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Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs
Akin to Monty Roberts's The Man Who Listens to Horses and going light-years beyond The Hidden Life of Dogs, this extraordinary book takes a radical new direction in understanding our life with canines and offers us astonishing new lessons about our pets. From changing the misbehaviors and habits that upset us, to seeing the world from their unique and natural perspective, to finding a deep connection with another being, BONES WOULD RAIN FROM THE SKY will help you receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Suzanne Clothier
14 books40 followersSuzanne Clothier has been working with animals professionally since 1977, with a deep background of experience that includes obedience, agility, puppy testing, breeding, Search and Rescue, conformation, instructing, kennel management and canine midwifery. She is well respected for her holistic Relationship Centered Training™ approach to dogs and the people that love them.
Whether the audience is companion dog owners or experienced trainers, Suzanne's broad knowledge, common sense and humor offer exciting, practical information and approaches that will enhance the dog/human relationship.
She has taught in the US, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Japan, Australia and New Zealand for groups as varied as Wolf Park, NADOI, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, FEMA (Northeast Region Disaster Dog Teams), Alaskan Dog Musher Association, Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, AKC Obedience judges, many national specialties, and numerous obedience, agility, breed, rescue, shelter and SAR groups.
Her book, Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships With Dogs has received wide spread praise from every corner of the dog world, including twice being included in the Wall Street Journal's list of Top 5 Dog Books. An award winning author of videos, books, booklets and numerous articles, Suzanne has written articles for the AKC Gazette, Dog Fancy, Dogs In Canada, Off Lead, Clean Run, Wolf Clan and breed magazines and newsletters around the world. She served as a committee member for the AKC’s Agility Advisory Board, and as a committee member of the American Humane Association’s Task Force for the Development of Humane Standards in Dog Training.
In 2007, she developed an exciting new temperament assessment tool, CARAT™ (Clothier Animal Response Assessment Tool). She is also the developer of RAT™ (Relationship Assessment Tool). Currently, she is involved in a number of research projects involving CARAT and RAT, ranging from guide & service dog schools to the use of CARAT and RAT in Animal Assisted Therapy (in conjunction with Dr. Kirby Wycoff). Together, Suzanne and Dr. Wycoff are developing a new approach to AAT - The Reflected Relationship™.
From 2007-2010, she served as a consultant to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, one of the world's largest guide dog school. Her Relationship Centered Training™ and Enriched Puppy Protocol™ served as the structure for the updating of GEB's puppy raising program. Additionally, Suzanne developed a new puppy testing protocol, an brood stock/IFT (in for training) test. Unpublished data show that CARAT and the Clothier tests to be strongly predictive.
She is currently a consultant for Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, and will be working with a number of service dog organizations utilizing CARAT, RAT, RCT principles/techniques and the Enriched Puppy Protocol.
Beginning Jan 2013, she was invited to serve as an Advisory Board Member for NBCAAM - National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure & Massage.
A German Shepherd breeder, her 8 generations of Hawks Hunt German Shepherds have been successful in obedience, agility, SAR, tracking, herding and therapy work; she is also the co-breeder of a National Specialty BOB Brittany. She lives on a working farm in upstate New York with husband John Rice, and their considerable animal family of dogs, cats, parrots, tortoises, Scottish Highland cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs and more.
Whether the audience is companion dog owners or experienced trainers, Suzanne's broad knowledge, common sense and humor offer exciting, practical information and approaches that will enhance the dog/human relationship.
She has taught in the US, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Japan, Australia and New Zealand for groups as varied as Wolf Park, NADOI, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, FEMA (Northeast Region Disaster Dog Teams), Alaskan Dog Musher Association, Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society, AKC Obedience judges, many national specialties, and numerous obedience, agility, breed, rescue, shelter and SAR groups.
Her book, Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships With Dogs has received wide spread praise from every corner of the dog world, including twice being included in the Wall Street Journal's list of Top 5 Dog Books. An award winning author of videos, books, booklets and numerous articles, Suzanne has written articles for the AKC Gazette, Dog Fancy, Dogs In Canada, Off Lead, Clean Run, Wolf Clan and breed magazines and newsletters around the world. She served as a committee member for the AKC’s Agility Advisory Board, and as a committee member of the American Humane Association’s Task Force for the Development of Humane Standards in Dog Training.
In 2007, she developed an exciting new temperament assessment tool, CARAT™ (Clothier Animal Response Assessment Tool). She is also the developer of RAT™ (Relationship Assessment Tool). Currently, she is involved in a number of research projects involving CARAT and RAT, ranging from guide & service dog schools to the use of CARAT and RAT in Animal Assisted Therapy (in conjunction with Dr. Kirby Wycoff). Together, Suzanne and Dr. Wycoff are developing a new approach to AAT - The Reflected Relationship™.
From 2007-2010, she served as a consultant to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, one of the world's largest guide dog school. Her Relationship Centered Training™ and Enriched Puppy Protocol™ served as the structure for the updating of GEB's puppy raising program. Additionally, Suzanne developed a new puppy testing protocol, an brood stock/IFT (in for training) test. Unpublished data show that CARAT and the Clothier tests to be strongly predictive.
She is currently a consultant for Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, and will be working with a number of service dog organizations utilizing CARAT, RAT, RCT principles/techniques and the Enriched Puppy Protocol.
Beginning Jan 2013, she was invited to serve as an Advisory Board Member for NBCAAM - National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure & Massage.
A German Shepherd breeder, her 8 generations of Hawks Hunt German Shepherds have been successful in obedience, agility, SAR, tracking, herding and therapy work; she is also the co-breeder of a National Specialty BOB Brittany. She lives on a working farm in upstate New York with husband John Rice, and their considerable animal family of dogs, cats, parrots, tortoises, Scottish Highland cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs and more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
March 18, 2012
If you are looking for a hippy-dippy, mystical dog training book, then look no further! This book is all about understanding the dog at an emotional and - yes - spiritual level. Clothier is a disciple of Linda Tellington-Jones, the pioneer in "bodywork" with horses and dogs aka therapeutic massage that treats animals' behavioural and emotional imbalances. Clothier's basic thesis is that dogs have rich emotional lives and that without respecting that enough to build a high-quality, equal, respectful and loving partnership with them, as you would with any being you loved, things will go awry.
Writing in 2001, this book came before the current synthesization of ethological-behavioural-cognitive approaches and the debunking of a lot of the alpha-wolf pack nonsense. Clothier states openly and upfront (and somewhat defensively) that her theories are not founded on that-there school book learnin' or any recognized academic credentials, but come from her own experience and rather eclectic reading which ranges from Lorenz's classic work in ethology through to Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Buscaglia's Love.
Like I said, hippy-dippy.
But I didn't dismiss it outright, as is my wont withbullshit mystic fruitcakes these types of authors, because she issued a challenge, and dammit, she is right. Just what do we have to lose by thinking of and treating animals in a loving, whole and respectful way - and shouldn't the results and the relationship that develops speak for itself? Where's the resistance?
So I let her take me along for the ride, and you know what? There's some great things in here, which - albeit accidentally - reconcile the hardcore, scientific behaviourist data with the more whispery kinda animal training that talks about balance, quality, soul, authenticity.
Among other things to read this for is the clarity of her discussion of alpha/dominance/submission - she dismisses all the terminology as misunderstood and misapplied, and wipes the slate clean to take it back to status-seeking behaviour which expresses itself differently depending on context and is ONLY expressed in relation to another being. She does as good if not a better job on this than even Patricia McConnell in The Other End of the Leash.
Following from this, she discusses "aggression" at length, and provides some beautiful examples and analogies that make it clear how: 1) we miss the early warning signs of aggression; 2) what we call 'aggressive' acts are often anything but; 3) true aggression is a serious issue that is an animal trying to tell us something is very very wrong - don't underestimate or ignore it.
She does a great job with the necessity to exert leadership with animals, much like with children - and takes the entire concept up a notch to avoid the whole "pack leader" mess and instead, nest leadership in the context of setting boundaries, providing structure, having the animal's (or child's) best interests at heart, taking ownership for any bad behaviour as a failure of the leader and not the fault of the dog/child.
She does a beautiful, if hard to read, dismantling of dog training by so-called experts who in fact propose and practice inhumane, cruel and outright sociopathic approaches. She shows these as the end result of a philosophy that starts with alpha and ends in confusion, frustration, pain, harm and even death. She names names. This section will make you angry, angry, angry as it should. There are still practitioners out there - Brad Pattison comes to mind; Milan might also be in this camp - who strenuously defend their practices. She says (I'm paraphrasing): you never have to defend methods that are kind, respectful, compassionate. You only have to defend methods that could be perceived as other than this. If you have to defend your practices, you need to question what you're doing and why you're doing it.
She is steadfast and fully committed to her own philosophy of kindness, respect, empathy and love to build healthy relationships. She is uber-authentic and attentive to her own theories and behaviour being 100 per cent aligned with her underlying philosophy.
At the same time - and this is part of her authenticity - she is open about her past acts that have *not* always been congruent with a loving, respectful, humane approach. She recognizes the baggage she brings and has brought into her relationships with humans and with animals, and she encourages us to do the same if what we seek and value are healthy, happy, loving and genuine relationships. And she delves into the murky, grey area that exists in any relationship where there is a power imbalance, and where one individual must act as leader to ensure the safety of the other. She explores the sometimes-uncomfortable mantle of leadership, the need for a leader to not just persuade but sometimes coerce ... and the thin line between coercion and what might be classed in a different context as cruelty.
