If there's anyone who knows a lot about animals going off-script, it's got to be Philip Tedeschi. As a professor and researcher on the human-animal bond, he's a leader in his field and the human-animal connection expert advisor for pet-sitting platform Rover. We were thrilled when he agreed to chat with Bored Panda and share some insights into the weird and wonderful happenings in the animal kingdom.
Tedeschi almost didn't follow this career path. He initially studied veterinary medicine and planned to specialize in large animal care. But it was his side hustle teaching horseback riding to other college students while working as a student vet technician that changed his trajectory.
"During this time, I was asked to teach a group of recently de-institutionalized persons with schizophrenia how to ride horses. That experience changed my career path because watching these individuals interacting with horses was incredible – almost magical," he tells Bored Panda.
"You would see right in front of your eyes, changes that, although now we have greater understanding of at the time, could not easily be explained, such as persons beginning to talk who were non-verbal, increased physical and cognitive normalization and self-regulation. This experience resulted in my interest in the health-promoting benefits of interacting with animals and the ethical considerations for how we treat other animals."
Tedeschi soon decided to change his academic direction and instead of studying animal medicine, was given permission to formulate his own degree program where he studied human-animal relationships.
"At the time, it was not a degree program but now several universities have programs focused on human-animal interaction (HAI) and the human-animal bond (HAB). My thesis was entitled Bio-Affiliation - The Human-Animal Connection," he says.
It goes without saying that the expert has since encountered all sorts of good and bad animal behavior. We asked him to share some of the quirky moments he's witnessed during his career.
"I’ve seen animals do many amazing and funny things. There is no question that animals have a sense of joy, humor, and a penchant for games and play. If you are observant, you can see many animals, including our cats and dogs, smile and laugh," he told us.
"I’ve seen many humorous events with animals, and watching people and animals interact with one another, for me, is still one of the most enjoyable activities. Many of the humorous moments surround a cat or a dog getting the zoomies or finding unique ways to play. I especially recall having an amazing cat that liked to ambush unsuspecting people around the house and apparently loved their startled reaction and scrams…. the joy it brought Dexter never failed to get a laugh."
As we know, puppies are generally in full-time play mode and love to play tug-of-war and hide-and-seek, says Tedeschi, and he's had buckets of fun observing his own dog go off the rails.
"Watching my dog attack a cardboard box and run from one end of the yard with a giant cardboard box on their head, even though it resulted in them not being able to see where they were going and running into everything and everyone, was too funny," he says.
"Possibly one of the funniest experiences I had, however, was from the human side of the story. I was attending a prestigious and rather fancy event at the university when one of the featured guests and a very high-ranking administrator came over and whispered in my ear... 'Why does my dog chew up my underwear when I go on business trips?' It was a funny TMI situation."
The expert says we can learn a lot about people by observing their relationships with their companion animals. "One of the other stories that had me laughing was a friend who had a small hobby farm and had a pet pony that unexplainably became overweight and of concern to the vet," he shares.
"Although he denied overfeeding his pony, in a moment of guilt, my friend admitted that his pony would come stick his head through his office window almost every day and he could not resist sharing candy bars because his pony loved them so much."
Tedeschi tells us that animals are able to mimic human behaviors. "Our companion dogs might be the most likely to mimic our behavior because we have been co-evolving with them as a species for thousands of years – they are very careful observers of human behavior, especially those they live with," he says.
"Other highly intelligent animals such as elephants, cetaceans and primates have also been found to be capable and curious about communicating with humans. This can happen in part because all animals are highly sentient beings and have the capacity for social and emotional learning and hold the capacity for deep emotional lives and complex thoughts much like humans do."
The expert says animals can experience a wide range of emotional experiences including joy, fear and anxiety, jealousy and curiosity, and grief and sadness.
"You often hear warnings or at least hesitations expressed when people treat animals like humans… maybe dressing them up on Halloween or treating them like children by putting them in a baby carriage – this is sometimes called anthropocentrism," Tedeschi told Bored Panda.
"But for humans, the way we best understand other non-human animals is by observing their behavior. When we carefully observe animal behavior we realize that many of the behaviors that they engage in appear familiar or make sense to us based on our own human emotions and experiences."
He explains that humans have co-evolved with dogs and cats for thousands of years and have learned to understand each other’s nuanced actions, expressions and behaviors with a high degree of accuracy.
"For example, in studies looking at humans’ ability to accurately discern the purpose of a dog’s vocalization, people have been found to be relatively discerning evaluators of differing types of dog vocalization. If observant, we can often recognize changes in emotions, including sadness and grief in animals when they are separated from or lose a friend, or conversely see joy when taken off leash or when welcoming home a member of the family pack."
