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Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Pryor
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $6.50
Buy Used: $0.39
You Save: $6.11 (94%)
New (4) Used (25) Collectible (3) from $0.39
Rating:  112 reviews
Sales Rank: 754197
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0553253883
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.85
EAN: 9780553253887
ASIN: 0553253883
Publication Date: September 1, 1985
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Standard used condition.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Whatever the task, whether keeping a four-year-old quiet in public, housebreaking a puppy, coaching a team, or memorizing a poem, it will go fast, and better, and be more fun, if you know how to use reinforcement."--Karen Pryor.
Now Karen Pryor clearly explains the underlying principles of behavioral training and through numerous fascinating examples reveals how this art can be applied to virtually any common situation. And best of all, she tells how to do it without yelling threats, force, punishment, guilt trips--or shooting the dog. 8 methods for putting an end to all kinds of undesirable behavior. The 10 laws of "shaping" behavior--for results without strain or pain through "affection training." How to combat your own addictions to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, overheating or whatever, how to deal with such difficult problems as a moody spouse, an impossible teen, or an aged parent. Plus. . .House training the dog, improving your tennis game, keeping the cat off the table, and much more!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 107 more reviews...
 Good Foundation and Approach, but clicker gadget an unnecessary add-on December 20, 2008
C. Ponder (Wisconsin)
I've been a professional dog trainer and instructor for 30 years. Pryor does an excellent job setting forth the research and reasoning behind reinforcement training and behavior shaping; she's articulate and clear and fun to read.
My issue is with the clicker gadget itself. ***If a handler has developed the eye and timing that enables him/her to implement these techniques successfully, an appropriately chosen verbal cue meets the need quite effectively.*** There is no need for the clicker gadget. It's just another bit of litter cluttering up the handler's hands. In my training hall experience, novice handlers too often conclude that clicker training is an 'easy gimmick' method for dog training. They screw around confusing the dog and losing his attention all together by using the clicker inappropriately, while failing to acquire the basic leash-handling and body language techniques that would have better served them.
 Dont' Shoo the Dog ---best book about training dogs, yourself and those around you! October 30, 2008
B. J. De Bruine
Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training
Best book I've ever read. Applications for life as well as dog training. Wish I had read it before I raised kids!
Excellent overview of applied operant conditioning as communication July 13, 2008
M. Malveaux (Tacoma, WA US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"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.
Easy as far as Learning Theory Goes July 6, 2008
V. Boyd
I liked this book better than all the other learning theory books. Although she does teach the scientific jargon which is important to know, the author explains learning theory in terms/analagies that the layperson can easily understand.
webDogTrainer.com review June 26, 2008
Julie Bjelland Lokhandwala
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a dog trainer this was one of the required reading materials when I first started at Guide Dogs for the Blind. I think it is a good idea to read many different kinds of training guides as I find myself using positive only training methods.
-Julie the online dog trainer from www.webDogTrainer.com
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