Karen Pryor's Blog, page 8
August 11, 2009
"Your book changed my life..." department
Here’s a story from the Internet by Christina Waggoner
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
"Your book changed my life..." department
Here’s a story from the Internet by Christina Waggoner
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
Milking Camels
The Wall Street Journal published an article about a woman who wants to start a camel dairy. Camel milk is a delicacy in some parts of the world and is reputed to have great health benefits.
One of the problems is getting the camels to stand so they can be milked. If they’re not used to it, they don't like it. (Same with cows or any other animal. They have to learn. Usually they get their dinners while they’re being milked. Done deal.)
One camel dairy uses mechanical milking machines. The owner’s wife taught the camels to accept that. Her husband says "I cannot explain exactly how this was done" ..."a woman has a sixth sense."
I don't know what that woman did, but I know what I would do, or any clicker trainer. Shape the behavior of touching a stationary target for the 'stand still' part--and use whatever camels like best, for the primary reinforcer. Dried dates should work, right? The rest is just a successive approximation problem: Will you stand still while I…yes? Click. And then gradually raise the criteria. Ten minutes twice a day for three days should be PLENTY of time to get that behavior trained, IMO.
KP
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
One of the problems is getting the camels to stand so they can be milked. If they’re not used to it, they don't like it. (Same with cows or any other animal. They have to learn. Usually they get their dinners while they’re being milked. Done deal.)
One camel dairy uses mechanical milking machines. The owner’s wife taught the camels to accept that. Her husband says "I cannot explain exactly how this was done" ..."a woman has a sixth sense."
I don't know what that woman did, but I know what I would do, or any clicker trainer. Shape the behavior of touching a stationary target for the 'stand still' part--and use whatever camels like best, for the primary reinforcer. Dried dates should work, right? The rest is just a successive approximation problem: Will you stand still while I…yes? Click. And then gradually raise the criteria. Ten minutes twice a day for three days should be PLENTY of time to get that behavior trained, IMO.
KP
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
Crocodiles
Clicker-trained Crocodiles
Last month at the Bronx Zoo in New York Melissa Nelson, who is curator of all things behavioral, took me to see what’s been accomplished by the reptile keepers.
They have four species of crocodiles, and all are clicker trained. The keepers use a Frisbee, attached to a long pole, for the target. Lowering it over the top of an enclosure they can move a crocodile from land to water and back. They can lead it from one display area to another, or into a chute, so the veterinary can inspect and medicate the animal without having to tie up its jaws and immobilize its powerful tail with ropes (crocodiles hate that).
Crocodiles are more mobile than alligators. The keepers show me a Cuban crocodile, a species that can jump into the air and snatch birds and small mammals from low branches (keepers are careful never to hang their hands over the back wall.) I watch that animal stand up on her legs and actually run to her target, like a horse.
But what totally blows me away is a social event. Melissa and I are standing in the public area, watching some Indian crocodiles, called Gharials, through the glass. A huge male slides into the water and glides over beneath us. The Gharial doesn’t have a flat head like a gator, but a long thin snout. This male has handfuls of long sharp teeth sticking out crookedly at the back and front of his long jaws, and a glittering slit-pupilled reptilian eye. It is an extraordinarily sinister-looking animal. He holds his head out of the water and looks up, fixing his eye on Melissa, who, to my amazement, is chatting to him: “What a beautiful boy, how are you today?” etc. The Gharial watches her.
“He knows you!” I exclaim. “Yes, he does,” she says. “Isn’t he wonderful?”
“But do you train him yourself? Do you ever feed him?” I ask. No, never. The keepers do that. So why is he interested in Melissa?
That slitty gold eye moves to my eyes, briefly—who are you, anyway? –and then comes back to rest on Melissa’s smiling face. Animals are often sensitive to human relationships, and can identify higher-status individuals. Still, a crocodile? How would he know? Why would he care? But the Gharial knows. And the Gharial, one alpha animal to another, is saying good morning to the boss.
Clicker training means a lot to these crocodiles. People aren’t nearly as scary as they used to be, they don’t catch you and tie you up and drag you around any longer, they show you how to get good treats, and they are actually interesting. It means a lot to the keepers, too. Some people are reptile lovers from birth, and working with these animals is a life-long dream, but they dare not dream of having an actual relationship, knowing the feelings of the animals they are caring for, bringing out their best. Now they can. Now they do, daily. What a great job. Thanks, Melissa. Click!
