Rating: 
Summary: Sadistic thuggery
Review: How sad to see this bit of sadistic thuggery reissued. This is a book about the poetic joys of torturing dogs. One sample: Hearne describes how she helped her dog dig a hole, while dancing playfully around with the dog, filled the hole with water, still acting playful with the dog, then suddenly, without any warning, forced the dog's head under water and subjected her to near drowning. What the dog must have thought of that hideous and incomprehensible betrayal I cannot even begin to imagine. And yet reviewers prattle on about what a lovely book this is. I think dogs would disagree. The book is also nauseatingly pretentious.
Rating: 
Summary: Often interesting and engaging, even if pretentious
Review: I really enjoyed the portions that were devoted to horses and dogs, but the endless name-dropping, of philosophers, novelists, and poets better than Hearne make this an occassionally tedious read. Why quote a sentence out of Derrida, and a sentence out of _Black Beauty_, and pretend you've accomplished some deep identification with all levels of intelligent matter around you by doing so? It's smarmy, you know... Anyhow, the parts about the 'spirit of the rider' are interesting and earnest, and she knows that Pit Bulls and such aren't born mean and drooling for your child's blood. This is obviously a book written for people who like their philosophy anecdotal (though some of the anecdotes here go on and on), but it is also for people who have genuine connections with animals, feel deeply that they are intelligent, and that 'syntax', as Hearne says, is a requirement in these relationships (although the large number of little snippets from random Wittgenstein selections won't get earnest readers to believe in Hearne's understanding of the larger bodies of thought, and might even encourage lazy people do indulge in the same silliness when discussing important issues of animal rights). After a few too many "what Heidegger might call the listening to the dog's being", I was ready to throw this book across the room. However, I was surprised that I finished it, and found much of it memorable. Altogether a fun book, that you can pick up and put down without missing any larger ideas (it's surprising that with all the name dropping she never mentions Peter Singer or even important animal rights activists). Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Adam's Task
Review: I would like first to praise Donald McCaig for his entrancing introduction to Adam's Task. As I began the book I soon felt that Mr. McCaig had not read it after all. In the first chapter alone there were seventeen undocumented names scattered through a syncitium of undisciplined prose. Pedantics masquerading as wisdom paint a sorry picture of the writer. Pretentions to culture separate the sheep from the goats (sic.) winning the praises of its worshipers, and alienating the more clairvoyant. I am reminded of a biochemist who lectured biochemistry to physicians, and medical bioethics with biochemists, thus putting himself beyond critical examination by either. Name dropping is not scholarship. Endless, many-branching sentences are not good writing. Hearne is pretentious in both areas, and seemingly grossly ignorant of both. I, too, am an animal. I identify with them. I even believe they are as entitled to souls as are humans. Indeed, American Indians, who saw the life ebb out of each kill, were poignantly aware of that fellowship. Mrs. Hearne has only muddied the waters.
Rating:
Summary: Adam's Task
Review: I would like first to praise Donald McCaig for his entrancing introduction to Adam's Task. As I began the book I soon felt that Mr. McCaig had not read it after all. In the first chapter alone there were seventeen undocumented names scattered through a syncitium of undisciplined prose. Pedantics masquerading as wisdom paint a sorry picture of the writer. Pretentions to culture separate the sheep from the goats (sic.) winning the praises of its worshipers, and alienating the more clairvoyant. I am reminded of a biochemist who lectured biochemistry to physicians, and medical bioethics with biochemists, thus putting himself beyond critical examination by either. Name dropping is not scholarship. Endless, many-branching sentences are not good writing. Hearne is pretentious in both areas, and seemingly grossly ignorant of both. I, too, am an animal. I identify with them. I even believe they are as entitled to souls as are humans. Indeed, American Indians, who saw the life ebb out of each kill, were poignantly aware of that fellowship. Mrs. Hearne has only muddied the waters.
Rating: 
Summary: Adam's Task
Review: If you are interested in exploring deeply the underpinnings of our attempts to share meaningful relationships with animals, don't let the previous negative reviews dissuade you from reading this beautiful book. If you personally have a deep relationship with an animal or animals, you know what she says is true. For those who don't have such relationships, in particular the aforementioned reviewers, let me just say that you are welcome to persist in your positivist, reductionist, rationalist, anthropocentric world view. Just don't presume to speak for the rest of us who see a bit beyond it, or deny the existence of that which you cannot experience or understand.
