Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

At least that's how I feel after reading this wonderful book! To be honest, I had no idea as to what this book might be about - I thought it might be about finding a way to communicate better with your pet (in my case, a very BIG cat, who is the one that really runs my home). I also thought that it might be one of those cutesy animal books that are often fun to read but lack any substance. Boy, was I wrong! Instead, I discovered what a tremendously exciting and wonderful world that the study of animal behavior (include humans) can be through the eyes of an expert in behaviorism, and the study of how behaviors can be developed, learned, and altered that goes back to the work of Pavlov and later Skinner. I digress, however, as I don't want this review to focus on the hard science behind this book as it is wonderful reading for anyone who is interested in animals (of any kind) and how they may be trained. This book will also greatly appeal to those who like fascinating (sometimes even a bit bizarre) and hilarious stories about how humans are learning to interact with animals and each other.

The author, Karen Pryor, is an expert on using behavioral techniques to train dolphins and began practicing these principles when she was unexpectedly recruited to train the dolphins at Sea Life Park (Hawaii) back in 1961. At that time, her only qualifications were that she happened to be married to one of the people who ran the park and no one else could get the dolphins to perform (remember, this was in 1961 when very, very little was known about training animals in the manner which is now used all over the world today). Not only did Pryor appear to be extremely adept at training the dolphins but has since devoted her life to training both animals and people on the wonderful techniques she developed using (now) highly accepted and valid scientific principles. Pryor not only documents some of the extraordinarily funny and humorous experiences she's had (you've got to admit that training your son's pet hermit crab to ring a bell when it wants some food is a bit, for lack of a better term, just plan bizarre) and provides extraordinary insight into how exiting working with animals, of all kinds, really is.

After picking up this book, I literally have not been able to put it down (except to get a little sleep) and laughed throughout the entire experience. As an added bonus, Pryor does practice something she preaches - she makes learning fun! Getting back to that "dirty word" - science - the book is filled with it and yet I've never read a book, on any "scientific topic" that was able to get around all of the dry, boring material one might expect and embed it in a richly filled treasure tome of plain good fun. After reading this book, I wish I had pursued a career of animal training 30 years ago. Not only is Pyror's prose great fun to read, but the science behind it is also terrific! If science and psychology teachers are wise (and many of them are not), books like Pryor's should be required reading on the topic of behaviorism.

I've just returned from the store and have purchased a "clicker" - perhaps I'll start training my @#% cat to give me a "high five" this afternoon. Even if she doesn't learn (and, after reading Pyror's book, I'm sure she will), this book was a real joy to read and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

UPDATE - Okay, so I just posted this an hour ago. My cat and I had our first training session - she'll be eight in a couple of weeks and let's just say that I'm OLD :) I recently bought a couple of cans of "kitty tuna" (VERY cheap tuna packaged just for cats) - which smells horrible and looks even worse. Just the same, I finally cut our session off as I was losing my concentration (she wasn't). Well, I've already taught her how to sit and she's already raising her right pay in order to "give me five." Wow! This is REALLY too cool! Way to go Prior and way to go "Little Miss Fatso" (one of my cat's "nicer" names)!

Karen Pryor does a superb job of describing the "how" and "why" clicker training reaches the animal mind and gets results. She takes classical conditioning (that involuntary or automatic response to a stimulus such as a clicker) and turns it into operant conditioning whereby the animal learns to actively respond to that stimulus. During training you use a primary reinforcer (food, play) which is something the animal wants and is encouraged to work for to elicit the behavior. Also during operant conditioning a cue (such as a word or hand signal) is paired with the stimulus (clicker) and acts as a reinforcer as long as the recipient (animal or human) knows what it means and what to do. Over a period of time you use the clicker (and eventually the cue) and primary reinforcer to shape the behavior into what you want. If the conditioned response is not received, then withhold the primary reinforcer (for example, treat) until the expected behavior is repeated. However, you must remember never to cruelly punish non-behavior or force the desired behavior because you risk getting a fear response to your stimulus that can last forever. This explains why so many trainers and people fail in their training methods; it only takes one bad response on the trainers part.

The author provides many examples of where this training has worked and tells of how she has trained fish, a hermit crab, and other animals. She also gives a good example of horses that were impossible to load in a horse trailer becoming horses who loaded themselves. The trainer used the above techniques along with successive approximation which meant modifying the environment repeatedly to sequentially increase the difficultly of the task until it was similar to the environment the horses were afraid of.

This type of conditioning is also used on humans in training situations such as gymnastics, on autistic or disabled children, and others to elicit desired results. However, for humans this type of conditioning is called tagging. TAG (teaching with acoustical guidance) is the EXACT same technique as clicker training but is a euphemistically acceptable term to those who object to the idea that humans are being clicker trained.

The videos available for viewing on her web site that are referenced throughout the book were not available at the time of this pre-release edition; although a wonderful introductory video was available for review.

Reaching the animal mind is a succinct and effective book on how to achieve positive behavior changes in both animals and humans.

`Reaching the Animal Mind' far surpasses what I expected when I ordered a book to help me get my dog to stop barking. While It has what I was looking for (thank you very much), it also has much, much more.

Pryor's book should be required reading for any animal trainer, veterinarian, zoologist, pet owner or anyone else who interacts with animals on a regular basis. She clearly explains the principles and methods of operant (AKA `clicker') training and cites many examples of how the desired behavior was achieved. Her examples, each with a step-by-step description of how it is done, includes training an entire kennel of barking dogs to sit quietly in their cages, teaching six dolphins to leap out of the water and spin in perfect synchronization, and even to teach a hermit crab to ring a bell.

Another excellent feature about this book is the presence links to online slideshows and videos that demonstrate some of the techniques described in the book.

While not many people are interested in training hermit crabs the point is that the same basic techniques can be used to train just about any animal to do, or not do, just about anything. I was able to successfully teach my dog to catch and retrieve a frisbee using Ms. Pryor's techniques so I can personally vouch for their effectiveness. I highly recommend this book.