She goes on a bit and keeps selling after the sale is made; she sprinkles quotations like confetti seeking to be profound by proxy; her metaphors are sometimes hackneyed; she occasionally strains to make a joke; and she veers into sexist (or at least, stereotyped) analogies a bit too frequently for my own comfort. But, BUT. She redeems herself, she really does.
She writes with an underlying logic and authority that overcomes (despite her own lack of confidence) our doubts and allows us (well, me anyway) to forgive her for her woo-woo metaphysics. She ends up taking you to interesting places and will open your mind and heart to new thoughts and feelings - I had many a-ha moments here. And she is truly funny and also forgiving of herself and others (a lesson she's learned from the doggies).
She may get some of the details wrong (she repeatedly calls "if ... then" scenarios doggy math instead of the more accurate doggy logic; and she muddles up classical and operant conditioning leading her into dangerous baby-bathwater territory), but by the time she's done, she's presented an absolutely coherent philosophy/theory that one can acknowledge as practical, usable, sensible ... and really quite lovely.
The last five or six chapters take you right into the heart of the end of a relationship - i.e., the death of several of her own and others' pets - and will have you weeping and blubbering along with her or at least it did me. And then, she goes out on a couple of chapters that rest on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience," which she extends to the doggies.
Well, hell. Why not, huh?
Writing in 2001, this book came before the current synthesization of ethological-behavioural-cognitive approaches and the debunking of a lot of the alpha-wolf pack nonsense. Clothier states openly and upfront (and somewhat defensively) that her theories are not founded on that-there school book learnin' or any recognized academic credentials, but come from her own experience and rather eclectic reading which ranges from Lorenz's classic work in ethology through to Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Buscaglia's Love.
Like I said, hippy-dippy.
But I didn't dismiss it outright, as is my wont with
So I let her take me along for the ride, and you know what? There's some great things in here, which - albeit accidentally - reconcile the hardcore, scientific behaviourist data with the more whispery kinda animal training that talks about balance, quality, soul, authenticity.
Among other things to read this for is the clarity of her discussion of alpha/dominance/submission - she dismisses all the terminology as misunderstood and misapplied, and wipes the slate clean to take it back to status-seeking behaviour which expresses itself differently depending on context and is ONLY expressed in relation to another being. She does as good if not a better job on this than even Patricia McConnell in The Other End of the Leash.
Following from this, she discusses "aggression" at length, and provides some beautiful examples and analogies that make it clear how: 1) we miss the early warning signs of aggression; 2) what we call 'aggressive' acts are often anything but; 3) true aggression is a serious issue that is an animal trying to tell us something is very very wrong - don't underestimate or ignore it.
She does a great job with the necessity to exert leadership with animals, much like with children - and takes the entire concept up a notch to avoid the whole "pack leader" mess and instead, nest leadership in the context of setting boundaries, providing structure, having the animal's (or child's) best interests at heart, taking ownership for any bad behaviour as a failure of the leader and not the fault of the dog/child.
She does a beautiful, if hard to read, dismantling of dog training by so-called experts who in fact propose and practice inhumane, cruel and outright sociopathic approaches. She shows these as the end result of a philosophy that starts with alpha and ends in confusion, frustration, pain, harm and even death. She names names. This section will make you angry, angry, angry as it should. There are still practitioners out there - Brad Pattison comes to mind; Milan might also be in this camp - who strenuously defend their practices. She says (I'm paraphrasing): you never have to defend methods that are kind, respectful, compassionate. You only have to defend methods that could be perceived as other than this. If you have to defend your practices, you need to question what you're doing and why you're doing it.
She is steadfast and fully committed to her own philosophy of kindness, respect, empathy and love to build healthy relationships. She is uber-authentic and attentive to her own theories and behaviour being 100 per cent aligned with her underlying philosophy.
At the same time - and this is part of her authenticity - she is open about her past acts that have *not* always been congruent with a loving, respectful, humane approach. She recognizes the baggage she brings and has brought into her relationships with humans and with animals, and she encourages us to do the same if what we seek and value are healthy, happy, loving and genuine relationships. And she delves into the murky, grey area that exists in any relationship where there is a power imbalance, and where one individual must act as leader to ensure the safety of the other. She explores the sometimes-uncomfortable mantle of leadership, the need for a leader to not just persuade but sometimes coerce ... and the thin line between coercion and what might be classed in a different context as cruelty.
She goes on a bit and keeps selling after the sale is made; she sprinkles quotations like confetti seeking to be profound by proxy; her metaphors are sometimes hackneyed; she occasionally strains to make a joke; and she veers into sexist (or at least, stereotyped) analogies a bit too frequently for my own comfort. But, BUT. She redeems herself, she really does.
She writes with an underlying logic and authority that overcomes (despite her own lack of confidence) our doubts and allows us (well, me anyway) to forgive her for her woo-woo metaphysics. She ends up taking you to interesting places and will open your mind and heart to new thoughts and feelings - I had many a-ha moments here. And she is truly funny and also forgiving of herself and others (a lesson she's learned from the doggies).
She may get some of the details wrong (she repeatedly calls "if ... then" scenarios doggy math instead of the more accurate doggy logic; and she muddles up classical and operant conditioning leading her into dangerous baby-bathwater territory), but by the time she's done, she's presented an absolutely coherent philosophy/theory that one can acknowledge as practical, usable, sensible ... and really quite lovely.
The last five or six chapters take you right into the heart of the end of a relationship - i.e., the death of several of her own and others' pets - and will have you weeping and blubbering along with her or at least it did me. And then, she goes out on a couple of chapters that rest on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience," which she extends to the doggies.
Well, hell. Why not, huh?
March 9, 2009
Of the books I've read this year, I think this one might have been my absolute favourite (so far!). Clothier writes in a way that I find it very easy to connect to.
Ultimately, this book is the complete opposite of the one I read by Cesar Millan. The basis of the book is respect, love, compassion, and understanding. Clothier draws on her experiences with her own dogs and with her client's dogs to tell stories that illustrate each of her very well- explained points.
I think the main point of the book, what the book was trying to tell the reader from the beginning and through to the end, came on page 222 with one simple phrase: See the dog. It's something Clothier points out a lot of people don't actually see. They see something that has to be pushed down and dominated. They see a human in fur clothing. They see a bundle of unconditional love. But they don't actually look at and see the dog itself, the dog as a dog. And through that, a lot of miscommunication happens.
She also focuses on dogs as spirtual beings and believes that we can learn a lot from them, from the way they interact, from their body language. At one point she tells a story about a friend who got angry at her and was berating her, shouting at her, and how she wanted to walk away, shout back, get angry back. And then she stopped, imagined her as a dog snapping at her and growling, and realized that a lot of her friend's behavior was based around fear. And she stopped, listened compassionately, and allowed her friend to relax. A lot of people get irritated when people compare animals to humans, but I think the way Clothier does it works really well.
I've read a lot of dog books, read a lot of dog websites, and one thing that has always confused me is the amount of behaviorists and writers who disagree with the alpha/pack theory of dogs but at the same time talk about being a leader. I never could quite figure out how to reconcile the two and it's something I've been struggling with. Clothier, finally, seems to manage to do it and do it well. Again, she compared leadership in a dog/human relationship to leadership in a child/parent relationship. You have to be the leader with your children. You have to give them rules and boundaries. You have to pull them away from things that are bad for them. But at the same time you have to be benevolent, always showing them the way and correcting them when they're wrong without getting angry and lashing out. And in this same way, you should be the benevolent leader for your dog(s). Kindness and compassion mixed with rules and boundaries. Too little of one or the other and your relationship with your dog will suffer, not because the dog is going to then become the leader and the dominant one, but because the dog doesn't know how it fits in, what's expected of it.
And one final point about this book, and it was something I really liked. When you read a lot about these various trainers and their relationship with their dogs, you always have the impression that they do all the right things, that their dogs are great because the trainers know what to do, that they never make the mistakes a lot of us do. Clothier very carefully shows some situations in which she acted all too human with her dogs, where she got angry with them and acted out in that anger. She tells the story of Badger, a dog whose owner could not control him and who she agreed to take in. One night, shortly after he arrived, she got up to let the dogs out and when she came back, he was sprawled on her bed. She wanted him off, in his crate, and he wouldn't go no matter how much she cojoled him. She grabbed him by the collar, which results in his showing his teeth, and then, in an all too human move of frustration and anger with a dog, she smacked him on the muzzle. Soon after she realized how blinded with rage she was and calms down and things resort to normal. But the point she made here was that we ALL make mistakes, no matter how much training and knowledge we have. We're all human and all prone to the same human mistakes. While it's sad to read of someone smacking their dog, it's comforting to hear we all do make mistakes and we can recover from them.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about their relationship with their dogs.
Ultimately, this book is the complete opposite of the one I read by Cesar Millan. The basis of the book is respect, love, compassion, and understanding. Clothier draws on her experiences with her own dogs and with her client's dogs to tell stories that illustrate each of her very well- explained points.
