~ An Unsound Test ~

 

My granddaughter, Rachael, was working on a junior high science project. We both thought it might be interesting to study the camp dogs in action. Rachael would have recordings of various common sounds a dog would hear over a period of time. A fire siren, a train, a train whistle, a car horn, and several other sounds were included. Rachael would stay out of sight and play the recording. I would be in the playroom monitoring the dogs and reporting individual dog reactions to her. This little adventure could create quite a stir with the dogs. Was I crazy to instigate possible bedlam? I told her this was something that would definitely require prior approval of the camp.

I explained the project to Kate, mentioning that Rachael would like her dog, Bandit, to participate along with all the other dogs. Kate trusted my judgment as to Bandit’s health and temperament. When she gave us the go-ahead I thanked her. Maybe Kate was crazy, too?

I called Rachael with the good news, and we picked a day when there would most likely be the highest number of dogs in camp. She immediately began collecting her test sounds and creating a chart for each of a possible dozen dogs that would be in the large playroom. These charts would be labeled with type of dog, a list of all the sounds played. For each sound her charts also included a numbering system from one to ten that would indicate the level of response from each dog. She had allowed space for comments as well. She was very organized and very thorough.

The big day arrived. The test was set for mid-afternoon. I was curious about which dogs would be there to participate in the project. I soon found out.

Snowball came in. I didn’t know if that would be good or bad. Given her meltdown experience with the roof workers, I wasn’t sure how she would react. These test sounds would be mostly familiar sounds and wouldn’t be nearly as loud as the roof noises. Maybe she would take it all in stride. I hoped so.

Then Maggie came in. I wasn’t too concerned about her freaking out and she should be just fine. Bonnie and Clyde showed up. In came Cedric and Duchess. I didn’t expect any of them to have much of a reaction to much of anything. Well, maybe Clyde would react a little.

Lady came in, and I was sure she would be inquisitive about the sounds. She was followed by Scally and Wags. Now these two could prove interesting. As rambunctious as they both were and as vocal as Wags was, these two might set off a chain reaction if the noises struck them just right. Just wrong?

Boomer was the last to arrive. I expected him to give Rachael the biggest reaction of any of the dogs. He was so curious about everything I figured he’d be running the room perimeter looking for the sounds. Late in the morning in zipped Hotshot. He was another one I thought would react big time.

Bonnie and Clyde were in a corner ignoring everybody. Duchess went to her post at the door. Cedric meandered around the room, stopping long enough to give Snowball a quick greeting. Snowball greeted Lady. Boomer and Maggie were dashing around in a race.

Scally gave a thought to pestering Duchess, but thought better of it. He was still miffed at her spurning his earlier advances. Wags was trying to get in on the race and barking full tilt. Speedy little Hotshot was zooming after all the runners and jumping up in their faces at every opportunity. A pretty good group on a pretty normal day. I was confident this would be a great group for Rachael’s science project sound test.

Noon arrived and we crated up, fed, and watered our furry charges. They all settled down for the two-hour rest time. After standard room cleaning and other nap time chores, I headed home to check on Toby. My daughter, Jenni, Rachael, and my grandson, Anthony, were due to arrive at camp at three o’clock or so. I had plenty of time to get back over there for the big test.

I headed back to work, arriving about ten minutes before my family showed up. I was happy to see the morning dogs were still at camp, and as a bonus, Hot Shot had come in. We set up it all. There were no dogs in the smaller room. Rachael, Jenni, and Anthony would play the recordings from there, out of sight and silent. They were hiding just inside the Dutch door separating the rooms, the top half of that door open. Kate was with them. If Rachael needed to say anything, Kate’s voice was familiar to the dogs and would not cause an unwanted distraction.

Three other counselors had graciously volunteered to help and were in with the dogs and me. We had all been assigned specific dogs to watch. It wouldn’t hurt to have extra hands available in case any of the sounds caused a big commotion. Counselors would identify the dog and his reaction and Rachael would record it. Boy, we were ready.

I brought Bandit into the room. The one thing that had never occurred to anybody was that Bandit might not be comfortable with the camp dogs. She was a real sociable dog, and we all thought she’d be happy to race around. Naturally all the campers zipped over to welcome the newcomer. Bandit hated it from the get-go. Hoping she would get over the doggy introductions and join in, I tried to get her away from me and interested in playing. It didn’t work. As soon as she had an opportunity, she split away from the regulars and stuck herself to my leg, quite determined to stay there for the duration. The campers decided she wasn’t worth any more of their time and went off to do other things.

Rachael and her assistants might have been totally out of sight, but Bandit knew exactly where they were and sort of nudged me in the direction of the small room. Because she was so nervous, I went along with her, figuring I could relay information on the other dogs just as well from that point. She quietly whined, wanting to rejoin her people. She eventually did settle down but would not have anything to do with the campers. That was a disappointment.

The sound tape started rolling. Reactions from the dogs? There weren’t any. At least not enough to be of any value. The taped sounds were not loud enough. They were barely audible, in fact. I knew my hearing wasn’t what it should be, but I certainly should have heard something. I asked the other counselors, and they also had trouble hearing the tapes. Those sounds that they could hear were extremely quiet.

The dogs, even with their hearing capabilities, didn’t take much notice at all. It was true they were all busy with normal dog games, but the recordings were exceptionally quiet and would have been too quiet even if the dogs had been sleeping.

At the sound of the fire siren, Boomer tilted his head a fraction. Maggie stood still for about a second at the marching band music, but almost immediately went back to racing with Boomer. Hotshot was totally absorbed in pestering everybody he could and ignored any sounds at all. Duchess was too intrigued with watching the bottom of the door. From his vantage point on top of the bridge, Cedric was only interested in spotting Kate. Bonnie and Clyde were concentrating strictly on each other. Lady was looking for pets from the counselors. Scally was trying to decide if counselors would notice he was about to add water of his own to the drinking dish. Wags was barking his way around the room. Good ol’ Snowball was snoozing in her corner. Bandit was so intent on getting to her people beyond that door we could have fired off a cannon and she would have ignored it.

Overall, I would have to say the big junior high science project wound up as a bust. The sounds had been so faint they were virtually ignored. At that point there was nothing we could do to improve things. We couldn’t up the volume.

Rachael was understandably disappointed. The whole camp crew, as well as her mom and I, had been sure the project would be a success. When it wasn’t, we all sympathized with her. Geez, it had been such a flop that even Anthony, her little brother, felt bad for her.

Rachael gathered up test gear and Bandit. She thanked Kate and crew for allowing her to give it a try. On a bit of a sad and unsuccessful note, my family and I left camp. On a much happier note, Bandit gladly left with us.

 

Oh, well. The best-laid plans…