Subtitle: Healing the Aggressive Dog
Author: Emma Parsons
Format: Paperback
Length: 182 pages
Release Date: 2005

When Emma Parsons, canine trainer and behavior consultant, discovered that Ben, her own prized Golden Retriever, was aggressive toward other dogs and that traditional remedies took his reactivity to nightmarish levels, she turned to clicker training. In the process, Emma developed innovative and highly effective strategies to calm, alter, and re-shape Ben's aggressive displays. Her work has since helped many clients successfully reduce—and even erase—their dogs' reactivity to both dogs and humans. Click to Calm has more than 40 exercises presented in an easy-to-follow training recipe format, teaching you how to: desensitize your dog to approaching stranger dogs, allow you to grab your dog's collar without him snapping, have your dog perform canine calming signals instead of aggressive displays on cue, have your dog turn and give you eye contact whenever another dog approaches or you tighten the leash, and use your own body language when under stress as a cue for your dog to remain calm.

Parsons discusses how aggression is a behavior that, like any canine behavior, can be re-shaped with thoughtful use of marker signal and positive reinforcement. She explains how giving a previously fearful dog the empowerment of learning how to earn a click and a reward can switch their jitters to joy. Full of remarkable insights and practical information, Click to Calm holds the answers for any owner who struggles with this most challenging behavior problem.