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DON'T SHOOT THE DOG by Karen Pryor

A BOOK REVIEW by Wendy Jacobs

This is a very readable book by one of the pioneer of Positive Reinforcement (P+) training. With a number of personal anecdotes Karen Pryor demonstrates how P+ can be used to not only train your dog, but also to modify behaviour in children, friends, colleagues, family and even yourself.

I think anyone interested in using Positive Reinforcement should have this book. It is brilliant in the easily assimilated way it explains how reinforcement training actually works. You learn all about the eight methods of changing undesirable behaviour, ranging from Method 1: "Shoot the Dog" (this definitely works, as you don't have to deal with that particular behaviour in that subject again!!) through to Method 8: "Change the Motivation" (the fundamental and kindest method of all).

You also learn the 10 Laws of shaping behaviour that is already occurring naturally and shifting it, one small step at a time, until you reach the ultimate goal, and how to obtain cooperation without coercion.

Karen Pryor was one of the earliest behavioural scientists to introduce the use of "clicker" training for dogs, a method which had for many years been used successfully in the training of mammals. She believes this began in 1992 as a result of a panel discussion between trainers and scientists in San Francisco. The method was proved so successful, soon thousands of people were trying clicker training. The result of this explosion of clicker training (which is all done using P+) was that it showed that training can be fun, for the dog and the handler. This new technology has also proved that behaviour once learned in this way is not forgotten and competent clicker trainers can accomplish in days behaviour that takes months or years using conventional training.

I obtained this book through the internet from Amazon.com, but it should also be available from any of our major book stores. Might I add, that Pierre also recommends this book - it gets him lots of treats.