Review by K. Bonner:

My husband bought this book for our 4 year old (who is famous among everyone we know for being both a book lover and a dog lover), and it is, not surprisingly, one of her favorites. She took it to her pre-K class today, and when I picked her up, her teachers were raving about it! They said that they read it at least three times to the class, and that it was the hit of the day! The fun starts before the book is even opened. The tails of the three dogs on the cover are touch and feel furry, or wag with the pull of a tab. It just gets better from there. This book is packed with a wide variety of clever and creative interactive tricks that are well integrated with the entertaining verbiage. The book is, in fact, clever enough to engage my husband and myself, and our older children; even my college aged daughter is currently petting, pulling and generally getting a kick out of this book as I write this review. I am online now to order another copy as a gift to my daughter’s preschool in her name. Otherwise, she will want to bring this book to school every day for the rest of the year! We highly recommend this book!

Review by C. Chan:

I bought this for my 1 yr old daughter and she just love it – in fact both myself and my husband thought this is one of the best interactive book we have bought out of our hundreds of books! Very sturdy , and very informative ( as it gives you all the names of breed of dogs that have appeared). I have no regret in buying this book at all !

Review by R. House:

Don’t waste time with the cheap dog-bone clickers. This is reliable and you never find you’re mashing the “wrong end” and failing to make the noise precisely when you need to. This was just the right clicker for me and my GSMD puppy when we were both learning marker/clicker training technique. That said, I finally switched to using my voice (I follow Ed Frawley’s training advice and now YES! takes the place of click). Why? because with a leash, treats, and other gear there’s one less thing to manage by hand, I never misplace my voice, and am always prepared to emit the behavior marker at the correct time! The switch from clicker to voice was no problem for either me or my dog, and there are still uses for these excellent clickers in training.

Review by Crazy Glue:

Some reviewers mentioned the click was too loud. And I must admit it is indeed loud. I was very aprehensive about purchasing it because of this problem. However, I heard so much praise about clicker training that I bought it with the intention of muffling the sound by adhering some sound absorbing materials to the clicker to reduce the loudness of the click. Well, as soon as I got my hands on it I discovered an easy way to reduce the loudness of the click. Here is how:

Simply place the clicker with the orange button facing down on or just before that fatty tissue part of your palm that the thumb extends out of. Then apply firm pressure to the back side of the clicker by folding your four fingers on top the clicker. Make the pressure just firm enough so that clicker sound holes are pressing against the fatty tissue of your palm, then when needed just apply a little more pressure with the four fingers on the back of the clicker to make it click. If you have the clicker positioned at the proper angle the lanyard hole will be inline with the middle of your wrist.

Review by Jennifer H:

I received this book as a Mother’s Day gift from my sons. I train my dog for competition obedience and they thought I might like to have some “fun” things to train. The book is fantastic! There are lots of pictures and easy, step by step instructions for every trick! I love the way the tricks are categorized as being easy, intermediate, advanced and expert, there are tricks for dogs at every skill level. Also, for each trick the prerequisites are listed, some troubleshooting questions and answers and a small section called ‘Build On It’ that explains how you can build on, or improve, the featured trick! This book is a wonderful addition to my training library! You’ll love it!

Review by Eddie Landsberg:

I suggest buying 3 copies of this book… not 1…

First, because its a great coffee table book… hey, Chelcy (the author’s dog) is a Weimeraner – - and both are very photogenic – - on top of it, the graphic design and lay-out of the book are not only sensitive and informative, but very visually appealing… You can feel the excitement and enthuisiasm

Second – - its a fantastic reference book… and the idea of thinking “tricks” instead of cut and dry obedience I think is great for both the trainer and the dog. Though most of the tricks do have elements of obedience to them, they are presented in a way that makes training your dog more fun and lightharded and you’re not thinking, “good dog”/”bad dog”/”leash correction” – - In fact, I like the way the author not only has troubleshooting tips for each tricks, but will even give some ideas how difficult the trick is, what tricks need to be learned first, and how long it takes some dogs to learn. – - Also, all descriptions use simple, practical and effective language… The descriptions match up with the photos and the points are gotten across in a way that communicates the ideas to you and teaches you to teach them to your dog.

