Lads before the Wind: A Diary of a Dolphin Trainer is Karen Pryor's account of how she became a dolphin trainer and how she trained. Her methods, based on operant conditioning and the work of BF Skinner, became the basis for clicker training that is used now on dogs. The book has taken on a life of it's own. At first, it was a book on dolphins. Later, it became popular as a book on training. The book originally came out in the 70s and much has been done with this kind of training since, so there are better books on clicker training including Pryor's now hard to find Don't Shoot the Dog which wasn't about dog training at all. It was about using operant conditioning on humans, such as your gloomy mother in law. Lads before the Wind is of interest to the well-seasoned trainer who can read between the lines to see what she was doing. It provides some history behind the method. As a book on dolphins, animal cognition and shaping behavior, it has much to offer. At times, it's fascinating. However, the book took a broad scope and talked about her marriages, people she worked with, people she had to fire etc. I wasn't interested in managing the people, only the animals. So I skipped a couple of chapters. Still, it was worth the price of a copy. ( )