Adam's Task: Calling Animals by Name

by Vicki Hearne and Viki Hearne

Book Overview

A groundbreaking meditation on our human-animal relationships and the moral code that binds it. Adam's Task, Vicki Hearne's innovative masterpiece on animal training, brings our perennial discussion... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585790125
• ISBN13: 9781585790128
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Common Reader
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Brilliant Book

In Donald McCaig's new introduction to this wonderful book, he tells of his reaction to first reading Vicki Hearne's writing: "I felt like some homesick exile startled by a voice singing brilliantly in my native tongue." What an apt description! Hearne's writing style is as unique and refreshing as her perspective on animal training. This book is a luminous mingling of literary criticism, science, philosophy, and animal psychology-- a real treat to read.

The message is more important than the method

Vicki Hearne looked at animals in a way few humans do. With careful thought, deep consideration and the willingness to ask a question... and listen for the answer. Although some are quick to discount this book because of some tangential thoughts and what would, in today's age of positive-reinforcement-is-the-norm training methods, be considered "barbaric" training methods, don't let the reviews turn you away. An individual who reads their own emotions into Vicki's brutally honest accounts of her training experiences is being unfair. Vicki's thought-provoking book about what really constitutes language, communication, society and community in the context of our lives with animals is a graceful exploration of the unanswered questions in one woman's life. All one must do to train an animal, or train onesself, is to say what you mean, and mean what you say. Vicki deserves a commendation on her composition if for no other reason than she boldly asserts her experiences because they are true, and she means every word she says to any person or animal. That is true respect, regardless of the methods used.

Other nations

Re: the "near drowning" of the hole-digging dog, here's how Vicki describes it: "I put Salty's head in the Hole. She emerges quite quickly (she's a very strong, agile dog)." This is not waterboarding; it's getting the dog's attention. I would not try this method myself, as I am not a trainer. (Vicki warns us we "can't work a dog" from her writings.) Neither would I let this description turn me away from a wise, courageous and ultimately compassionate book about intraspecies communication. As an ex-vet. tech., I've seen what happens when people and animals don't talk the same language: the animals suffer. When they inconvenience their "loving" owners enough, the animals die. Chapter 8, "The Sound of Kindness," should be required reading for all pet owners. Other parts of this book soar and inspire with their deep respect for what the relationship between humans and animals should be. It is because of this that we must take responsibility for what we do to and with companion animals. As Henry Beston had it, "They are not bretheren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners in the splendor and travail of the earth."

A graceful integration of philosophy and personal experience

This is one of my favorite books of all time.Vicki Hearne - animal trainer, poet, and philosopher - talks about her relationship with the working animals she trains. She presents her philosophies by illustrating them with stories of animals she has trained.If you have deep respect for animal intelligence, this book will confirm and deepen your beliefs.Training, she says, is the creation of a shared language. But language has many ambiguities. For example, trainers haven't a clue what the world smells like to a dog, for whom "scenting" is a primary sense. Yet humans and dogs can learn to work together across the gap of their differences by coming to share the vocabulary of trained scent work.Animal training, says Hearne, is as challenging for the trainer as it is for the animal. Trainers must learn humility, and learn to communicate in new ways. For example, horses take in information through touch and are extremely sensitive to the motions of the rider. Once a trainer comes to understand this (and other things about horses), she or he can begin to understand the way a horse understands its world and its self.Of course I don't do justice to the book by summarizing a few of its philosophical points! Hearne writes gracefully, and shows a great mastery of a variety of disciplines - psychology, philosophy, literature, animal training. Her anecdotes make the philosophy much easier to understand, and the philosophy makes the implications of the anecdotes much richer.

An exquisite book about animals and humans

Vicki Hearne is both an animal trainer and an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale. With these two qualifications, she addresses the relationship humans have with "dumb" domestic animals, primarily dogs, horses and cats. he book is exquisite, and confirms what we already "know, that animals can think, feel, respond, and--in a sense--make decisions about how to respond to humans. She proves the intelligence of the horse trainer who admitted there were truly "crazy" horses whose indsanity justified their destrucrtion, but that if any trainer had experienced more than one such horse, the trainer should be put to sleep instead. The chapter on cats is a little fuzzy, but the rest is five-star.