Study Like a (Good) Dog!

I went back to the States for a couple of weeks, and got to spend a few days with some old friends--a buddy of mine from high-school, Eric, and his wife Michelle. Like me, Eric and Michelle are dog-lovers, and have two beautiful Wheaten Terriers. One of the things I've missed about living in America is having dogs; it's just too much hassle to have one in Tokyo, and I'm not home enough to take proper care of a dog.

When I lived in the States, I had two dogs of my own--an Australian Shepherd named Elvis, and a mutt named Sparky who was probably some kind of German Shepherd mix--and also helped to find homes for abandoned Australian Shepherds through Aussie Rescue. Aussie Rescue would get news of some abandoned Shepherd in a pound somewhere, and I'd go pick him up, bring him home, and treat him as part of the family until the nice people at Aussie Rescue found him a permanent home. Since I almost always had a third dog in the house, I was able to constantly practice my dog socialization skills. Not just training, like "sit" and "stay," but socialization--teaching the new dog to be calm and friendly with other dogs and unfamiliar people, and to accept his place in the pack.

Fortunately, since Eric and Michelle (especially Michelle) are pretty good about behaving like pack leaders, Winnie and Chewie didn't have any major issues, but when Michelle took us all on their regular walking route, I realized right away that the two dogs just weren't getting enough exercise; they needed longer, more structured walks. It was while I was showing Michelle how to walk Chewie and Winnie--with them following her and not pulling, obeying her commands and staying focused on where she wanted to go rather than doing whatever they liked--that I was reminded of a common logical error to which many students fall prey.

The walking route that we used covered blacktop, grass, and bare ground, switching back and forth periodically. After a few minutes, the dog I was walking would start to understand what I wanted, and walk right next to me without pulling on her leash. But the moment the terrain would change--from grass to asphalt, or from asphalt to dirt--Chewie would immediately try to go back to yanking on the leash and running around me in circles, sniffing the ground. I was ready for it, because I've trained so many dogs, but it's always funny to see.

See, to a dog, learning to walk properly on asphalt is totally different than learning to walk correctly on grass. A dog's mind processes the information as "If we're on grass I have to heel; therefore if we're not on grass I can do whatever I like." You have to re-train the dog--over and over and on every different surface, and even on the same surface when the surroundings change--every time you introduce any new element. As time goes on, the dog learns that "sit" means sit in the kitchen, sit in the living room, sit in the yard, sit at the coffee shop; sit whenever you tell her to sit. But at first it's a challenge, because that simple logical fallacy (called the Fallacy of Unexamined Alternatives--"Kitchen, sit; therefore not kitchen, not sit") is very tempting. And it's not just dogs who fall for it; the fallacy is perhaps the most common one that you'll hear and see in real-life arguments.

The good news is that that simple fallacy, and it's contrapositive (the fallacy of Sufficiency vs. Necessity) is tested all the time on standardized tests! Almost all logical reasoning questions--whether on the LSAT, GRE, GMAT, or SAT--will have at least one, and maybe two wrong answers using those flaws. Once you become comfortable with those flaws, and begin to anticipate them, you'll often be able to eliminate half of your wrong answers, and recognize the correct logical construct when you see it.

So strange but true: the same rule that makes you a better lawyer or doctor will also make you a better dog-trainer! Just understand that it's a mistake we're naturally inclined to make, and overcome it with objective logic, not frustration. Just like your dog responds to calm, assertive energy, your mind will thrive if you treat yourself with understanding and reward your own good behavior, rather than beating yourself up when you miss a question.

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・【Formal Logic Perfect!】2010.02.17 (Wed)

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Posted By: Douglas R. Williams on April 14, 2010