Carrots and Sticks: Principles of Animal Training

by Paul McGreevy, R. A. Boakes

Have you ever wondered how a sheep dog, police horse, leopard or octopus is trained? Drawing on interviews with leading animal trainers, Carrots and Sticks offers 50 case studies that explore the step-by-step training of a wide variety of companion, working and exotic animals; reviews the preparation of animals prior to training and common pitfalls encountered. The book brings behavioural science to life, explaining animal training techniques in the language of learning theory. Opening sections on instinct, rewards, punishers and intelligence are richly infused with examples from current training practice and establish the principles that are explored in the unique case studies. Its accessible style will help reassess your preconceptions and simplify your approach to all animal-training challenges. This exciting text will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest, amateur or professional, in the general basics of training, as well as students of psychology, veterinary medicine, agriculture and animal science.

Genres: Dogs

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of this book explains some of the science behind animal training. It does a serviceable job. The last half uses various case studies to demonstrate how people train animals. The case studies were disappointing. They didn't add much to the book or tie in very well to the principles discussed in the first half. The little blue boxes at the end of each example used to categorize various stimuli and cues and the like ended up being confusing because it didn't always match up with what was described in the example--certain stimuli being missing or obviously miscategorized, for example.