Zoomie Contest Results: Lewis Was Running Away from Poop

The results are tabulated! I don’t do clickbait, so I’ll tell you here at the beginning that Clip A was the escape clip (see the post title), and Clip B was the “automatic reinforcement” (and possible social reinforcement) clip. Most people picked B as the escape clip, for excellent reasons/observations.

Observations and Interpretations

I was super pleased and impressed that every single person who entered the contest included an astute observation. Every entrant took the question seriously and wrote down something they noticed. And people noticed all sorts of things that I hadn’t. For instance, that the ground looked wet in one clip and not in the other.

Two of the people who chose Clip A noted his lowered tail carriage. That was a good tell for him, but it’s so dog-dependent! Because I know him, I can recognize that as possibly meaning, “Something’s wrong with my butt!” Good catch, you two!

Many people found it significant that Lewis headed toward me at the end of Clip A and drew various conclusions from that. That was my bad. I tried to make the clips of similar lengths and had to edit Clip B a lot since it was longer and had some pretty obvious “tells” in it. I didn’t want to edit down Clip A much. But leaving in that approach was a mistake, since Lewis approached me at the true end of Clip B as well.

The other thing I regret relating to Clip B was using the words joy and eustress vs. distress. I should have stuck with “automatically reinforced.” Lewis was certainly having some kind of fun in the non-escape clip, but if I’m going to draw conclusions about his inner state, I think I would’ve been more accurate to call it “bratty fun” than “joy.” You’ll see that when you look at the whole clip.

Finally, many people noticed the tension in his face in Clip B and named that the escape clip. He did indeed have a lot of tension in his face. That is typical for him in any aroused situation. And if we speculate further, this could also have been a less obvious “escape” clip, in the sense that when running, he might have been seeking relief from social pressure, for instance.

Here’s a photo of Lewis with a tense face.

I could never use it for a contest, because no one could guess what activity was going on. Lewis and I were doing our greeting routine after I got home. He is a frenzied greeter. For greetings, I guide him to the back of the couch, where he can get up to my face level. It’s clear he is very, very glad I am home. But he gets aroused, so his face looks like this some of the time.

I have observed tension in his face in many situations that likely have a positive emotional valence. The question in my mind is why his face is comparatively relaxed in the poop clip.

The Clips

Here are the full clips that the shortened ones for the contest came from. Well, almost full because I didn’t show the poopy butt.

Link to the video for the email subscribers.

Function of Behavior

One reason I chose to make a contest from these two clips is that I could determine, with a fair amount of accuracy, what the function of the running was in one clip, the escape clip. Before he started running, he had pooped, then dragged his butt on the ground and mouthed at his rear with growing agitation. I saw the poop on his butt. So, I felt I could safely state that he was either trying to dislodge the poop (escape) or running from the sensation (escape). He had actually done this same routine a few times in the past. He stopped running when the poop was dislodged. But he didn’t succeed on his own this time. He approached me and let me clean up his butt. I am circumspect about declaring function, but this one was visible.

The clip that I determined was non-escape was more of a reach on my part. I should have stuck with calling it automatic reinforcement, since that can be positive or negative. And I believe it had a strong social aspect. Some people mentioned he was “orbiting” the area where I was. Great observation! Also, two other dogs were with me. In the full clip, you’ll see that he both started there and ended there by the hole in the ground. He didn’t dig this time, but loved to dig in that hole, especially when Clara had been digging, then go tearing around the yard.

The Winners!

Out of 31 entries, 5 guessed the correct clip (A). If nobody had, I would’ve given up contests for good. (I might anyway!) I used the Wheel of Names to pick two winners; they are Amy B. and Bonnie T.

I have emailed you two!

Thanks to everyone who entered. You are all astute observers!

Copyright 2025 Eileen Anderson

Related Posts