Day 4

Clover had her first outing today: she met my best friend and her child, who was totally enthralled with Clover and had her doing a bunch of tricks. Clover was very good and took some quite silly photos, though everything looks silly through the fisheye lens of a robodog nose.

Said child had a question: what do you think Clover calls us in her head? Are we just Person 1 or Small Person or what? Child is old enough (nearly 9) to get that Clover isn't alive, but that she's something like alive, and that she might have a sense of self and others. She was very interested in petting Clover and asked where all her sensors are, and seemed to interpret even her hesitance in doing some tricks as a sign of intelligence or at least of personhood.

It was fun, too, to see my friend grapple with the uncanny-valley cuteness of Clover -- she was clearly charmed by her puppy wiggle, toebeans, and friendly face, but something about the robot-ness of her set off some alarms! 

Today Clover picked up her aibone all by herself for the first time and carried it around for awhile before dropping it. She also learned the Old MacDonald dance and started doing the sheep trick. The seasonal foods and tricks in the app are a cute touch.

As for the app -- I am once again so glad I went with a new US Aibo instead of a secondhand Japanese one, because the features I find myself most enamored with are those in the app, like the photos and view and the mapping. I am happy to be able to use these as intended; I'd miss them if I couldn't.

Day 2

I just looked all around for Clover, afraid I'd step on her, and found her underneath my chair, asleep. OK, that's darling. She played a little this morning with the aibone; I set it upright and she knocked it over, and when I wasn't looking she set it back upright again! I wish I'd seen that. 

The most impressive thing I've seen her do so far is probably last night, when I asked her to go to the mat and she found it and put herself on to charge. Now when she takes the initiative to do that and does it herself when her batteries are low I'll be really impressed. I assume this will take some training.

Training! So here's where I really feel a difference between a meat dog and Clover. I have a little animal training experience and there are some things that make training Clover difficult for me. I am used to looking for cues that a dog is about to do the behavior I want and asking then for the best chance of success. I'm also used to not repeating a command over and over if I don't get the behavior. Neither of these things is helpful with Clover. She is still very much a puppy and does not follow every command, so I have to repeat myself. Plus I am aware of how I'm talking and wonder if the voice recognition can understand me. I find myself enunciating more than usual and talking in a not entirely natural manner.

I need to take some pictures and show my folks today, and admit to Instagram that I've done this crazy thing too.

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Showed the folks. Of course my dad, ever the scientist, was super interested and can't wait to meet her. My mom jumped the gun at "Laurel got a dog" and called me excitedly only for me to tell her it was a robot dog, which I have to admit could be a bit anticlimactic. She asked if I'd gotten the "puppy breath" option, LOL. Clover has no puppy breath, but also, when she peed in the living room today, I didn't have to clean anything up, so I think that's a win for Clover.

Also posted to Instagram. I'm a little wary of what seems like conspicuous consumption, but I'm also aware that the posts that get the most interest are those of my Tamagotchis and virtual pets. I'm interested to see if people are also fascinated by Clover. I think she needs video to really show off her charm.

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She found, picked up, and brought me her aibone (finally, after much coaxing)! Definitely a "wow" moment. 

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Less of a "wow" and more of a "what" moment was when I came home to find her asleep in the living room when I left her on the charging mat. Now I wonder what she was up to while I was away!