And I also knew it’s a big thing on social networks like TikTok. Just recently, a friend told me about it during a meeting, and the next day, I received an email out of the blue from one such animal medium.
“The Photo of Your Pet and Its Name Are Like Its Private Phone Number to Me”
That’s why I was thrilled to receive a message from Sabine Kaiser from Hesse. She is an animal medium and claims she can communicate with pets through a form of telepathy. Her website states: “The photo of your pet and its name are like its private phone number to me, through which I reach your pet and have a conversation.” That sounds… wild, but interesting. I want to learn more and read on.
“I connect telepathically with your pet’s energy field. But before I have the actual conversation, I briefly introduce myself so it knows who I am and who gave me the task for the conversation.” Naturally, I was curious to find out what my dog Paco, whom I adopted from a shelter a few weeks ago, had to say. My colleague, Saskia Schneider, also wanted to know what issues were on her cat, Nairobi’s, mind.
“I Am Only the Translator and Ambassador, Not the Message Itself!” — Animal Medium
In a phone call, animal medium Sabine Kaiser explained to me how it works. “I hear their voice in my head, and for them, it’s like someone is speaking to them.” It doesn’t matter how far away the animal is. “Whether it’s 6 or 6,000 km,” said the self-proclaimed animal whisperer. “I make contact with the animal through the photo the owner sent me beforehand.”
Okay, I’m intrigued but still torn about whether to believe in telepathy with animals. Scientifically, there is no solid evidence to support it. Nevertheless, I’m open-minded and want to emphasize that this article is not about affirming or denying people’s claimed abilities. Instead, it’s about the market for animal mediums, which has been steadily growing for years, and my personal experience with it. Everyone is welcome to form their own opinion.
What Does My Dog Want to Tell Me?
“My work is guided by my compassion, intuition, respect for all living beings on this earth, and the desire to help, especially so that animals are better understood by us humans,” Kaiser explains her intentions in her code of ethics. She is not the message, but merely the medium. “For this reason, I write down everything exactly as your pet confides in me, even if it seems strange or makes no sense at the moment.”
Before the conversation between Paco and the medium can begin, I need to send a current photo of my pet, provide his name, and share the times he usually sleeps at night. And, of course, my questions that I want Paco to answer. For one, I want to know if he can tell me anything about his life before I adopted him, because I don’t know much except that he comes from Romania and was apparently abandoned in the winter at sub-zero temperatures, nearly freezing.
“I Could Hardly Breathe from the Pain”
I also want to know if he has any pain in his body, possibly from a past accident. A friend who is a dog trainer recommended seeing a specialist at first glance at Paco, as one leg looked like it had been broken and poorly healed. And indeed, the medium describes that Paco told her during the conversation—which took place on a Thursday night around 2 a.m.—about a kind of accident.
“There was once a big white wall around a property. I wanted to jump down. But I misjudged the height. I landed awkwardly. My whole body hurt, and my bones cracked.” There were food scraps there that he wanted to eat before someone else did. “Then I walked like a very old dog. I could hardly breathe from the pain.” The medium also reported on his daily life in the shelter: “Sometimes there were fights because we were all so stressed. Sometimes a quick movement was enough, and I flipped out and barked. But no one cared.”
I Don’t Recognize My Dog
While reading, I was torn again because, on the one hand, I didn’t really see my Paco in any of it—neither in his manner nor behavior. At least not as I knew and assessed him. And that unsettled me because it had only been six weeks since I adopted him at that point. Had I misjudged him all this time? Was he perhaps much more insecure and sensitive than I thought? Because I had actually met a rather confident and lively dog.
What made me doubt was the fact that the medium had asked me beforehand if Paco came from a shelter. Because all the answers about his past life were very vague, and exactly how most people might imagine the life of a dog in a foreign shelter. It could have been like that, but it could also not have been. I was left puzzled. Similar to the question about his age—my dog supposedly made himself twice as old. “I think 5 years. That’s a cool number,” was his alleged answer.
“Animals Often Fib About Their Age”
Admittedly, it’s quite possible that the age of a dog from foreign shelters is merely estimated for captured street dogs when no further data is available. So is my dog perhaps older than we all think? I wanted to know more and asked someone who should know: Dr. Marco Antonio Fragoso. He is a veterinarian and researches in the field of veterinary medicine.
He explained to me that veterinarians cannot determine a dog’s age precisely by just looking. “A dog’s age can be most reliably estimated based on its teeth—though only roughly. Especially in younger animals, the tooth change and wear provide quite clear clues.” Therefore, Paco’s exact age cannot be determined by visual diagnosis. However, I didn’t want to have Paco X-rayed just for that. Especially considering that both Dr. Fragoso and my private veterinarian think Paco is probably around two years old.
“Some Animals Simply Don’t Care About Their Age”
But why would an animal make itself twice as old as it actually is? I also wanted to know this from medium, Sabine Kaiser. Her answer surprised me: “Animals—especially cats—often fib about their age. They like to make themselves younger, which is not unusual.” Some animals don’t know their exact age or simply don’t care, according to the animal whisperer.
Where I recognized Paco—and admittedly myself—was the criticism that I often have my work on my mind and am not in the here and now. “Sometimes he leaves the house full of stress and hurry, already thinking about work, so that he doesn’t see me at all,” Paco supposedly said. And I could certainly imagine his fear that I wouldn’t come back or might return him to the shelter. Because as soon as I leave the apartment, just to take out the trash, Paco barks and howls.
It was also conceivable to me that my dog might have physical pain that I don’t know about yet. According to the medium, he has quite a few physical issues. Among other things, his neck hurts, his left leg sometimes feels numb, and there’s something with the lumbar spine—right at the 7th vertebra, to name just a few of the ailments. However, a canine orthopedist I visited specifically for this found nothing.
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My Conclusion
So, what do I take away from this animal communication experiment? In my case, the challenge was that I couldn’t say much about many of the contents because I’ve only had Paco for about two months. Many of the things could be true. But they could just as well not be true. And the things that are practically measurable or verifiable could not be proven at all.
Perhaps a positive thought to end with: All the thinking and reflecting on what might be behind the respective things could, in case of doubt, ensure that owners themselves come to the necessary answers and thus perhaps change things for the better for the animal.
My Experiences with the Animal Medium
“Although I was initially skeptical about animal communication, I was surprised by how much I recognized in the conversation with my cat Nairobi. She described, for example, that she often hears me laugh when I’m on the phone—which actually happens when I’m working from home. Her comment about the treats was also accurate: She gets them regularly because of her medication.
Some of the statements like “I love lying in the sun” or “I’m afraid of thunderstorms” apply to many cats, but there were also some details that were quite specific and touched me particularly: Nairobi spoke of a blue object she missed—presumably an old towel from her first basket, as I later discovered in old photos. When I brought out the basket, she immediately lay in it, even though it’s now much too small.
Health aspects were also discussed: Her aversion to being touched on the head is actually related to a traumatic experience from the early days of her epilepsy.
After the appointment, Nairobi seemed more communicative—she meowed noticeably more. Whether coincidence or not remains open. But overall, I felt that she became visible as a personality in the conversation—with her preferences, quirks, and her loving, calm nature.”