How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns Page B
Authors: Gregory Berns
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into a corner with a handwritten sign: $5 each. I squeezed one. Firm, but not hard.
I took the whole stack to the register. The cashier looked at me like I was crazy.
“Science project,” I said.
At home, I used a utility knife to cut a strip of boogie board to match the inner diameter of the head coil. It made a comfortable bridge that didn’t collapse in the middle under pressure.
I got my baggie of hot dogs and approached Callie with the foam bar. She saw the treats and started wagging her tail. With her in the sphinx position on the floor, I gently pushed the foam under her chin.
“Touch,” I said, and gave her a treat.
As usual, Callie was a quick study. After a few repetitions, her head relaxed as soon as I gave the “touch” command, and I could feel the weight of her head against the foam bar. Pretty soon, I didn’t even have to cue her by pressing the boogie board against her chin. With the bar a centimeter below her chin, she would drop her head to make contact on command.
The next day, we practiced the “touch” command with Callie in the head coil. She got it. With the foam rest spanning the diameter,Callie scooted in and stuck her paws beneath it. I said, “Touch,” and she plunked her head on the bar.
“Good girl!” I exclaimed. She just wagged her tail. I couldn’t believe how quickly she was picking this stuff up. Lyra, drooling nearby, soon learned that she too would get hot dogs by hanging around the head coil. Lyra would then start barking if she didn’t get a piece of the action. She had a sensitive stomach, though, and tended to burp if I gave her too many hot dogs.
Each day we practiced with the chin rest in the head coil, and each day Callie held her head in position for longer and longer stretches. After a week of daily sessions, I no longer needed to say the command. I would just put the head coil on the floor, and she would go right in and plop her head on the rest.
We were gradually making the task more complex for Callie and McKenzie by adding elements before the final behavior. The technique is called
backward chaining
. Once Callie had learned to go into the coil, I placed the coil inside the mockup of the MRI bore. Since Callie knew that she would be rewarded only for going into the head coil, she trotted into the tube and into the coil, after which I promptly rewarded her. Next, I raised the tube to the height of the patient table of a real MRI machine. Callie would have to be taught to go up a set of doggie steps. These were designed for dogs to walk up to the height of their owners’ beds. Since they were made entirely out of plastic, they would be safe for use next to the real MRI.
It took a couple of days to teach Callie to go up the steps. I started by placing a hot dog on each step. Callie followed the trail of meat right to the top, where I gave her excessive praise. Once she was used to the steps, I placed them in front of the elevated tube and continued the meat trail all the way to the head coil. Once she was in the tube, I ran around to the other end and pointed to the head coil. She scooted in and waited for more treats.
The last and most challenging element was the scanner noise. Andrew had already recorded the jackhammer-like sounds of the MRI in action. Initially, we focused just on getting Callie and McKenzie used to the level of ambient noise. Later, we would need to figure out the exact scanner settings for the dogs, which would result in slightly different sounds.
I started by simply playing the scanner noise at low volume through a stereo while I did the training with Callie. She quickly learned to ignore it. Each day I would increase the volume a little bit. Soon, though, it would get to a level that was unpleasant. Time to introduce Callie to the earmuffs.
Callie sporting the earmuffs and learning to use the boogie board chin rest in the head coil.
(Gregory Berns)
Human subjects wear earplugs, but I had yet to meet a dog that would let you
I took the whole stack to the register. The cashier looked at me like I was crazy.
“Science project,” I said.
At home, I used a utility knife to cut a strip of boogie board to match the inner diameter of the head coil. It made a comfortable bridge that didn’t collapse in the middle under pressure.
I got my baggie of hot dogs and approached Callie with the foam bar. She saw the treats and started wagging her tail. With her in the sphinx position on the floor, I gently pushed the foam under her chin.
“Touch,” I said, and gave her a treat.
As usual, Callie was a quick study. After a few repetitions, her head relaxed as soon as I gave the “touch” command, and I could feel the weight of her head against the foam bar. Pretty soon, I didn’t even have to cue her by pressing the boogie board against her chin. With the bar a centimeter below her chin, she would drop her head to make contact on command.
The next day, we practiced the “touch” command with Callie in the head coil. She got it. With the foam rest spanning the diameter,Callie scooted in and stuck her paws beneath it. I said, “Touch,” and she plunked her head on the bar.
“Good girl!” I exclaimed. She just wagged her tail. I couldn’t believe how quickly she was picking this stuff up. Lyra, drooling nearby, soon learned that she too would get hot dogs by hanging around the head coil. Lyra would then start barking if she didn’t get a piece of the action. She had a sensitive stomach, though, and tended to burp if I gave her too many hot dogs.
Each day we practiced with the chin rest in the head coil, and each day Callie held her head in position for longer and longer stretches. After a week of daily sessions, I no longer needed to say the command. I would just put the head coil on the floor, and she would go right in and plop her head on the rest.
We were gradually making the task more complex for Callie and McKenzie by adding elements before the final behavior. The technique is called
backward chaining
. Once Callie had learned to go into the coil, I placed the coil inside the mockup of the MRI bore. Since Callie knew that she would be rewarded only for going into the head coil, she trotted into the tube and into the coil, after which I promptly rewarded her. Next, I raised the tube to the height of the patient table of a real MRI machine. Callie would have to be taught to go up a set of doggie steps. These were designed for dogs to walk up to the height of their owners’ beds. Since they were made entirely out of plastic, they would be safe for use next to the real MRI.
It took a couple of days to teach Callie to go up the steps. I started by placing a hot dog on each step. Callie followed the trail of meat right to the top, where I gave her excessive praise. Once she was used to the steps, I placed them in front of the elevated tube and continued the meat trail all the way to the head coil. Once she was in the tube, I ran around to the other end and pointed to the head coil. She scooted in and waited for more treats.
The last and most challenging element was the scanner noise. Andrew had already recorded the jackhammer-like sounds of the MRI in action. Initially, we focused just on getting Callie and McKenzie used to the level of ambient noise. Later, we would need to figure out the exact scanner settings for the dogs, which would result in slightly different sounds.
I started by simply playing the scanner noise at low volume through a stereo while I did the training with Callie. She quickly learned to ignore it. Each day I would increase the volume a little bit. Soon, though, it would get to a level that was unpleasant. Time to introduce Callie to the earmuffs.
Callie sporting the earmuffs and learning to use the boogie board chin rest in the head coil.
(Gregory Berns)
Human subjects wear earplugs, but I had yet to meet a dog that would let you
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