Will I love Reaching the Animal Mind?

Another winner by Karen Pryor! In this book, Karen talks about the methodology of clicker training and why it is such an important teaching tool. With the sound of an audible signal (the click), we can teach the animal that what he/she did, at that moment in time, is the reason why they are receiving reinforcement. As Bob Bailey once said, “The clicker is used as a scalpel to carve out behavior.” 

Scattered throughout the text are video URLs to demonstrate some of the concepts. For example, a reader can go to the URL and watch a cat do agility!… show more.

Clicker training taught me that the mammal brain learns from whatever behavior gets rewarded. I first learned about it in the book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, and I even had the joy of participating myself as a zoo docent. But the method was developed by Karen Pryor, and her book Reaching the Animal Mind is a great introduction to the subject. An even more fun read is her book on how she developed the method, Lads Against the Wind. The title refers to an old term for dolphins. Karen taught dolphins to do amazingly complex feats by blowing a… show more.