Recently, I was dismayed to read an article that discussed "shocking" scientific findings revealing that animals might have personalities and emotions. It was as though this was a completely novel revelation. I've got news for the authors of that article and for anyone else who is skeptical: animals absolutely have personalities, preferences, emotions and moods.

There's a lot of advice out there regarding how to live with dogs and cats, but most of the information has to do with training, feeding and providing shelter. Little is written about learning how to communicate with animals on a personal level. In fact, there is little that even supports the existence of unique personalities or emotions in animals.

The result of all of this is that a lot of people don't have the most successful relationships they could have with their pets. They sometimes end up with "ill-behaved" dogs or "neurotic" cats. Often, lack of communication and misunderstood emotions are at the root of the problem. It's not surprising that this happens. After all, we live in a world that largely dismisses the concept of animal emotion as preposterous.

If a dog seems sad, he probably is sad, and it's worth his person's time to figure out why. If you think your cat is avoiding you, it's probably not your imagination, and it's time to get busy fixing the problem. I'm not saying that animals have all of the same emotions people do. Most of us don't do things out of spite, hold grudges, or plan revenge. We'll leave that to the human race. We do, however, feel joy, pain, fear, shame and a host of other emotions.

We communicate these emotions by constantly "talking" to our people, hoping that one day they'll hear us. We talk with our eyes, ears, tails and bodies. We have many, many vocal variations, all of which mean different things. We communicate with our people endlessly, knowing and understanding far more than most people think we do.

In today's busy world, people's lives can get very full. Jobs, families, social obligations and the endless list of errands each day can leave little room for worrying about the relationship one has with one's dog or cat. Animals like me are so forgiving of this reality that it's easy to believe we need very little attention to thrive. The truth is, we need our people very much—on a substantive level befitting a true relationship.

Even the very best people sometimes get a little too busy to check on the emotional well-being of a pet. If you happen to fall into that category, take some time today to really "listen" to what your pet might be telling you. If you listen on a regular basis, it could be the start of an even more beautiful friendship.