Don't Shoot the Dog

This best-selling book, from the incredibly talented Karen Pryor, looks at behavior through a scientific and practical lens. When it comes to animals and humans, we aren’t that different in terms of our behavior and how it can be corrected positively. Through encouraging reinforcement, we can learn new ways of taking in and dealing with conflict in a more constructive way. I have found the methods suggested in this book extremely beneficial and have successfully incorporated them in my own life. 

One of the best books for training horses isn’t even a book about horses - at least not directly. Karen Pryor’s classic text translates the complexities of learning theory into clear, understandable language. Don’t Shoot the Dog introduced us to clicker training and started a revolution in animal training. It’s a fun read that will transform your training. It certainly transformed mine.  

I read Don’t Shoot the Dog for the first time in 1993. This is the book that sent me out to the barn with treats in my pockets to ask my horse what he thought about clicker training.… show more.

This book summarizes how both dogs, humans, and other species learn in a very understandable and interesting way. It’s a great book to start with no matter what type of training you want to do with your dog. I’d even say it’s a book for everyone to read, even if they don’t have dogs since several of the examples in the book focuses on human behavior – how to get rid of unwanted behavior, from sloppy roommates to barking dogs, training Olympic teams and how to buy gifts and give compliments.

Whether we are a human, dog, or fish: we all learn the same way. Karen Pryor, a behavioral scientist, and a brilliant animal trainer, teaches us how to create or change behavior in this “easy-to-read” and entertaining format. If you have a child who needs to learn a new skill or a dog who needs manners, this is the book for you! You must know how learning works before you can teach. We all learn the same way whether we are a human, a dog, or a kangaroo!

I chose this book because many of us take dog training classes… show more.

Karen Pryor has done more to popularize the application of Skinner’s ideas through “clicker training” than anyone else. In proof, this entertaining and eminently approachable book has been continually in print since 1984. Curiously, for a book that has been so influential among dog trainers, there is little in it about dogs outside of the title. Instead, Pryor, who began her career as a trainer of marine mammals, focuses on basic techniques for making anyone an eager learner. Whether it’s your teenager or your Doberman, the principles of positive reinforcement are the same: learning itself is a profound reinforcer. It… show more.