Finally… buy a third copy because… some dogs *cough* have tendencies to nibble on certain people’s reading material, especially when allowed in the bed. (o.k. that’s an obedience issue.)

As for the tricks, they range from basic sit/stay/rollover agility type tricks – - to classics like “bring me a beer”/”bring the newspaper” as well as a few parlor tricks/routines. The book also explains standard hand signals as well as commands.

Incidentally – - there I would like a refund for 2 of the tricks. One involves the human doing a handstand, the other a cartwheel… Trust me, if you’re the “bring me my beer” trick type, you won’t be doing those two…

All in all, this is one book that lives up to its own hype! Highly recommended!

Review by blst:

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RVJF76APZQ083 Hope this video can give you some idea. She’s been playing with this one for about a month, but she does not seem to have lost her interest. Recommended.

Review by A. Fetter:

Our golden retriever loves this and, as others have reported, enjoys carrying the animals around the house after removing them. Fortunately, he doesn’t squeak them for more than a couple of minutes at a time, and he hasn’t injured any part of it in the three weeks that he’s had it (he seems to know the difference between stuffed animals and sticks/bones, fortunately).

I did need to do one intervention, though. The dog’s grandparents and his father were encouraging him to “get the squirrels! get the squirrels!” They’re definitely chipmunks. I’ve never seen a striped squirrel. So if you want your dog to learn appropriate species identification (and who doesn’t?), you might want to switch to “get the chipmunks!”

Review by M. Carterette:

After having read this book weeks ago (advanced copy), I was left a little unsatisfied. I’d give it 3.5 stars if could.

It’s more of a cursory glance at canine cognitive ethology rather than a definitive volume, but if you’re looking for a good introductory to canine cognitive ethology, this would be a great starter. The anecdotes are sweet and the science is pretty good, and written in a way that the regular Joe Dog Guardian can read it without breaking his brain.

HOWEVER. There is one VERY glaring “scientific” experiment that I feel she used for a bad conclusion, a conclusion whose inclusion of the flawed scientific experiment betrays the entire premise of the book itself.

In the section on “Hero Dogs” (dogs that have responded to emergencies and saved the lives of their owners and people in general), Horowitz details what she calls a “clever experiment” with dogs where

“owners conspired with the researchers to feign emergencies in the presence of their dogs, in order to see how the dogs responded. In one scenario, owners were trained to fake a heart attack, complete with gasping, a clutch of the chest, and a dramatic collapse. In the second scenario, owners yelped as a bookcase (made of particleboard) descended on them and seemed to pin them on the ground. In both cases, owners’ dogs were present, and the dogs had been introduced to a bystander nearby–perhaps a good person to inform if there has been an emergency.

In these contrived setups, the dogs acted with interest and devotion, but not as though there was an emergency…

…In other words, not a single dog did anything that remotely helped their owners out of the predicaments. The conclusion that one has to take from this is that dogs simply do not naturally recognize or react to an emergency situation–one that could lead to danger or death.” (pp.239-240)

I really don’t understand how she could have come to this conclusion after having written over 200 pages on how a dog sees, smells and relates to its world (the “umwelt” of a dog). She didn’t consider that the dogs knew that their owners were faking? She wrote herself that a dog can sense the most minute changes in a person’s own body chemistry, right down to sensing cancer and other things like an increase in heart rate or adrenaline. A person faking a heart attack isn’t going to have the same body chemistry/physical changes that a person having a REAL heart attack is going to have, so in a sense–there is no faking a heart attack around your dog (believe me, I’ve tried, LOL–it was only playing/testing, but none of my dogs seemed to care if I plopped over in bed, “dead”). Same goes for adrenaline levels when you’re in immediate danger, like when you’re drowning (and I believe this was one of the examples she used just before this horrible “deduction” of hers; a dog saved the life of a child that was going to drown). And if a person was faking being hurt under a particleboard bookcase, I’m pretty sure that the dog could sense that, too.

