Dogs don't get educated they get trained. At least that is what can happen with owners who believe that is the nature of the contract between man and dog. Fortunately I am more interested in what new behaviours can be elicited from dogs than with what behaviours can be conditioned in. With this in mind I started a game with the dogs I call Dog Craps. You see I have two dogs, Gypsy, a black labrador with a strong desire to be fed and Rex, a young Border Collie. As part of my own diet I make popcorn. Four eyes watch this process intently. They know the sound of popping corn and they drool accordingly.
Now if I toss a popcorn to Gypsy she will catch it every time. A deft shift of head left or right and the popcorn disappears without a trace. I'll swear that dog never blinks. Rex on the other hand regards the aerial popcorn as some sort of the threat to life and limb. Duck. That's the answer. And nimbly recover to pick it off the floor. That he is good at. So that is how it was. Gypsy catching popcorn with unerring ease. Rex obviously a non catcher. It's one of those things with dogs. Some gun dogs can see a duck fall. The rejects can't. Apparently its inherited. If Rex could talk he'd say, don't throw things at me. Guess you could call that feedback so I don't. In fact based on the principle of not throwing popcorn to/at Rex I invented Dog Craps.
OK so back to Dog Craps. I understand there is a gambling game in which someone throws two dice. Certain results are good for the thrower and some for the non-thrower. Well here is how Dog Craps is played in this house. House rules you understand. I throw the popcorn. Two of them to Gypsy. Sometimes she gets both of them. Sometimes she knocks both of them to the ground. Rex being more agile and much swifter invariably gets these. Sometimes though she selects one and lets the other go. One each. Now I hadn't the foggiest what each dog would do to maximise their chances. They like the game and the results split about even so they are happy dogs. Gypsy gets first crack so dominance is preserved. Ecology in all things. Well I was the one to be surprised. Can't think why. I set the game up for emergent behaviour. Educating comes from a word meaning to draw out. Of course as soon as people add the word "system" to "education" they think the direction of has been reversed. Not here though.
So far two behaviours have emerged. Gypsy stopped going for the ground corn. If she misses she stays on station waiting for the next popcorn. She is quite unflinching. OK that is not too surprising. A simple case of optimising by specialisation where your chances are best.
The other behaviour took me by surprise. It ripped my beliefs like shredded nighty. Somethings you just can't repair. You've just got to replace with a better one. Rex starting catching pop corn. A popcorn would bounce off Gypsy's nose and Rex would catch it. He never poaches. Gypsy's muzzle flashes and sometimes sends the popcorn flying. Rex plucks it out of the air. Not always but often enough to have me lose the notion that it was a genetically determined visual perception thing
Now of course I am curious. Can Rex catch if I throw to him? Well it turns out he can if I throw the popcorn a little short so he runs onto it. He makes a good short stop. Is this all he can be. I'm betting its not. Not if I'm ingenious enough to devise different opportunities for new behaviours to emerge. Or elicit a spirit of curiosity where others devise activities and share them and we change the meaning of a dog's life to one of fun and excitement.
This isn't in the test.
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But there is an assignment.
Devise a new game to play with a pet.
I expect results.