Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals Book

This is essentially the book that most people expect when they pick up "Don't Shoot the Dog!". Pryor gets away from trying to apply clicker training to all aspects of life and focuses on anecdotes of using clicker training for a wide range of animal species. I really enjoyed this as a light read (and oh man, did it make me miss my zoo critters) and it's a lot of fun (I particularly liked the stories about training fish and hermit crabs), but there's not as much new insight as I had hoped for. The highlight of the book is definitely the chapter on what is actually going on neurologically during clicker training, which helps explain why a click is generally more effective than a "good boy!" and why it can be so effective in physical training of humans (such as gymnasts and dancers).

My only gripe is that Pryor has fallen into the typical trap of animal training writers and spends a good deal of time bashing on "traditional" trainers and how her method consistently one-ups all those mean ol' harsh methods. There's so much good support and so many great examples in here, is the negative angle really necessary?