Anyway. That was the only part of the book that REALLY got me going “Hmmmnnn…no.” Other than that, it’s a good read, but left me wanting more (a whole lot of it sucks you in, but then you’re left with a little bit of an unsatisfied thirst for more science and more talk about how dogs are in the world; the end chapter seemed a little rushed to me, too).

Review by R. Hardy:

Scientifically, we might know a lot more about rats than we do about dogs. There are some experimental labs that have dogs as subjects, but lab rats get a lot of scientific attention. Dogs get a lot of domestic attention, but scientific study of dogs, and the ways they get along with humans and with other dogs, has not been a high concern. That may be because we think we know dogs; they are frank and open, and we live closely with them. Alexandra Horowitz thinks we don’t know enough, and some of what we know is wrong, and she is out to change our perception of dogs and to do it scientifically. She has to work at making herself a detached observer; she might be a psychologist who has studied cognition in humans, dogs, bonobos, and rhinoceroses, but among the first sentences of her book _Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know_ (Scribner) is, “I am a dog person.” Is she ever. She didn’t deliberately make Pumpernickel, her mixed breed live-in friend (she is an advocate for adopting mutts), a subject of scientific study, but Pump was her entrance, for instance, to the dog park where she could film the interactions of other dogs for acute detailed study later. She gives loving anecdotes of the late Pump in every chapter to illustrate her more objective findings, nicely showing how her scientific examination of dogs paid off in her understanding of her own dog. There are people who worry that scientific examination of any phenomenon takes away the mystery and specialness of the phenomenon, and among the fine lessons in this amusing and enlightening book is that this is far from true.

Dogs do not sense the world we do. To take one of Horowitz’s examples, a rose for humans is a thing of visual and olfactory beauty, and also has connotations of a love gift. Dogs are having none of this. It is just another plant among all the plants that surround it; it does not look attractive, and unless some dog has urinated on it recently, it does not smell attractive. Otherwise, the rose doesn’t exist. The dog’s world is one largely of smells. Everyone knows that dogs are better at detecting odors than we are. It isn’t just that they can smell more scents, at thinner concentrations, than we; it’s that they gaze at the world by sniffing, and it presents a very different world from ours. Smell, for dogs, has plenty of meanings, but one of them is time. A strong spell is new, a fading one is old. Not only that, but the future may be borne on a breeze if the dog is walking upwind. In scents, the dog doesn’t just experience the current scene in an olfactory way, “…but also a snatch of the just-happened and the up-ahead. The present has a shadow of the past and a ring of the future about it.” Dogs are evolutionarily descended from wolves, and sometimes dog owners are advised to treat their dogs as lower-caste members of a pack. Horowitz prescribes caution in such interpretations. Dogs are not wolves and have cast away many wolf traits during their evolution. A person (non-wolf) attempting to subdue a dog (non-wolf) in wolf fashion is missing what is special about the human-dog bond. Dogs, for instance, like eye contact; wolves avoid it. There are many experiments described here (some of which Horowitz has herself been in charge of), and one of them involves “gaze following”. Dogs can look at our eyes, and can tell where we are looking, so they look over that way, too. The sections of the book that are the most fun are the ones on play. Dogs play more than wolves do, and unlike most animals, they play as adults. It is a bit of a mystery; it isn’t essential for dogs to play to get their needed social skills, and it does cost energy and the risk of injury. Horowitz describes the play cues dogs give that can only be seen by humans using very slow video replays, but which keep the play non-aggressive for the participating dogs. Dogs are good at following these rules; a strapping wolfhound and a tiny Chihuahua can negotiate a play session efficiently, with the former handicapping itself to enjoy the mock aggressiveness of the latter.

Horowitz has provided a useful service in her brightly-written summary of experiments and current theories on the minds of dogs. I have an idea that people keep dogs around not just because of their goofy affection for us, or because they are so entertaining, but simply because they are interesting. It is fun to see how a creature who has evolved an intelligence different from our own gets along in the world. Horowitz’s book helps explain that interest, and heighten it.

