Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training

Don't Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training is much more than a training book for pets or animals. It is a book that will teach you how to change your own behavior, your children's behavior, your pets behavior, or even a sea lion's behavior. This book came highly recommended to me, or I probably would never have picked it up. The title certainly makes it look like just a dog training book, and most of the examples do relate to animals. However, this quick read is also a goldmine of the two best kinds of information: valuable and practical. The purpose of this book is to convince you that positive reinforcement is the best way to shape behavior. Chapter 2 lays out 10 Rules for Shaping. "Shaping consists of taking a very small tendency in the right direction and shifting it, one small step at a time, toward an ultimate goal." (35) These rules can help you do a variety of things for yourself and others. The personal examples that the author lists through her experiences training marine animals and teaching students hold your attention and are varied enough to appeal to everyone. Chapter 4 lists the eight methods that you can use to change behavior (the first is Shoot The Dog). These methods are comprehensive and will help you think about how you react to everyone around you. Each of the eight methods include a chart detailing various problems and how to use each method to change them. The problems that are tackled include a dirty roommate, noisy kids on a car ride, lazy employees, a faulty tennis swing, a spouse's bad mood, an ornery cat, and adult children that aren't self-sufficient. Intensely practical problems . . . this chapter will change the way you think about raising your kids. Just being able to visually compare punishment with seven other methods of behavioral change is eye-opening. These eight methods were the highlight of the book for me and helped to shed light on how my reactions were reinforcing negative behavior in others. They are: Shoot the animal Punishment Negative Reinforcement Extinction Train an incompatible behavior Put the behavior on cue Shape the absence Change the motivation The last two chapters detail more real world environments and how these lessons can be applied. The author also answers the objections raised by some that training is a form of brainwashing. She clearly lays out the facts in these chapters and shows that we are always training someone to do something. This book just helps us to be aware of how we are affecting others around us and what to do about it. This book is highly recommended. It is one that I will refer back to repeatedly in the future.

Karen Pryor is a terrific writer. This book is an excellent summary of the field of behavioral science, a field that is largely misunderstood. I certainly didn't appreciate its value until I read this truly excellent treatment of the topic. Before I read this book, I had a general bias against behaviorism. I had heard that some behavioral techniques had gotten good results for some types of mental problems, but it seemed inappropriate to apply such simplistic ideas to humans on a regular basis. Boy, was I wrong! Pryor explains in this slim, fun-to-read volume that behavioral science is real and important. Behavior has its own set of rules, and we are subject to them just as surely as we are subject to the laws of gravity (regardless of how well we understand either). Pryor understands these underlying principles very well, and has a wealth of knowledge about how to apply them. This short book covers so much! It provides an excellent overview of the laws that govern the behavior of all creatures. It gives us a short course in animal training, pointing out the differences among animals. (Training cats is very different from training dogs, training dolphins, Pryor's specialty, brings additional challenges, elephants are incredibly smart; there are some wonderful animal stories in this book.) And it's a really nice short course in how to apply the laws of behavior and the options for reinforcement to our own lives. Pryor makes it clear that much of our character and many of our actions are shaped NOT through language or understanding but through our experiences. Pryor's clear explication of exactly how this works gives us a new language to think with and to experiment with. It was really eye-opening to me. A better understanding of behavior and reinforcement gives us a whole new toolkit to explore. Both a realist and an optimist, Pryor writes absolutely delightful prose. It's uplifting and inspiring, which is pretty amazing for a book that also shows just how far we are from having a good shared understanding of this topic. This book makes a huge contribution toward rescuing an underappreciated body of knowledge.

I read the original book some years ago when I'd just started competitive obedience training with my dog. I thought it was about dog training. I've just finished the revised edition. The truth is it's about changing and shaping behaviour. Whether it be people; partners, children, students, yourself, or animals; dogs, cats, elephants, fish, dolphins, you name it, you can use the principles and techniques in this book to improve relationships and behaviours as well as to train specific skills. Karen Pryor's work is based on the work of BF Skinner who was a Harvard Professor and largely credited as being the father of behavioural psychology. Pryor's book, however is not some dry theoretical textbook. It's lively, entertaining and with many and diverse examples to inspire you to try out these techniques. It pushes the boundaries of behavioural conditioning (anchoring in NLP terminology) and what you can do with it and applies it to just about any context you can think of; from the way international governments relate to each other, to getting your teenager to keep his room tidy, to teaching a seal to talk! (Yes, really) A philosophy Pryor explains the philosophy behind the techniques and answers any questions you might have about `why' positive reinforcement works better than punishment in the majority of situations. While it isn't a step-by-step manual, I gleaned enough to teach my parrot, Shaggy to go to a box, pick up a stick, run through a tube with it and then deliver it to my hand. You can see a video of him doing this here [...]as well as a couple of videos of my puppy, Ragz who is also being taught with these methods. Pryor has created tables for the eight methods that can be used to get rid of a bunch of undesirable behaviours and explains the pros and cons of each one. It might be tempting, reading this review to think that the book is about manipulating people or animals. People attempt to manipulate others' behaviour anyway, often unsuccessfully by yelling, punishing, negative reinforcement or ignoring the behaviour (and seething inside!) The information in this book provides you with methodologies that make sense and that you can use immediately to achieve rapid results. I highly recommend you read it, put the principles and methodologies to use and notice how quickly the relationships improve with the people and pets you have in your life.

