Thinking about psychology.

I’m still not totally clear what psychologists do; except for listening to people and charging for the experience. It’s nice when someone listens and, I’m told, psychologists don’t just listen, they talk a little and offer suggestions from various books. We recently met a former psychology student who was very keen to help people but found the detailed study of statistics to be a considerable impediment.

The reason psychology comes to mind on this particular day is presently basking in the sun on the decking. Jazz has an intermittent psychological barrier to climbing stairs; she’ll get to the first landing then hesitate and can go no further. Last summer, when I told the vet about this problem, she joyfully ruffled Jazz’s ears and said, “Ooh, you’re psychological!” in the same way that someone would say, “Ooh, you’re a lovely dog!” Having owned a dog for a while, I understand a little about dog psychology. I’ve tried placing her food bowl at the top of the stairs, without success as she struggled yet failed to step off the landing. I’ve carried her up the stairs on several occasions and 26 kilograms of wiggling labrador is a very difficult load to manage... and of course, doing it for her doesn’t solve the problem. The solution is to do a “reset”: go downstairs, play for a while, say the word “hungry” which causes her to jump and bump into my shoulder, then say “up”, quickly go inside via the garage and close the door. That’s the usual queue for her to run up the outside stairs. Today it took two “resets” but eventually worked a treat. Perhaps a detailed knowledge of statistics would reveal a better way to solve the problem but I doubt it. Some barriers are there and we just have to work out a way to go around them.