Book Notes: Don’t Shoot the Dog

I recently read Don’t Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor after hearing one of Tim Ferriss’ guests mention it on his podcast (yes I listen to a lot of Tim Ferriss Show podcasts). I picked it up from the local library, and while it took me two loan-renew-return cycles to get through it I’ve now bought my own copy and would call it essential reading for almost anyone.

My wife was going to be at the library anyway so I asked if she could pickup a book on hold for me. I didn’t mention the name, forgetting that out of context it may seem a strange title (our only pets are cats). When she brought it home she asked “Are we getting a dog I don’t know about, or are you trying to train me?” with a thoroughly bemused look. In truth my motivation for taking out the book was to learn something that might make me a better parent but now, having read it, it really is applicable to most any human interactions. (I would not, however, recommend trying to train your wife.)

Here are a few brief notes, transposed from my contemporaneous handwritten scrawl…

• the book is generally about “reinforcement training”, or trying to shape behavior through reinforcement
• a “reinforcer” is anything that occurs along with an action that increases the probability of that action happening again
• quit [training] while you’re ahead
• Pryor switches frequently between discussing human and other animal subjects; the substance of the methods stays the same
• it took some time to “get into” the book
• the methods in the book leverage an innate desire, shared by all living things, to find what works
• Chapter 4, Untraining: Using Reinforcement to Get Rid of Behavior You Don’t Want, is pure gold – both for the specific examples as well as the explanation of “good fairy” and “bad fairy” training methods which cements the core messages of the book
• bottom line: the book changed the way I looked at behavior and its motivations

…and here are some quotes:

Watching for behavior I liked, and reinforcing it when it occurred, worked a lot better and kept the peace too.

p. xii

When you’re right, that’s what you get to be: right.

p. 33

Don’t Shoot the Dog is like a pair of magical glasses that lets you see a layer of life that was previously invisible. Can’t ask for much more from a book than that.