I think the main point of the book, what the book was trying to tell the reader from the beginning and through to the end, came on page 222 with one simple phrase: See the dog. It's something Clothier points out a lot of people don't actually see. They see something that has to be pushed down and dominated. They see a human in fur clothing. They see a bundle of unconditional love. But they don't actually look at and see the dog itself, the dog as a dog. And through that, a lot of miscommunication happens.
She also focuses on dogs as spirtual beings and believes that we can learn a lot from them, from the way they interact, from their body language. At one point she tells a story about a friend who got angry at her and was berating her, shouting at her, and how she wanted to walk away, shout back, get angry back. And then she stopped, imagined her as a dog snapping at her and growling, and realized that a lot of her friend's behavior was based around fear. And she stopped, listened compassionately, and allowed her friend to relax. A lot of people get irritated when people compare animals to humans, but I think the way Clothier does it works really well.
I've read a lot of dog books, read a lot of dog websites, and one thing that has always confused me is the amount of behaviorists and writers who disagree with the alpha/pack theory of dogs but at the same time talk about being a leader. I never could quite figure out how to reconcile the two and it's something I've been struggling with. Clothier, finally, seems to manage to do it and do it well. Again, she compared leadership in a dog/human relationship to leadership in a child/parent relationship. You have to be the leader with your children. You have to give them rules and boundaries. You have to pull them away from things that are bad for them. But at the same time you have to be benevolent, always showing them the way and correcting them when they're wrong without getting angry and lashing out. And in this same way, you should be the benevolent leader for your dog(s). Kindness and compassion mixed with rules and boundaries. Too little of one or the other and your relationship with your dog will suffer, not because the dog is going to then become the leader and the dominant one, but because the dog doesn't know how it fits in, what's expected of it.
And one final point about this book, and it was something I really liked. When you read a lot about these various trainers and their relationship with their dogs, you always have the impression that they do all the right things, that their dogs are great because the trainers know what to do, that they never make the mistakes a lot of us do. Clothier very carefully shows some situations in which she acted all too human with her dogs, where she got angry with them and acted out in that anger. She tells the story of Badger, a dog whose owner could not control him and who she agreed to take in. One night, shortly after he arrived, she got up to let the dogs out and when she came back, he was sprawled on her bed. She wanted him off, in his crate, and he wouldn't go no matter how much she cojoled him. She grabbed him by the collar, which results in his showing his teeth, and then, in an all too human move of frustration and anger with a dog, she smacked him on the muzzle. Soon after she realized how blinded with rage she was and calms down and things resort to normal. But the point she made here was that we ALL make mistakes, no matter how much training and knowledge we have. We're all human and all prone to the same human mistakes. While it's sad to read of someone smacking their dog, it's comforting to hear we all do make mistakes and we can recover from them.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about their relationship with their dogs.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2017
I received a copy of this audiobook from Tantor Media. Thanks Tantor!
I’ll be real here. I requested this audiobook because of the cover. I had a vague idea that this was a book of dog stories and had seen the title around for years (yikes, I just realized this is likely because the hardcover is sitting in my tbr pile!) but I had to have it because that cover called out to me.
Come on now, don’t tell me you aren’t tempted by that lovely cover because I won’t believe you.
Dog trainer and author Suzanne Cloutier loves animals.
“To travel in the company of animals is to walk with angels.”
If you feel the same, you’ll benefit in some way from reading this book.
So what’s it about? Well, the author is an experienced dog trainer and here she shares stories and lessons that she has learned over the years while working with dogs. This isn’t a book about how to train your dog to sit or heel or down-stay. This is a book on how best to deepen your relationship with your dog and how to learn to look at life through their eyes. I found that advice and those vignettes the most important take-away from this book. It’s easy to get stressed and irritated when your dog misbehaves and ignores your commands/demands/frantic pleas but taking a moment to calm yourself and see things from their perspective (and the author shows several examples which were so incredibly helpful) may help improve both their behavior and yours. I am totally guilty of being impatient and anxious and giving my poor dogs mixed signals and then I’m left wondering why they’re not doing what I think they should be doing. It also made me more aware of being present, instead of being all up in my own head (hey, I’m a Pisces) and then wondering why my dog has nearly taken my fingers off to get to the chicken in my hand. This book opened me up to my behavior and has made me stop and pause on several occasions.
The author comes across as human, sprinkling in some humor and admits to some of the terrible mistakes she’s made. She owns them and she’s learned from them and she is not perfect. She goes into in-depth discussions about aggression and the mislabeling of aggression that often results in tragedy and how to read warning signs before things escalate. I learned more about aggression and reading signals from this book than I did from any of the training manuals I’ve read in the past.
It’s not a read in one sitting kind of book, unless you’re really into this kind of thing, because some of this information needs to be digested and given a little time to sink in. At least that was the case with me. The ending made me weepy, as she recalls some of the stories of illness and death which is inevitable when you love any living creature but it’s not of the dragged out “Marley & Me” variety. There are beautiful insights about animal and human behavior inside the pages and it basically comes to down to treating those you love with kindness, empathy and sharing all of your love in order to strengthen your relationship. That’s advice the world needs to hear. This book will be a yearly reread for me, for sure.
The version I read was narrated by Pam Ward who has a strong, clear, accessible voice that fills with emotion when the words call for it. If you dig audio, Buddy, Bailey and I highly recommend reading this version.
Challenge Update:
Audiobook Challenge: Book #7
HA Mount TBR Challenge: Book #11
HA Pages Read Challenge
2017 Horror Reading Challenge Book #8 Not a horror novel
See this and the rest of the crap I write at my blog.
I’ll be real here. I requested this audiobook because of the cover. I had a vague idea that this was a book of dog stories and had seen the title around for years (yikes, I just realized this is likely because the hardcover is sitting in my tbr pile!) but I had to have it because that cover called out to me.
Come on now, don’t tell me you aren’t tempted by that lovely cover because I won’t believe you.
Dog trainer and author Suzanne Cloutier loves animals.
“To travel in the company of animals is to walk with angels.”
If you feel the same, you’ll benefit in some way from reading this book.
So what’s it about? Well, the author is an experienced dog trainer and here she shares stories and lessons that she has learned over the years while working with dogs. This isn’t a book about how to train your dog to sit or heel or down-stay. This is a book on how best to deepen your relationship with your dog and how to learn to look at life through their eyes. I found that advice and those vignettes the most important take-away from this book. It’s easy to get stressed and irritated when your dog misbehaves and ignores your commands/demands/frantic pleas but taking a moment to calm yourself and see things from their perspective (and the author shows several examples which were so incredibly helpful) may help improve both their behavior and yours. I am totally guilty of being impatient and anxious and giving my poor dogs mixed signals and then I’m left wondering why they’re not doing what I think they should be doing. It also made me more aware of being present, instead of being all up in my own head (hey, I’m a Pisces) and then wondering why my dog has nearly taken my fingers off to get to the chicken in my hand. This book opened me up to my behavior and has made me stop and pause on several occasions.
The author comes across as human, sprinkling in some humor and admits to some of the terrible mistakes she’s made. She owns them and she’s learned from them and she is not perfect. She goes into in-depth discussions about aggression and the mislabeling of aggression that often results in tragedy and how to read warning signs before things escalate. I learned more about aggression and reading signals from this book than I did from any of the training manuals I’ve read in the past.
It’s not a read in one sitting kind of book, unless you’re really into this kind of thing, because some of this information needs to be digested and given a little time to sink in. At least that was the case with me. The ending made me weepy, as she recalls some of the stories of illness and death which is inevitable when you love any living creature but it’s not of the dragged out “Marley & Me” variety. There are beautiful insights about animal and human behavior inside the pages and it basically comes to down to treating those you love with kindness, empathy and sharing all of your love in order to strengthen your relationship. That’s advice the world needs to hear. This book will be a yearly reread for me, for sure.
The version I read was narrated by Pam Ward who has a strong, clear, accessible voice that fills with emotion when the words call for it. If you dig audio, Buddy, Bailey and I highly recommend reading this version.
Challenge Update:
Audiobook Challenge: Book #7
HA Mount TBR Challenge: Book #11
HA Pages Read Challenge
2017 Horror Reading Challenge Book #8 Not a horror novel
See this and the rest of the crap I write at my blog.
October 6, 2015
The best book I have ever read on how to understand dogs and how to develop the kind of deep, almost spiritual connection that can enrich your life beyond compare. Fascinating, funny and incredibly instructive, I gave a dozen copies away to my friends and recommended it to everyone from my vet to the man in line to buy dog food at the grocery store.
I can thank Ms. Clothier for the incredibly deep and satisfactory relationships I have with all the dogs in my life.
I can thank Ms. Clothier for the incredibly deep and satisfactory relationships I have with all the dogs in my life.
April 10, 2011
Having heard many comments and recommendations about how good this book is I must say I was really dissapointed.
The author keeps repeating the same things over and over and the redundancies made the book a tedious read every now and then. After the book I was left with the feeling that I'd have wanted more anecdotes and descriptions of what kind of dogs she's worked with and what kind of things were done to make the dog's life better.
I really love Clothier's article "He Just Wants to Say Hi" and expected same kind of insight and style of the book, but couldn't find it.
I'm assuming one of her purposes with the book is to make people deepen their bond with their dog, trying to understand our more or less furry companions and to search for self-knowledge and reflection but for me the way she wrote about it gave an impression that this "magical dance" between a human and a dog would be something granted by higher powers or being something supernatural most people (apart from herself) would never experience.
