Karen Pryor's name may be familiar as a clicker-training expert. Or the original clicker-training expert, even.

And boy oh boy, she does deserve that honor! But putting the emphasis on a cheap little plastic device can be misleading ... did she earn fame just by coming up with one small trick?

How soon will THAT fad pass?

No, there are really three big concepts involved, and any one of them could be called revolutionary in dog training.

The first is championing what psychologists call operant conditioning. Never mind the name - it's a method of training that has been studied and studied and shown to work with an amazing variety of animals. Including the human one, of course.

Basing dog training on a well-researched method makes it objective and accountable. No more guesses and intuition and magic hokum from the various people calling themselves dog trainers.

The second big thing is that the focus is on positive reinforcement. That's only one of the methods available in operant conditioning, but it's the only one that works with animals much bigger than people.

You can't jerk on an orca's leash to make it behave! So humane dog training gets tons of support from this method.

Finally, the clicker really is more than just a cheap gadget. And you don't need to use a clicker, anyway. But the point is to be able to signal the dog EXACTLY when it's doing what you want it to do.

No time delay for it to finish to get its treat. No long (by comparison) "Good girl!" that can mark several different points in time for the animal.

Really, if you want to read one book on the positive training of dogs and why it works, I don't think you can do any better than this one.

Pros: Complete explanation of theory and practice

Cons: New concepts sometimes take a while

I love Karen Pryor and her concepts. I prefer this training method over all others! I wish she had a popular show like Dog Whisperer to educate the public on POSITIVE training instead of other methods!

Pros: love Karen Pryor!

Cons: n/a

Another great book to give any dog owner ideas for training and problem solving. Anything to help people keep their dogs not dump them is a good thing.

Pros: great ideas

Cons: none

I love this book. It was recommended to me by a dog training friend of mine who suggested this may give me a deeper understanding into the background of positive reinforcement training such as clicker training. Karen Pryor is one of the founding mothers of click training. She details in her book, her use of clicker training and their response, with lots of different animals including dolphins. Very good read for anyone interested in understanding their pet better.

Pros: positive training, knowlegable, practical

Cons: none

I've had this book for a long while. Karen used to train dogs and used that postive reinforcement methods to train dogs. This is the original positve reinforecment training bible. It is a fun read and there are a lot of examples, but it is not a straight forward hot to book. A must have for the postive training enthusiast.

Pros: good read

Cons: not a straight forward how to book