The Scientific Method

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.” 
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

The advice I regularly throw out to new teamsters is to drive all oxen singly, as an insurance policy against a team suddenly becoming a useless single ox due to injury or death, whenever you get them out to work.  

I do this on the way back to the paddock from the hitching post at a bare minimum, although these days I halter each animal and drive them to the hitching post as well.  The thinking is that they want to go back anyway, so the task is pretty well defined.  Plus, those few starts and stops, gees and haws, help reinforce each's individual performance.  

*Tangent alert* When I teach the scientific method to high schoolers in my psychology class I often use this coaching example:  If I completely revamp our training plan for the off season, adjust our weekly workouts during the season, book us at a new meet, move some runners from varsity to JV and vice-versa, and have a runner skip breakfast and then run a personal best, I'd have a hard time believing that her new socks she wore really are "lucky socks."  

In science, you change one variable at a time to determine its effect.  

The other night, since my son was home in the evening, I had him come out and film me walking Cassius back to the paddock, figuring it would be a good chance to shoot a tutorial on this for a Youtube series (thanks Jim Gronau for the idea!).

Normally, we work alone at home, the dog is inside, the teenager isn't following along behind, Cassius goes second (so he knows he's re-entering the paddock and he's re-entering his herd), and the flies are usually fewer.  

What if all of that changed?  Which thing would cause him to act up so badly? (see the video evidence)  Your guess is as good as mine.  The next night he was perfect when the routine was back to normal. 

I guess I'll have to adjust one thing at a time and see what is the effect.  Like a scientist.