The book speaks for dog-friendly training methods and working with the dog instead of having the dog for for you, which is a good thing, but I learned nothing new from it.
The author keeps repeating the same things over and over and the redundancies made the book a tedious read every now and then. After the book I was left with the feeling that I'd have wanted more anecdotes and descriptions of what kind of dogs she's worked with and what kind of things were done to make the dog's life better.
I really love Clothier's article "He Just Wants to Say Hi" and expected same kind of insight and style of the book, but couldn't find it.
I'm assuming one of her purposes with the book is to make people deepen their bond with their dog, trying to understand our more or less furry companions and to search for self-knowledge and reflection but for me the way she wrote about it gave an impression that this "magical dance" between a human and a dog would be something granted by higher powers or being something supernatural most people (apart from herself) would never experience.
The book speaks for dog-friendly training methods and working with the dog instead of having the dog for for you, which is a good thing, but I learned nothing new from it.
May 13, 2016
I was browsing a GR bio-memoir list and this book suddenly came to mind. It is a book which helped to forge a different concept of relationship for my spouse with our new dog, thankfully. Bones Would Fall From Heaven was the "bow" which tied up everything that I had intuitively understood about a relationship with dogs, but could never articulate.
Not really a training manual, Bones Would Fall From Heaven is more directed to understanding how your dog belongs to you, how you are the loving leader meant to keep it from harm and watch for signs which could lead it into difficult situations. The more aware and connected you become, the more "obedient" a dog becomes, actually mirroring you rather than being dominated as pack leader.
We were rehoming a beautiful high strung and rather contrary English Setter, who at nineteen months had been part of a rambunctious physical group of dogs not from her pedigree, and with whom the owner sadly parted because she felt that this Setter had neither "settled" nor shown true joy. I had lived with and loved many dogs through to old age; I thought this girl would fall in line as those had. Wrong!
Our dog had been shown and come back with prizes but had no basic etiquette. She stressed out; she ignored; she had severe separation anxiety; she was fearful of the oddest things (a tree stump, cows in a pasture). Bones Would Fall From Heaven helped to calm MY nerves and hers, "learn" my dog and discover her quiet joy and unbelievable various methods of communication, which she needed to keep open all the time until she trusted our secure routine.
Settle in for stories, a global perspective and an emotional dog walk with Bones Would Fall From Heaven. An unforgettable dog/people training book.
Not really a training manual, Bones Would Fall From Heaven is more directed to understanding how your dog belongs to you, how you are the loving leader meant to keep it from harm and watch for signs which could lead it into difficult situations. The more aware and connected you become, the more "obedient" a dog becomes, actually mirroring you rather than being dominated as pack leader.
We were rehoming a beautiful high strung and rather contrary English Setter, who at nineteen months had been part of a rambunctious physical group of dogs not from her pedigree, and with whom the owner sadly parted because she felt that this Setter had neither "settled" nor shown true joy. I had lived with and loved many dogs through to old age; I thought this girl would fall in line as those had. Wrong!
Our dog had been shown and come back with prizes but had no basic etiquette. She stressed out; she ignored; she had severe separation anxiety; she was fearful of the oddest things (a tree stump, cows in a pasture). Bones Would Fall From Heaven helped to calm MY nerves and hers, "learn" my dog and discover her quiet joy and unbelievable various methods of communication, which she needed to keep open all the time until she trusted our secure routine.
Settle in for stories, a global perspective and an emotional dog walk with Bones Would Fall From Heaven. An unforgettable dog/people training book.
November 29, 2020
This was technically a re-read. The first time I read this, I was training my third guide dog from puppyhood. I read this book then not looking for training tips and techniques, but for guidance on deepening my relationship with my pup Who was unlike any dog I'd ever worked with. I was entranced by Suzanne's earnest writing, and The truths within the pages echoed what I already intuitively knew.
I wanted to re-read this ten years later as a sort of tribute to my younger self and my then dog, and to remind my current self of the importance of listening to and respecting my current dboy, both as a partner and a teacher.
I wanted to re-read this ten years later as a sort of tribute to my younger self and my then dog, and to remind my current self of the importance of listening to and respecting my current dboy, both as a partner and a teacher.
September 19, 2007
One of the BEST BOOKS EVER!!! I laughed and cried, sometimes at the same time! It truly improved my relationship with my dog and confirmed some of the things I was already doing right that made people think I was crazy.
May 24, 2013
Wow.
When I started reading this book, I didn't know what to expect. I can't imagine NOT having a four-legged family member, and I was told that it was a good book so I was excited to read it. Little did I know just how amazing of a read it would be. Written beautifully, it was easy to connect to and I enjoyed the little sprinkles of humor. I honestly couldn't put it down. I wanted to read more, to learn more about what she had to say. This book not only has made me view my relationships with animals in a different light, but it has also inspired me to further learn more. I have this newfound thirst to *really* pay attention to the dogs in my life and not only work on improving my relationships with them, but work on trying to understand them and their perspective.
When I started reading this book, I didn't know what to expect. I can't imagine NOT having a four-legged family member, and I was told that it was a good book so I was excited to read it. Little did I know just how amazing of a read it would be. Written beautifully, it was easy to connect to and I enjoyed the little sprinkles of humor. I honestly couldn't put it down. I wanted to read more, to learn more about what she had to say. This book not only has made me view my relationships with animals in a different light, but it has also inspired me to further learn more. I have this newfound thirst to *really* pay attention to the dogs in my life and not only work on improving my relationships with them, but work on trying to understand them and their perspective.
February 8, 2026
A book for the large currents on which our relationships with dogs (and other humans) bob up-and-down.
This didn’t provide any discrete, concrete actions to implement in dog training, rather, it presented a frame for viewing one’s relationship with dogs. At a certain point, too, this extends to one’s relationship with any “others”, humans included.
The writing is circuitous, pulls heavily on quotes (which often sit slightly askew from the book itself), and yet, it’s a conversational and funny read. Chapter 19, on end-of-life is touching and poignant, certainly a tear jerker.
I found this to be an exercise in respect and care and very far from a stepwise guide on how to behave with dogs. It left me with a better sense of my relationships; those with my dog, my friends, my wife, and myself. Props to Suzanne Clothier for that!
This didn’t provide any discrete, concrete actions to implement in dog training, rather, it presented a frame for viewing one’s relationship with dogs. At a certain point, too, this extends to one’s relationship with any “others”, humans included.
The writing is circuitous, pulls heavily on quotes (which often sit slightly askew from the book itself), and yet, it’s a conversational and funny read. Chapter 19, on end-of-life is touching and poignant, certainly a tear jerker.
I found this to be an exercise in respect and care and very far from a stepwise guide on how to behave with dogs. It left me with a better sense of my relationships; those with my dog, my friends, my wife, and myself. Props to Suzanne Clothier for that!
December 5, 2023
This is not a training book but focuses on communication and building relationships with dogs. The language the author uses is pretty New Age and woowoo but it’s obvious that what she’s saying beneath the anthropomorphism is well-informed. Advocates for empathy, mindfulness, and understanding in our interactions with dogs which are certainly things the world needs more of. I wish I could hand this book out to some of the harsh, punishment based trainers I run into at obedience trials
December 30, 2017
I'm finding words hard to come by at the moment. I bought this book because I adopted a puppy 2 weeks ago and while I've always been a huge dog lover and I've always been around dogs, I'd never actually been the sole owner of one. I read this book hoping to learn how to train my dog to be the best dog he could be. Going in with that expectation, I was not at all prepared for the gut check I was about to receive.
This is the 2nd book I've read about dogs since getting my puppy and while the first book (Before and After Getting Your Puppy) had a few good tips, it was written in a negative manor and read more like an instruction manual. This book seemed more up my alley and I couldn't have been more right.
I thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and how she entertained while also teaching us valuable lessons. Towards the end of the book, she discusses the most difficult aspect of adopting a puppy, the fact that it will most likely die before we do. This was one of the biggest reasons I had yet to adopt one as in my personal life I have had some very difficult relationships and have sort of protected myself from the possibility of being hurt again. Not only did the author discuss this subject as well as could possibly be done, she ends up connecting the sense of loss to our human relationships.
I read the majority of the last 50 pages of this book with tears in my eyes as I realized that when I was finished with this book I was going to have a different way of looking at life. I adopted a puppy almost as a consolation of giving up dating, but thanks to this book, I realize its possible that I can have both. I recommend this to any animal lover of any kind and I hope it is able to touch others hearts as it has mine.
This is the 2nd book I've read about dogs since getting my puppy and while the first book (Before and After Getting Your Puppy) had a few good tips, it was written in a negative manor and read more like an instruction manual. This book seemed more up my alley and I couldn't have been more right.
I thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and how she entertained while also teaching us valuable lessons. Towards the end of the book, she discusses the most difficult aspect of adopting a puppy, the fact that it will most likely die before we do. This was one of the biggest reasons I had yet to adopt one as in my personal life I have had some very difficult relationships and have sort of protected myself from the possibility of being hurt again. Not only did the author discuss this subject as well as could possibly be done, she ends up connecting the sense of loss to our human relationships.
I read the majority of the last 50 pages of this book with tears in my eyes as I realized that when I was finished with this book I was going to have a different way of looking at life. I adopted a puppy almost as a consolation of giving up dating, but thanks to this book, I realize its possible that I can have both. I recommend this to any animal lover of any kind and I hope it is able to touch others hearts as it has mine.
