Finished Book: Excel-Erated Learning by Pam Reid

In preparation for my CPDT-KA exam, many of my colleagues recommended that I read Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs Learn and How Best to Teach Them  by Pamela J. Reid.  I quickly found myself on Amazon early January and added it to my collection.

I have to say, it was a delightful read.  There is a lot of great information and I will most definitely need to re-read the entire section on reinforcement schedules due to the high rate of alphabet soup that is used throughout the explanations.  Whew!!

One thing that I did like about the book...and let me preface this by saying that I do not practice these techniques at all...is that Ms. Reid took the time to explain two of the quadrants of operant conditioning that tend to get a lot of heat; positive punishment and negative reinforcement.  What I appreciated is that she explained each of these in a very cut and dry fashion and said that using them can be effective, however there are much better ways to get behavior.

This is a fantastic article to add to the D.B.N. Library and I'm thankful to those of you who suggested it to me.

On deck: the remaining chapters of Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog!