Hi Jess, no this isnt 'the whole point' we can work with as much or little info as possible, when first learning it helps to not have very much infomation or your mind has a tendancy to think you are making it up, so in the beginning its better for your own peace of mind. When specifically trying to help with a behaviour problem it speeds things up knowing what the problem(from a physical point of view) is, communicating with animals is like communicating with anybody in regards to personality and how talkative they may be. they may not see the 'problem' as a problem, what you as the owner consider to be the problem, they may be more concerned with something they see as a bigger problem. So it helps to know straight away, in a way it is more polite to the animal and also more direct. It would most likely be possible to tune in to the animal and pick it up, but this is not always the case and this is only recommended if you have no problems and are just intrigued by what your animal may have to say.