Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely a Must Read!
Review: I just finished this book, and I must say that it impacted me in ways no other has. My library of dog training/dog behavioral books is vast, and I have never felt the connection between author and dog that Ms. Clothier so obviously has, and is able to translate into words. As others have said, if you are looking for a basic "how-to" training manual for you and your dog, this book is not the right choice for you! For those of you who know that our dogs are much more complex and intuitive than we may understand, then you will gain an amazing amount of insight into how we should navigate our "dance" with them...through a lifetime. It has definitely changed my relationship with my dogs, for the better! I could not give it a higher recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Must-Have for the Dog Enthusiast/Owner!
Review: After years of being dissatisfied with the type of books put out by so-called "behaviorists," I must sing the praises of Suzanne Clothier's latest book, Bones Would Rain from the Sky. With her natural, down-to-earth approach to behavior modification and training, Clothier points out what we are doing to make our dogs love us and sometimes hate us. Her unique approach to the human-canine bond will lead the way to a deeper relationship with your dog... I could not put this book down until the end, and after finishing it, I must say that it has changed the way I view dogs, behavior, and our relationship with man's best friend. Book's greatest pros:
*very inspiring
*great stories/examples
*down-to-earth (at one point, the author even admits to mistakes she's made and how it impacted her relationships)
*easy reading, yet challenging and informative
*a book that "makes you want to go out and do something" Book's cons/flaws (negative comments):
*for people who expect a how-to book, this is NOT it! There is nothing how-to about this book. You read it, you learn from it... but there are no "10 easy steps to a better dog." That is not her approach (nor is it mine, so I personally was fine with it!)
*can't think of anything else! I wish there were more books like this! Just had to comment: after you finish this book, be sure to read her free online articles!!!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Book
Review: About 18 years ago, I watched a "professional" dog trainer hold my young German shepherd up in mid air, dangling from a choke chain. This was allegedly to break his dominance and actually resulted in him disliking men. I suspected there was a different, better way, not just to train my dog, but have a friendship with him that was mutually communicative, since this is why I wanted a dog. I have a 3 yr. old male shepherd and purchased this wonderful book after getting a female shepherd puppy last summer. This book showed me how my dogs tried to communicate with me and how frequently I didn't get the message. There is a language barrier. Suzanne has watched and listened to many dogs and everything she says makes wonderful sense. This book addresses the really significant issues of how we love our dogs and how we can live with them in a natural way that is respectful of them and yet lets us preserve our role as the "leader" of the pack and be loved and respected, but not feared. I concur with another reviewer: you will examine yourself and search your soul and perhaps experience, as I and another friend of mine did, shame at some of our own behaviors in the past towards our beloved dogs. If you really love your dog(s), this book will make you a better dog friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Very informative but repetitive
Review: The only problem I have is that the book is quite repetitive. In each chapter, the same thing is repeated in the beginning and in the middle, and the author goes on trying to explain things that she feels important, but ends up being redundant. This is the only reason I deducted one star. I am still half way into this book, but I am surprised to see some changes in relation with my dogs. Because they spend most of the time outside, they are more used to the guards, whom they see most frequently, and their reaction to me used to be a mystery - sometime they love to come to me, sometime they decide to run away. After starting reading the book, I tried to be a bit conscious in showing my interest in them (not that I was not, but one of the book's points, I think, is that it is often different what you think you are doing and what dogs thinks about your motives), they started to be more forth-coming. There is not even instructions in the book how to do these things and it is really told in a subtle manner, but I see that there is a real substance in this book about developing relation with dogs.
Rating: 
Summary: a disappointment
Review: I got very little out of this book. The author writes about the need to understand canine ways of thinking and behaving, to improve your relationship with your dog -- which is good. She makes several good points, but each time goes on and on and on and ON, sometimes for several chapters, preaching the same thing but with different words and stories. She describes how SHE understands how to do this (over and over), but offers the reader no helpful instruction in working with his/her own dog. Ultimately, the book shares very little information and would better have been published as a pamphlet.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! Genuinely profound insight.
