Remember the story of Ivan Pavlov’s dog, and the experiment dealing with the bell and the dog’s reacting to the sound of the bell in relation to food?  Actually, Pavlov used approximately 40 dogs in his work – Rosa, Mirta, Norka, Trezor, Visgun, Jurka, Jack, John, to name a few.  Ivan, the Russian scientist is going to have to add one more name to his canine entourage, however. His name of course is Lewis.  He’s not Russian, but he is perfectly in tune with Pavlov’s experiment.  I should explain….

This is not as esoteric as it first sounds.  It’s just plain old dog sense. Pavlov was dealing with conditioned response and the ability to alter behavior. The experiment went something like this – anytime old Ivan would feed one of his dogs, he would ring a bell, time after time, dog food + the bell. Pretty soon he discovered that the dogs would salivate just by ringing the bell, no food needed.  I understand the rudiments of the experiment.  After all, place a big old filet mignon around me, and I will slobber all over you!

But this is not another “Lewis drools a lot” story – although heaven knows he does.  He actually dinged me during one of his Turner and Hooch head shakes the other day. From five feet away! I watched in horrified slow motion as the mega droplet arced over my desk and hit me in the leg.  But I digress.

Lewis’ favorite thing after food is being petted, and petted, and then finally…. petted some more.  His favorite “petting station” is a small patch of floor in the den between the chair and the couch.  I offer you Exhibit A below.

This is a daily occurrence, usually at night. Well, okay, more than that, a lot more.  Now it has almost become self-serve.  He walks in from his guard duties (ha!), walks to his spot between the couch and the chair, lies down, and waits for his back rub, or head scratch, just anything will do.  If you don’t respond quickly enough, you get that big bear paw across the arm of the chair.  If you should stop prior to his majesty’s desire, again out comes the paw.  This has been the norm for months if not years. 

Then something new happened.  I call it the Pavlovian Transition.  I first noticed it the other day.  Lewis walked in from outside and plopped down in his usual spot.  Uh oh!  No one was sitting in the chair nor anywhere within petting distance.  Not a problem for a dog trained in Pavlovian behavioral conditioning.  Despite no one being within six feet of him, Mr. Lewis reached up and pawed the magical chair arm then looked around for his requested petting.  Yes, he eventually got what he wanted (shocker, huh?), but it was definitely a Pavlovian moment.

Oh, not for him.  For me.  He rang the bell, and I jumped.