June 19, 2009
I found this book unbelievably pretentious and boring. There were a few bits of wisdom shared that I enjoyed, but what I learned from this book would fill less than a page double spaced on Word. I felt like much of the book was the author rambling on and on. I would have liked it more had there been more stories about dogs she's worked with, or if the stories that were included had been fleshed out a little more. The way her personal experiences were written felt incomplete and stilted, and I spent the book trying to get to the next story without screaming "you've said that already!"
I really wanted to enjoy this book, and it did teach me a few things, but overall I felt like I already knew the information presented in it. I wish it had been a shorter read. Although this book came highly recommended to me, I can't recommend it to anyone else.
I really wanted to enjoy this book, and it did teach me a few things, but overall I felt like I already knew the information presented in it. I wish it had been a shorter read. Although this book came highly recommended to me, I can't recommend it to anyone else.
October 29, 2015
Long winded, repetitive. Very little actual dog training advice, and what advice there is, is hidden within long personal stories and mounds of philosophy.
I hate the hypocrisy: she criticizes other trainers for their "incoherent philosophies" but hers is just as incoherent. She waxes poetical about the connection between humans and non-human animals (not just dogs), what one can learn from them if one would only listen, etc. But she gladly kills other animals for her own pleasure. How is it not cruelty to kill the chickens, pigs and cows she has such a deep connection with? Her cultural blinders are just as bad as the dog lovers who use positive punishment.
Also, I don't understand "spirituality". I don't see humans as spiritual beings, because I have absolutely no idea what that means. All animal behavior, including that of humans, is made up of instincts and conditioned responses.
I hate the hypocrisy: she criticizes other trainers for their "incoherent philosophies" but hers is just as incoherent. She waxes poetical about the connection between humans and non-human animals (not just dogs), what one can learn from them if one would only listen, etc. But she gladly kills other animals for her own pleasure. How is it not cruelty to kill the chickens, pigs and cows she has such a deep connection with? Her cultural blinders are just as bad as the dog lovers who use positive punishment.
Also, I don't understand "spirituality". I don't see humans as spiritual beings, because I have absolutely no idea what that means. All animal behavior, including that of humans, is made up of instincts and conditioned responses.
Read
July 26, 2018I loved this. Clothier’s writing is beautiful, and if you read this before having a dog, you might find yourself bringing one home before too long... I haven’t read Vicki Hearne in a long time, but it feels like all the best parts of Hearne’s ideas in a more empathetic register and perhaps drawn from a broader range of experiences with animals. On the book riot scale, I would put it at a level three alarm snot bomb.
November 2, 2008
This book was a real eye opener for me about dogs and how to communicated effectively with them. The author is a very talented writer as well as an incredible dog behaviorist. I learned a lot and hope this helps with my relationship with my pooches.
July 16, 2017
It really seems like more of an autobiography. The author goes on and on about herself. I gave up about 25% of the way through.
December 1, 2021
A beautifully-written and inspiring meditation on living with and loving a dog.
Unlike any other dog training book I've read, this book is not stuck in the operant/classical model. Rather than focusing on technical mechanics, Clothier emphasizes the *relationship* as the foundational aspect in training your dog. She constantly reiterates the importance of /seeing/ your dog - seeing the world from their point of view, considering their internal world. Does the dog /trust/ you to guide it through a human-centric world? To teach it what it needs to know? Or does it see your behavior as confusing and unpredictable? Clothier notes that every single interaction with our dogs are an opportunity to strengthen our relationships with them - and also carries the potential to damage that relationship.
Throughout the book, Clothier implores us to create "Quality", a concept she draws from Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". This "Quality" is a sort of ineffable subjective dynamic between the two beings moving through space together. Only possible when both beings are totally present and engaged with each other, Quality is a rare thing, but you know it when you feel it.
More than "just a book about dogs", Clothier's book is about love, loss, empathy, kindness, and self-reflection.
This book is a must-read for any dog owner.
Unlike any other dog training book I've read, this book is not stuck in the operant/classical model. Rather than focusing on technical mechanics, Clothier emphasizes the *relationship* as the foundational aspect in training your dog. She constantly reiterates the importance of /seeing/ your dog - seeing the world from their point of view, considering their internal world. Does the dog /trust/ you to guide it through a human-centric world? To teach it what it needs to know? Or does it see your behavior as confusing and unpredictable? Clothier notes that every single interaction with our dogs are an opportunity to strengthen our relationships with them - and also carries the potential to damage that relationship.
Throughout the book, Clothier implores us to create "Quality", a concept she draws from Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". This "Quality" is a sort of ineffable subjective dynamic between the two beings moving through space together. Only possible when both beings are totally present and engaged with each other, Quality is a rare thing, but you know it when you feel it.
More than "just a book about dogs", Clothier's book is about love, loss, empathy, kindness, and self-reflection.
This book is a must-read for any dog owner.
December 4, 2025
I read Bones Would Rain from the Sky when my cat Kitty passed away, searching for meaning in that raw space between love and loss. Suzanne Clothier writes not about training dogs, but about presence, trust, and the kind of understanding that exists beyond words.
She shows that real connection with animals comes from attention and humility, from listening rather than controlling.
This line stayed with me:
There is a cycle of love and death that shapes the lives of those who choose to travel in the company of animals. It is a cycle unlike any other. To those who have never lived through its turnings and walked its rocky path, our willingness to give our hearts with full knowledge that they will be broken seems incomprehensible. Only we know how small a price we pay for what we receive; our grief, no matter how powerful it may be, is an insufficient measure of the joy we have been given.
It reminded me that grief is only a reflection of how deeply we’ve loved, and that the joy we shared is what truly remains.
She shows that real connection with animals comes from attention and humility, from listening rather than controlling.
This line stayed with me:
There is a cycle of love and death that shapes the lives of those who choose to travel in the company of animals. It is a cycle unlike any other. To those who have never lived through its turnings and walked its rocky path, our willingness to give our hearts with full knowledge that they will be broken seems incomprehensible. Only we know how small a price we pay for what we receive; our grief, no matter how powerful it may be, is an insufficient measure of the joy we have been given.
It reminded me that grief is only a reflection of how deeply we’ve loved, and that the joy we shared is what truly remains.
December 22, 2017
Wow, I went from thinking I wouldn't end up finishing this to thinking it was one of the most profoundly moving books I've read in a long time. And tbh I think that's a good metaphor for the kind of emotional shift she's describing too. I will write a longer review later once I've had some time to sit with it. I cried so much, in a good way. This was not a dog behavior book. Strange to say, it reminded me very strongly of Audre Lorde's work, especially one of my favorite of her essays, "Poetry Makes Something Happen." Reading it, especially the second half, I felt that same sense of being in the presence of a luminous soul.
March 9, 2018
Mostly a memoir and not a training guide, this book presents a philosophy for dog training that focuses on compassion rather than dominance. It's a good antithesis to the "establish the alpha" approach that is commonplace in American dog training. I would appreciate more direct instruction in how to practice these training principles, but I suppose there is no substitute for working in-person with a trainer. The stories of improved dog/owner relationships are touching.
3 stars out of 5.
3 stars out of 5.
October 13, 2026
I found this a refreshing departure from most books that examine the bonds between people and dogs. Many authors approach the subject from a scientific perspective, and while they never quite say so, you sometimes get the impression that they regard your dog as little more than a collection of behaviors and instincts. Suzanne Clothier sees something far greater. She believes dogs possess a spirit or soul, and she respectfully challenges training practices that have persisted for decades, arguing that many are misguided, unnecessary, or detrimental to the relationship.
First published in 2002, this book appeared when dominance-based training methods still enjoyed considerable influence. Clothier, an experienced trainer and educator whose professional work has included the guide and service dog fields, offers something more consequential than another collection of techniques for securing obedience. Her purpose isn't simply to teach people how to train dogs. It's to persuade us to reconsider the relationship itself.
Her philosophy resonated with me. I enjoyed the close companionship of four guide dogs over 30 years, and many of the principles Clothier advocates were ones I'd either applied instinctively or learned at the guide dog school I attended. Reading her observations often felt less like discovering something new than finding an articulate explanation for something I'd understood through experience.
Clothier argues that one of the fundamental problems in human relationships with dogs is our tendency to ask the wrong questions. She describes a seminar in which a participant brought her a powerful, difficult-to-control dog. Within minutes, Clothier had him sitting calmly and attentively. Rather than asking how she'd established that connection, another participant focused on Clothier's unusual leash, a lightweight affair with knots placed at intervals to provide convenient gripping points.
The woman wanted to know about the knots, apparently convinced they held the secret to Clothier's success. But she'd mistaken the equipment for the accomplishment.
"All of us," Clothier explains, "at some time or another, in a variety of ways, ask about the magic knots."
What we should be asking, she argues, is how to deepen our relationships with dogs until cooperation and mutual understanding become natural expressions of the bond. Throughout the book, Clothier explores what I came to think of as whole-dog concepts (my terminology, not hers), encouraging readers to understand the animal as a complete being rather than a collection of behaviors requiring correction.
Her approach places considerable importance on seeing the world from the dog's perspective. In the second chapter, "A Black Dog's Prayers," she describes a dog whose demeanor suggests an overwhelming desire to escape his circumstances. Rather than dismissing his behavior as stubbornness or disobedience, Clothier attempts to understand what the animal is experiencing. What looks like a behavioral problem from the human perspective may be an entirely understandable response to the dog's emotional circumstances.
