Animal Happiness

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff in here for those with patience
Review: As an ex-shepherd, I found Ms. Hearne was often right on the mark in describing the strange relationships one must develop with animals to effectively train them. She does a good job of describing the personalities of a wide variety of animals - especially in the first half of the book. Human language can feel terribly inadequate when talking about the minds of animals, but she manages to help you understand a particular dog or horse without getting too anthropomorphic.

Alas, the book has some very long and uninspired philosophical rants. These can be very repetitious. Sometimes Ms. Hearne seems infatuated with her own cleverness in using language than to have a serious concern about saying anything.

So this book has some nuggets in it if your willing to wade through the prolix.

Rating:
Summary: Dog is my Co-Pilot
Review: This is a fabulous book of essays on animal behavior and our humble, fumbling attempts to understand just what "animal happiness" entails. MS. Hearne is both an animal trainer and a philosopher and, in this book, as well as "Bandit" and "Adam's Task: Calling Animals by Name", she distinguishes herself as a quirky original thinker in both domains.

Rating:
Summary: Joy, philosophy, and fake feminism
Review: Vicki was a trainer and a philospher, so I expect rants from her about the nature of lagnuage, etc. As a writer, I actually enjoy them. In this book, however, she spends a bit too much time riding her favorite hobbyhorses, among them the defense of pit bulls and pit bull-type dogs and a sort of militant faux-feminism. "You have to understand, Annie [her pit bull] is a matriarchal sort of dog." Sorry, but to me this translates as "the kind of dog someone has taught to dislike men." There's also a reference to a dog who was perfectly within its rights for "escorting to the door" a man who bored its owner, "a lady." I guess (?) Vicki meant the man was inappropriately coming on to the "lady," in which case, if she were a woman and a true feminist, she would have been damned well capable of showing him the door herself.

The Josephine Trainer columns, while sometimes amusing and sad, are occasionally so angry and cynical that I can't tell what point Vicki meant to make by them.

When she isn't being cute, Hearne shows us some amazing portraits of wonderful animals and the humans they talk to in this book. There is much joy here. Her knowledge of respect for animals shine through, particularly in pieces like "The Case of the Disobedient Orangutans." There's a little anti-animal-rights bitterness here, but that's appropriate. Much of the piece is devoted to showing that orangs and people, if they are the right sort of people, can really communicate, enjoy each other's company, and be comedians together.

(Disclaimer: I was a veterinary technician for ten years and a horse owner for five. I never trained animals professionally, but I have some experience with them.)