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
Last month at the Bronx Zoo in New York Melissa Nelson, who is curator of all things behavioral, took me to see what’s been accomplished by the reptile keepers.
They have four species of crocodiles, and all are clicker trained. The keepers use a Frisbee, attached to a long pole, for the target. Lowering it over the top of an enclosure they can move a crocodile from land to water and back. They can lead it from one display area to another, or into a chute, so the veterinary can inspect and medicate the animal without having to tie up its jaws and immobilize its powerful tail with ropes (crocodiles hate that).
Crocodiles are more mobile than alligators. The keepers show me a Cuban crocodile, a species that can jump into the air and snatch birds and small mammals from low branches (keepers are careful never to hang their hands over the back wall.) I watch that animal stand up on her legs and actually run to her target, like a horse.
But what totally blows me away is a social event. Melissa and I are standing in the public area, watching some Indian crocodiles, called Gharials, through the glass. A huge male slides into the water and glides over beneath us. The Gharial doesn’t have a flat head like a gator, but a long thin snout. This male has handfuls of long sharp teeth sticking out crookedly at the back and front of his long jaws, and a glittering slit-pupilled reptilian eye. It is an extraordinarily sinister-looking animal. He holds his head out of the water and looks up, fixing his eye on Melissa, who, to my amazement, is chatting to him: “What a beautiful boy, how are you today?” etc. The Gharial watches her.
“He knows you!” I exclaim. “Yes, he does,” she says. “Isn’t he wonderful?”
“But do you train him yourself? Do you ever feed him?” I ask. No, never. The keepers do that. So why is he interested in Melissa?
That slitty gold eye moves to my eyes, briefly—who are you, anyway? –and then comes back to rest on Melissa’s smiling face. Animals are often sensitive to human relationships, and can identify higher-status individuals. Still, a crocodile? How would he know? Why would he care? But the Gharial knows. And the Gharial, one alpha animal to another, is saying good morning to the boss.
Clicker training means a lot to these crocodiles. People aren’t nearly as scary as they used to be, they don’t catch you and tie you up and drag you around any longer, they show you how to get good treats, and they are actually interesting. It means a lot to the keepers, too. Some people are reptile lovers from birth, and working with these animals is a life-long dream, but they dare not dream of having an actual relationship, knowing the feelings of the animals they are caring for, bringing out their best. Now they can. Now they do, daily. What a great job. Thanks, Melissa. Click!
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
"Your book changed my life..." department
Here’s a story from the Internet by Christina Waggoner
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
"I approached Karen Pryor at ClickerExpo. "Uh...I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Chris Waggoner and I loved your book..." I stammered. > Karen smiled and shook my hand and said, "Which one?">
"Don't Shoot The Dog" I barely managed to> get out.
In Chris’es mind, there was only one. She adds, “sorry, Karen-if it helps, I bought "Lads Before The Wind" at that Expo! Karen must have thought I was a bit soft in the head, but she was so polite and still thanked me.”
So, Chris, a few years later, let me explain!
Asking you "Which one?" was a private joke, and a little impolite of me. My FIRST book, in 1963, was "Nursing Your Baby." It was the first book ever written about breast feeding for mothers themselves, rather than a medical audience. It sold over a million copies in the next twenty years and I spent a lot of time working with La Leche League and helping mothers. For many years when someone came up to me and said "I loved your book" or "Your book changed my life" it was Nursing Your Baby they were talking about. So sometimes when a young woman comes up with that opening I still do wonder which book she is talking about.
Dog trainers of course seldom know me as the author of Nursing Your Baby. I should have remembered that. However Don't Shoot the Dog had a very slow start, and was hardly known to anyone for a long time. I remember vividly when for the very first time it was DSTD the person was talking about.
It happened in a shelter in Seattle. The person behind the counter said "Your book saved my life." I said Which one? She said "Don't Shoot the Dog. I had a doberman with major aggression problems." "What did you do?" I asked. She said calmly "I shot the dog."
Of course I am now waiting for the first person who comes up and says "Your book changed my life" and it is Reaching the Animal Mind they are talking about! Won't be long now...
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
June 12, 2009
writing on deadline
I put aside this Sunday to struggle with a writing task. It’s my job, and it should be my job, to write the words for the front page of the Reaching the Animal Mind website.
It has to be done today: this is the last week before the book launches and the website opens. Matt, the website designer, and Mark, the website builder, and Aaron, the website producer, have all been carefully not nagging me, bless them, but I know they need it done NOW.