This distinction is particularly important when the relationship involves a working dog. Obedience has its place, but unquestioning obedience isn't always desirable. A guide dog, for example, must sometimes refuse a command that would put its handler in danger. We call this intelligent disobedience, and it's one of the most remarkable elements of guide dog training. The handler must learn to trust an animal whose perceptions of the surrounding world may be vastly more complete than his own.
That kind of partnership demands something considerably more sophisticated than an obedient animal and a human issuing commands. It requires two individuals who understand one another well enough to cooperate, even when cooperation occasionally means disagreement.
In chapter four, Clothier emphasizes that every choice we make concerning our dogs contributes to the quality of the relationship. She takes issue with trainers who approach dog training as though it were a chemical reaction: introduce the proper ingredients, follow a prescribed procedure, and expect a predictable result. But people are inconsistent, dogs are individuals, and neither behaves with the mechanical reliability such a formula requires. Clothier favors thoughtful interaction over rigid prescriptions.
I particularly enjoyed chapter nine, which explores honesty in the relationship between dogs and people. Clothier insists that dogs don't lie. We may misunderstand what they're communicating, but they won't assure us that everything is wonderful when they're frightened, miserable, or otherwise distressed. Their feelings may escape our comprehension, but they don't conceal them behind the social conventions that so often govern human interaction.
"Concealed feelings are not part of a dog's world," she writes.
That observation struck me as both beautiful and profoundly sensible. A dog's honesty places a corresponding obligation on us to pay attention. If an animal communicates its distress, confusion, or discomfort and we fail to recognize the message, the failure may rest more with our inability to listen than with the dog's inability to communicate.
Clothier also examines the importance of leadership. Just as children need guidance and boundaries, dogs need a dependable human presence to help them navigate a world they cannot fully understand. But she vehemently rejects the notion that successful leadership requires establishing oneself as the dominant alpha member of a pack. Relationships aren't rigid hierarchies in which one participant must perpetually assert superiority over the other. Authority and initiative can shift with circumstances, and mutual respect accomplishes far more than an unrelenting contest for dominance.
I was particularly receptive to that argument because a guide dog partnership provides an almost daily demonstration of its validity. I might decide where we're going, but my dog possesses information I don't. When he alerts me to an obstacle or refuses to move because proceeding would be dangerous, he assumes a kind of leadership essential to our safety. My responsibility isn't to overpower his judgment but to recognize its importance. The relationship works because each partner brings something indispensable to the undertaking.
And that leads to another of Clothier's important insights: training and learning aren't exclusively the dog's responsibility. The human participant must also change, adapt, and develop new ways of understanding. Over the years, my dogs taught me things I could never have learned from another person, regardless of that person's expertise.
I never found Clothier's insistence on these principles tiresome. She returns repeatedly to communication, respect, cooperation, and the limitations of coercive training, but I was sufficiently in sympathy with her perspective that the repetition never felt labored. Instead, her examples seemed to illuminate different aspects of the same fundamental truth: a relationship is something two beings create together, not something one imposes upon the other.
Chapter 19 confronts the inevitability of death. Unless you're frightfully jaded, I suspect you'll finish it blinking back tears.
The final chapter explores the spiritual dimensions of our relationships with dogs. Clothier entertains the possibility that dogs possess souls and may continue to exist beyond death, but she cautions against elevating them to some imaginary plane of moral perfection. Her belief in the spiritual nature of dogs isn't offered as a scientific demonstration of immortality. It's part of a larger philosophical exploration of what these relationships mean and why they can affect us so profoundly.
Clothier doesn't suggest that loving a dog requires pretending the animal is incapable of mistakes, shortcomings, or ordinary canine mischief.
As she explains, "No living being deserves confinement in such a lifeless space; it is not something you do to anyone you love."
Her objection to placing dogs on pedestals struck me as especially perceptive. To idealize a living creature is, in a peculiar way, to diminish it. We deny the individuality, imperfections, and continuing development that make the relationship meaningful in the first place. A dog needn't qualify for sainthood to deserve our devotion.
Near the door of my house hangs one of those inexpensive plastic hooks. On it rest a leash and a slip collar. They're all I have left of the working equipment that belonged to Carl, my fourth and final guide dog, who died on June 18, 2025.
I suppose a more pragmatic person would throw them away or pack them in a box. I can't bring myself to do either.
That dangling leash doesn't taunt me with memories of Carl's death. It's a monument to the best of what was. When I touch it, however briefly, it becomes a time machine, transporting me back to the days when I shared my life with a creature who wasn't a saint but who, to my mind, possessed a soul and communicated in spiritual ways uniquely his own.
Whether we were navigating the intersection of High and Long Streets in downtown Columbus or walking the reassuringly safe jogging path near my home, Carl communicated constantly. There were the customary snorts and sniffs, of course, but even his gait, transmitted through the harness into my hand, told stories and described the world around us.
It was a supernal language he taught me, one I could never have learned without him. The vocabulary belonged to neither of us exclusively. We developed it together, through thousands of ordinary moments in which trust, affection, necessity, and companionship gradually became something greater than their individual parts.
And I had to learn that language just as surely as Carl had to learn mine. The harness didn't create our understanding any more than Clothier's knotted leash created hers. The equipment merely facilitated communication between two beings who had learned to trust one another.
Which brings me back to that woman at Clothier's seminar, so fascinated by the magic knots in the leash.
I wonder what she'd make of the leash hanging near my door. It has no magical knots, no extraordinary properties, and no power whatsoever to command the obedience of a dog who is no longer here. Yet I wouldn't trade it for anything. To the woman at the seminar, a leash was apparently an instrument for controlling an animal. To me, it's a tangible reminder of a relationship that enriched my life beyond anything I could have imagined.
The magic was never in the leash.
It was in the relationship.
Suzanne Clothier understands that distinction. More importantly, she understands why learning to communicate with another living creature, on terms that honor the dignity of both participants, is worth a lifetime.
First published in 2002, this book appeared when dominance-based training methods still enjoyed considerable influence. Clothier, an experienced trainer and educator whose professional work has included the guide and service dog fields, offers something more consequential than another collection of techniques for securing obedience. Her purpose isn't simply to teach people how to train dogs. It's to persuade us to reconsider the relationship itself.
Her philosophy resonated with me. I enjoyed the close companionship of four guide dogs over 30 years, and many of the principles Clothier advocates were ones I'd either applied instinctively or learned at the guide dog school I attended. Reading her observations often felt less like discovering something new than finding an articulate explanation for something I'd understood through experience.
Clothier argues that one of the fundamental problems in human relationships with dogs is our tendency to ask the wrong questions. She describes a seminar in which a participant brought her a powerful, difficult-to-control dog. Within minutes, Clothier had him sitting calmly and attentively. Rather than asking how she'd established that connection, another participant focused on Clothier's unusual leash, a lightweight affair with knots placed at intervals to provide convenient gripping points.
The woman wanted to know about the knots, apparently convinced they held the secret to Clothier's success. But she'd mistaken the equipment for the accomplishment.
"All of us," Clothier explains, "at some time or another, in a variety of ways, ask about the magic knots."
What we should be asking, she argues, is how to deepen our relationships with dogs until cooperation and mutual understanding become natural expressions of the bond. Throughout the book, Clothier explores what I came to think of as whole-dog concepts (my terminology, not hers), encouraging readers to understand the animal as a complete being rather than a collection of behaviors requiring correction.
Her approach places considerable importance on seeing the world from the dog's perspective. In the second chapter, "A Black Dog's Prayers," she describes a dog whose demeanor suggests an overwhelming desire to escape his circumstances. Rather than dismissing his behavior as stubbornness or disobedience, Clothier attempts to understand what the animal is experiencing. What looks like a behavioral problem from the human perspective may be an entirely understandable response to the dog's emotional circumstances.
This distinction is particularly important when the relationship involves a working dog. Obedience has its place, but unquestioning obedience isn't always desirable. A guide dog, for example, must sometimes refuse a command that would put its handler in danger. We call this intelligent disobedience, and it's one of the most remarkable elements of guide dog training. The handler must learn to trust an animal whose perceptions of the surrounding world may be vastly more complete than his own.
That kind of partnership demands something considerably more sophisticated than an obedient animal and a human issuing commands. It requires two individuals who understand one another well enough to cooperate, even when cooperation occasionally means disagreement.
In chapter four, Clothier emphasizes that every choice we make concerning our dogs contributes to the quality of the relationship. She takes issue with trainers who approach dog training as though it were a chemical reaction: introduce the proper ingredients, follow a prescribed procedure, and expect a predictable result. But people are inconsistent, dogs are individuals, and neither behaves with the mechanical reliability such a formula requires. Clothier favors thoughtful interaction over rigid prescriptions.
I particularly enjoyed chapter nine, which explores honesty in the relationship between dogs and people. Clothier insists that dogs don't lie. We may misunderstand what they're communicating, but they won't assure us that everything is wonderful when they're frightened, miserable, or otherwise distressed. Their feelings may escape our comprehension, but they don't conceal them behind the social conventions that so often govern human interaction.
"Concealed feelings are not part of a dog's world," she writes.
