Reaching the Animal Mind Quotes

“Fear is the enemy of learning. It’s the negator of joy, the preventer of play, the inhibitor of trust and love. Fear just gets in the way, slows things down, and causes unnecessary pain.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“As with clicker-trained animals, deliberate use of intimidation almost certainly moves your learner off the SEEKING circuit and onto the conditioned fear path in the amygdala. You may get compliance, but learning slows way down.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“When you stop relying on aversive controls such as threats, intimidation, and punishment, and when you know how to use reinforcement to get not just the same but better results, your perception of the world undergoes a shift. You don’t have to become a wimp. You don’t have to give up being in charge. You lose nothing of yourself. You just see things you didn’t see before.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“...that aversives stop behavior, they don’t start it; and that fear and pain produce completely unpredictable and usually highly undesirable side effects, including being both exciting and reinforcing to the punisher. (p.15)”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals

“Once you know how to build bridges, you can get across lots of different rivers.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“The animal has discovered, in me, a new resource, like a new water hole or berry patch. Thus it takes a new and intense interest in what I do. That opens up huge opportunities for understanding. (p.13)”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals

“Then, that memorably powerful look into my eyes told me something more: compared to dogs, wolves are grown-ups. He was not asking for help, head down, forehead wrinkled, as a dog might: “Is this right? What do you want?”
Instead, head high, gaze level, he was assessing me, like a poker player: “Are you in or out?” Judging that I was in, he made his move; and we both won. (p.6)”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals

“I have already discovered that it is useless to ask neuroscientists questions that lie outside their specialty. The dopamine guys know the dopamine guys, but they don’t know the cognitive-processing guys.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“In contrast to a command, which is a veiled threat, a cue is a promise: if you understand what I’m saying, and you carry it out correctly, you will definitely win.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“reinforcement-based technology is that at least as far as animals and children go, we now have a realistic way to keep them and take care of them and teach them without automatically using fear.”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind

“that aversives stop behavior, they don’t start it; and”
― Karen Pryor, Reaching the Animal Mind