If you let them know that you can understand them, they will let you read their minds. If you think they are just animals that don't know much, they are unlikely to communicate with you on that level. Their higher selves are just as evolved. Imagine conversing with them and the imaginations will become real. Animals tend to communicate among themselves because they learn through experience with humans that humans don't listen to them or don't hear them anyway. So they don't talk much. Wee are so eager to teach out pets, but not so eager to learn from them. Some humans talk to their pets like they talk to people and they hear them talk back to them. It will happen more and more, as the news travels through the animal kingdom that humankind has a change of heart and wants to listen to what animals have to teach them. Most dolphins, whales and sharks are psychic. Sharks don't bite humans indiscriminately. They just read their karmic records and help complete their karmic cycles. They are called vicious, but that is just a judgment made by humans. They are very brave and precious souls. Most cats are psychic too and many are mediums, allowing other beings to make contact with humans through their eyes. Hence the strange feelings you can get when you look into the eyes of cats.
Asking animals to share their world and wisdom with you is a good beginning.