Melissa C. Alexander, moderator of the online discussion forum ClickerSolutions, collects clear and accurate answers to over one hundred commonly asked questions about clicker training in one essential reference.

Click for Joy! is packed with information for experienced trainers and newcomers alike, including:

* positive, effective solutions to common problems * practical instructions to train any behavior for fluency and reliability * encouragement, advice, and success stories from clicker trainers around the world * short-term and long-term consequences of controversial training techniques * clear, easy-to-understand explanations of the science underlying clicker training * glossary of clicker training terms and concepts * easy-to-use cross-referencing and index

Wonderful book. It was reccommended by my veterinarian who is a respected behaviorist. It is easy to understand and concise. It is well organized-anticipating questions that may arise with each chapter-and directs you to the answers in other places in the book. It is easy to read and easy to refer back to when you need to. And the concept is marvelous. My dog loves to see the clicker come out of the drawer. He knows were going to have some fun.

I've never done clicker training before and found TONS of useful information out of this book. It's amazing! Really easy to understand and a quick read.

This book will answer all your questions about training your dog but won't teach you much about how to do it.

I've known about clicker training for years now, but I always dismissed it as a valid training method. I didn't see how you could reliably train a dog when you were dependent on a clicker and food treats. After reading this book I've had all my questions answered.

Melissa Alexander fully explains all aspects of clicker training, as well as some of the concepts of operant conditioning. The book is laid out in a Q & A format and each question has a sidebar with related questions to refer to. I found this feature incredibly useful as the questions in the sidebar were nearly always questions that had already popped into my head. She also offers quotes and success stories that are both encouraging and humorous (like the dog who unintentionally learned to put her head in a box instead of her toy). The sections covering reinforcement and punishment was very clear and really helped me to understand why this training method works so well.

While I wouldn't recommend this book as a stand-alone clicker manual (it's mainly about theory; not much on training specific behaviors), it's an excellent book for what it is. Definitely something you should add to your bookshelf if you're new to clicker training.

I had read a number of books on Clicker Training, all of which were helpful to varying degrees, before I read Melissa Alexander's Click for Joy! As I read Click for Joy!, I realized this would have been the very best book to read first, as it covered all my questions so completely. Of course, it was a great book to read after having read all the other books I've read for the same reason. The way the author has organized the material is very helpful for all kinds of mind sets. Someone who wants to read the book through from A to Z gets great foundation before going onto more techical information, but if you are like me, when I read about something, I tend to have all kinds of questions that I'd like to address right now. Ms. Alexander has organized each page with cross references to more information on particular subjects on that page. The language is easy to understand, as though you are having a personal visit with Melissa. She also has a chapter explaining in detail how to train a number of basic behaviors to perfection... very detailed explanations. After going through these basic behaviors, she explains how to organize your own plan for trainng other behaviors. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Clicker Training.

I have found Peggy Tilman's book, Clicking with Your Dog, Step-by-Step in Pictures, to be a great companion book to Click for Joy! because it goes into picture detail for many more behaviors beyond the basic behaviors in Melissa Alexander's book. IF a person is limited in book funds and wants to understand clicker training, these are the two books I recommend.