Positive reinforcement books

[WickAndArtoo]

I have a friend who is interested in learning more positive techniques in training, I was wondering if everyone would chip in on titles that they felt were very helpful! She has a reactive dog and a resource guarder... I have already mentioned click to calm and the other end of the leash but am drawing a blank on more. Thanks in advance!

[terrecar]

Patricia McConnell's The Cautious Canine: How to Help Dogs Conquer Their Fears

 

Patricia McConnell's I'll Be Home Soon: How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety

 

Patricia McConnell's Fiesty Fido: Help for the Leash Reactive Dog

 

Oh heck, anything by Patricia McConnell

 

If you want an explanation of positive reinforcement without wading through pedantic operant conditioning stuff by Skinner:

 

Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot The Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training

 

Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training

Edited July 16, 2016 by terrecar

[GentleLake]

Jean Donaldson's Mine!: A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs is excellent and a small book so not a lot to have to wade through.

 

Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out: Training the Crazy Dog from Over the Top to Under Control by Laura VanArendonk Baugh is another one I'd recommend.

 

Give her my best wishes. These are difficult things to deal with. (Ask me how I know.)

[WickAndArtoo]

Thank you so much! I have had these issues in my dogs too, so I know how tough they are, luckily I have access to positive trainers, she has not had that opportunity yet.

[Root Beer]

I would recommend:

"The Power of Positive Dog Training" - Pat Miller

"Beyond the Backyard" - Denise Fenzi

 

And:

"Plenty in Life is Free" - Kathy Sdao

[D'Elle]

"Reaching The Animal Mind" by Karen Pryor

"Clicker training For Dogs" or any of her other books on the subject by Karen Pryor

 

And my favorite, which is not a training manual but is a wonderful book about the relationship between dogs and people and how everything you do in training a dog depends on that relationship:

"Bones Would Rain From The Sky" by Suzanne Clothier

[D'Elle]

Oh, and "Click To Calm" by Emma Parsons

[GentleLake]

And my favorite, which is not a training manual but is a wonderful book about the relationship between dogs and people and how everything you do in training a dog depends on that relationship:

"Bones Would Rain From The Sky" by Suzanne Clothier

 

I love this book!

 

The others people have mentioned are also great. I only added the two I did because they deal directly with the issues the OP mentioned, and Click to Calm had already been suggested.

 

But, yeah, lots of the best general clicker training books have been given.

[D'Elle]

I had a wonderful experience with "Click To Calm". I had been a foster home for border collie rescue for years, but was still somewhat new to positive reinforcement training. I got in a half BC, half cattle dog female who was so extremely dog-reactive that she would not stop snarling and snapping and barking if there were another dog anywhere in the house, or even in the yard, even if she could not see them. Since everyone who fosters has dogs of their own, she had gone through two foster homes already because the people just could not live with her. I mean she never shut up. Someone said to give her to me, maybe I could do something with her.

 

Well, I did not know what to do. I could clicker train a dog, but what the heck was I going to mark and reward when she never shut up? A friend loaned me "Click To Calm" the first day I had the dog. I read it cover to cover overnight and learned that you don't need good behavior in order to reward the dog, just the smallest break in the bad behavior. After all, the dog has to stop snarling and barking long enough to breathe or swallow. And you can start by rewarding that.

 

I started with that and some high value treats and -- it sounds unbelievable, but it is true -- in one half an hour she had gone from being a Tazmanian Devil on the other side of the door from my dogs to quietly sniffing them with only her hackles up. And it only got better from there. I credit that book with saving that dog.....and my sanity.

[gcv-border]

^^^^ :)

[GentleLake]

Just remembered another great book to add to the list. Jane Killion's When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs.

In includes chapters on the basics of clicker training and shaping behaviors, teaching attention, etc.

 

Definitely a good book to add to the list. Even though it's not specifically specifically geared towards the problems you're friend's dealing with, it's good because she spends time talking about finding the things that really motivate your dog, especially when it's not too interested in the usual rewards (or too distracted) to really engage in training.