Bones Would Rain from Sky, by Suzanne Clothier, is a book that inspires me and gets my imagination going on ways to improve my dog training program with my own dog. It’s not a how-to dog training book in the sense of step 1, step 2, step 3. Rather, it’s a book that covers many aspects of how people relate with dogs.

Much as I love this book, it’s not one that I recommend for everyone. If you are currently wanting information on how to potty train a new puppy, or how to get your dog to stop pulling on the leash, this book isn’t going to be the one that gives you the exact techniques you’re looking for.

I just opened the book to get a little inspiration for this page and found myself caught up in reading an account of ways different breeds tend to communicate, which extended into some musings about how dogs don’t realize how much we tend to overlook their communication with us via body language.

So if you like the idea of reading a wide-ranging book about dogs and our relationships with them, a book which covers many topics related to training, do take a look at Bones Would Rain from the Sky. It’s a book you can pick up and read a little of, then set down, which makes it great bedside reading. However, I usually get so caught up in it that I read on and on!

The title is based on a Turkish proverb, “If a dog’s prayers were answered, bones would rain from the sky.” I began reading the first chapter in a bookstore one day. The author is telling of being a child, under her family’s dining table, pretending to be a dog. The first sentence is “My only mistake was licking her knee.”

My immediate surroundings fell away, and I was under the table too. Of course, I bought the book, and as I drove home, I was in a reverie about my own childhood love of dogs, with its intense yearnings and joys. In the next few days, I devoured the book. I felt like I was in the presence of a zestful and compassionate friend who also happened to be a good storyteller. The chapters range around all things related to dogs. It’s not a how-to book, but lots of how-to ideas came to me as I read.

It’s a book to read slowly and reflectively, really, and so it has stayed by my bedside, where I can pick it up and read a bit. Clothier writes so beautifully and so much from her heart that as a writer I am jealous. And as a person who loves connecting with dogs, I am inspired.