Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog

Energetic, Anxious, or Reactive Dog? Try the Calm-O-Meter Method

Aidan Bindoff — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0600

Wouldn't it be great if your dog came with a big dial on his or her back that told you exactly how anxious, frightened, or excitable he or she was? Wouldn't it be awesome if you could turn this dial and calm your dog?

Want to Be a Clicker Trainer? Join the FBI

Miranda Hersey Helin — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:27:14 -0500

Steve Benjamin, CPDT, is a faculty member of Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior, our brand-new institute for clicker trainers. We spoke to Steve recently about his career as a dog trainer, and how his 28 years with the FBI were, surprisingly, an excellent foundation for clicker training.

Service with a Click

Gale Pryor — Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Debi Davis, service-dog trainer and ClickerExpo presenter (Minneapolis, November 2005), writes training articles for national and international magazines and is an Internet mentor for service-dog teams in training. In 1998, she co-founded OC-Assist-Dogs, a Yahoo Group Internet discussion list for those clicker training service dogs, now the largest service-dog discussion list on the web. In 1999, her papillon, Peek, became the first toy breed and first clicker trained dog to earn the Delta Society's National Service Dog of the Year award. In 2003, Peek was among the Pedigree Paws to Recognize Canine World Hero nominees. Peek and Debi were also profiled on a segment of the international television program Dogs with Jobs. A member of the APDT, IAADP, IABC, and the Delta Society, Debi lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her husband and five clicker trained dogs. Recently, we spoke to her about clicker training assistance dogs and her experiences attending ClickerExpo San Diego.

Host a Click to Calm Workshop!

KPCT — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

If you are a trainer, a club, or training school we wanted to let you know that you can book a Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog workshop with Emma Parsons.

Changing Stress Cues to Calm Cues: A Training Recipe from Click to Calm

Emma Parsons — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

In her new book Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog, Emma Parsons presents several groundbreaking concepts in treating canine aggression through clickertraining. One of her remarkable new ideas recognizes the impact of the handler's body language on a dog's aggressive responses. She describes the moment in which she realized her own signs of stress were cueing her Golden Retriever Ben's aggressive display:

Click to Calm

KPCT — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

When Emma Parsons, professional trainer and canine behavior consultant, discovered that her own prized golden retriever, Ben, was aggressive toward other dogs, and that traditional remedies took his reactivity to nightmarish levels, she turned to clicker training. In the process, Parsons developed innovative and effective strategies to calm, alter, and re-shape Ben's aggressive displays. Her clicker-based strategies have since helped many of her clients successfully reduce—and even erase—their dogs' reactivity to both dogs and humans.

Click to Calm: Reviews

KPCT — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

"Click for Calm is a must read for every dog owner, not just those with a reactive dog. Brava, Emma Parsons, on adding an important new book to the literature."
—Darlene Arden, author, The Angell Memorial Animal Hospital Book of Wellness and Preventive Care for Dogs

How to Say Hello: Teaching Manners to Aggressive Dogs

Emma Parsons — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

While emotions drive behavior, the reverse is also true: emotions follow physical expression, or behavior. In psychology, the practice of "smile therapy" advises clients to hold a smile on their faces, whether they feel like it or not. The theory is that even a forced smile washes away the emotions that prevent you from smiling, increasing your motivation and confidence. In other words, if you want to be happy, act happy. In addition, changing the consequences of a behavior can alter an emotional state. While the psychologists are concerned with human behavior, clicker training accomplishes both objectives for our dogs. We can teach our dogs to perform separate social behaviors on cue while interacting with other dogs. If these behaviors are solidly on cue, they can help them relax, and spark spontaneous appropriate interactions.

About Emma Parsons

KPCT — Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Emma has been featured on the Boston Neighborhood Network, WB56, and New England Cable News discussing various topics on canine behavior, including how to manage and reduce canine aggression and how to successfully integrate second-hand dogs into new households. Emma has also taught clicker training classes in conjunction with Tufts Veterinary School of Medicine and Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue. Emma runs her own dog training business called The Creative Canine which specializes in canine aggression issues.