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Summary: It's more than a book about dogs!
Review: Suzanne Clothier tricks us. We think we are merely picking up a book that will help us "deepen our relationships with dogs". But in fact, Ms. Clothier has a parallel goal: to help us deepen our relationship with ourselves and our co-members of the human race. This reader feels she has been very successful with both ambitions. She is insightful. She is unafraid to use her own mistakes and misunderstandings as a powerful tool to help teach us to think in different ways. She is articulate but very available in her writing. She does a wonderful job in asking us to "See the dog," and to learn some powerful lessons from our Best Friends. If you already feel a connection to your canine companions, if you call yourself "an animal person rather than a people person", if you are thinking about getting your first dog, please read the book. Your relationship with your dog friends will be the better for it.
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Summary: More than a philosophy of dog training...
Review: I bought Suzanne Clothier's newly released "Bones Would Rain from the Sky" because I love, own, & train dogs. I'm not sure what I expected to find in this book, but I got a great deal more than I could have possibly anticipated.I thought to read yet another well respected trainer's viewpoint on dogs, perhaps. What I got was a mind and soul expanding journey. Suzanne writes with startling self-honesty, but with great wit and a beautiful ability to communicate via the written word. What I found was page after page of pointers toward Truth (with a deliberate capital 't'). If you love animals ... be prepared with kleenex box on hand for she surely can move you to tears. But, also be prepared for many more occasions of smiles and outright laughter. Most of all, be prepared to find your own philosophy toward dog training, as well as dog-human and human-human relationships challenged to be the best you can be.
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Summary: How lucky am I?
Review: In 1998, when I met my husband-to-be, his household included a beautiful German Shepherd. They were a package...marry the man, marry the dog, and so I did. I came to love her as if she was mine all along. We lost our dear girl last summer at 14 years of age...she just didn't have the heart to go on anymore. The months without her passed slowly. Our home wasn't complete without this grand dog. Three weeks ago, we made a 10-hour round trip to an idyllic, remote farm in New York to pick up a puppy, our old girl's great-great-nephew. Why this story in a book review? Suzanne Clothier bred both our dogs. The care she takes in her breeding program is reflected in the care with which she's written the book. Suzanne is a rare talent, infinite in her wisdom and love of dogs. This book moved me to tears, and made me laugh so hard I cried even more. Suzanne...thank you, thank you...for your insight, your commitment to the German Shepherd breed, and for my two friends, Troya and Cash. You're a blessing to all of us with canine children.
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Summary: Informative, enlightening, inspiring...
Review: When I first acquired my 2 1/2 year old Canaan Dog Ty (who, thank God had been socialized and trained since puppyhood by a former owner who trains in addition to her full-time job), I did a lot of reading of every behavior and training manual I could get my hands on. Canaan Dogs are a natural breed who are bred from wild pariah dogs in Israel and have only been domesticated for about 65 years. To say that they take a special awareness and handling is an understatement but the rewards are worth it! Many of the articles I read on the Internet during that time period were by Clothier, and I found them not only helpful but validating the way I view my relationship to animals...they are not things, but beings who deserve respect and love. I want Ty to do things for me because we have a partnership within which I am the leader but also has room for respect on both sides. When I saw this book, I knew I had to see what Clothier would have to say on a larger scale...and I was not disappointed. The book does not teach specific behaviors or a training style, instead it unfolds the beatiful possibilities that can happen between a dog and his or her handler when there is a solid, trusting relationship built first as a foundation for everything that you want to follow as a result of it. I also love that Clothier talks about the God in dog...the element of spirituality that animals can bring to our lives...regardless of religious belief or doctrines...is something I deeply believe in. In fact I am quite known for telling people that Ty and my two feline daughters Stevie and Peaches are my tangible evidence that there indeed is a higher power in this world and that if you struggle with that concept and you are an animal lover, think about the way that animal loves you and accepts you no matter what and you will have a pretty good idea of how much we are loved by our creator...whatever discipline that concept happens to fall in for you. I also think Clothier brings great balance in recognizing and pointing out the ways in which dogs are indeed dogs and capable of powerful and frightening behavior. This is not a book about animals being better than people or smarter than people, etc. It is a book about dogs being dogs and how we can listen better to them, treat them better and in turn be treated better by them. Clothier mentions several times the concept of the "covenant of the collar"...and that to me is what it is between me and Ty...when I brought him into my home, I entered a covenant to provide for him as I would any other being that depends on me. This book is a comprehensive guide to living up to that covenant fully. I can't recommend this book enough...not just as an insight to how we need to treat animals but to treat other human beings and ourselves. Thank you Suzanne!
