Nose touch and making passing more calm

I have read now tons of articles about clicker training. The story of Emma Parson (author of Click to Calm) and Ben really stood out. She told about her aggressive dog Ben that lunged and showed aggression to other dogs. Emma's methods of curing Ben where just exciting. It was very interesting to read how clicker training worked to calm the dog even though it didn't even eat the treats in the beginning. Clicker has just a strong influence to the brain and how it handles to feedback. (Story of Ben and Emma).

We have few very lunging and aggressive dogs on our walking routes. Pixie gets really hyper and her mind goes anxiety state of mind from uncertainty. Louise react by protecting by barking and this behavior got stronger after Pixie got attack by another dog. So started to use clicker and nose touch to keep my own dogs calm. First time we passed a one of the aggressive dogs just said "touch" to Pixie and she started to poke her nose to palm. Pixie was calm and worked nicely with me. Louise was calm because Pixie has always been the provoker with her anxiety. Just making Pixie comfortable to the situation of passing aggressive dog made to whole team work better.

Now we have done this for several times and it's getting better and better. I hope this help us all the situations that might escalate to anxiety from Pixie and protective actions from Louise. These exercises on the walks have made both dogs much calmer and they have make me calmer too. It has been win-win situation to all of us and our team has become even better than it was before. 

I have to go back to reading... Can't wait to learn more!!! We have also made some changes in agility and Ob training.. But more later on!!

Yours Marianne, Louise and Pixie