I Hired a Psychic to Talk to My Dog – Here’s What She Told Me

I’m sure you’ve been there; looked at your pet and wanted to know exactly what’s going on inside their mind – are they happy or sad? Do they love you? What was their life like before you…?

When I peer into my dog’s soulful brown eyes, she looks like she’s deeply thinking about something. But how can I know without speaking to her? 

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Well, I was watching a TikTok of a psychic dog reading recently – obviously – when I realised I’d officially gone head-first down the rabbit hole.

In the clip, a woman was having a full-blown conversation with her Dachshund, Boots. Not in the usual squeaky “who’s a good boy” baby voice, but via a woman called Cynthia, aka Lil Miss Pet Psychic. Boots, apparently, had main character energy and wanted to dig more. I watched it three times.

It wasn’t even the most ‘out there’. One dog told his pet parent he’d be a chef if he were human (“I call him my sous chef,” the pet parent exclaims. “He goes nuts when I’m cooking”). Another said he wanted to change up his look but hated his mum’s taste. I was obsessed.

But buried under the silliness was something deeper. A whisper of a question I think all pet people secretly ask: “Does my dog actually know me? Like… know me, know me?”

So, in the name of journalism (and, OK, maybe love), I decided to find out.

Why tune into your pet’s mind?

Karol Rodriguez (@karolscorner) and their partner Yasmine were wondering the same thing. Their senior pup Maria – a 15-year-old Yorkie-Maltese-Mini Poodle mix – had been through a lot, and they wanted to check in on how she was feeling. Convinced Maria has an ‘inner voice’, they booked a reading with Lil Miss Pet Psychic, Cynthia.

Cynthia told them Maria wanted a photoshoot. In a rocket costume. Karol, a makeup artist who works on set, had actually dressed her in a rocket outfit for Halloween. “To us, this translates to her wanting to come with me to work like she used to when she was younger,” says Karol.

But beyond the cute, there was care. “She’s older, experiencing seizures and on meds,” says Karol. “We were wondering if she wanted to still be here.” Cynthia said Maria wasn’t thinking about death – but she did have tooth pain. The exact spot Cynthia mentioned? Turned out to be where Maria’s teeth were loose.

She also told them Maria loves them, Karol added. “That was sweet to hear.”

How pet psychics work 

So how does this all work? Don’t worry, I had questions, too. So I called UK-based Jackie Weaver, aka The Animal Psychic. “I can talk to your animals and tell you what they say,” reads the strapline on her website. Jackie’s written several books on the topic too; titles including Animal Insight and Animal Talking Tales.

Jackie’s a regular on TV shows such as This Morning, where viewers call in to get their pet problems solved. Back in the noughties, “Phillip Schofield was so sceptical he was verging on being rude,” Jackie tells me over Zoom from her home. She also says people called her a ‘witch’. The tide is turning, though, and Jackie thinks that’s down to social media.

Jackie says she’s always had this “innate ability” to tune into animals. As a kid, she just knew things about animals, “but didn’t know how”, she says. But it wasn’t until a cancer diagnosis in 2005 that she had her first session with an animal communicator. It was in that session that her dog, through the psychic, told her she could do it too.

Now, she receives messages in different ways – sometimes thoughts, sometimes physical sensations in her own body. She once got back pain around horses, only to realise it was their pain.

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Now her skill is finely tuned, she can switch it on and off. It doesn’t matter where the animal is – sitting in front of her or she’s chatting to their pet parent on a call – Jackie just needs a photo, a name, an age and how long you’ve been together. “It’s telepathy, from mind-to-mind,” she says. “It’s a conversation.”

Jackie, a former vet nurse, even teaches it to vets, especially when animals can’t tell them what’s wrong. “If they can't work out what’s wrong, I can teach vets how to ask the animal where they feel uncomfortable,” explains Jackie. 

Although, technically Jackie says she’s helping people to ‘relearn’ the skill. “Every child is born psychically open,” she says, using the example of imaginary friends. It’s adults who shut that down by saying, “Oh don’t be silly.”

A chat with my dog 

Of course I booked a session. I sent Jackie a few photos of Lucy, our eight-year-old rescue dog, and told her that my husband and I adopted her in 2020.

“Is this a foreign dog?” she asked first. “My brain went foreign.”

Big tick. Lucy’s from Greece.

“She’s gone from somewhere to somewhere to somewhere,” Jackie said. Lucy had been a stray, then moved through a foster home in Greece, and the UK, before she came to us. 

“She was very thin when somebody found her. I don't know if she was on the street. She just said, ‘emaciated, help’,” said Jackie.

I start crying at this point. She was thin when we adopted her and that was after she’d lived in foster homes – it gives me a physical pain in my chest to think of her surviving on the streets.

“She’s saying to me, ‘It took me a while to find my feet,’ she was like a wide-eyed child,” continued Jackie. “And that she had her puppyhood with you. She says: ‘I'm one of the brightest girls you'd ever meet.’ She’s so happy now. She just said, “I’m happiness personified’.” 

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More tears. 

Then came the little things: how Lucy lays her paws on my chest in the mornings (“showing you 100% trust”), how she hears “Lulu” (we do call her that in silly voices) and loves it, how she describes me as as “hawkeye”, as I’m always looking out for “danger” on our walks. 

Reader, I was a mess. 

A word for the sceptics 

Do I believe I spoke to my dog? Emotionally? Yes. Logically? I don’t know. I'm a mostly rational person, but I’m also drawn to spirituality and intuition. But the feeling was real. 

When I told my husband about it, he didn't believe a word, and my dad’s first question was, “But she knew Lucy’s name, right?” But two truths can exist simultaneously, can’t they? They’re not mutually exclusive.

Could what Jackie told me be true for another foreign rescue dog? Perhaps. Do lots of people shorten their dog Lucy’s name down to Lulu? Maybe. But to disregard what Jackie said would be too easy. To believe is where something potentially special happens...

“I always say to people, it’s fine to be sceptical,” says Jackie. “But also be open-minded.”

Holistic vet Dr Aleda Cheng spoke to the Guardian. Although Dr Cheng believes that you shouldn’t substitute spirituality for science, she also says she’s “seen enough evidence to convince her that the idea of pet psychics shouldn’t be dismissed.” And if that’s printed in a *very serious newspaper*, who’s to argue?

Whether you decide to book in or not, studying animal body language is the key to understanding your pet – dogs and cats are always telling us something, even if you can’t read their mind (yet…).

How to book a pet psychic session

Most of Jackie’s work now is communication with animals who’ve passed on (she can tune into the spirits of dead pets), those close to the end of their life or have health issues for pet parents worried about the quality of their life or dealing with grief. You can book a session via Jackie’s website. Sessions cost £120 for a phone call or £130 for a face-to-face Skype session. 

A 25-minute online reading with Cynthia, @ilmisspetpsychic, costs $75 and you can book via a calendar. She’ll tell you what your “fur baby loves, hates and secretly craves”.