Katz on Dogs

When tiny Clementine first crawled onto my shoulder and licked my chin, I decided I had to work harder so that this dog's life would be easier and my rewards greater. I had to listen to myself as well as to the authorities.

Training, I came to believe is individual idiosyncratic. Nobody can tell me how to train Clementine without knowing something about me, my family, and my animal-thronged environment.

I am a difficult man, impatient and distracted and easily frustrated. I make countless mistakes. I'm preoccupied and can barely remember to turn off the stove before I destroy a teakettle. Meanwhile Clementine is curious, alert and responsive.

But I am learning. These dogs have taught me much, as have other people's stories.

I believe strongly in the effectiveness of positive training, also known as "auto-training" or "positive capture": giving a dog a chance to succeed, then rewarding him rather than yelling at his mistakes. It works for killer whales, why not dogs?

We don't need to be pulling, shouting at, and shocking our dogs so much. Yet I am not an entirely positive person. I often lose my temper, speak to my dogs grumpily or impatiently, communicate my wishes poorly, or imprecisely, and then get angry.

If I'm having a bad day, the dogs are the first to know. I am continuously working on this, but I suspect these shortcomings will always be with me, just as other people will have their own handicaps.


- Jon Katz, Katz on Dogs pg xxii