My dogs work as therapy dogs, regularly providing pet assisted therapy at Spring Harbor Hospital, in the pediatric psychiatric and sometimes in the developmental disabilities unit.
Coming home last week on the ferry, I was thinking about a writing project, and wondering who I could maybe run it by, and thinking about the way behavior ripples through parents and children and neighbors, and is the responsibility of many individuals. Then I noticed this man smiling at me. I’d introduced him to a dog I was muzzle training the previous week, but it was this week before he introduced himself as F.C. Mace, former (longtime) editor of JABA, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, who recently moved to Peaks Island.
We had lots to talk about. Since then, I've been reading his research, and of course all that has me thinking about going back to the University.
Today my dogs and I go back in town and volunteer at the hospital again. Last week, a little boy there just pulled at my heart strings. As I was telling F.C "Bud" Mace, at the hospital, attendants sometimes establish challenging criteria for children, and when the children don’t perfectly meet those criteria, they receive a punishment of some sort (asked to leave a room, and sometimes disallowed from petting the dog).
I'm sure doctors and nurses understand applied behavior science, but attendants, maybe not so much. Attendants may have been drilled with “make everything black or white, no gray areas.” I don't disagree with that, but that doesn't mean the criteria have to set so high. The criteria can be black and white, and still be easier to be achieved and reinforced.
Animal trainers have a lot to offer the field of human behavior studies. When I am showing the children how I am careful to avoid punishing or stressing my dogs, the elephant in the room is that these children are hospitalized because their environment has so often been less sensitive, less able to meet their needs, less able to positively assist them in shaping their behavior.
I want to talk to F.C. Mace further about the doctoral research program at the University. Information about choosing and building criteria, and avoiding unintended punishers, and other practical training methods would be invaluable if placed in the hands of these hospital workers.