That observation struck me as both beautiful and profoundly sensible. A dog's honesty places a corresponding obligation on us to pay attention. If an animal communicates its distress, confusion, or discomfort and we fail to recognize the message, the failure may rest more with our inability to listen than with the dog's inability to communicate.
Clothier also examines the importance of leadership. Just as children need guidance and boundaries, dogs need a dependable human presence to help them navigate a world they cannot fully understand. But she vehemently rejects the notion that successful leadership requires establishing oneself as the dominant alpha member of a pack. Relationships aren't rigid hierarchies in which one participant must perpetually assert superiority over the other. Authority and initiative can shift with circumstances, and mutual respect accomplishes far more than an unrelenting contest for dominance.
I was particularly receptive to that argument because a guide dog partnership provides an almost daily demonstration of its validity. I might decide where we're going, but my dog possesses information I don't. When he alerts me to an obstacle or refuses to move because proceeding would be dangerous, he assumes a kind of leadership essential to our safety. My responsibility isn't to overpower his judgment but to recognize its importance. The relationship works because each partner brings something indispensable to the undertaking.
And that leads to another of Clothier's important insights: training and learning aren't exclusively the dog's responsibility. The human participant must also change, adapt, and develop new ways of understanding. Over the years, my dogs taught me things I could never have learned from another person, regardless of that person's expertise.
I never found Clothier's insistence on these principles tiresome. She returns repeatedly to communication, respect, cooperation, and the limitations of coercive training, but I was sufficiently in sympathy with her perspective that the repetition never felt labored. Instead, her examples seemed to illuminate different aspects of the same fundamental truth: a relationship is something two beings create together, not something one imposes upon the other.
Chapter 19 confronts the inevitability of death. Unless you're frightfully jaded, I suspect you'll finish it blinking back tears.
The final chapter explores the spiritual dimensions of our relationships with dogs. Clothier entertains the possibility that dogs possess souls and may continue to exist beyond death, but she cautions against elevating them to some imaginary plane of moral perfection. Her belief in the spiritual nature of dogs isn't offered as a scientific demonstration of immortality. It's part of a larger philosophical exploration of what these relationships mean and why they can affect us so profoundly.
Clothier doesn't suggest that loving a dog requires pretending the animal is incapable of mistakes, shortcomings, or ordinary canine mischief.
As she explains, "No living being deserves confinement in such a lifeless space; it is not something you do to anyone you love."
Her objection to placing dogs on pedestals struck me as especially perceptive. To idealize a living creature is, in a peculiar way, to diminish it. We deny the individuality, imperfections, and continuing development that make the relationship meaningful in the first place. A dog needn't qualify for sainthood to deserve our devotion.
Near the door of my house hangs one of those inexpensive plastic hooks. On it rest a leash and a slip collar. They're all I have left of the working equipment that belonged to Carl, my fourth and final guide dog, who died on June 18, 2025.
I suppose a more pragmatic person would throw them away or pack them in a box. I can't bring myself to do either.
That dangling leash doesn't taunt me with memories of Carl's death. It's a monument to the best of what was. When I touch it, however briefly, it becomes a time machine, transporting me back to the days when I shared my life with a creature who wasn't a saint but who, to my mind, possessed a soul and communicated in spiritual ways uniquely his own.
Whether we were navigating the intersection of High and Long Streets in downtown Columbus or walking the reassuringly safe jogging path near my home, Carl communicated constantly. There were the customary snorts and sniffs, of course, but even his gait, transmitted through the harness into my hand, told stories and described the world around us.
It was a supernal language he taught me, one I could never have learned without him. The vocabulary belonged to neither of us exclusively. We developed it together, through thousands of ordinary moments in which trust, affection, necessity, and companionship gradually became something greater than their individual parts.
And I had to learn that language just as surely as Carl had to learn mine. The harness didn't create our understanding any more than Clothier's knotted leash created hers. The equipment merely facilitated communication between two beings who had learned to trust one another.
Which brings me back to that woman at Clothier's seminar, so fascinated by the magic knots in the leash.
I wonder what she'd make of the leash hanging near my door. It has no magical knots, no extraordinary properties, and no power whatsoever to command the obedience of a dog who is no longer here. Yet I wouldn't trade it for anything. To the woman at the seminar, a leash was apparently an instrument for controlling an animal. To me, it's a tangible reminder of a relationship that enriched my life beyond anything I could have imagined.
The magic was never in the leash.
It was in the relationship.
Suzanne Clothier understands that distinction. More importantly, she understands why learning to communicate with another living creature, on terms that honor the dignity of both participants, is worth a lifetime.
January 24, 2020
If I could, I would give this book a 10 out of 5 stars. What a fantastic lesson in how positive reinforcement and a positive outlook changes both your dog's world and your own. In both a practical and eloquent way, "What would your dog do?" is the question both asked and answered by the author.
May 18, 2017
September 2019
Reread, audio version. Wow, again. This is one of the best books on life (love, communication, death, forgiveness) I have ever read. Suzanne is a dog trainer who believes that animals are spiritual beings. She rings so many of the bells I keep reaching for, including saying that it doesn't even matter if her perception of the great story of life is True. What matters is that when she comes to a relationship with a dog (or, more challenging, human) with the calm & awareness to "see the dog," her experience is richly rewarding.
After two years without my precious teacher Pippin (lab dog), I am further along the path to bringing that open heart to my human relationships. So many aha moments listening to this book again... so many perfectly stated, freeing truths (I'll add a couple below). I'll be reading this one again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
"Being aware & fully present when we turn our attention to another requires no more time than an incomplete connection."
"A relationship is a learning process that never ends."
"No relationship thrives if one of us is busy hallucinating what the other's reality might be."
"See the dog."
"It is up to you."
May 2017
I wish I'd read this sooner in the life of my dog but he taught me everything that allowed me to hear its message. If you want to communicate with an animal first you have to believe it has something worthwhile to say. Then you have to listen, really pay attention. My pup (who died a few days ago so that I finished this book without him) communicated beautifully with me. He was a master manipulator, but what he "made" me do was always better than what I was aiming for -- he wanted longer walks, more beach time, more wandering the neighborhood. He insisted on no swearing, no road rage, no crying over spilt milk.
This book ends with a challenge that asks me to live up to my dog by treating humans to the same forgiveness & unconditional, judgement-free love. I am lucky to know a few humans with whom I share that kind of love but I wouldn't call it my first instinct. In his sweet memory I vow to take on "the animal willingness to let love flow and not block it."
Reread, audio version. Wow, again. This is one of the best books on life (love, communication, death, forgiveness) I have ever read. Suzanne is a dog trainer who believes that animals are spiritual beings. She rings so many of the bells I keep reaching for, including saying that it doesn't even matter if her perception of the great story of life is True. What matters is that when she comes to a relationship with a dog (or, more challenging, human) with the calm & awareness to "see the dog," her experience is richly rewarding.
After two years without my precious teacher Pippin (lab dog), I am further along the path to bringing that open heart to my human relationships. So many aha moments listening to this book again... so many perfectly stated, freeing truths (I'll add a couple below). I'll be reading this one again. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
"Being aware & fully present when we turn our attention to another requires no more time than an incomplete connection."
"A relationship is a learning process that never ends."
"No relationship thrives if one of us is busy hallucinating what the other's reality might be."
"See the dog."
"It is up to you."
May 2017
I wish I'd read this sooner in the life of my dog but he taught me everything that allowed me to hear its message. If you want to communicate with an animal first you have to believe it has something worthwhile to say. Then you have to listen, really pay attention. My pup (who died a few days ago so that I finished this book without him) communicated beautifully with me. He was a master manipulator, but what he "made" me do was always better than what I was aiming for -- he wanted longer walks, more beach time, more wandering the neighborhood. He insisted on no swearing, no road rage, no crying over spilt milk.
This book ends with a challenge that asks me to live up to my dog by treating humans to the same forgiveness & unconditional, judgement-free love. I am lucky to know a few humans with whom I share that kind of love but I wouldn't call it my first instinct. In his sweet memory I vow to take on "the animal willingness to let love flow and not block it."
December 27, 2010
I spent the first chapter or two wondering just how far off her rocker this woman might be, but it got better. The author's beliefs and teachings aren't all that different from some others, she doesn't exactly say anything "new", rather it's all just common sense. Still she manages to present things in a way that sounds/seems different, while also debunking some other stuff (meaning rather than being in one specific beliefs "camp" or the other, there IS a way to borrow from both and stay in the middle without being "bad") making me feel like I learned something I didn't already know. For example, now I understand why two of my dogs don't chew their food, and that it isn't a bad thing. A dog's teeth aren't exactly designed for chewing, meanwhile their digestive system IS designed to deal with the unchewed food. Rushing the meal is normal, it doesn't always indicate food obsession or a behavioral problem, and though gulping may lead to choking, it's not exactly necessary to force your dog to learn to chew every bite before swallowing.
I'm actually relieved that at one point she admits that there IS one sticking point for every dog where all the treats, play or positivity in the world is NOT going to cut it. I have always known and believed this. You definitely have to treat the whole: know your dog, understand behavior, listen to what they're trying to tell you, provide training, strive for balance, avoid creating a "robot"... and, as I always say "there is NO "one-size-fits-all" dog training method.
