Click for Joy Book Review

Melissa C. Alexander, Sunshine Books, 2003

Reviewed by Jessi Clark-White

Click for Joy is the most promising recent clicker training book I’ve read. Simple yet comprehensive, it provides a superb explanation of clicker training and how to do it.

This is a book born on the World Wide Web. The author stumbled onto clicker training on the Internet in 1998. She began experimenting with clicker training, and soon founded ClickerSolutions, her own Internet mailing list. Click for Joy was inspired by the questions that seemed to be asked and answered so many times on the ClickerSolutions list, and the book reflects the influence of many of the members of that list. The input of many skilled trainers can be found in the form of tips and success stories sprinkled liberally throughout the pages.

A notable feature of Alexander’s book, and one that displays considerable insight into the human psyche is the fact that each topic is presented as a question that the reader is sure to have. When we pick up a book, we have questions we want it to answer. As it answers those questions, others are raised. “What is clicker training?” “Will it work for my dog?” “Are clicker-trained behaviors reliable?” “Where should I start?” These are actual subject headings from the book.

As you delve in more deeply, other questions are raised and answered. “Do I have to treat after every click?” “My dog is responding slowly to the cue. How do I get a faster response?” “Are clicker training and operant conditioning the same thing?” Each question is answered with great simplicity, but not at the cost of providing essential information and useful details.

Author Melissa Alexander does a wonderful job explaining the concepts central to clicker training. Take for example her explanation of what the clicker means to a dog: “Money is just paper, but because it’s associated with the food, shelter, clothing, and entertainment it can purchase, that paper has great value to us humans. The clicker is like money to our dogs in that it stands for treats and other things the dog wants.”

Reading Click for Joy brought into focus for me a problem with the trends in dog training books. The best, most useful training books are usually aimed at dog trainers and behaviorists that are comfortable with scientific concepts and already have a solid basic understanding of dog behavior. These “dog trainer” books get the dull writing, difficult to navigate format, and scientific jargon; as well as all the useful information!

The books written for pet owners tend to dispense advice of questionable effectiveness, skip over important details, or give just enough information to get them excited about training their dogs but not enough to answer their questions when things don’t go as planned. The “pet owner” books get the fancy layouts, easy-to-read print, pretty pictures, and entertaining prose; they just won’t tell you how to train a dog!

Why was I brought to this realization? As I read Click for Joy, I found that it is an excellent compromise between the two extremes. The layout is superb. It has the easiest navigation of any training book I’ve ever seen, with clearly marked chapters, bold color headings, helpful sidebars listing the page numbers of related topics, and boxes containing genuinely helpful tips. It also gives accurate, useful, and even detailed training information!

It is difficult to find any fault with this book. If I had to identify a weakness, it would be the author’s failure to devote much space to the solving of behavior problems. It does succeed admirably in its goal of giving the reader an understanding of clicker training and how to use it, which in theory people can extrapolate to solve their own problems. Unfortunately, in the real world people (especially those new to clicker training) have difficulty thinking of their own solutions to behavior problems. And the most common reason for someone to read a training book is to find out how to solve a problem. However, I can hardly blame the author for failing to explore behavior problems in more detail, as to do so could easily fill a book in itself. Perhaps a sequel is in order here?

If you are completely new to clicker training and want a good initial education in the subject, I would suggest that you start with Karen Pryor’s Clicker Training for Dogs, which provides a great basic introduction, then read Click for Joy to expand on your knowledge.

Click for Joy would be an excellent choice for someone new to clicker training or the pet owner who needs to train her dog but is also suitable for an experienced trainer. Even if you are totally familiar with the science and mechanics of clicker training, this book has enough unique ideas and tips to make it a worthwhile purchase.