Rating:
Summary: A graceful integration of philosophy and personal experience
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time. Vicki Hearne - animal trainer, poet, and philosopher - talks about her relationship with the working animals she trains. She presents her philosophies by illustrating them with stories of animals she has trained. If you have deep respect for animal intelligence, this book will confirm and deepen your beliefs. Training, she says, is the creation of a shared language. But language has many ambiguities. For example, trainers haven't a clue what the world smells like to a dog, for whom "scenting" is a primary sense. Yet humans and dogs can learn to work together across the gap of their differences by coming to share the vocabulary of trained scent work. Animal training, says Hearne, is as challenging for the trainer as it is for the animal. Trainers must learn humility, and learn to communicate in new ways. For example, horses take in information through touch and are extremely sensitive to the motions of the rider. Once a trainer comes to understand this (and other things about horses), she or he can begin to understand the way a horse understands its world and its self. Of course I don't do justice to the book by summarizing a few of its philosophical points! Hearne writes gracefully, and shows a great mastery of a variety of disciplines - psychology, philosophy, literature, animal training. Her anecdotes make the philosophy much easier to understand, and the philosophy makes the implications of the anecdotes much richer.
Rating:
Summary: A graceful integration of philosophy and personal experience
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time. Vicki Hearne - animal trainer, poet, and philosopher - talks about her relationship with the working animals she trains. She presents her philosophies by illustrating them with stories of animals she has trained. If you have deep respect for animal intelligence, this book will confirm and deepen your beliefs. Training, she says, is the creation of a shared language. But language has many ambiguities. For example, trainers haven't a clue what the world smells like to a dog, for whom "scenting" is a primary sense. Yet humans and dogs can learn to work together across the gap of their differences by coming to share the vocabulary of trained scent work. Animal training, says Hearne, is as challenging for the trainer as it is for the animal. Trainers must learn humility, and learn to communicate in new ways. For example, horses take in information through touch and are extremely sensitive to the motions of the rider. Once a trainer comes to understand this (and other things about horses), she or he can begin to understand the way a horse understands its world and its self. Of course I don't do justice to the book by summarizing a few of its philosophical points! Hearne writes gracefully, and shows a great mastery of a variety of disciplines - psychology, philosophy, literature, animal training. Her anecdotes make the philosophy much easier to understand, and the philosophy makes the implications of the anecdotes much richer.
Rating:
Summary: Often interesting and engaging, even if pretentious
Review: Vicki Hearne is both an animal trainer and an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale. With these two qualifications, she addresses the relationship humans have with "dumb" domestic animals, primarily dogs, horses and cats. he book is exquisite, and confirms what we already "know, that animals can think, feel, respond, and--in a sense--make decisions about how to respond to humans. She proves the intelligence of the horse trainer who admitted there were truly "crazy" horses whose indsanity justified their destrucrtion, but that if any trainer had experienced more than one such horse, the trainer should be put to sleep instead. The chapter on cats is a little fuzzy, but the rest is five-star.
Rating:
Summary: An exquisite book about animals and humans
Review: Vicki Hearne is both an animal trainer and an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale. With these two qualifications, she addresses the relationship humans have with "dumb" domestic animals, primarily dogs, horses and cats. he book is exquisite, and confirms what we already "know, that animals can think, feel, respond, and--in a sense--make decisions about how to respond to humans. She proves the intelligence of the horse trainer who admitted there were truly "crazy" horses whose indsanity justified their destrucrtion, but that if any trainer had experienced more than one such horse, the trainer should be put to sleep instead. The chapter on cats is a little fuzzy, but the rest is five-star.
Rating: 
Summary: Even better for parents than for animal trainers
Review: Vicki Hearne re-trains "bad" animals - mostly dogs and horses. She's also a university prof. What I got from this book was an understanding of the interaction between communication and discipline when working with dogs, horses and cats (!). I read this book years ago, before I had children - in rereading it recently, I was struck by how useful the author's ideas were in understanding how to communicate with and learn discipline with my kids. My favorite chapter is about how cats contribute to the household enterprise
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