Re: Automatic Pellet Dispenser

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:45e5612d.653884875@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >And already AC powered but there's not a one of them in my junkpile!  I
> >haven't owned a dial clock in 20 years.
>
> I would avoid 120V AC unless these are mounted in a location where the
> puppies cannot possibly get at them.

The entire unit would be mounted way above the crates and in something
chewproof like an old toolbox.  Also powered by GFCI outlets, but a good
reminder nonetheless.

It turns out from the folks on one of the dog lists that all I need to do is
to associate a unique tone to daily treat rewards.  At night, I wouldn't
have to actually dispense a treat to reward the dog, they *should* feel
rewarded when they hear the tone.

It would be a lot easier to manage toning with the busload of salvaged PC
speakers and pocket voice recorders and MP3 players I have.  I have than
with a treat dispenser that's going to have noise, reload, jamming and other
issues.  I am dubious about a dog accepting a tone as the equal of a sliver
of dried chicken or a kibble but it's worth a shot.  It also gives me a
chance to experiment with different tones for different dogs to see if they
"tune out" tones that don't "belong" to them.

All of this effort is directed toward keeping dogs that don't sleep soundly
from disturbing the ones that do and having them all wake up in a howl fest
at 3AM.  So far, we have been *very* lucky that hasn't occurred often.  I
look at the IR video recordings to see who the instigator was and try to
figure out how to arrange the crates to keep the peace.  There's always one
dog bent on breaking it . . . (-:

--
Bobby G.