Pavlov's Experiment LIVES!!
It has been a depressing week. It is cold. COVID-19 vaccine logistics seem to dominate all social conversations. People are hunkered down in the middle of the polar vortex, or an ice storm, or cleaning up from snow storms, or winter camping in their own homes with no heat, no electricity, and no water.
There are still things to laugh about, thankfully.
One day this week, I was on a very interactive web call with a half dozen people, my cell phone on my desk. Someone in my house in Massachusetts went out through the front door. The Ring app on my phone instantly played that very distinctive chime that means "HEY, SOMEBODY IS OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR LOOK AT ME RIGHT NOW."
A Florida co-worker also has a Ring doorbell. Her dog in the next room heard my Ring chime and scrambled to get to their front door. He knew what that sound meant, and he was on the job, ready to defend his people!
I am sure he was completely puzzled when his humans didn't go to the door, but we had a good laugh on our call.
With everyone working from home, it turns out this is a common experience. One co-worker changed his Ring chime because his family is in and out a lot and he is in long group video calls. His doorbell was triggering everyone else's dogs to start barking, and it got old for all involved. Except the dogs.
Another person has changed his Ring chime so many times that his dogs now think every ding from his phone is the Ring doorbell, and they start barking. Somehow the regular disappointment when there isn't someone at the door doesn't undo the positive re-enforcement of the few times when there is.
The dogs are a great reminder that Hope springs eternal. A reminder we all need in the middle of this cold, snowy, February.
Being a huge dog person, I appreciated this. We have had to change ring tones to avoid strange lab behaviors. I have a curtain behind me in meetings and because the dogs are lower than camera view, I have had comments of ghosts behind me walking through the curtain.