A book for anyone who cares about and/or lives with a dog/s

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http://www.amazon.com/Bones-Would-Rain-Sky-Relationships/dp/B002YNS0SK/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IOD52RVYXN0DN&colid=FA3EHH2G3MOM



98 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars As reviewed for Golden Retriever News, January 25, 2003
By Rue Chagoll (Ithaca, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bones Would Rain From the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs (Hardcover)
Not too far along I put this book down, fetched my highlighter, and started over. You'll quickly realize this is one you'll want to reference, maybe even re-read entirely. It's a definite top shelf selection for the library of anyone seriously devoted to a dog.
Like its independent-minded author, "Bones" defies categorization. It's neither a training manual, nor another treatise on canine behavior. While both subjects get thorough treatment, the book's focus is communication. Key is the thesis that only through continuous, clear, honest and most critically - two way - communication, can the objective of "deepening our relationships with dogs" be realized. Its virtue is in challenging us to think more deeply about what we already know - about dogs, about ourselves. No particular methodologies are professed other than perhaps common sense and humanity. Clothier demonstrates how contrasting cultures can vex human-canine relationships, using real world comparatives such as, "No mother dog ever told her puppies: `You just wait until your father gets home' or `We'll discuss that later.'" "A dog never needs to say `I may not tell you enough, but - '".
Three developmental stages of the human-canine relationship are described, beginning with mechanical (stimulus-response). Next comes motivational, the essence of reward-based training (and where most of us, even serious fancier types, are likely stagnated). At the apex is spiritual, where the pair - meaning "we" having supplanted "dog and me" - operates in synchronous harmony. "Bones" is filled with the author's experiences, and those of a few others, in lifelong quest of this uppermost plateau. In the midst of these, you'll find lots of thought provoking assertions, such as one of my favorites, "Few things tell me as much about the quality of the connection between a person and a dog as what can be observed as they just walk together."
Suzanne Clothier is a widely respected trainer, lecturer and writer. In its second printing just sixty days into publication, "Bones" is a departure from her previous fare of shorter, single subject oriented works. The style of this book is anything but "hurry up." You'll find not a single bulleted list. Instead of telling us how to do it, the author relates example after real-life example showing us how it's done (or not to be done). You'll see yourself and your dog(s) over and over in the experiences she relates, some funny, some embarrassing, some sad.

"Bones" holds great potential for anyone who trains, breeds, shows, hunts, works with, rescues or has otherwise dedicated a goodly portion of their life to a dog or dogs. Recent films and literature have popularized the image of gifted individuals seemingly far more capable than you or me in relating to animals - "whisperers." The greatest gift in Clothier's work is realizing we can learn to be whisperers, too.