Last Friday, when I had planned to write this stuff, my brain was fried, the phone kept ringing with good things, and I had a video shoot lined up at 2:30, working with my grandson Nathanial, who’s 11. We shot the second lesson teaching his Boston terrier Annabel to come to a hand target (you can see the first lesson on the video at the temporary home page for the book: www.reachingtheanimalmind.com.)
We took it outdoors this time, and built 50 ft recalls. Nat has PERFECT timing. Belle loved it and was exhausted afterwards.
I took Saturday off to rest the mind, which usually helps. A little gardening, a trip to Costco to replenish household supplies, a movie with a friend (“Up,” loved it except for my fear of heights) and an early-evening dog walk at Beaverbrook Park, which surprised and pleased my old poodle Misha.
Slept 10 hours. Have to write NOW. I’d rather be working on a painting project in the livingroom. I’d rather be at the movies again. I’d rather be reading the Sunday papers. I’d rather be creating my crocodile blog, that needs doing too, doesn’t it?
A recent columnist in the Boston Globe wrote that the most important thing she learned in her business career was that sometimes what matters most about a creative project is not that it’s dazzlingly good, or or even merely excellent, but that it’s done on time. Get to it, Karen.
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
It has to be done today: this is the last week before the book launches and the website opens. Matt, the website designer, and Mark, the website builder, and Aaron, the website producer, have all been carefully not nagging me, bless them, but I know they need it done NOW.
Last Friday, when I had planned to write this stuff, my brain was fried, the phone kept ringing with good things, and I had a video shoot lined up at 2:30, working with my grandson Nathanial, who’s 11. We shot the second lesson teaching his Boston terrier Annabel to come to a hand target (you can see the first lesson on the video at the temporary home page for the book: www.reachingtheanimalmind.com.)
We took it outdoors this time, and built 50 ft recalls. Nat has PERFECT timing. Belle loved it and was exhausted afterwards.
I took Saturday off to rest the mind, which usually helps. A little gardening, a trip to Costco to replenish household supplies, a movie with a friend (“Up,” loved it except for my fear of heights) and an early-evening dog walk at Beaverbrook Park, which surprised and pleased my old poodle Misha.
Slept 10 hours. Have to write NOW. I’d rather be working on a painting project in the livingroom. I’d rather be at the movies again. I’d rather be reading the Sunday papers. I’d rather be creating my crocodile blog, that needs doing too, doesn’t it?
A recent columnist in the Boston Globe wrote that the most important thing she learned in her business career was that sometimes what matters most about a creative project is not that it’s dazzlingly good, or or even merely excellent, but that it’s done on time. Get to it, Karen.
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
sparrows
Ordinary street sparrows are worth watching sometimes. Last winter I saw a flock in the coldest weather, sitting on a roof edge in my neighborhood. A male was begging, like a chick, in front of a female. Huh? His mother, maybe? She moved. He followed. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. She lunged forward, grabbed his lower leg in her beak,and slammed him upside down against the edge of the roof and dropped him. We're all hungry, kid. Leave me alone. Wow! He flew into the nearest tree and thought that over.
Yesterday I noticed a male English sparrow creeping up an oak tree prying into cracks in the bark exactly like a nuthatch. Nuthatches are looking for grubs when they do that, I know. What are YOU doing,I wondered. You're supposed to be a seed eater.
A few minutes later, now half way up the tree, he dropped to the ground and yes, he had a biggish caterpiller in his beak. He had to hammer it quite a bit to make it softer but by gosh he finally swallowed it and flew off, to the nest I guess. Happy surprise for the kiddies? Anyway obviously they're not just seed eaters.
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
Yesterday I noticed a male English sparrow creeping up an oak tree prying into cracks in the bark exactly like a nuthatch. Nuthatches are looking for grubs when they do that, I know. What are YOU doing,I wondered. You're supposed to be a seed eater.
A few minutes later, now half way up the tree, he dropped to the ground and yes, he had a biggish caterpiller in his beak. He had to hammer it quite a bit to make it softer but by gosh he finally swallowed it and flew off, to the nest I guess. Happy surprise for the kiddies? Anyway obviously they're not just seed eaters.
Get more on Karen Pryor at SimonandSchuster.com
June 1, 2009
Got Puppy Nipping? Take the Clicker Approach
All puppies like to play and wrestle and nip each other. When they come to live with people, they want to play in the same way. They don't know that our skin is far more tender than their littermate's fur—so sometimes those nips can hurt!
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