Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 26, 2024

And way back in the paleolithic, when all phones had tails… and were owned by Ma Bell, their ringers were carefully designed to be so annoying that you COULD NOT let them keep ringing if you could reasonably get to them to pick up the handset.

My pooch knows the dinger of the microwave. And the crinkle of a slice of cheese. And the door opening of her snack pantry.

Pavlov’s theory also applies to humans.

Ring, ring, telephone ringSomebody said, Baby what you doin’?"

Pavlov might not have realized he was summarizing the patterns followed by almost every species on earth. Every life form reacts to different stimuli in different ways but always in the same way to each.

Dr Spaetzle is just a more pleasant sample.

SQUIRREL!

A clicker is an effective training tool because it is a simple, consistent sound. Using words can be a problem because peoples’ voices will naturally change based on a variety of factors- and animals, being unable to understand the words themselves, can be confused by those different sounds.

It works for some people too.

It’s maddening how responding to a phone call always takes precedence over responding to the person who’s actually standing right there.

woof

Funny how that works.

I used a number of strategies I learned while going through a dog training class with my students. It was very effective, and I was less stressed.

I once read a very cool idea in an old children’s story about dogs. Prior to the training session, everyone played with their dogs for 15 minutes, so that the dogs would associate the class with fun.