Demandit Dawg, the Pigeon and the Professor

(This is my 2nd post today, news about Mary is below.)

Some of you may be aware of the behavioral studies regarding a pigeon and a professor. The experiment was straightforward and went something like this. Each day, the Professor would take the pigeon and put it in a special cage for the experiment. The special cage had a wire floor and two buttons, one square and the other round each with seed glued on the face. The Professor would observe the pigeon and when it pecked on the square button, the Professor would push a button to electrify the wire floor and give the pigeon a mild jolt. When the pigeon pecked on the round button, the Professor would drop some seed down a little chute to a waiting dish for the bird to eat.

The Professor reported that it didn't take very many jolts of electricity for the pigeon to stop pecking on the square button and only peck on the round button, thus changing the pigeon's behavior.

The cynics observed that the pigeon had perfectly trained the Professor to stop torturing the poor bird and to provide food anytime the bird was hungry.

As for Demandit Dawg, she has learned a new behavior--or, perhaps, she has perfectly trained us. As I write this, we have finished eating breakfast, Mary is reading the paper, I am typing this blog entry and Demandit Dawg has started to bark. Mary stated exactly what I was thinking--Demandit Dawg wants her post-breakfast chew stick. Demandit Dawg barks at the breakfast area, backs up two steps, barks again, backs up, barks again and eventually backs her way into the utility room where we store the chew sticks. If we don't respond, she comes back to the breakfast area and starts all over. This can go on until our ears stop working.

Later today, she will start barking again, back up, bark, back up and repeat until she is at the door leading to the garage--not the utility room. Demandit Dawg will repeat this over and over. It can drive you crazy--until we open the door to the garage, affix the leashes and take her for a walk or a ride in the car.

Shawna quietly observes all this fussing about until its payout time and then she is right there too. Old dogs can be incredibly efficient when there is a young Demandit Dawg around to do the heavy lifting.

For the dog owners out there, the chew sticks are called KiloTreats and are rawhide twisted into 1/4 inch round, 4 inch long (6mm x 100mm) sticks which a Cavalier King Charles can actually chew because they are small enough.

So, has Demanit Dawg trained us? Or have we trained Demandit Dawg?