Now that I've finished reading it (this took me much longer than it should have since raising a new puppy has cut my available reading time by quite a bit) I can say it is most excellent and I enjoyed it. Very insightful, enjoyable, common sense reading.
I'm actually relieved that at one point she admits that there IS one sticking point for every dog where all the treats, play or positivity in the world is NOT going to cut it. I have always known and believed this. You definitely have to treat the whole: know your dog, understand behavior, listen to what they're trying to tell you, provide training, strive for balance, avoid creating a "robot"... and, as I always say "there is NO "one-size-fits-all" dog training method.
Now that I've finished reading it (this took me much longer than it should have since raising a new puppy has cut my available reading time by quite a bit) I can say it is most excellent and I enjoyed it. Very insightful, enjoyable, common sense reading.
June 2, 2013
Loved it. I had originally checked this out from the library but liked it so much that I bought my own copy and marked it up. Since this book is mostly about having a good relationship with your dog, I was worried it would be a little New Age-y and weird. With the exception of the last 15 pages or so, it wasn't.
The book is more about philosophy than about training. Clothier writes well and provides clear examples of what she means about getting into a dog's mind and considering things from his/her perspective. Her philosophy is all about communication and is very logical. There were a lot of nuggets of wisdom that apply as much to human-human relationships as to human-dog ones. She has convinced me that hitting a dog is no more appropriate than hitting a child, even in the name of "training," and has definitely influenced the style of training I will use with my next dog(s). It has also made me more aware of the need to look for subtle clues in a dog's behavior to see what they are trying to communicate.
The final third of the book took an unexpected turn and included a good section on the grief of losing a dog. I found it comforting and reassuring, especially after our two losses last year.
This is not a perfect book. It could easily be 50-100 pages shorter (cutting out the repetition and the last 15 pages) and sometimes tested my patience with stories of what the dogs "said" to her. If only we could all read the depths of an animal's eyes so easily! That said, I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever thought of a dog as a member of the family.
The book is more about philosophy than about training. Clothier writes well and provides clear examples of what she means about getting into a dog's mind and considering things from his/her perspective. Her philosophy is all about communication and is very logical. There were a lot of nuggets of wisdom that apply as much to human-human relationships as to human-dog ones. She has convinced me that hitting a dog is no more appropriate than hitting a child, even in the name of "training," and has definitely influenced the style of training I will use with my next dog(s). It has also made me more aware of the need to look for subtle clues in a dog's behavior to see what they are trying to communicate.
The final third of the book took an unexpected turn and included a good section on the grief of losing a dog. I found it comforting and reassuring, especially after our two losses last year.
This is not a perfect book. It could easily be 50-100 pages shorter (cutting out the repetition and the last 15 pages) and sometimes tested my patience with stories of what the dogs "said" to her. If only we could all read the depths of an animal's eyes so easily! That said, I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever thought of a dog as a member of the family.
September 27, 2013
It's an interesting book, although not a 'recipe book' for how to get your dog to do what you want, as the author reminds you several times.
I had high hopes after the humble beginning of the book, where she speaks of her path as a trainer and how frustrated she was learning from an older wiser trainer who replied 'Anywhere, unless the animal tells you differently' in reply to a question about where to best touch a horse.
But alas, the author did lapse into a somewhat smug tone-in stories of dealing with client's dogs, the author always mentions how amazed the client was at the changes she was able to bring in the dog's behavior in just a few short minutes when really it was the simplest thing. The target audience for this book is presumably people who want to know where to best touch a horse, so to speak, so I would expect less tales of how wonderfully intuitive she is with animals and more advice on how the reader can develop their own intuitive relationship with their dog.
And that's where this book misses the mark, compared to one like The Other End Of The Leash. Lots of opinion on why her way is the best for you and the dog-which I expect from a trainer, obviously-not a lot of information on how. If you're supposed to read the dog's every subtle signal, why nothing about signals? If this had been the first training book I purchased I would have been disappointed. As it is I mostly feel judged :)
I had high hopes after the humble beginning of the book, where she speaks of her path as a trainer and how frustrated she was learning from an older wiser trainer who replied 'Anywhere, unless the animal tells you differently' in reply to a question about where to best touch a horse.
But alas, the author did lapse into a somewhat smug tone-in stories of dealing with client's dogs, the author always mentions how amazed the client was at the changes she was able to bring in the dog's behavior in just a few short minutes when really it was the simplest thing. The target audience for this book is presumably people who want to know where to best touch a horse, so to speak, so I would expect less tales of how wonderfully intuitive she is with animals and more advice on how the reader can develop their own intuitive relationship with their dog.
And that's where this book misses the mark, compared to one like The Other End Of The Leash. Lots of opinion on why her way is the best for you and the dog-which I expect from a trainer, obviously-not a lot of information on how. If you're supposed to read the dog's every subtle signal, why nothing about signals? If this had been the first training book I purchased I would have been disappointed. As it is I mostly feel judged :)
June 18, 2014
This is unlike other books regarding how to communication with and train your dog. It is exceptionally well written and informative, yet not pedantic in nature.
Those of us who lost a pet, can deeply relate to the last chapters. So often, it feels futile to explain how grief feels, and how it punches us in the stomach till we topple over with tears. Yet, this author insightfully, beautifully is able to transcend all the trite phrases and clearly outline how and why we embrace the love we continue to feel long after our beloved pet has transitioned to a pain free life.
I lost Simon, my 12 year old Sheltie, in February. I still remember the morning of finding her so very ill. Seconds/minutes ticked away after 9:15 when we knew she was very sick until 11:00 when we said our brave good byes.
Now, bravely opening my heart to another Sheltie, seven months later, I watch as Lilly runs through the grass, leaping to grasp her toy while gleefully anticipating that we will continue the dance of throwing and fetching. As I see her sable colored coat sparkle as the sun gleans, I instantly remember Simon and all the joy he brought.
Comparing and contrasting is inevitable, the same as the joy and the sorrow of grief. And, it is very true that the loss of Simon is a blessing of the keen need to grasp every second of joy and hold it in our hearts.
This book is a song to dogs and to the unique, wonderful companions and soul mates they are.
Highly recommended.
Five Stars.
Those of us who lost a pet, can deeply relate to the last chapters. So often, it feels futile to explain how grief feels, and how it punches us in the stomach till we topple over with tears. Yet, this author insightfully, beautifully is able to transcend all the trite phrases and clearly outline how and why we embrace the love we continue to feel long after our beloved pet has transitioned to a pain free life.
I lost Simon, my 12 year old Sheltie, in February. I still remember the morning of finding her so very ill. Seconds/minutes ticked away after 9:15 when we knew she was very sick until 11:00 when we said our brave good byes.
Now, bravely opening my heart to another Sheltie, seven months later, I watch as Lilly runs through the grass, leaping to grasp her toy while gleefully anticipating that we will continue the dance of throwing and fetching. As I see her sable colored coat sparkle as the sun gleans, I instantly remember Simon and all the joy he brought.
Comparing and contrasting is inevitable, the same as the joy and the sorrow of grief. And, it is very true that the loss of Simon is a blessing of the keen need to grasp every second of joy and hold it in our hearts.
This book is a song to dogs and to the unique, wonderful companions and soul mates they are.
Highly recommended.
Five Stars.
February 27, 2015
“Even scientists fall in love, and it is said that some even talk to their dogs.”
Not memoir, not a training manual, not quite a call to arms, Bones Would Rain From the Sky is a combination of all of these. And more. Clothier examines her own journey from child who longed to be an animal, to a person who helps people like you and me connect deeply with and better understand our pets.
She points out that connection is “quite literally, a matter of life and death. The leading cause of death in dogs in Western countries is behavior – unacceptable, uncontrollable, inappropriate behavior.” She shares the mistakes she’s made along the way, but the really beautiful things lie in the stories of people she’s helped connect with their own pets. While not a training manual, I quickly came to gain a better understanding of my own dogs’ behavior. And we all benefit from well-behaved dogs…sometimes even when they aren’t your own.
Encouraged at a young age to become a writer, it would appear the Clothier is both trainer and writer. Bones Would Rain From the Sky is rewarding on many levels and suggested for anyone who believes their pets are family.
Not memoir, not a training manual, not quite a call to arms, Bones Would Rain From the Sky is a combination of all of these. And more. Clothier examines her own journey from child who longed to be an animal, to a person who helps people like you and me connect deeply with and better understand our pets.
She points out that connection is “quite literally, a matter of life and death. The leading cause of death in dogs in Western countries is behavior – unacceptable, uncontrollable, inappropriate behavior.” She shares the mistakes she’s made along the way, but the really beautiful things lie in the stories of people she’s helped connect with their own pets. While not a training manual, I quickly came to gain a better understanding of my own dogs’ behavior. And we all benefit from well-behaved dogs…sometimes even when they aren’t your own.
Encouraged at a young age to become a writer, it would appear the Clothier is both trainer and writer. Bones Would Rain From the Sky is rewarding on many levels and suggested for anyone who believes their pets are family.
June 4, 2008
I ABSOLUTELY love this book! I love working with dogs and this book really captures how I feel about working with the dogs. I think she points out how we can learn about ourselves, and the people around us by opening ourselves up to being more humane with the four legged creatures around us and how training should be a win-win situation where it can add to our dogs lives and ours. I read this a couple of years ago and I keep coming back to reread it from time to time to get a tune up, and I always pick up new little tid bits each time I reread the book.
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