Karen Pryor's classic book on training dogs. Although I do not agree with her 100% she knows her stuff and has researched the science of training dogs and other animals. The book relies heavily on her training dolphins but is useful for training any animal according to this method. Every dog trainer needs to at least read this to see what they do not know and to see how animals learn!

"This book is about how to train anyone -- human or animal, young or old, oneself or others -- to do anything that can and should be done. How to get the cat off the kitchen table or your grandmother to stop nagging you. How to affect behavior in your pets, your kids, your boss, your friends. How to improve your tennis stroke, your golf game, your math skills, your memory. All by using the principles of training with reinforcement." That first paragraph from the foreword pretty much sums it up. The book is delightful to read. I'm not a behavioral scientist, but it seems like a reasonably thorough introduction to training through reinforcement and shaping. It has helped me better train our dogs, and clarified my understanding of what actually is going on in the training process. I really like her systematic approach to the material, with definitions and examples. She includes a little background -- the"Clever Hans" phenomenon, the contributions of B.F. Skinner, her own background with marine mammals, the traditional punitive approach to animal training. The book is not exclusively about training dogs; she doesn't address dominance (except as an explanation for the prevalence of punishment in society) or pack psychology. She does clearly explain reinforcers, aversives, markers and the importance of timing, stimulus control, methods ("recipes") vs. principles, variable schedules, behavior chains, successive approximation (shaping), etc. Particularly valuable for me are the rules of thumb about reinforcer size, the "Ten Laws of Shaping," the "Training Game," and the concept of backwards chaining. Perhaps controversially, the book advocates using operant conditioning to improve the behavior of one's fellow humans. This struck me as manipulative, but I think I'm starting to agree with Pryor. Operant conditioning ultimately is a tool for communicating. There are clearly occasions when it is a more effective and efficient way to communicate than discussion or argument.

Must read for dog owners and dog learners. This is a must read.

The phrase, "don't shoot the dog" turns out to be figure of speech pertaining to Pryor's teaching philosopy. Like most reviewers I bought this book thinking it had more to do with training dogs than it does. The book references dog training in places, to illustrate the application of many of the principles Pryor discusses. I believe her theory has been adopted by many dog behavior shapers and trainers, and I have found the principles effective with my rescued 8-month old dog. It takes a ton of patience to apply the principles of positive reinforcement and disregarding bad behavior, as a subtle form of punishment via witholding rewards. But, what I really need is a dog-training book that is specific, linear and concise, with both a step-by-step agenda and specifics about measuring progress before proceeding to the next level in solidifying a desired behavior. A better book that is also a bit more verbose than I'd like, is Grisha Stewart's "Ahimsa Dog Training Manual," but it must be read cover-to-cover before beginning the program of training a dog. If a qualified dog trainer ever comes out with a really concise guide to employing this philosophy with dogs (not horses, not humans, not dolphins!) I will be first in line to own a copy because, just as with dogs and all other creatures, humans need to practice and review the lessons repeatedly to not only learn them, but to keep them fresh in the mind. What I want, I guess, in a simple outline that is easy to refer back to when I get stuck or confused. Last note: Pryor lost my faith in her when she mentions she euthanized a cat whose indoor behavior bewildered her. To me, that is not what animal lovers do - - cats, especially, can become outdoor pets though their chances will be reduced, but to simply slaughter an adopted pet is appalling to me.

It's an easy read. I haven't finished it, but I've already taught my ~1 year old bloodhound puppy more commands than I thought was possible for a scent hound: sit (she already had that one), down, up (stands all the way up), come (voice command), com (whistle), "go lie down" (goes to a designated spot and stays. Well, doesn't stay long enough). Also I've taught here to ring a bell to be let out, the beginnings of finding an article by smell, catch and fetch (my older bloodhound wouldn't even try those, but he is catching onto some of the simpler behaviors as well). Some of the behaviors are rough around the edges, but much better than I expected. The author even sites examples where people have trained cats. Overall, the book has helped me understand training much better, including how to use a clicker, how to motivate and shape behavior.

Good read.

Perfeito! Um livro fácil de ler e compreender. Vários exemplos em situações com humanos e cães. Só é preciso tomar cuidado com algumas coisas que ainda era aceitável na época em que o livro foi escrito e que já não se faz mais (spray de água em gatos por ex).

Ce livre très intelligent aborde sous un angle très pratique les méthodes d'apprentissage tel que le conditionnement opérant. L'auteur prend comme exemple ses expériences de dresseuse de dauphins et de chiens. C'est à mon avis le meilleur livre sur le renforcement positif et les différentes manières de l'utiliser.

I was having problems with the behaviour of my dogs but kept bypassing this book due to the title. I kept thinking well they’re not THAT bad! I finally purchased it and it is a real treasure. While it only has a small section with practical training tips, it has a wealth of information about the world of positive training. For those you want to learn about the world of positive reinforcement and how it can be used to create an amazing bond with your dog this book is a must have.

Páginas de péssima qualidade, parece papel de jornal, só que mais fino, fiquei totalmente decepcionado, pois é um livro pequeno e caro.