What's in a Name?

Mary-Ann Sontag August 29, 2020

I love Pozy’s name.

I love that the name conjures up a little bunch of wildflowers. The two syllables and the Z make Pozy feel like Zoey to me. It is a quick and easy name to say — I love that, too.

I want Pozy to also love her name. I want her to hear it and be filled with happy anticipation about what comes next. This means her name must always be followed by something wonderful — a cookie, a game, a tummy scratch, a toy.

I do not want her name to ever be associated with anything unpleasant or negative. This means I must not infuse her beautiful, happy name with tones of disappointment, outrage, anger, or frustration.

A loud and irritated “POZY CLARKIA!” cannot ever happen if I want this puppy to love her name as much as I do.

I also don’t want her to ignore her name. This means I must not use it in a situation where distractions are bigger than her ability to quickly respond to her cheerful, fun name.

I definitely do not want to stand there repeating “Pozy” over and over, which just teaches her to ignore her name.

I love that training dogs well is really all about practicing mindfulness.

This morning Pozy got to meet the neighborhood donkey when he was out on a walk with his equine family.

His name is — appropriately — Donkey.

Please have a terrific day!

Lesson from the Kitchen Faucet

Mary-Ann Sontag August 22, 2020

We have been in the midst of a reconstruction project for 14 months since a failed dishwasher repair caused extensive water damage to the house. Demonstrating that disasters come with opportunity, a kitchen remodel has been underway.

I queried people about what I should consider for my new kitchen and got so many great ideas; my agility coach, Wendy, was the one who told me about a touch faucet. She was spot on because it is life changing. You simply touch the faucet and it turns on — touch again and it turns off.

Who knew?!

After months and months of washing dishes in the bathtub, the new sink and fancy faucet were installed — in the wrong countertops originally, but hey — it was progress (sort of).

The light on the faucet — blue means cold water and it turns red when hot. Fancy!

It took me a bit to get used to the faucet but soon I was a pro, touching it on and off like I had invented the thing.

And then — months later (not exaggerating) — the correct countertops were installed.

White countertops vs. black — quite different. Also, Pozy is standing on one of her beds to do this.

However, the touch feature of the faucet was suddenly not functional.

I knew this — and yet I touched.

Over and over and over.

Touch — nothing.

Touch — nada.

Even after I had used the handle to turn the water on, I would still touch it five seconds later in a vain attempt to shut the water off!

This went on for DAYS and DAYS.

It blew my mind.

The touch feature of the faucet is reinforcing to me in two ways: water flows but it is also fun, especially in the beginning. Those two things — water and fun — combined to create a behavior that was persistent and difficult to stop.

I did eventually learn to stop touching the faucet but only after days and days of no response. In other words, the faucet eventually extinguished my intrusive touching behavior by ignoring me.

RUDE.

I bet you can see where this is going.

If what we want is persistent and well-established behavior from a dog (or a human), we need to be a touch faucet, providing reliable and consistent reinforcers over time for the specific behaviors we desire. If we can do this, we will get behavior so ingrained and automatic that lack of usual reinforcers won’t matter — the dog, like me, will just keep touching.

Although strongly established behavior is persistent, even during/after periods of no primary reinforcers, for behavior to strongly persist outside my home faucet, I must also have a history of touching other faucets and getting water. I don’t, and so I rarely try to turn on other faucets by touching them.

Think show ring, Friends. The dog needs to touch faucets in other places — successfully — to make sure the behavior doesn’t just happen at home.

If a faucet can train a human to perform a behavior over and over and over — even in the absence of a reinforcer — just think what a smart human can do with a dog.

But what this also means is if the behavior we want from a dog is not happening, it is a training failure — not a dog failure. We clearly have not been enough like a well-functioning touch faucet.

It really is that simple.

Finally, consider this — if my touch faucet had only worked half the time and/or if it had sometimes shocked/scared me when I touched the wrong place, my touch-the-faucet habit would have been very different and so would my feelings about the faucet.

In fact, I am pretty darn sure I would just use the handle.

Day 52 A.M.

Mary-Ann Sontag July 17, 2020

The Just Say No campaign of the Reagan administration was problematic for all kinds of reasons but one relates to Life with Dogs — saying no doesn’t help a human or a dog know what to do instead.

Raising a puppy is all about creating desired behaviors — this happens by supporting and reinforcing those desired behaviors and NOT by telling the puppy “NO.”

I am willing to say if we have said no to a puppy — shame on us for at least two reasons. First, we failed to help the puppy know what to do in a situation and second, we are attempting to teach something using REALLY unfortunate techniques.

Would you enjoy learning a new language and culture by being scolded for every mistake with little/no understandable information and support about how to be right?

That is unfair and mean — and super discouraging.

Puppies are not small dogs — they are babies — and so we must manage our expectations accordingly.

Would you shout NO to a baby peeing in her diaper or pulling your hair? I hope not. A diaper change and redirection/substitution — those are the appropriate responses.

I have raised a dozen Berner puppies of my own and what I have learned over the years is to chill out and relax — there is just no need to sweat the small stuff. And most all stuff is small.