When Harrison awoke the next morning, he went to see the dogs even before he took his shower. He really did love the dogs but that wasn't a hard thing as he had selected Scottish Highland Terriers for the program. They're small, smart and intensely loyal. Thus far they had worked out well and they were growing quickly.
"Good morning, pups," he greeted them and they greeted him with a variety of sounds, none of which were really words yet. Highland Terriers are not inclined to bark without reason anyway but these ones could not bark as that depends on the absence of a larynx. The dogs were learning the sounds they could make but really didn't know what to do with them yet.
Harrison took the dogs outside as his yard was fairly large and it was fenced so there was no need for putting any of them in harnesses. There was plenty of room for them to run about and he sat down happily to watch them while he sat on a chair on his patio. Again he reached for a cigarette and again he remembered he was quit. It was bothering him less and less but he had smoked for a long time and the habits die hard.
Instead of a cigarette, Harrison reached for a ball. He held it out in front of him and said clearly to the dogs, "Ball."
They ran toward him, clearly interested in it and responding with a variety of phonemes but nothing that yet resembled a word. They waited patiently until he threw it and then ran off in a tumble to fetch it when he threw it. Archie found the ball first and brought it back to him then dropped it in front of him.
Harrison said, again clearly, "Good," and then scratched Archie behind his ears. Maybe there has never been a dog who didn't like that and Archie was no different.
He continued the game for some while, knowing the dogs would never get tired of it. He was happy to do it until Roger, Penny, and Susan had a turn. And then he kept on doing it as giving the dogs time to run was as important to him as teaching them. All the while he spoke to them in single words, saying all of them as clearly as possible. He knew they understood the words as they're very smart dogs and he was fascinated to learn if they would ever be able to say them.
One thing about which Harrison was very careful was in any use of profanity. It would make headlines when the dogs started speaking and he was damned if they would start swearing. If the dogs let loose with any cuss words, the tabloids would grab that news and he would never hear the end of it. He wasn't so much concerned about his reputation but rather he hadn't devoted all these years of research to something that would become a joke in supermarket checkout lines.
He was also careful about saying God as everyone has heard that joke and his research was not going to go simply to affirm an old joke. He didn't have any particular religious beliefs but he would also never hear the end of it if the first word one of his dogs were to say was God.
The dogs weren't interested in him sitting around considering the implications of the vocabulary instruction and he took them inside to get them fed and watered. Later he would start the computer monitor that would display images and say the word associated with each one. He only ran it for thirty minutes at a time as the one thing dogs enjoy more than chasing balls is sitting around doing nothing. He was careful in the need to educate the dogs without driving them.
And so the day continued. The dogs sat around the living room with him as he called each of his research assistants. They used a code in case anyone was listening into the phone calls and from that he quickly found that all of the students were approaching the morning in the same way as he had done and things were starting out well.
He asked all of the students if any were running into complications with writing their PhD theses. All of them had completed their graduate work and the only thing remaining was the PhD defense so he didn't want this neglected. The research in which all had shared would easily justify a PhD for each of them but the process still had to be followed and he was pleased that it was coming along well for all of them.
There were some matters such as dental appointments, the need to shop for food, and the like but the students were gladly covering each other. They quickly worked out the timing for bringing the dogs back and forth so there were no concerns at all about how the day would proceed.
It was time then to begin the video instruction for the dogs and he began that while he did his own computer work. There was excitement over what was developing but still there was work to be done and he got down to doing it.
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