Review: There's a lot of misinformation out there among the many books on dogs, much of it subtle and presented very authoritatively. Flawed and harmful notions have insidiously worked their way into the collective perspective, and have detrimentally shaped training philosophy and behavior-problem advice. Suzanne Clothier's eloquent text is the real thing: Deep and accurate insight. A correction of popular misconceptions. Jeff
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: "Bones..." is a treasure. It achieves more than other books I've read on human-dog relationships. It is recommended to every dog owner, novice or advanced. As a veterinarian and dog enthusiast, I wish to highlight the scholarship in "Bones...". The breadth and depth of knowledge demonstrated by Suzanne Clothier is rare in this genre. It is clear that Ms Clothier wrote "Bones..." from the heart. She also wrote it from a perspective of well-researched science melded with her hands-on experience and insights, creating a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I was amazed by this book. It caused me much soul searching as I went over in my mind the many sessions of training I have had with my own dogs and others and measured them against the benchmarks that this book provides. Some of what Suzanne had to say confirmed things that I already knew both in my head and my heart. Other things she said opened new vistas in my mind and caused me to look at things from an entirely different viewpoint. My dogs. Living with a pack of 8 dogs has always been a challenge. When I read Suzanne's book it would seem to me that I have been living with a pack of 13 all this time and did not take those dynamics into account. Our pack of 13 consists of 8 canines, 4 humans and 1 cat. Everybody in that pack has an effect on the others that result in behaviors that I can observe. I now understand why my 2 year old female Cattle dog "pings" on the older female Cattle dog in terms I never thought of. What I had written off as the two dogs hating each other turns out to be a mutual set of interactions that include (if I can stretch it this far) a set of self fulfilling prophesies on the part of the two participants. The trick and task I now have is to somehow break that chain. Since I now have an understanding of the motivating factors in this lack of harmony between these females due to my "looking at the situation through the dog's eyes" as Suzzane would put it I have a chance of fixing a long term annoyance in my household. If you are at all interested in dog behavior and/or training this is a book that not only belongs on your bookshelf but should be read on a periodic basis to refresh your knowlege.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must for dog folks
Review: I recieved this book as a gift and thought....oh boy another "dog" book. Since I am very involved with dogs most of my friends and family buy me "dog" stuff. I thought to myself...oh man I am never going to find time to read this book. I read the back of the book and it got my attention so I started to read it. Within a few minutes I was hooked, I found time for this book, the author has a wonderful sense of dogs and humor. It is very obvious that this women loves dogs ALMOST as much as I do! What a blast!
Rating:
Summary: As reviewed for Golden Retriever News
Review: Not too far along I put this book down, fetched my highlighter, and started over. You'll quickly realize this is one you'll want to reference, maybe even re-read entirely. It's a definite top shelf selection for the library of anyone seriously devoted to a dog.
Like its independent-minded author, "Bones" defies categorization. It's neither a training manual, nor another treatise on canine behavior. While both subjects get thorough treatment, the book's focus is communication. Key is the thesis that only through continuous, clear, honest and most critically - two way - communication, can the objective of "deepening our relationships with dogs" be realized. Its virtue is in challenging us to think more deeply about what we already know - about dogs, about ourselves. No particular methodologies are professed other than perhaps common sense and humanity. Clothier demonstrates how contrasting cultures can vex human-canine relationships, using real world comparatives such as, "No mother dog ever told her puppies: 'You just wait until your father gets home' or 'We'll discuss that later.'" "A dog never needs to say 'I may not tell you enough, but - '".
Three developmental stages of the human-canine relationship are described, beginning with mechanical (stimulus-response). Next comes motivational, the essence of reward-based training (and where most of us, even serious fancier types, are likely stagnated). At the apex is spiritual, where the pair - meaning "we" having supplanted "dog and me" - operates in synchronous harmony. "Bones" is filled with the author's experiences, and those of a few others, in lifelong quest of this uppermost plateau. In the midst of these, you'll find lots of thought provoking assertions, such as one of my favorites, "Few things tell me as much about the quality of the connection between a person and a dog as what can be observed as they just walk together."
Suzanne Clothier is a widely respected trainer, lecturer and writer. In its second printing just sixty days into publication, "Bones" is a departure from her previous fare of shorter, single subject oriented works. The style of this book is anything but "hurry up." You'll find not a single bulleted list. Instead of telling us how to do it, the author relates example after real-life example showing us how it's done (or not to be done). You'll see yourself and your dog(s) over and over in the experiences she relates, some funny, some embarrassing, some sad. "Bones" holds great potential for anyone who trains, breeds, shows, hunts, works with, rescues or has otherwise dedicated a goodly portion of their life to a dog or dogs. Recent films and literature have popularized the image of gifted individuals seemingly far more capable than you or me in relating to animals - "whisperers." The greatest gift in Clothier's work is realizing we can learn to be whisperers, too.
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