Customer Reviews

Clicker Training Your Cat (A Karen Pryor Clicker Book)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading the reviews of this book and the similar Cat Training in 10 Minutes, I decided to purchase both so that I could compare them and benefit from two different sources. However, after reading both manuals and having been clicker training my cat for several months now, I can definitively say that this book -- Clicker Training for Cats by Karen Pryor -- just doesn't measure up in content, quality, accessibility, and organization to Cat Training in 10 Minutes.

1. Comprehensiveness of Clicker Theory: 4/5 stars. The theory used in this book is operant conditioning. Using a clicker followed by a reward, you can reinforce desired behavior in your cat. Verbal commands (come, sit) are incorporated in this book; strangely, hand signals are *not* incorporated, which is too bad because they're quite effective.

2. Accessibility: 1/5 stars. I was surprised to find that this book is not written like a training manual; rather, it's a collection of wordy stories about the author's own cats. Now, I love cats and enjoy stories about their antics, but I was constantly wishing that Ms. Pryor would just get to the point and tell me the training steps. Instructions are verbose and not highlighted nor numbered; they are buried deep within the thick jungle of her banal narrative, so it's difficult to find them. (If you buy this book and plan to come back to it as a reference, use your highlighter the first time you go through it because you'll be hard-pressed to find the instructions again.) There are no illustrations that show you what to do or how your cat will likely respond.

3. Organization: 3/5 stars. This book is arranged into four chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1 covers the theory behind and basics of clicker training. Chapter 2 covers several "useful" commands, such as coming when you call, walking on a leash, etc. Surprisingly, there is no instruction for teaching your cat to sit, sit up/beg, shake, or lie down. Chapter 3 covers several "non-useful" commands, like playing the piano and high-speed moves. Chapter 4 discusses undesirable behavior. Lastly, apparently Ms. Pryor left out Chapter 5: Resources. She references it in the second sentence of Chapter 3, but this "ghost chapter" is nowhere to be found in the book. Whoops. Overall, the organization of this book isn't terrible, but it isn't great, either.

4. Correcting Undesirable Behavior: 2/5 stars. In her chapter on this subject, the author mostly gives anecdotes/psychological insight without specific correctional instructions, which I found frustrating. For instance, she describes how one couple realized that their cat was scratching the couch because it wanted to go outside -- yet she lists no tactics for getting the cat to stop scratching! On the upside, Ms. Pryor does describe a wide variety of problem behaviors: finicky eating, getting along with dogs/other cats, yowling, shedding, ankle-biting, and aggression. But again, she mainly gives anecdotes instead of correctional instructions.

5. Helpful/Extra Features: 0/5 stars. Ms. Pryor's book has a woefully short Appendix section that lists 15 Tips for Clicking With Cats. That's it. No alphabetical or subject index. Those 15 tips are also conveniently published on her website, so there's no added value in them being in the book.

Bottom line: This isn't a horrible book, and you wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice if you purchased it. However, my honest advice to anyone looking for information on this subject is to purchase Cat Training in 10 Minutes, as it is far superior in all aspects. If you're skeptical, then check out both books, as I did, and you'll see just how much better Cat Training in 10 Minutes is. Good luck, and here's to your cat learning some great new tricks!

I bought this book to help me understand how to train my very active Bengal. He needed to learn some manners, and we both needed a "common language" so we could communicate with each other. This book was specifically recommended to me by a cat behavior specialist in Seattle.

The book is an easy read, as it is not overly long or complicated. The techniques are simple to understand and are explained in clear terms.

The clicker training techniques were originally used to train marine mammals, like dolphins! I have seen the amazing things trained dolphins can do when trained, so I thought surely my cats can benefit from this technique as well.

The book suggests that you begin with a very simple little trick, which actually comes naturally to your cat. Once your cat figures out that by performing the trick he has trained YOU to give him a treat, the rest is a piece of cake! My cat enjoyed the training and it provided some nice bonding time for us. It was exciting to be able to clearly communicate with my cat and know he understood exactly what I was saying.

My Bengal can now (on command)"sit," "get down," "jump up," and walks on a leash. The training only took a few minutes a day, and in less than a week the communication between me and my cat had improved significantly.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand their cat, change or improve their cats' behavior, or anyone who wants a fun way to create a bond with their pet.

My dogs are both clicker fanatics, but my kitties were left out of the fun. Who knew that after only a few sessions with the clicker, my cats' recall would be more reliable than my dogs'?

These exercises are simple, clearly explained and fun. All of us who live with cats should have a copy!

All cat owners should read this book! Just a few minutes a day with Karen's methods and you can cure all the behavior problems you have with your cat!. Clearly and entertainingly written.