Review by Stephanie A. Pearson:

When this arrived I noticed in tiny print that it said they were 100% biodegradable *except as defined by California. Suspecting I had been cheated I looked it up. California defines biodegradable as being able to degrade at the rate of an apple with NO plastic bits left behind. In all other states there is NO definition of what biodegradable is and so manufactures can consider all and any plastic bag biodegradable if they wanted cause plastic will eventually degrade…after about a million years. IF you really want a bag that IS 100% biodegradable then visit poopbags.com These bags are made with corn and will degrade at the rate of an apple.

Review by bagelz:

Great product. I haven’t had a leakage or a bag break when carrying. Still having trouble training dog to steady over it though.

Review by P. Condos:

I purchased this dog for my 2 year old granddaughter and she loves it. This is actually the second she has had, the first taught her that if the dog is trying to flip, and you sit on it, you will not flip along with it. You will break it. Dog #2 is doing much better. I would recommend this product.

Review by Virginia Alvord:

My dog loves this toy. He brings it to us to turn it on. He chases it and tosses it and the little thing has lasted through all of that mistreatment since Christmas morning – so nearly three months worth of torment.

Review by Dmitri Bilgere:

I’m blown away by this book. I really liked McConnell’s first book, “The Other End of the Leash,” but this book blows even that away.

And here’s why:

This book is an uncommon combination of 3 things that usually don’t go together.

1) Entertaining and moving (yet educational) stories of dogs and their humans (many from McConnell’s long career as an animal behaviorist),

2) Immediately useful knowlege about dog behavior and the “clues” dogs give about what is going on with them, and

3) Relentless scientific backup for what she says, while NOT being hard to read or “science-y.”

For instance, do you know what it means when a dogs mouth is closed?

Do you know what it means if a dog is pointing her muzzle away from you, but looking in your direction?

Do you know what it means if a dog is pulling the corners of his mouth forward?

You should, because these are all critical clues about what the dog is going to do next — it may even prevent you from being bitten by the next dog you reach out to pet!

Do you know the government-tested 30-second puppy-exercise regime that helps them grow into dogs that are gentle, flexible, and tolerant?

You should, it might make a huge difference in the next dog you get!

Along the way McConnell provides TONS of useful and entertaining knowledge about dog and human brains, how we learn, developmental phases (and how to impact them!), the nature of happiness (and how to be more happy!) and a whole lot more.

. . .even how to tell if a dog might be laughing at your hairstyle.

And it’s so well written it’s hard to put down.

I’m sorry if this sounds like an ad for the book . . . I’m not selling the book, just reviewing it, and I really liked it.

I think that if you like dogs and spend time with them, your relationships with them will be noticibly enriched by your reading this book.

Review by Franklin D. McMillan, DVM:

Patricia McConnell has written a wonderful book filled with engaging stories and much practical advice for dog owners. She incorporates the latest research findings on the workings of the dog’s mind in presenting her own cases from her behavior counseling service. Her discussion of counterconditioning covers an extremely valuable concept that is not stressed (or even utilized) enough by other behaviorists and trainers. This technique is invaluable and of nearly limitless potential in alleviating many emotional distresses and disorders in dogs.

Especially pleasing to see is that in her discussion of counterconditioning and other techniques the author diverges from the decades-old approach of addressing “behavior problems” (a term that should be killed off and unceremoniously buried – it’s not the animal’s problem any more than if your husband had a habit of talking too loudly to your liking would you tell your friends that he had a behavior problem) by focusing on simply eliminating the behavior. This mechanistic behaviorism approach may be effective in eliminating the behavior but frequently does nothing to relieve the dog’s underlying emotional distress that is causing the behavior. For example, if a dog is suffering from loneliness because he is tied up alone in a backyard and barks endlessly for human attention and companionship there are plenty of ways to eliminate the barking. But there is only one correct one: alleviate the emotional pain of loneliness. McConnell understands this and focuses on this underlying emotional distress when working with the dogs to change unwanted behavior. In light of the advances in neuroscience, comparative psychology, and brain imaging, this places McConnell on the leading edge of the changes underway in how unwanted behavior in dogs should be addressed. The primary focus in treating behavior “problems” is to help the dog rather than the owner. McConnell gets this. Most dog behaviorists and trainers don’t.

I strongly recommend this book for all dog owners who want their dogs to get the best emotional care and support in all behavior-related matters.