Blue Nettles

In my last course, I wrote a paper on Dogs, Children and Conditioning. Based on Pavlov's principle of classical conditioning, I gave examples of how our dog, Sandy and our daughters have been conditioned in certain areas. "Has anyone fed Sandy" has conditioned Sandy to run to the door based on her having learned that that is the cue for one of the girls to remember it is their responsibility to go feed her. (I'm sure that she is probably salivating appropriately at that moment as well- but we haven't measured her saliva for this research). Sandy is conditioned as well with the idea of hopping into the back of the truck- that means either going out to hunt "birdies" or running and playing at a lake or river. My paper expanded further to areas that Megan and Marisa have been conditioned to various things. Interesting to relate theories to the real world. Another funny incident about the dog theme- last week I was dealing with some neck pain and stayed home from work. Well, as Duane drove the girls to school (along with the Brimley girls from next door), they talked about my neck but as the conversation went on, Duane started to talk about Sandy (because he likes to relate all topics somehow to our funny dog)- well, we think that Peri (6yrs. old) somehow connected that Sandy was the one with the neck problem. So, at some point in the day, the school secretary stopped Megan and asked, "Now, is it your Mom that has the neck pain or your dog?-"because the first graders (class that Peri is in)- is saying that its your dog that is having a problem with her neck!" Funny. Kay