Description
Price: $19.99 - $14.31
(as of Mar 01, 2025 03:54:43 UTC – Details)
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.
Publisher : Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (October 18, 2005)
Language : English
Paperback : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 044669634X
ISBN-13 : 978-0446696340
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 0.88 x 9 inches
Customers say
Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. They appreciate the insightful content on common dog behaviors and lessons learned. The writing style is described as witty and clear. Readers find the book valuable for improving relationships with dogs and other animals. They enjoy the stories and anecdotes from the author’s life. Overall, customers find the message heartfelt and positive about relationships with dogs and other pets.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Crysania –
Highly recommended!
I’ve read a lot of dog books and I think this book is one of the best. Clothier writes in a way that I find it very easy to connect to.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 spiritual 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 cajoled 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.
kevin l kane –
Seminal Book on understanding our Dogs
You have to be a committed Dog lover to appreciate just how good this book is. The author hooks you quickly by her recanting her early years of canine connection and never let’s up.I have read numerous books about dogs but this book actually changed how I view my relationship with my dog(s) and why I give copies of it as gifts to friends who also love dogs.
MJZemore –
Great Book
This book caused me to stop and think about things differently. Her stories provided excellent examples of her points and ways of seeing things. She has a wealth of knowledge and insight. I feel her book was written from her heart, experiences, perspective and the things she has learned from living and working with animals. I have had dogs my whole life and done very well training them but this gave my perspective a shift I want to carry with me. If you want a much deeper relationship with your animals I would highly recommend this book. I stopped reading two chapters, 17 and 19. I began reading them but stopped and skipped to the next chapters. Iâm too tender hearted to finish reading Chapter 17. My take away from what I did read is to follow my heart and not someone else just because they have a title, trainer, behaviorist etc. Chapter 19 is about living and lose and has some good things in it from what I did read, but I recently lost my dear sweet friend and my heart couldnât take it. Overall itâs a great book and I would recommend it.
E. Beanie –
Learn to Listen to Your Dog
If there were a 4.5 star option, that would be my rating! This book is so wonderful to read and really tugs at the heartstrings of any dog owner. This book is not a book on training methods, but rather how to develop the foundational relationship needed for successful training and life with a dog. Clothier’s writing will force you to examine yourself, your relationship with your pet, and your relationship with people. She explains the complexity of our canine friends and does away with the brushstroke labels of “dominant” and “submissive.” Our dogs are so much more than this! Her book will compel you to discover what your dog needs from you, not what you need from your dog. In doing so, she will also encourage you to view the people around you through the same empathetic lens.I recently adopted a senior rescue and this book was exactly what I was looking for. Towards the end, Clothier describes several beautiful end-of-life stories related to her and others’ canine friends and the lessons she learned from each experience. I may have 5 years with my dog, or only another month, but each day is precious and she deserves the fullest life I can give her!Clothier draws from several other writers and sources for quotes and inspiration which I thought was very neat for a book about dogs. My only “half star” complaint was that at times, her prose became long winded and repetitive. Besides that minor issue, it was wonderful and a must-read for any dog owner!
GS Leader –
Helped me understand my dog
I love this book. I bought the audio version, then bought the print version too so I could share it with my husband (he doesn’t do audiobooks). Suzanne Clothier, through storytelling of her own experiences as a dog trainer, and with laugh-out-loud humor (yes, I actually laughed out loud!), has created a wonderful guide to understanding the mysteries of how a dog’s mind works. It’s so interesting (and helpful!) to understand the dog’s point of view and how we as humans can learn to communicate with them in dog.If you’re going to buy one book on dog communication, this is the one to buy!
Kerri –
I love this book. It helped me through the loss of my first dog and is assisting me with improving my relationship with my current dog and foster dogs. I really appreciate Clothierâs experience and story telling. Itâs not a âhow toâ training book, but rather a series of stories to help you understand your canine family member as a unique individual with a set of needs and wants based on his or her species.
Shelley Beairsto –
If you read only one book about our relationships with dogs, it should be this is one. It does mot teach training, it teaches understanding, listening, compassion. It aims to help us avoid mistakes that would get in the way of having a healthy, beautiful relationship with your dog. It is honest, beautiful and very helpful!
Den Allen –
Very enjoyable and well written book. Its unusual for this kind of genre, because it outlines ways of promoting a close, intimate relationship and understanding with your dog (and with other animals) rather than simply offering “training tips”. Suzanne Clothier’s ethos is to treat all animals with love and respect and she gives many examples of the stupidity and ignorance (-my words, not hers) of some owners and trainers in how they deal with their dogs. In particular the damage done by the unwitting brutality of those who maintain dogs are really just wolves in dogs clothing and “need to be kept in their place at all costs” (very sad that anyone out there might still believe that).A deeply spiritual book and a must read for dog owner’s, dog owners-to-be and people who are just interested in the topic of relating to other beings.
ARUNABHA DAS –
Reading the book felt like a journey, into a realm of something that has no words to describe, My Beagle pup was surely surprised when my attitude changed from caring parent to someone on whom she could confide. I would strive to reach the level of bothways communication and the spiritual understanding of a relationship. Thank you Suzzanne.
Kirsten Back –
This is a precious book that gives you insight into the perspectives of how dogs think and why they do what they do. The book explains why certain behaviours are perfectly allright from a dog’s kind of view and why certain human behaviours are inappropriate to dogs and how they can lead to misunderstanding. This book teaches you to “think dog” and gain a deeper understanding. A lot of problems could be avoided through a deeper understanding of our dogs. 5 stars and a strong recommendation as this book goes a lot deeper than the average dog book and completely throws over the old “dominance” theory which has cause grief to so many dog-human relationships