A WALK IN THE PARK

A lesson from dogs and placebo barriers

— I like to think Bo and Miller are pretty smart dogs, so I was surprised that they were so easily duped.

After the mess they made digging in my flower bed last year, I started early this season, determined to make them understand that only humans are allowed to scratch in the dirt between the house and the front side walk. Things I tried last year, like scolding, didn’t bring about any long-term changes in behavior. Miller, the adolescent-aged dog, ignored my ranting and was back in my flower bed as soon as my back was turned. Sweet old gentleman Bo seemed to take the scolding to heart and lowered his head whenever the offense was brought to his attention. From the look on his apologetic face and drooping body, it was easyto think at the moment he would not indulge in such a transgression again. However, his body language was either fibbing or he is forgetful in his old age, because he would eventually be back to digging where he shouldn’t, leaving deep holes in the soil where my pretty flowers had once stood.

I had been thinking all winter, deciding what to do about the problem, and early this spring Earl carried out the plan for me. He drove short, metal rods in the ground all around the perimeter of the flower bed and placed a yellow plastic clip on each rod. He then strung thin wire from clip to clip and rigged it up to a smallelectric fence charger plugged in to an outlet on the porch. It wasn’t long, on the first day the fence was installed, that Bo and Miller each got a jolting reminder to stay out of places they shouldn’t be. Good for them and for me that they learned so quickly. It has been weeks ago the plug was pulled from the outlet, but the fence still works as well as ever. It doesn’t have to really be electric as long as the dogs keep thinking it is, and they definitely do. If one of their tennis balls rolls under the wire, they will sit back and whine instead of attempting to retrieve it, even if it is easily within reach.

Being the smart dogs(or not) that they are, they have now over generalized the idea that thin wire strung on short posts with little yellow clips is something that can bite you. So, we are using a placebo fence with no electricity anywhere nearby in two other places around the yard, and they won’t go near it.

So, problem solved. My flower beds are free of dog holes and looking pretty good, so you would think I could be happy now. But this whole thing has just got me thinking about something. I wonder how many fake electric fences are restricting my life. What could I accomplish if I really understood which barriers are real and whichare placebos? Are there things I think are impossible when really they just look that way because, like my dogs, I was burned by one past experience which then led to the forming of a false "belief"?

I haven’t figured out the answers to any of these questions yet, but I do know one thing: My mind sure has a lot of time to wander while I am out there working in that “nodogs-allowed” flower bed.

Annette Rowe is a freelance writer from rural Gentry and a speech-language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School. She may be reached by email at awalkinthepark50 @ yahoo.com.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 05/25/2011