Rating: 
Summary: Don't shoot the Boss
Review: I gave this book four stars only because it really isn't about dog training specifically, or clicker training either. As I realized this, I was somewhat disappointed. But I couldn't quite drop it, and continued. I was glad I did. I found the information, and insite into both human and critter psychology enlightening. Since I had already read Clicker training your Horse, I understood the concept of the clicker. This book gave me a glimpse of how positive reinforcement might be applied to people...where obviously clicking might just get you smacked. I applied positive reinforcment to my boss. He was not a horrible boss, but he was not a caring boss either. I noticed that he seemed to be hungry for approval from his equals, and it occured to me that maybe approval from anywhere might be his "click/reward" I started applying methods suggested in the book, and with in a couple of weeks, he was a most solitious boss. We (the lowerdowns) came to adore this boss, and strove to stay in his department. The more we reinforced the behaviors we liked...the more he exibited them. This book could change your relationship with people. I would recommend it to anyone who deals with people, or animals. Read it through, then go back and study the highlights.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful and informative book
Review: "Don't Shoot the Dog" is only marginally about dog training, (although the dog was reccomened to me by noted dog trainer Sarah Wilson, a fine dog training book author in her own right). What it is about is using postive reinforcement for all training purposes. Postive reinforcement does not mean NEVER correcting the subject, but doing so in a postive way, mostly by rewarding correct behavior. Ms. Pryor shows, by using certain common situations, (kids making too much noise in the car on long trips, dog barking in the back yard all night, etc) how different methods would work or not work, and further adds other examples, with animals that are not usually thought of as "trainable", how certain behaviors were be easily taught. The author is a big advocate of "clicker training" (as is Sarah Wilson, who I mentioned earlier) but even after reading the book, I really don't understand the "why and how it works" aspect of it, which is why only 4 stars, her explantion just doesn't seem clear enough for someone who is new to the concept. (If half star ratings were allowed, this book would have 4 and a half, since I consider this a minor flaw...) This is a wonderful book which should be on the bookshelf of everyone who does animal training, or for that matter, parents as well...
Rating:
Summary: Kudos for Karen Pryor's Honesty
Review: "Don't Shoot the Dog" is the best comprehensive guide I know of that encourages the use of Positive Reinforcement. There is no question that PR goes a long way and should always be used as a first option (with both animals and people). Karen Pryor's honesty in this book is to be applauded. While she champions using PR as far as it works to produce the desired result, she realistically acknowledges that PR does not always work. As a dog trainer and author using a balanced approach, I find her candor and her desire to make the world a better place for dogs and people quite noble. If all we needed in our relationships with dogs and people was to find the right reward, this would be the only book we would need. The structure of the book is easy to follow, and along with emphasizing PR, also gives excellent advice about the crucial element of timing in training. I also find this book useful as a tool to help people decide NOT to use muzzle restraining devices. If a dog training student of mine is thinking of using a muzzle restraining device on a dog, I have the student read Karen's comments about restraint as the bottom of page 101. Her clearly stated explanation hits the nail right on the head. Restraining has its place, but it isn't training. Karen's comments about rewarding the wrong behavior also makes a lot of sense. Our leaders in government would benefit from her political applications of her principles.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected at all.
Review: I am sure that many will find this book very good and very useful. I was looking for more of a practical guide rather than an investigation of the psychological underpinnings of conditioned training. If you are looking for a practical guide to training, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: training is not a bad word
Review: Don't be mislead by the use of the word "training". Training is simply another word for the learning process. This book gives excellent examples of how to apply training principles, whether you are trying to help your child learn or encourage your husband to pick up his socks. Pryor's training techniques rely on positive reinforcement. This is basically the idea of letting your child, spouse, or pet know that you like what they did! If you have some basic knowledge of training principle's the value of this book will be in applying those principles. If you arn't familiar with these principles then you will learn them from this book, but it may take some experimentation to really get them down.
Rating:
Summary: Don't stop with your dog! Train people too.
Review: This easy to digest book will of course help you be a better dog handler, but the ideas will also help you communicate better with people. Train you kids to pick up after themselves. Train your boss. By the time you finish reading you can train your dog to use the 1-click ordering on Amazon.com
Rating:
Summary: Woderfully insightful
Review: Hey everybody. I just got this book and have been having a little trouble with it. Be sure if you apply the theories that you spend a great deal of time working with your animal on it. I had a heck of a time training my pet rat and am thinking of giving it up.
Rating:
Summary: great advice for everyone
Review: I found this book to be very useful before we got our dog. I use the concepts all the time in my training of our shepherd/husky. The concepts are spot on. Karen is an insightful person and anyone can benefit from her vast wealth on experience. I am glad for my sake she stopped to put it on paper.
Rating:
Summary: Its simplicity is what makes it brilliant!
Review: What I found so valuable about this book was that it didn't spend endless pages discussing fashionable theories about the harm of being spanked in public, or how to get in touch with your little inner brat. It's a straightforward plan on how to help people do what they want to do. It's not a charade. It's not tricking people. It's giving feedback about what are better and worse behaviors.
I wish the book wasn't so closely associated with animal training because most of its discussion concerns human relationships. It seems like most people who know about this book are animal people. In my case, I obtained a rottweiler who wouldn't let anyone touch him. Instead of trying to *force* him to let me touch him, or *try* to touch him and back away when he recoiled (thereby rewarding the bad behavior), I used Pryor's clicker training. The closer he came to me, the more I clicked. If he brushed by me, I clicked. In one day he was diving into my chest, twisting his head into my chest, and looking for the click. And leading up to this, as he was preoccupied with touching me, he lost any concern that I was touching him. There's *no* other training method that builds the kind of secure enviornment where things move only as fast as the trainee wants it to, that rewards exploration and where nothing's really the "wrong answer," and everything is learning. This should be required reading in school.
Rating: 
Summary: Useless Psycho-babble
Review: This book purports to solve virtually every relationship problem from bosses to chickens to tennis games to teen-agers and even a little bit about dogs ! In reality it gives an endless stream of very generalized anecdotes about how wonderfull the book is and lots of psychological jargon with frequent deviations into the history of pyschological technique. There is very little practical, step by step instruction on how to train a dog to do specific things ! (After all it is supposed to be about training dogs! ) It refers to techniques like clicker-training and gives yet more anecdotes about how wonderfoll it is but gives no detaile on how to train a dog with it. This book is a perfect axample of the inherent problem in buying a book on-line. You cannot browse through it (like you do in a book store) to get a feel for how well it is written. ----- The book shows up at your door and you really have no idea what you have bought.
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