So y'all have heard of Pavlov, right? He's the psychologist who performed the [don't worry, it's humane] experiment on his dog. It went something like this:
Pavlov hooked his dog up to these machines that measured the dog's saliva. Something about drool running down tubes....anyway, Pavlov rang a bell and then would feed his dog a cookie. The dog salivated when the he/she saw the cookie. After repeating the actions of ringing a bell and then giving his dog a cookie, the dog started salivating soon as the bell began to ring. Ah, how the mind works with the power of association.
Well, let me tell you. We have our own little Belle who has been, if you will, Pavlov'd.
Our family is working our way through The West Wing series. (It's a TV show, and if you don't watch it, you're totally missing out... but it's off the air now, so go rent the DVDs.) We normally watch one episode every night as a way to settle down and come together at the end of the day. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed something sort of interesting.
You see, our nightly routine always ends the same way. We always take Belle potty before going to bed. Soon as our show is over, we double check that all our doors are locked and Belle goes potty in the back yard. Lately, soon as the song starts playing at the end of The West Wing, Belle hops up and goes to the door. WITHOUT US MOVING OR SAYING ANYTHING TO HER! It's pretty funny. She will be in a good, deep sleep...curled up on the couch between or on top of Carl and I, [insert music] then she's up at ready to go outside. Last night I captured it on a video for y'all. She heard my camera make a little noise when it turned on, which is why she looks at me in the beginning. But I assure you, she was soundly asleep.
