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.