The Secret History of kindness, by Melissa Holbrook Pierson (Norton, 2015). Picked up this book from the library this spring and have been working my way through it during the summer, so i thought I would share with you all what I thought. Subtitled "Learning from how dogs learn", this book is, as the inside jacket says, " an intimate, surprising look at man's best friend and what the leading philosophies of dog training teaches us about ourselves". Sounds interesting, right? She starts with her introduction into the world of dogs by her acquisition of a border collie puppy named Mercy, and her bewilderment at the invasion of chewing, yelping, and misbehaviour that subsequently followed. Seeking help, she discovered a trainer who was using the then, in the early 90s, relatively new methods of positive dog training. The trainer, named Polly, had the "viewpoint of the dog rather than the human, and once she started my world to tilting, it continued until it was fully upside down. Everything looked different from there." This trainer was a positive, clicker - based trainer, and the book is a history of how this method of training has come from the B.F Skinner and his operant conditioning theory to the world of dog training. I found it an interesting read for the most part, although I would have liked more about her life with her dogs as opposed to the amount of detail she goes into about Skinner and his theories. It's interesting to see the history of it all though, and how early trainers adapted Skinner's theories to animal training, and then from there to Karen Pryor and the clicker revolution. She also talks about clicker training as it relates to other animals, particularly zoo animals. I found that chapter quite depressing, really, although it's good to know many zoos are using clicker training and brain stimulation games and puzzles to keep the animals from going crazy being in a cage. But, depressing. I hard to part company with the author in a couple places, one where she talked about her desire to respect her dog and her needs to the point of insisting on going on long off-lead walks in the country knowing full well the dog would take off and only come back when she wanted to. She writes about hours spent searching, and eventually leaving the area to go pick up her child from school and returning, to find her dog waiting for her. Which happened a lot, it seemed. Yikes. I'm not quite so dedicated to letting my dog be a dog, thank you! Anyway for anyone who is interested in the history of clicker training and how it is making a difference for dogs and other animals around the world, this would be a good read. A bit heavy on the science for some, perhaps, so be warned.
The was my summer reading too!! I agree with you, Lisa, that it definitely had strengths and weaknesses. I quite liked the explanation of Skinner's work and why it wasn't widely accepted, and found the account of his arguments with Chomsky interesting. I liked the anecdotes about her dogs (although some were, I agree, rather unusual!!) but found the book as a whole a bit lacking in coherent structure- I often ended up thinking 'where is this going?' half way through a chapter as it seemed to get a bit 'stream of consciousness' at times. I found Karen Pryor's 'Reaching the Animal Mind' a lot more accessible.
Yes, I agree, it was a bit choppy in the writing, a bit chaotic. It is worth a read if you want to more about the history of positive training and the science behind it, not so much if you want dog training tips.
Sounds interesting I'll give it a go, I was only thinking the other day I should read a bit more. I might start preparing a Christmas list of must read books. On Wednesday in the pub they had a small tree and snowman promoting their Christmas menu.
I've finally managed to finish it. I did enjoy it it's a shame the writing is chaotic. The final line seems so poignant to me. "You get the dog you need". Certainly true I'm my case
