[Dailydrool] Morse and the contest of wills

[Val Brewer]

Morse always reminds me of our hound Bo. We have two hounds--Bo and Harley. Bo 
tries to train us using "negative reinforcement" (not exactly the same thing as 
punishment). In "negative reinforcement", the trainer (in this case, the hound, 
of course) sets up an aversive situation that will be stopped when the subject 
being trained does what is intended by the trainer. The "reward" is the 
cessation of the ongoing annoyance. For example, grumbling constantly until the 
subject rises from bed and attends to the houndie trainer's needs. Our other 
hound, Harley, trains us by "positive reinforcement"--when we do what he wants 
without prompting, he gives us a reward (kisses, tail wags, etc.) I am uncertain 
which hound technique is more successful with us; I know that Bo's techniques 
frustrate us a lot more. Part of the choice of technique by each hound reflects 
his unique personality. Harley is eager to please us and cares what we think. Bo 
seems to like us but he is not particularly interested in pleasing us and is not 
particularly concerned what we think. He is also headstrong and stubborn. Bo, in 
these qualities, shows bassetude, I am told.

Seems to me that we have had the best luck with Bo with several techniques of 
our own. First, we try to figure out what he is really asking for. Because of 
Bo's health issues, if he mumbles during the night because he needs to go out in 
the yard to use the facilities, I prefer going out with him to cleaning up the 
mess that would result from ignoring him. If he is hungry--and Bo has learned a 
signal to tell us this--he alternately grumbles and then licks his lips--I have 
discovered that if I put down a low value snack when I go to bed around 10 PM (a 
cup of dry kibble), Bo may eat a bite or two then he leaves the rest for later. 
If he is hungry duing the night he can return to his bowl and finish the dry 
kibble. This would never work with a high value snack like his regular meals, 
which are moistened kibble mixed with pureed chicken breasts. Those he would 
gobble down at once. If Bo mumbles during the night and licks his lips that he 
is hungry (rather than needs to go out) and if I have put down dry kibble, I 
simply ignore his mumbling until finally he gives up and goes and finishes the 
dry kibble or sighs and then goes to sleep. Harley turns in for the night at 
about 8:30 and sleeps like a rock until 6 the next morning. To keep Bo from 
trying to push breakfast earlier and earlier, we have attached waking up and 
serving breakfast to a naturally occurring set of sounds in our neighborhood at 
6 AM. There are many wild turkeys that roost at night in a large tree across the 
street from us. They start gobbling and fluttering down from the tree at about 6 
AM. I don't get out of bed until we hear the turkeys start up. even if Bo has 
started mumbling earlier. Now he seems to have learned the the turkeys are 
singing reveille and calling the troops to breakfast. We are all on the same 
page--breakfast, walk, and then if its a weekend, we all go back to bed for 
another hour. I'm thinking a signal like an alarm clock going off at a certain 
time (or a coffeemaker coming on) would work the same way as the turkeys do. 
Eventually Morse would learn the signal. There's a good deal of holding the line 
until Bo learns what he can expect and what he can't, but interestingly with Bo, 
his behavior does change--it seems always to be evolving into some next thing. 
Possibly Morse's behavior will evolve as well if you don't give in, but do come 
up with alternative ways for him to exercise some control over his requests.

Don't know how the water bottle squirt would work. We have tried this with 
Harley to shorten his exuberant barking when we come home--he just jumps out of 
the way and then back in even if he gets soaks--he thinks it is having a fun 
game of playing in the sprinkler. Good luck.

Day after tomorrow is our moving day. I expect we will be facing learning whole 
new routines in the new setting. Semper fido. Val, Bo, and Harley


      
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