Treat-Based Onboarding Programme
Desensitisation and positive-reinforcement protocol for the introduction of Test Article TA-3 to the interim garment (NOM-UC-1), for the mitigation of Risk R1 (subject removes the garment between exposures).
Distribution: none. This document has not been issued to the Client, because the Client did not request the appendices, and it has not been issued to the Division, because it presupposes the cooperation it is designed to produce. This circularity is noted and has not been resolved.
Why this document exists, and why it does not exist.
Risk R1 of the parent report is that the subject removes the garment between exposures. The Risk Register lists, as mitigation, “treat-based onboarding (see Annex C, not issued).” This annex is the document so referenced. It is the reason R1 exists as a risk with a mitigation: the mitigation cannot be applied, and a risk with an unavailable mitigation is a risk the Register is obliged to state in full.
The programme's purpose is to accustom the subject to the garment in gradual stages, using positive reinforcement, so that the garment remains on the subject for the duration of a deployment. The programme does not seek to make the subject like the garment. It seeks to make the subject indifferent to it, which the Division understands to be the more achievable objective, and the only one for which funding has been identified.
The treat, as specified.
The following criteria govern the selection of the treat. Criteria 1 through 4 are assessed by the subject. Criterion 5 is assessed by the Division, which concedes that this is the only criterion assessed by the Division.
- the treat must be palatable to the subject;
- the treat must be delivered by the handler, so that the association is with the handler, the session, and the garment, in that order;
- the treat must not be the subject's regular diet. The regular diet must remain the regular diet, or the programme loses its reference point;
- the treat must be divisible into increments, and subject to diminishing returns, so that the programme retains a lever;
- the treat must be within budget. Treats of the subject's own manufacture (prey items) are outside the scope of this programme and outside the budget, and have been refused on both grounds.
The Division has shortlisted two candidates: a commercially available dried fish product, and the contents of the Division's tea room biscuit tin. The biscuit tin has been withdrawn by the tea room, and the Division has declined to pursue the matter.
Six weeks, diminishing to whatever the subject allows.
The schedule below is progressive. Each week's success criterion must be met in full before the following week commences. The Division notes, for the record, that the schedule has not commenced, and that the record is the reason for this note.
| Week | Activity | Success criterion |
|---|---|---|
1 | Garment placed in the subject's environment, unoccupied, closure open. No contact is expected. Contact is not discouraged. | Subject and garment share a room. The garment need not be acknowledged. It should not be shredded. |
2 | Garment placed at the feeding station during regular meals. | Subject eats with the garment within line of sight. (The garment is not food. This must not need stating, but see Week 1.) |
3 | Treat delivered while the subject is within one metre of the garment. The treat is delivered to the subject, not to the garment. | Subject accepts treats within one metre of the garment on three consecutive sessions. |
4 | Fitting attempted, closure open. Treat delivered immediately on fitting and on removal. Session duration limited to the subject's tolerance. | Two successful fittings. Tolerance is expected to be brief. The programme accepts brief. |
5 | Fitted sessions extended in increments of ten seconds. | Sixty seconds' continuous fitting, subject present throughout, treats at ten- second intervals. |
6 | Garment worn for a full day in the trial enclosure. Treats at hourly intervals. Overnight wear is not required. | Subject presents the garment, worn, at the end of the day, and the day ends with the subject in the enclosure and the garment on the subject. |
On completion of Week 6, the programme is assessed as having secured an animal that will tolerate the garment for a working day. The Division has not modelled what happens to the garment at night, on the grounds that Week 6 has not happened, and the night is the subject's.
Escalation ladder, and the Division's position at each rung.
The programme anticipates that the subject may, at any point, decline to cooperate. This is not treated as a failure of the subject. It is treated as a data point, and the programme has a ladder for it. The ladder is reproduced in full so that the Division's position at each rung is on the record before the rung is reached.
| Level | Withdrawal of | Division response |
|---|---|---|
1 | Proximity: subject declines to enter the fitting room | Session postponed, not abandoned. The distinction is recorded so that the subject is not misled about the Division's intentions. |
2 | Proximity, sustained: subject declines to enter the fitting room for 48 hours | Schedule reviewed. Treat ration re-evaluated. The Division does not increase the ration. The Division has learned that the subject does not negotiate. |
3 | Engagement: subject present, but declines to accept treats | Investigation. The Division's working assumption is that the treats, or the handler, or the garment, is the difficulty, and that the subject knows which. |
4 | Presence: subject leaves the trial | Recovery procedure per Annex A, with the additional measure of not counting the recovery as a session, as the Division has learned that the subject counts. |
5 | Cooperation, total | The animal wins. The programme is discontinued. The subject is returned to the policyholder. The garment is retained for the record. The Division will not be held to have been outlasted; it will simply stop recording the sessions. |
The animal wins. This is the programme's terminal state. It is documented so that it is not mistaken for a level the Division has not yet reached.
The document's own position.
This annex is assessed as DRAFT, NOT ISSUED. It will remain unissued pending (a) the Client's request for the appendices, and (b) the Division's completion of Week 1, which has been attempted.
The programme requires the subject to cooperate with the programme in order for the programme to secure the subject's cooperation. This circularity is the document's central finding, and it has not been resolved. The Division notes that it is also, in miniature, the Client's difficulty: the Client requires a cat that is a cat, and a cat is what the programme is asking the subject to remain.
Should the Client request this annex, the Division will issue it, with the single amendment that the escalation ladder's terminal entry — “the animal wins” — be retained in full. The Division does not know how to say it more briefly, and has declined to say it more kindly.