Friday Chat w/ Vlad
Hey, It’s Vlad. So I looked on the JABCECC bulletin board yesterday and it said there were trainers scheduled. This must have been a typo as it should have read trainees. I mean everyone should know they are not training me, I’m training them. I try to use all positive reinforcement with them but I find that sometimes I need to resort to negative punishment when I want to reduce the likelihood of a bad behavior. For instance, the other day one of the trainees gave me a treat I did not like. I just walked off and stopped engaging...Me engaging with them is very rewarding as I am sure you can imagine. It wasn’t until the better treats came out that I would interact again. Nipped that bad behavior in the bud. B.F. Skinner would be proud. I do need to talk to my pals about their interactions with the trainees. Sasha for instance, she just wants to be everyone’s friend. I keep telling her that she can’t give the milk away for free but she doesn’t seem to get it. It just makes my work that much harder. I look at my instruction of these trainees much like Michelangelo viewed his sculptures. “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” Every person has a perfect trainee inside, I just need to chip away the superfluous material, ie. bad behaviors. Sometimes I use classical conditioning with them as well, you know the type used on Pavlov’s dogs. I started this by doing something funny while chewing on their cameras and they would laugh. Now I can just chew on their camera and they will laugh hysterically. I mean I think it is laughing and not crying. You should see what happens when you ring a bell around them....hint, bring napkins. I am also doing some leash work as I hear the Viktor Pub crawls are starting again and we will need some way to keep the trainees from running off. By the way, I do question why Viktor gets to have an event named after him when yours truly does not. I think I will need to plan one celebrating me that puts Viktor’s silly little events to shame. The only question will be whether to call it Vladapalooza or Vladstock. What do you think?
Vlad out