Title: Brain Games For Dogs Author: Claire Arrowsmith ISBN: 978-1-84286-277-3 RRP: £9.99 (but can get cheaper eg £6.99 on Amazon - other book retailers are available ) Pages: 160 As you might expect from the title, this book is concerned with brain games for your dog. It starts off with an outline of the benefits of brain games; essentially they help provide mental stimulation to supplement the physical stimulation provided through exercise. It also discusses the influence of breed type and the dog's age. The approach is one of positive training and the author discusses the importance of timing, clicker-training and of not using punishment training. The bulk of the book is then taken up with a number of brain games split into chapters such as puppy, in the home, in the garden etc (I haven't counted the number of games but the rear cover suggests that there are 'over 75'). Each game has a summary box detailing the location, level of difficulty, and any equipment needed. I have no intention of wading through every game in sequence but the layout does make it easy to browse through and pick out one at a time to try with your dog and see if he enjoys it. Overall a useful addition to the dog book library.
Re: Brain Games For Dogs - Claire Arrowsmith I know several people have this one... Can I confess that I was a bit disappointed with it? I guess I was hoping for 75 new ideas, which was really very unrealistic of me. There's nothing wrong with it at all; I just didn't like it as much as I was hoping too!! Clare
Re: Brain Games For Dogs - Claire Arrowsmith I'm with Clare - there isn't much that I took and incorporated into the routine that I didn't already have. I thought it was me though, in that I tend to like either just a fun game, or training something I need.
Re: Brain Games For Dogs - Claire Arrowsmith [quote author=ClareJ link=topic=4689.msg57640#msg57640 date=1393584854] ... Can I confess that I was a bit disappointed with it? ... [/quote] Of course you can. I think the whole idea is that we all offer our thoughts and this might then help others decide whether the book may be useful for them. In fact, I have to say that I agree with you. Even though we are very much novice dog owners (Harvey is our first dog and is just 6 months old) even we thought that there was little that was new or ground-breaking. Still, its nice for the odd suggestion of what might be a nice game to try.
Re: Brain Games For Dogs - Claire Arrowsmith Mrs GreenBull flagged this one as a possible purchase but then I read the reviews on Amazon. Although all highly favourable some pointed out that the book mainly contains stuff you'd learn at dog training or from any other dog trick book. So we decided against buying as someone had already given us 101 dog tricks which is quite a reasonable book. Or initial interest was the fact it was called brain games but that appears to be more of a sales tactic and as such a misnomer.
Re: Brain Games For Dogs - Claire Arrowsmith [quote author=UncleBob link=topic=4689.msg57644#msg57644 date=1393586868] Still, its nice for the odd suggestion of what might be a nice game to try. [/quote] Definitely - like a flick through a cook book when stuck for something to do for supper...very handy.
