Lame Pet Psychic Tricks

Of all the fake psychics (some redundancy there), the lamest has to be the pet psychic. Think about it.  If a psychic deals with people, at least they have to have some basic skills in cold reading, they have to be able to read the person to some extent, and know the sorts of guesses to throw out and how to follow them up.  Most importantly, they need to know how to extract themselves from the inevitable wrong guesses, and leave the victim still thinking they guessed right. But the pet psychic doesn’t have to bother with too much of that.  After all, Rover is hardly going to sit up and say, “no, I never thought of chasing rabbits,” now is he?

Even lamer than the pet psychic is the reporter reporting credulously and with no skepticism at all about the pet psychic.  For evidence of this, see what somebody called Julia Lyon wrote recently in The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah pet psychic would 'rather talk to dogs'

"I'll go to a barbecue and people will have their dogs there -- I'd rather talk to the dogs,"

Yeah, I’ll bet the other people there are happier that way too.

Raider, a Jack Russell terrier, loves his name but doesn't want to wear dog clothing. And that big black dog he sometimes visits? Yes, that's a friend.

A black dog?  Four of my neighbors have dogs and three of them are “black.”  Well, they are black enough and big enough that they would fit the description “big black dog.” I guess that’s the dog equivalent of “do you know an ‘M’ or a ‘J’ name?”

With each passing "communication" between Davis and Raider, she looked hard at the dog and then looked away. Raider didn't seem in the zone at all. He was busy straining at the leash and watching all the excitement from a neighboring dog racing course.

But Mary Tuttle, his owner, was not disappointed.

"You hit many things right on the head," the Cottonwood Heights resident said. "I'm very open to that."

And as with the psychic who reads humans, the pet psychic is also given a free pass by a credulous human – this time the pet owner.  The dog quite clearly doesn’t want anything to do with the crazy lady; the dog owner wants to believe anyway.

The pet psychic does say one thing I agree with though:

"If I can do it, anyone can do it,"

Yeah, probably true.  Most people just wouldn’t.

Rrrrrough, get me away from the crazy woman!

Comments

[CybrgnX]

I have always admired Con artists. The various tricks they use to get idiots to give them money is amazing.
I know this makes me an evil person but I cannot feel sorry for any of the 'victims' and in someways I wish I had the 'gift?' of verbal juggling to do the con.
The 'pet psycho' is no less dishonest then the other group of psychic peddlers - priests(by any name)

[Valhar2000]

I disagree with you, Skeptico. Pet Psychics are all about cold reading the human owners of the dogs. Obviously, the dogs themselves are entirely immune to it, but it is not the dog that must be convinced, but rather the much more lucrative owner, so it is the owner that gets cold-read by the psychic.

[Rita]

"I'll go to a barbecue and people will have their dogs there -- I'd rather talk to the dogs,"

Surely it's the animals that are being barbecued who need a psychic, isn't it? Or am I getting my woo-masters mixed?

[hazel]

hah, yeah it seems like a barbecue is no place for a person who can talk to living and dead animals.

[bellaboo]

Surely it's the animals that are being barbecued who need a psychic, isn't it? Or am I getting my woo-masters mixed?

LOL! too true! i'm surprised that psychic isn't getting bombarded with "negative vibes" from the entrees.

[Citizen Z]

Hahaha. I picture pet psychics doing the "shake" trick with a dog and hearing that dramatic music cue.

[Rob Jase]

"i'm picking up vibrations..."

"Yes, roof..."

"rough..."

"DiMaggio?"

[Bing McGhandi]

(Warning: Shameless self-promotion ahead!)

Ooh! My new podcast has a pet psychic!

http://hjhop.blogspot.com/2009/08/hjhop-podcast-12.html

HJ

[sean]

The Kansas City Star just did a shameless credulous article on a local pet psychic.

http://www.kansascity.com/starmagazine/story/1355689.html?storylink=pd

[Ticker]

You might want to check out a guy called Derek Ogilvie.

He does the pet psychic routine on pre-verbal children.

I get angry every time I see that shit on TV (dutch TV, but the bastard didn't even bother to switch to another language than English).

Unfortunately, that's not the only TV coverage he gets. He also has his own commercial site, where you can book him for your bar mitzvah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Ogilvie

What annoys me about that, is how it reduces children to sock puppets. It's bad enough that happens to pets, but parents are taking this nonsense very seriously, and that will have consequences for their children.

[Marcus Ranum]

I used to board my horse at a barn in Maryland where there there was a woo-woo who periodically brought in acupuncturists (!) and similar silliness for the horses. One day I was coming back from a jog in the woods with my horse (the mighty P-nut, aka "2,000lbs of brown") and she exclaimed:
"What a handsome fellow!! What's his name?"
and I replied:
"You tell me."
I was not her favorite person.

[Marcus Ranum]

(I completely forgot to mention that "she" in that context was an "animal communicator" who had just been 'conversing' with another of the horses in the barn. I Kinda ruined the punchline, huh?)