Using Prof.Pavlov's work for good. Well, pooping actually.
This is all about pooping.
If you're squeamish, stop reading now.
As a dog owner (actually step-owner, when I met wife I also got dog), sometimes when we go outside for walkies dog takes her sweet time in pooping. This can be a hassle when it's late at night, you're tired, you're late in the morning, it's raining, whatever the reason - sometimes I just wished the dog could poop on command.
Well, dogs can poop on command.
Airport security dogs do it, police dogs do it, so why couldn't my dog do it?
She already was going nuts when I pulled the plastic bag out of the bag drawer, so I thought - if Prof. Pavlov can do it, why can't I?
His work in proving that instinctive responses could be controlled with artificial stimuli (his dogs salivating at various sounds that were associated with feeding time, even there was no food present) lead me to wonder if I could work with our dog to achieve a not too dissimilar result.
Wife had already trained dog to pee on command, so we were - like the man Bongiovi said - half way there..
So, a few months ago, I started an experiment.
As dog was doing "the walk", the set-up for when she's getting in position for the big drop, I would get the bag out of my pocket.
As she began to poop, I would rustle the bag.
Pooping sounds like a plastic bag rustling, so whenever there's pooping, there's that sound again, must be pooping time!
Kind of like me with coffee, but that's another story.
It wasn't long before she started to respond.
We would be outside, she'd be sniffing about, marking some territory here, checking out a lamp post there - and just as she's in transit between one sniff and another, I rustled the bag. She looked at me, and then instantly changed direction to find one of her poop spots in our street. Rustle a bit more, and she's doing the sniff, the set-up and the drop. Kaboom.
To make sure it wasn't a fluke, I tried it again the next day. Same result. The moment she was slightly distracted from sniff patrol, I rustled the bag and BOOM, she's off to her favourite bush/tree/fern (she's shy and doesn't go in the open) to deposit some reconstituted dog food into a neighbour's front lawn.
The ultimate test came when a mate was dog-sitting her when we were both away. He tried the bag rustle, and lo and behold - it worked a treat every time. Dog has no idea why, but she'll be minding her business and then suddenly at the sound of a bag be compelled to do her business.
About nine out of ten times it works, other times - she just doesn't poop. She's a lady after all.
Anyway, I'm hardly an animal specialist, or a Labrador whisperer, but this worked for me.
Have a good weekend dog-lovers.
Here's a classy photo of our dog pooping in the snow. Yup, it's a photo of my dog pooping.
