Brain Games for Dogs by Claire Arrowsmith. Book Review

Brain Games for Dogs by Claire Arrowsmith

The main reason I gave it 2 stars is because the name of the book says Brain Games for Dogs. If the book would have had the name Brain Games for Puppies or for beginners, it would have been a 4-5 stars, without any doubt.

My dog is 8 and we had him since he was a 3 months old pup. Most of the things in the book we’ve already tried, trained, or not bothered with them. As you can see from this picture, he already knows a lot of things, like waiting for treats/toys. That might sound easy, but is one of the hardest things you can do with your dog.

Another thing I didn’t like is that the book is aimed at small dogs. If you have a 115 pounds rottweiler, you can’t actually build an indoor agility course… unless you live in a house that has a Great Hall and not a living room. I imagine this would not be suitable if you have children or live in a flat.

We did try something from the book, “shy”. The dog has to put his paw on top of his nose. It didn’t work with us and I imagine that happened because the sticky notes weren’t too sticky. Also, he knows he gets stuff if he is focused on me. So, he associated the treats with paying attention after he removed the paper, and not removing the paper. It wasn’t an issue with the method, but only with how we are behaving for years. We still had fun and he got some treats, happy day.

If you have a dog and he does not know lots of tricks, do get it. Some of the tricks can be used in everyday tasks. For example, Festus knows “play dead”. This is how he stays when we clean his ears. Shake paw (different paw for opposite hand) is another great trick, especially when you need to wipe his muddy paws.

I didn’t actually read all of it, only the pages that were relevant. I obviously skipped the things he already knows, the tips for treats and so on. So, I’m not going to add it to my 2018 roundup at the end of the year. I’m not adding it to my 2018 reading challenge either.