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Title: Don't Shoot the Dog! : The New Art of Teaching and Training by KAREN PRYOR ISBN: 0-553-38039-7 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 03 August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (56 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: I've just read most of the new version.
Comment: All of the reader reviews currently on the page deal with the first edition. I just received the new edition.

First, for those who are looking for a cook book to solve specific problems, this may not be it -- as a response to people who felt mislead by the title.

This ISN'T a dog training book, what it is, is a manual and a philosophy for solving the problems in your life caused by other's behavior, whether it is your husband, your children, your pets, or your co-workers.

The new edition brings in our new research and our ideas. Anecodotes are more relative and talk about people we all know and have met through the click-l list and other internet interactions.

This is definately the definitive book on behavior modification, and it is infinitely readable.

Good job Karen!

Rating: 5
Summary: Amazing insight into behavior modification
Comment: In this book, Karen Pryor writes very clearly and effectively about the power of positive reinforcement (rewards) to modify behavior. Although it is not, as others have noted, a practical guide to training or modifying specific behaviors, it provides the necessary foundation-understanding of the theory behind the methods that will make the reader better at using the methods. As a professional dog trainer, I recommend this book to every pet owner - and to everyone else who wishes to modify behavior, whether that's the behavior of a pet, a person, or themselves!

Rating: 5
Summary: Now: Someone that actually read the book
Comment: Believe me when I tell you that those that criticized this book never read it and integrated its principles. Instead, these are people that might have vast experience with different systems that give them good results. The techniques they use have become second nature to them. They conclude: my system is different, my system works, therefore every thing else is crap. One reviewer rambled about how it mainly applies to dolphins because they are confined to a tank. The kindest thing I can say about him is that he never read DON'T SHOOT THE DOG. If he did, I would have to insult his reading comprehension. Little of what he rants about is even in the book. Instead of ranting about hearsay on the somewhat different topic of clicker training, allow me to tell you about "Don't Shoot the Dog". This book teaches far reaching techniques with universal application. I have trained dogs, horses, and wild caught birds of prey (which were flown free daily not confined to pools or tanks). Though I understand alpha dog training, use negative reinforcement, and have employed many successful techniques, this is one of my all time top 10 books on any subject and it is a MUST READ even for those that will never own a pet. Karen Pryor was in fact a trainer at Sea World but contrary to the title this book is not about the specifics of animal training. It is instead a handbook on behavioral modification complete with an introduction written by B.F. Skinner, the father of behavioral psychology. While he was not a man without faults, he was a huge contributor to some profoundly simplified techniques for modifying behavior. While an easy read (one long afternoon) the power of this book lies in studying the principles and then training yourself to modify behavior. In an entraining and practical manner Karen explains a principle, explains its applications and LIMITATIONS and then gives a scenario that illustrates how to apply this principle with an animal, an adult, and a child. A lay person soon learns that most instinctive responses to unwanted behavior are non productive. We have many roles in life and it is a rare person in which some of these roles don't require us to influence behavior. While people are not animals, behavior modification is behavior modification and we all use it. Unfortunately, more often than not we make critical mistakes that result in the opposite result we want and expect. I read this book 10 years ago. As soon as I did I wished I had read it about 25 years sooner. It brought greater success to training at opposite ends of the animal kingdom. It worked on free flying wild birds of prey that are not social creatures and interpret any negative reinforcement as a death threat. These wild animals can easily leave the trainer and return to the wild to fend for themselves. They get this chance every day. In fact it is nothing but unnatural that they will return from being a tiny speck in the sky just from operant conditioning and positive reinforcement. More amazing, they can be properly trained to do this within 10 days of being trapped from the wild, so much for the hilarious comment about it won't work on things that can run loose like dogs. Speaking of dogs, I have used it on Setters and Springer's not to mention a very strong willed, male Jack Russell Terrier, with a well developed alpha dog mentality. Karen never implies that negative reinforcement is not a legitimate tool. She simply fine tunes its use, timing, and consistency to give you an even more powerful tool. The principles in this book have greatly enhanced what was decades of successful training. Finally, don't under estimate these principles when it comes to inter- personal relationships. If you do, you missed a great part of what makes this a must read.

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