We’ve been training Bruno, our puppy, to be quiet while being confined in his playpen. The training involves getting him to start whining (which doesn’t take much – just diverting our attention from him for a few moments) and giving him a “Quiet!” command. As soon as he stops barking, even for a few seconds, coming to him and giving some reward – a treat, a pet on the head, etc. It seems to be working, but the difficult part is consistency. I find that Bruno is particularly clinging and wants my attention when I really need to focus on something else.
A few days ago I was trying to practice violin-playing, while Bruno was sitting in the next room. I had an electronic tuner clipped to my music stand. It has a microphone and a display that shows the note being played. I noticed that Bruno’s whining spans an entire octave, from A to G#. The funny thing is that at one point I muttered a curse at him for not giving me a chance to play. I didn’t quite say what I wanted to, but the machine rather appropriately showed “F#” on the screen. Is it a sign of an AI?
