Front Cover; Half-Title Page; Dedication; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Foreword by Karen Joy Fowler; Introduction by Donald McCaig; Preface to the 1994 Edition; 1. By Way of Explanation; 2. A Walk with Washoe: How Far Can We Go?; 3. How to Say "Fetch!"; 4. Tracking Dogs, Sensitive Horses and the Traces of Speech; 5. Crazy Horses; 6. Horses in Partnership with Time; 7. Calling Animals by Name; 8. The Sound of Kindness; 9. Lo the American (Pit) Bull Terrier; 10. What It Is about Cats; 11. Rights, Autism and the Rougher Magics; Afterword.

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 of the human-animal bond to a whole new metaphysical level. Based on studies of literary criticism, philosophy, and extensive hands-on experience in training, Hearne asserts, in boldly anthropomorphic terms, that animals (at least those that interact more with humans) are far more intelligent than we assume. In fact, they are capable of developing an understanding of ""the good, "" a moral code that.