The Dog As Specifier

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Author Message Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT Senior Member Username: rliebing Post Number: 1357 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 08:48 am:    121114 THE DOG AS SPECIFIER by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT Cincinnati, OH “WOOF”! Bow-Wow! or “ARF”, as your dog may choose! Clear; concise; complete; correct-- Good Lord, the dog is a Specifier!!! No preamble; no opening act; no trumpeted entrance; no front-end; no introduction-- it’s a prompt and valid response! And if those nearby are smart, they will transfer the bone, or open the door for the dog/specifier. We can learn a lot from that interaction Age, and locale cause much the same type of responses; “yup and nope”; “depends”; “I don’t knoooow” [remember Pa Kettle?]. Movie [and maybe real life] cowboys talk like that [Eastwood, Fonda, Wayne, etc.]. Verbosity [yes, I did look that one up] and spec writer are or should be mutually exclusive! Of course, in keeping with the 4 Cs. But looking at our canine friend again, we see unequivocal answers-- no hesitation; certainly unbiased; pointed; certainly imperative. Problem is there is no written record! The bark response is there-- then gone! Now some dogs through training can sniff out drugs and even cadavers, but we need one to sniff out construction defects-- to enforce the specifications! Well, there are some that can track wrong-doers so there appears to be some possible help right there. Another problem is the lack of construction knowledge and how to put buildings together. From a cause and effect angle the dog works, but anything subjective or decisive we lose ‘em! Too bad but they just are cut toward right and wrong and don’t care to deal with grayed shades between. And then of course, until some harm comes to the dog, he is friend forever-- something that, in construction, cuts both good and bad. We do need that business sense. The dog can establish territory but the “puddle” will never replace the batter board-- too impermanent! The dog would have no hesitation in project meetings to fall asleep if bored-- but will immediately react to any raised voices or other adverse “signal”. The dog, too, prefers the come-and-go door, much like the doorless cubicle! But in the end the dog just speaks well to a point but not to enough points. His/her specifications claim to fame is the sharp, clear response-- a lesson to be learned! So we say stuff like “Paint walls”-- some of you REALLY like that kind of talk!!! But what if we say, “Paint vertical walls”? Boy, oh boy, those of you who can still jump will leap ‘pon that six times over; but hold on!!! This is a “gotcha” because---- on this project some walls were set with lasers and are askew-- and to be finished differently from them vertickle walls!! Gotcha! Much like the dog-- a clear crisp response! But then, like with dogs you have to watch out for those “extraneous circumstances”-- uuhhhh, you know what I mean!