Just as importantly, cats need the emotional enrichment and stimulation that using clicker training provides. And its great fun with endless possibilities. A lifelong tool kit. We know a child who has clicker trained her cat to skateboard.

PS You can purchase the book or buy the Clicker Training for Cats Kit ...

I read this 75-page book in about an hour and a half. It's a good read, but at the end, I didn't feel prepared to train my kittens. In fact, I tried to do a training session with one kitten, and she didn't even do any reinforcable actions!

Long story short, you need to buy Pryor's book Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training to get an idea of the theory behind clicker training. The book is actually not about dog training - it's about behavioral training theory, and it's really insightful. Chapter four covers eight ways to deal with unwanted behaviors. Cat jumping on the kitchen table? Method 1: get rid of the cat. Method 2: punish the cat by squirting it with water... Method 6: put the behavior one cue. That is, train the cat to jump up on the kitchen table, and never give the command!... Method 8: change the motivation. Give the cat her own place in the kitchen to hang out that's even *better* than the kitchen table, like a cat stand.

And even with both of these books, I still recommend going to YouTube and watching videos of people clicker training their cats. Good luck!

I found this book very informative on the benefits of clicker training, how to get started with the cat, and how to train specific desirable behaviors using the clicker. The author also addresses times when clicker training can be used to eliminate bad behaviors, as well as other reasons they might be displaying undesirable behavior.

Although quite short and an easy read, the author managed to cover many topics of interest. From start to finish, the book is quite specific to cats and their peculiarities, including a number of amusing anecdotes. If anything, I could have used a little bit more of step-by-step procedural instructions on how to conduct the training.

I've just started training my very active part-Siamese kitten using the clicker. After only a couple of sessions, I can't speak to the long-term results, but the cat did learn to touch a stuffed animal for reward, and we are working on cues.

I read about clicker training and decided to give it a try. Pryor's book is easy to follow and you can achieve results very quickly. It's a great tool for bonding with your cat. My cat Donut was a feral kitten who never properly socialized to humans, although she was gently and lovingly raised. Pryor explains how clicker training can make your cat calmer and more responsive, and since I've been working with her, I can attest. She has a bad attitude, generally, but she seems to be getting nicer over time. People just do not believe what she can do, as everybody always thinks cats cannot be trained. Clicker train--it works!
Here's what my cat can do: Comes when called by name, comes with a "rap-rap" signal, sits, "targets" to a pointer or to my finger, lays down, rolls over, stays, rises up and pats my hand with an "up-up-up" command, gives me "five", can chase a thrown object and touch it with a paw when given the command "touch," and can discriminate among sizes of objects and touch the one thrown rather than a closer one, touch a little bag of treats when she wants one, and I'm teaching her to hop through a hoop. All of this using clicker training! She loves for me to put her through her paces and I enjoy working with her, too. Get this book.
Amaze your friends, and let them think you have a genius cat.

This book is almost useless! I wish the author took her own advice and actually "got started" with the training instruction. This book is filled with antedotes and the author blowing her own horn. The only reason this book did not receive one star is because it can be used to give the reader a few ideas of what clicker training can do. That's it. That's all this book is good for. I do not advise purchasing this book.

Buy Cat Training in 10 Minutes instead. You won't regret it!

I think this book has gotten a bit of an unfair bad rap because of some of the reviews. I almost didn't buy it because of them.

True, the book spends the first half dozen pages or so trying to do a "hard sell" on the concept of clicker training. That is boring and completely unnecessary because we're already reading the book (duh), so it is just wasted space. But the meat of the book is good.

Within the first 20 pages of the book, she very carefully and precisely teaches you a step-by-step approach to teaching a cat the "targeting" behavior through clicker training, which is the first thing most trainers teach. She goes really slowly step-by-step for everything from when to do it, how to do it, what treats to use to reward your cat, how often to do it etc.

Then, since training additional things is only a variation of that training, she summarizes what is necessary to teach additional things. This is a common tactic for training books. Give the theory, give one very complete step-by-step example, and rely on the readers ability to generalize that to other situations. So I really don't understand the criticism that she only tells anecdotes about her cats, and how the book is useless etc. I think for such people, most books would be useless, since this is a very common approach to learning. Anyone with a high school level reading level ought to be able to comprehend this book and attempt to put the lessons into practice.

To be fair, I can't evaluate how successful these methods are yet since I have just read the book and haven't put them into practice, but after reading the book I feel like I understand the concept and the necessary steps to perform, and have confidence that I can attempt to train my cats in these behaviors. It seems pretty straight forward and I look forward to spending many hours in this most worthy pursuit.

This is a good book if you want the basics on your cats' mind and how it may work sometimes. The possible reasons your cat does what it does. You may find out some things that you never knew before.Happy Reading!