Research Methods and the Revelation

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:41:33 -0400

As many of you know I have been chipping way at a BA in Psychology for some time. Most recently I completed a course in Research Methods... it was in short horrible. I generally love my courses; I find it delightful that one of the requirements of working through these courses is long hours reading about fascinating subjects. I am and forever will be a student. But this course was like grains of sand in your eye ball. I wasn't fascinated or inspired or let's facr it, even really interested, It was a core course and a requirement to fulfill the obligations of the degree.

As I waded through the material, woeful and complaining, I realized something... this is indeed how some feel about training the family dog! It isn't as inspiring or fascination as it is to those of us who have made it such a large part of our lives. Most of the students we see love their dogs and want to train them but aren't really enthralled by an 'extinction burst,' 'reinforcement ratios,' or 'shaping.' Most people just want the dog to behave so that they can enjoy being part of the family. I finally get it; your 'door greeting' homework may be my 'research methods' assignments. Therefore it is incumbent upon us, your instructors, to navigate and present this material in a way that transforms the 'work' in the 'joy' or at least washes the sand out of your eyes.

Happy Training,
Melissa

Hello World

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 06:22:44 -0400

I am assured by our wonderful technical adviser, Kirk, that "Hello World" is a necessary first blog. Seems fitting enough from a laypersons perspective, but the motivation for this first topic is actually superstitious! It is fascinating to me that a group so technically savvy and so logically precise share their own version of tossing salt over your shoulder when you spill it.

I have seen what the website looks like when all of the pictures and user friendly windows are removed, and it is pages and pages of letters, numbers and symbols garbled together in seemingly random array. But to Kirk it is an eloquent text and he understands this foreign language and he can read it as you are reading this now. This reminds me of our life with our dogs, we each speak a different, in this case species specific language. Both are eloquent in their own right within the context of our own species. In order to communicate with with each other we need to learn to 'speak dog' and they need to learn to appreciate our language.

It amazes me that the more I learn about these fascinating creatures, the more there is to learn. Really the best among us is probably on par with a visitor to a new land, complete with a quick reference pocket guide to speaking canine. And much like other foreign hosts, our dogs are patient and forgiving as we disassemble their elegant language in an attempt to communicate our needs. My goal is to understand the canine culture and language. To appreciate it for its own intrinsic value and to learn to communicate clearly within it. It is a lofty goal to be sure, but perhaps one day I can toss the pocket guide.

Enjoy the journey,
Melissa

Canadian Canine College Blog

Research Methods and the Revelation

Hello World