supposedly, they conceptualize in pictures/images. at least, this is the dogma of the neurodivergent/ASD “school” of animal management, which in my experience has merit. sounds get attention, communicate location and maybe basic ideas (warning! safe! i’m horny! i’m a big deal! look here!) when not in the visual field, but more rich communication is nonverbal visual cues, which can be very subtle or not noticeable to humans because we are so used to communicating via language as discrete sounds or symbols. some animals can be trained to recognize these sounds, but that doesn’t seem to be how they do things amongst their own kind.

i’m definitely talking out of my ass a lot here, but i did coursework in animal husbandry and spent years working with animals and studying resources on animal psychology, and if i had to describe it to a complete neophyte, like 99% of the communication between a human and an animal is silent and done with body language, orientation and small movements in like hand gestures. so your body is your tool and you have to start thinking about your body as an outside observer. it’s about presenting them with a picture and inviting their attention to part of it. this also means getting rid of any excessive movement (hanging fabric swaying in the wind, etc) and reducing contrasts in the “picture” (dark shadows, hard lights) so that the only significant movement is your intentional invitation.

this is the ASD/grandin system of learning to think in pictures like they do so you can recognize how to create pictures. it’s really subtle, but if you get good at it, people who don’t know it will think you’re an animal whisperer because they won’t see what you’re doing in the moment and just think you’re willing the animal around with your mind instead of engaging in this very subtle dance.