Confidence and Growth in Animal Communication

How Many Questions is Too Many? Reflections on Animal Communication and Setting Limits

Apr 22, 2025

When I first started offering animal communication sessions professionally, I followed the standard approach I saw on other communicators’ websites. You’ve probably seen it too — something like:

1 question = 15 minutes
3 questions = 30 minutes
5 questions = 1 hour

It made sense at the time. After all, if others were doing it that way, surely that’s how it’s supposed to work, right? So, I set limits. I’d ask clients to submit a fixed number of questions, and I’d carefully keep the session focused on those.

But then things started to shift.

When Questions Lead to More Questions

Early on, I noticed a pattern. A client might send in three questions — clear, simple questions about their pet’s health, behaviour, or emotional state. I’d communicate with their pet and deliver the insights. But once the client heard the answers, more questions would naturally surface.

Maybe the answer about their cat’s sudden aggression raised concerns about a new food or a household change. Or maybe hearing that their dog was grieving the loss of a companion sparked new questions about how to help them heal. The initial communication opened the door to deeper understanding — and that naturally brought more questions.

This left me in a tricky spot. My system was set up to allow three questions, and I’d already delivered the communication. So what now? Did I tell the client they needed to book another session (and risk sounding rigid or transactional)? Or did I keep the conversation going, even if it meant spending extra time without compensation?

It didn’t sit well with me. The whole point of communication was to create connection and clarity — not to make people feel like they were on a meter.

Why Do Animal Communicators Set Limits?

So why do so many animal communicators structure their sessions this way?

The most obvious reason is time management. If you don’t set limits, you risk burnout or feeling drained from the emotional and energetic demands of communication work. Practicality matters.

But there’s more to it. I think it’s also about control — both for the communicator and the client. Fixed limits create a sense of structure. They give the client clear expectations, and they protect the communicator from feeling overwhelmed or under-compensated.

But communication isn’t always neat and structured. Animals don’t think in terms of “three questions.” They speak to the heart of what’s really going on. That’s where things get messy — and where the magic happens.

What Made Me Change

After a few years of working this way, I realised something important: The questions my clients were asking weren’t really about the questions.

Questions are a gateway — a way for the client to frame their concerns, hopes, and uncertainties. But the real gold was underneath those questions. The way someone asks a question — the wording they use, the emotional tone, the hesitancy or directness — reveals so much about the client’s relationship with their pet, their values, and their emotional state.

So I stopped sticking rigidly to the question limit model.

1. I Switched to Live Video Consults

This allowed me to have real conversations. Clients could ask as many questions as they wanted within the session time. If something unexpected came up, we could explore it naturally.

2. I Learned to See the Bigger Picture

Instead of focusing on isolated questions, I started to look at the emotional patterns beneath the behaviour.

For example, a client might say:
"Why does my cat hide when I have guests over?"

But the real question might be:
"Does my cat feel emotionally safe in the home?"
"Is there unresolved tension in the household?"
"Is my cat reflecting my stress?"

The surface question often points to a deeper emotional dynamic.

Most Questions Are Surface-Level Issues

What I realised over time is that most client questions are surface-level issues.

Clients will often ask questions like:

“Why is my dog barking so much?”
“Why does my cat ignore me?”
“Is my horse happy with her stable mate?”

These questions seem straightforward, but they rarely capture the emotional or spiritual truth beneath the behaviour.

For example:

The dog’s barking might reflect anxiety tied to changes in the household dynamic.
The cat’s avoidance might stem from feeling emotionally overwhelmed or experiencing subtle health imbalances
The horse’s relationship issues might have more to do with the client’s emotional state than with the other horse.

As an animal communicator, I’ve learned that my role isn’t just to answer the question — it’s to translate the deeper emotional message behind it. That requires reframing and refining the questions so that emotional and spiritual communications can be explored too.

This is where professional skill comes into play. The way you ask a question in animal communication matters just as much as the answer you receive.

If a client asks, “Is my dog angry with me?” — I might refine that into:

“Does your dog feel emotionally balanced in your relationship?”
“Is your dog trying to communicate a need for emotional safety?”

The surface-level question opens the door, but as the communicator, it’s my job to step through that door and explore what’s underneath.

🔑 Client's Emotional Awareness Stage

This is where the client’s emotional awareness stage becomes important:

✔️ The client is aware of the surface-level issues and is correctly identifying the behavioural patterns.
✔️ However, they haven’t yet fully connected the emotional root causes behind those behaviours (e.g., within one household, you can have one cat’s sense of over-responsibility, another cat’s sense of exclusion triggering stress).
✔️ They’re viewing certain behaviours as isolated when they are part of a shared emotional undercurrent in the household dynamic.

This is why setting a hard limit on questions doesn’t always work. As we start to explore the emotional and spiritual dynamics beneath the surface, the conversation naturally deepens — and the need for more questions emerges.

If I’m stuck to a standard limit, the client may leave with more questions than answers — or worse, feeling like they didn’t quite get to the heart of the issue.

What Happens When a Client Has No Questions?

Interestingly, I’ve also had clients who come into a session saying they have no questions at all.

Sometimes that’s because they feel overwhelmed — they don’t know where to start or what to ask. Other times, it’s because they feel like they should already have the answers. There’s often fear there — fear of asking the “wrong” question or uncovering something painful.

In those cases, I start with gentle curiosity. I’ll ask:

What’s been on your mind about your pet lately?
What’s something you’ve been wondering but haven’t said out loud?
What’s one thing you’d love to know if your pet could speak to you directly?

That opens the door. And from there, the conversation naturally flows.

Where I’ve Landed

It’s been eight years (out of ten years of practice) since I stopped counting questions.

Now I focus on the conversation — not the number of questions. If a client books an hour with me, they have that hour. I’m there to listen, reflect, and help them gain clarity. Some sessions are rapid-fire — a dozen questions in an hour. Others are slower, more reflective — two or three key insights that go deep.

The structure creates a framework, but the communication itself unfolds organically. And that’s what works for me.

Because ultimately, it’s not about how many questions you ask — it’s about whether you feel heard. And that’s what animal communication is really about.

Have you ever wondered how many questions is too many — or what happens when you don’t know what to ask? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment and let’s start a conversation.