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Summary: Bones Would Rain from the Sky
Review: If there was ever a "four paws" stamp of approval for a book...this is it! Suzanne Clothier presents a refreshing look at the power of establishing a mutually trusting, loving and respectful relationship with our companion dogs. Suzanne is well known for her holistic attitude towards training and caring for our canine friends. She shamelessly presents anecdotal data after anecdotal data detailing the partnerships we can form with dogs if we only will open our hearts along with our minds...and accept that our dogs are willing and quite often more forgiving partners in that journey to a deep, sensual, mutually productive relationship. Suzanne is not afraid to romanticize our relationships with dogs; recognizing training as at least equally an art...a connection welded with love...not merely a scientific endeavor. From the first sentence I was hooked..."My only mistake was licking her knee." Suzanne's own admittance of modeling a dog's behavior as a little girl under the family dinner table! ( Such pureness of heart...not unlike a puppy) A little girl striving to feel what she could only guess a dog would feel in the same situation. Sadly, as learned adults, we often place little significance in this child within us...Suzanne in her descriptions of many case histories, gives us "permission" to be childlike in our relationship process with our dogs. (Childlike as in open, non-judgmental, and free of ulterior motives) This attitude of putting one's self in the "paws" of our dogs prevails throughout the book. The emphasis is placed on understanding your dog's wants and needs...holistically...mentally and physically...and making the connection. There are many trainers out there who subscribe to the "just train it" attitude...the purely clinical, scientific approach. To them , I say, light a fire in the fireplace...pour a glass of wine or hot cocoa... snuggle with your dog...and read this book. The story you will read may very well be the best love story ever! There are many books describing the importance of relationship building as a training tool...none send it home to the extent that Suzanne has in "BONES." Thank you! Suzanne!
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Summary: I was so disappointed, let down
Review: Prior to reading this book I had read quite a few articles of Suzanne Clothier's and they were excellent, so my anticipation and expectations of it were high. 297 pages later, all I felt was disappointment. This book could so easily have been condensed down to less than half this.
(Just to alert some of you, this book is not a how-to guide for raising, training, competing, or just plain living w/ your dog. Although you can gather bits of info about these subjects from the examples/stories she offers.)
Even so, I found it to be very unfulfilling. Suzanne never gets into the mechanics of training your dog. She will target a problem but offer no full solution to that problem and for those (like me!) who have read virtually everything out there dog-related it offered nothing new. I felt I was given jumbled glimpses of Suzanne Clothier's life w/ dogs.
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Summary: A wole new outlook....
Review: As a first time dog owner, I have alot to learn. This book came highly recommended by a local trainer, and I can't believe how much insight I have gained in just a few short weeks since reading it. I am not a religious person, nor do I belong to PETA, but I do love my animals and want what's best for them. This book is a very thought-provoking look at training with understanding and compassion. This is not just another book about training methods......it is much more than that. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a meal. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. This book teaches you how to fish.......how to understand and improve your communication with your dog, and in doing so, you can't help but view some of the "training" you see with different eyes.
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Summary: The "Real" Suzanne Clothier
Review: Bones Would Rain From the Sky is in my opinion, Suzanne's best. The reader is lead to evaluate their relationship with their canine friends. Suzanne leads you to take a good look at what you really want out of your relationship with your dog.
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Summary: BONES WOULD RAIN FROM THE SKY
Review: This book is a total waste of time. The writer obviously has little experience with dog training though she thinks she does. Anyone who has worked more than 10 minutes with a dog knows as much as the author does. The book is very poorly written and difficult to follow; it needs major editing. What a normal person could say in two sentences this author says it over 20 pages. The book, over 300 pages long could be condensed to less than 10 if you weed out the self aggrandizements. This book is useful...as a doorstop!!!
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Summary: ... A warm & wonderful book ...
Review: Beyond training sit, stay & heel ... beyond the slip chain or clicker ... beyond praise and treats, Suzanne Clothier encouraged me to explore with fresh eyes and a clear heart - the relationship (or the lack) between my dogs and I ... A warm & wonderful book ... windows into the author's life, her love for dogs, her enduring compassion for animals and her heartfelt search for an understanding of the soul both human & canine ... Ms. Clothier uses episodes from her own life to help us appreciate what the relationship with our dog can and should be ... Almost autobiographical, the book tells of one person's quite extraordinary journey, a sharing of mistakes and lessons learnt not just of the mind - but the heart and soul.
Although Ms. Clothier addresses issues of training, dealing with seemingly problematic dogs, issues of aggression and the sadness that comes with the passing of a loved dog, she does not do so in any conventional manner. She offers no methodology or training style save that of daring to listen to our own hearts and learning to hear the heartspeak of our dogs. More than just explaining dog psychology she dares us explore and extend the boundaries of communication between our dogs and us. She writes of how, if we extend grace to our dogs, we also receive profound and nurturing grace in return, one that enhances not just the relationship with our dogs, but enriches our friends, family ... our lives in a quite magical way. More than just a book about dogs, it is a book about living with dogs, and with ourselves. She writes "... Coursing through our veins as surely as our own blood are the lessons we have mastered through effort, and through no small measure of grace gifted us by the animals who serve as our teachers."
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