Re: Automatic Pellet Dispenser

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Bill Kearney" <wkearney-99@hot-mail-com> wrote in message
news:Er-dnU4Tn5OYgkLYnZ2dnUVZ_sSmnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > If you don't have the time to reward your dog(s) with personal
> > attention, maybe you should give the animal(s) to someone who has time
> > for the dogs.
>
> Sorta like not bothering to reply to a tech request with actual tech help?
> If you're going to preach at least don't be so pompous as it do it without
> actually presenting useful information.

Easy, big guy. (-:  I should have realized mentioning how likely one is to
receive moral as well a technical advice would mushroom.  Jack made a not
unreasonable assumption that I was some sort of mad scientist trying to keep
his dog quiet by electronic bribery.  I really should have described the
environment more fully.  I sort of knew what would happen otherwise.

If I were a mad scientist or a callow dog owner I'd just use a remote shock
collar.  I've had to use one once on a truly incorrigible dog that would
have killed himself chasing cars or other, much, much larger dogs without
some sort of serious override of his instincts.  My wife hates "training
collars" as do many dog enthusiasts but I think they are preferable to
squashed or sundered pooches and choke collars.  I've only needed them very
briefly and very rarely.  Unfortunately, a dog trained by aversion is
temperamentally different from one trained by positive reinforcement.   I
always opt for the later unless there's just no other way.

> There's a bunch of pet feeder devices on the market.  Have you given any
> consideration to adapting one of them?  If the portions dispensed are 'too
> large' then it might be a simple shortcut to alter the zsize of the
serving
> container.

The major supplier seems to be in the middle of switching sources.  I'll
keep watching Ebay if I don't find a "hackable" Wal-Mart kid's toy.

> I'm no dog person but I'd wonder about the effectiveness of trying to
> reinforce good behavior is this out of context sort of way.  I'd think it
> more effective to use negative reinforcement of undesired behavior
instead.
> I don't know how well the dog would be trained being rewarded for
inaction.
> Probably not as effectively as being 'punished' for the undesired
behavior.
> This, of course, raises a whole other set of issues.

I think I answered that above.  Dogs seem to understand quite clearly when
they are being rewarded for sitting still if it's done correctly.  The key,
I believe, is to make sure they know you are paying attention to their
"sitting pretty" moments, and that's easy for people to forget.  It's
unbelievably easy to get into a situation where you only interact with the
dog when you notice it's doing something bad.  We both know where that
leads:  "Gee, master comes to make noises and wag his finger at me when I
chew on the chair leg and that's better than ignoring me!  What else can I
chew?"

They've taught me as much about behavior as I have taught them, especially
when they learn something BAD from me, like how to open the refrigerator
door.

And thanks to ridiculously cheap color IR cams, each crate is video
monitored and hooked into a MUX so I can keep tabs on them all, whether they
are in the play area, their crates, or roaming around upstairs or in the
yard.  When I bought the 16CH MUX boxes from Ebay, I wondered how I would
ever fill all 16 channels.  It turns out they are just like closets.  They
fill up just by magic!

--
Bobby G.