Automatic Pellet Dispenser

You might also be able to convert dry food dispensers...

but you still have the automation problem.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

...

I don't think that paint ball gun would count as positive reinforcement

It would positively have an effect that is not positive.

Good idea! The automation part's the easy part, I think. This thread has produced a number of useful ideas that I'll pursue when this last batch of snow and ice melts off!

-- Bobby G.

As we've found out, some dogs are nearly immune to discipline of any kind, believing that anything that happens to them (time outs, scoldings, treat witholding, etc) is part of some great, fun game. Dogs that have been abandoned quite young and are emotionally isolated seem to be in this category. If the paintballs were Snausage flavored I know at least one of the dogs probably wouldn't mind! Most (small) dogs cower when I raise my voice and lower my pitch and bellow "Bad DOG!" Sprocket just wagged his tail. Rascal, on the other hand, takes a scolding with a hang-dog look that Ted Kennedy might give if you called him a Republican!

-- Bobby G.

A shaded pole motor makes almost no noise. There is nothing you are going to find quieter, other than magic. Deffinately less than the mechanism from a toy. Think of an old electric clock.

Deffinately less than the gears in a power screwdriver.

And already AC powered but there's not a one of them in my junkpile! I haven't owned a dial clock in 20 years.

-- Bobby G.

I would avoid 120V AC unless these are mounted in a location where the puppies cannot possibly get at them.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

The entire unit would be mounted way above the crates and in something chewproof like an old toolbox. Also powered by GFCI outlets, but a good reminder nonetheless.

It turns out from the folks on one of the dog lists that all I need to do is to associate a unique tone to daily treat rewards. At night, I wouldn't have to actually dispense a treat to reward the dog, they *should* feel rewarded when they hear the tone.

It would be a lot easier to manage toning with the busload of salvaged PC speakers and pocket voice recorders and MP3 players I have. I have than with a treat dispenser that's going to have noise, reload, jamming and other issues. I am dubious about a dog accepting a tone as the equal of a sliver of dried chicken or a kibble but it's worth a shot. It also gives me a chance to experiment with different tones for different dogs to see if they "tune out" tones that don't "belong" to them.

All of this effort is directed toward keeping dogs that don't sleep soundly from disturbing the ones that do and having them all wake up in a howl fest at 3AM. So far, we have been *very* lucky that hasn't occurred often. I look at the IR video recordings to see who the instigator was and try to figure out how to arrange the crates to keep the peace. There's always one dog bent on breaking it . . . (-:

-- Bobby G.

Is that the same theory that says all of us *should* feel warm all over when we read about another tax cut for Rupert Murdoch? ;)

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Since you'll have to put them all in sound-proof booths (to avoid

*rewarding* undeserving miscreants) you don't need to worry about the noise made by the dispenser. ;)

snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

I doubt that you can control the ON time of a motor accurately enough without periodic recalibration/resetting with X-10 alone to be able to depend on having the slot/hole align at each command.

One solution is to use a reversible motor that can tolerate being stalled and sending an ON that is plenty long enough to get the stopcock/whatever to fully turn in one direction. Then reverse the motor to reload ( eg, CW = load; CCW = unload). The motors can be reversible DC and powered from wallwarts or battery. There's lottsa low-voltage, geared down DC motors on the electronics surplus market that don't make much noise.

Do you have any pictures of the wheelchair turntable that was discussed in cha at length?

How many watts does your refrigerator use? And what was the solution implemented after all that discussion?

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

More like the warm feeling we get from realizing the best Congress can do to fight global warming is to harass citizens with an extension of DST!

-- Bobby G.

From what I've experienced so far, only the "awake" dog hears us moving around upstair at night. I was experimenting with playing ring tones from my new phone to the "pack" last night and at least one dog reacted to a tone that the others mostly ignored. Unfortunately, it was a bad reaction (she started whimpering piteously) and I believe it's because she associated the sound with the vet's office, where she gets periodic poking, prodding and pushing that's not to her liking.

-- Bobby G.