Teaching the Dog to Think: My Year of Dog Agility Training with My Collie, Willow

TEACHING THE DOG TO THINK is Kimberly Davis’ engaging memoir about her crash introduction to the sport of dog agility—with its jumps, tunnels, balance beams and weave poles. An award-winning poet and blogger, Davis vividly describes her frustrations trying to get her dog to “mind.” We then watch as her first steely-eyed agility coach shames her into giving up choke collars and scruff shakes in favor of the “positive” training methods used by agility instructors. Davis’ breezy, often humorous account shows how these new techniques allow her to communicate with the “alien” mind of a dog. Also how they transform her unruly yearling collie, Willow, into a loyal, hardworking teammate. Davis ultimately carries the lessons she has mastered in dog training class into other areas of her life, particularly into parenting and teaching creative writing. In the end, this memoir becomes a soul-searching exploration of how to get others to do what we want without bullying or cruelty—by using our heads and forcing ourselves to be a little smarter. A subtly subversive book about dealing responsibly with those less powerful than ourselves, Teaching The Dog To Think speaks not only to dog lovers, but also to anyone who has ever felt helpless, angry, or frustrated as a parent, teacher or pet owner. "You MUST read this book if you have children or pets, and want to change their behavior without coercion!"--Richard McManus, Founder and President, The Fluency Factory "An interesting story of how switching to clicker training vastly improved one agility fan's dog and also changed her own approach to family life."--Karen Pryor, author of Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind "A wonderful entry point for anyone learning about these important new methods for teaching skills and enhancing creativity."--Catherine S. Mayes, Independent Autism Advocate and Autism Project Advocate, Massachusetts Advocates for Children