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I first heard the name of Karen Pryor from a good
friend who had worked with her some years ago. John told me several
memorable stories about her, then, novel approach to training marine
mammals. Because you can’t easily give a porpoise a pat and a
good girl, when a new behavior is mastered, a whistle is used as a
positive reinforcement from a distance. First you associate that
sound with food, then later the sound itself becomes a reward. When
I decided to take my own dogs’ training to the next level, Pryor’s book
was the first resource that I sought out.
This book will not teach you how to clicker
train your dog. That’s not its intent. Don’t shoot the Dog is
more accurately described as a philosophical treatise on the approach and
world view underlying clicker training. Herein lies its greatest
strength - the clear way it goes behind the technique to explain the
underlying philosophy. She carefully ties the approach back to B. F.
Skinner and the behaviorists, which provides a sense of scientific
continuity. Her anecdotes are intriguing and well written
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I recommend this book especially for those who have
not yet begun to train their pets. The best time to decide on your
philosophical approach is before the first successful sit-stay. Like good
teachers everywhere, dog trainers (i.e., you) need to be comfortable with
their own style. Furthermore, some teaching styles work better with some
students (i.e., your pet) than with others (i.e., your neighbors pet). I
agree with Jon Katz Kats on Dogs, find your style, your philosophy,
and then begin to train.
Read it once, maybe twice; decide whether the
approach is for you and for your dog. And, if you decide that it is, then,
and only then, pursue clicker training technique. For me, the approach was
quite different and very appealing. In fact, the week after I
finished Pryor’s book, I ordered a clicker and enrolled in an online
clicker training class. The class is good, but like so many of them, it’s
very applied, like recopies in a cookbook. Don’t Shoot the Dog
provided me with an invaluable working knowledge of the theory behind
clicker training.
Bob and Hannah, November 2005.
Also published at
Amazon.com
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