Attaboy · 20 November 2001
I continue to heed the Monks of New Skete. When taking my dog out, um, to ‘do his business’, the boys advise that repeating something gently encouraging like ‘hurry up’ while he prepares to do his business (although I prefer the term ‘hunker down’), and then praising him during the act, will over time give me the ability to invoke a Pavlovian impulse on the part of my dog to take a dump.
Presumably this will prove useful during inclement weather and moments of tight scheduling.
Thing is, I noticed awhile ago that whenever I said ‘attaboy, good boy’ at the onset of the hunkering down, Oliver would make a low, groany sound that was exactly – exactly – like the groan that came at the end of the credits on Taxi, when, after the Bob James Rhodes 88 music ended and there rolled a blip of film of a guy walking away down a hall, groaning.
So now, instead of praising him I say ‘Goodnight, Mr Walters’ and the whole experience is given mirth.
* * *