100 books like The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever

I have always thought that teaching Tricks is the easiest, quickest, and most enjoyable way to train a dog and 101 Dog Tricks is a great place to start. As soon as you teach High-Five, Back-up, Bow, and ‘dance’ with your dog, all the basics, keeping close, Come, Sit, Down, Stay and Walk-by-my-Side appear as if by magic. Then it’s time to teach Bring Me a Beer, and Cover Your Eyes… so impossibly cute it makes me smile every time.

Kyra is the ultimate, born performer. (I bet she had a puppy and wore dayglo-Lycra outfits as a little girl.) I just love this book since I first read it nearly 20 years ago: Beautifully laid with loads of stunning, sequential photographs and easy-to-understand instructions for all sorts of tricks and a myriad of fun games. When I first saw Kyra perform, she and Chalcy Weimaraner were nothing less than… show more.

Occasionally, a book comes along that completely changes the way you think about and relate to your dog. Jo-Rosie’s Real Dog Yoga is just that, especially if you try to mimic your dog’s performances like I did. (You would crack up if you saw me frozen on the floor in a butt-raised bow with Mister Peabody Labrador). Jo-Rosie explains 30 postures, 15 actions, and 10 expressions. My favorite section was learning how to cue facial expressions, such as Close Eyes, Ear-Pricks, and Nose Licks. 

Although not billed as a Dog Tricks book, RDY is the definitive ‘How & Why’ for teaching all tricks and basic manners, the only difference being: Dogs receive the calm attention and gentle praise they deserve when they bow, raise a paw, or ‘smile’ on cue, but are largely ignored when they Down-Stay, stop barking, or walk calmly. RDY will surprise you. The text is… show more.

Most of you know Sara from America’s Got Talent? Originally from Canada, Sara and her dogs are peripatetic performers; she, living her childhood her dream, and her pups realizing theirs, all living in her car, traveling the States, and performing for enthusiastic crowds. I first met Sara when she was conducting an on-stage workshop at the APDT Annual Conference: Backward Leg Weaves, balancing on the souls of her feet, and even a Faux Pee. It was stunning. 

Sara just loves trick training and dancing with her dogs because it fosters better communication, closeness, and attention. Her dogs get the opportunity to regularly ‘let off steam’ and wag with glee, but then they walk off stage, calmly by her side, because they want to walk by her side—the veritable tango of dog training. There’s more to ‘rhythm and tricks’ than meets the eye, much more: flexibility, balance, core-strengthening,… show more.

Yup, another book by Kyra—completely different but equally as enjoyable and with many more wonderful photographs (starring Jadie the Weim). I’m sure that all the children have read and mastered everything in 101 Dog Tricks and wanted something more. Well, they got it. I wanted to make this the first choice on my list, but didn’t, because not everyone has children and I didn’t want them to feel left out. Nonetheless, I implore you all to be a child for a day and enjoy the book, and your dog.

The Kids Edition is a marvelous collection of 101 games, activities, brain games, and magic tricks, for children to teach and engage with their dogs. What makes the Kids Edition truly special, most tricks involve projects, showing children how to make stuff, such as doggy doorbells, fleece leashes, personalized dog bowls, teeter-totters, and artworks. Messenger Dog is my all-time favorite and… show more.

You’ll have picked up a theme here: dog behavior is pretty simple. It’s human behavior, illuminated by how we act toward dogs, that’s damnably complicated. In this book a supremely well-informed behaviorist and trainer turns her scope not on the animals she’s studied so intently, but on the humans who interact with them. Only in that context can we understand why our pets do what they do: they do stuff because we are another kind of animal entirely. As primates, we persist in treating everyone else as if they were a primate, too. McConnell asks us to “get out of” ourselves—to think like a dog, to understand the needs of the Other, which is the essence of compassion. This book is a rare beauty: thoughtful, kind, ultimately radical in its request that we learn a little about the species we bring into a human world to unwittingly demand it adapt… show more.

Training high drive, energetic dogs is a lot of fun, but also challenging. In this book, you get advice on how to channel that energy into the training and behavior you want, no matter what type of training you’re interested in: gun dog work, agility, basic obedience, etc. You’ll learn how to teach your dog to be steady, stop barking and spinning when he gets frustrated and focus on you. All of the course uses reward-based, positive methods.

This book moved me to tears after just reading a couple of pages. The authors describe lots of cases where dogs (and their handlers) have helped people in their lives – calming students, giving elderly people hope, and making them want to do things again. If you want to work together with your dog and help other people in f ex schools, old age care centers, etc. this is a great book. It takes you through the basics of what the dog needs to know, how to teach it, and lots of things to think about when you choose a dog trainer to help you educate your dog.

When Lily looks out of her bedroom window she gets the best surprise – a doggy! But this is no ordinary doggy. There’s been an escape from the zoo… Readers know from the outset Lily’s new pet is really a bear. Hear them shout ‘but he’s not a dog!’

Even Lily notices he’s quite big ‘for a dog’, but insists on taking him for a walk and teaching him tricks, none of which he is any good at. Unfortunately, the zookeeper recognises his bear from the ‘lost doggy’ poster Lily’s mum makes her display. She must give him back.

A beautifully illustrated story, full of optimism and a little girl’s irrepressibly wonderful outlook on life. It will have you laughing all the way from beginning to the cheerful final twist.

If you want to train and compete in agility, this is the book for you. Using positive, reward-based methods the authors teach you how to teach your dog everything it needs to know when it comes to agility. And of course, you’ll also learn lots of training techniques that you can use to teach your dog other things as well.

This book had a huge impact on me many years ago when I started training Psychiatric Service Dogs. Turid opened my eyes to a complex understanding of how dogs communicate with us through subtle and not-so-subtle body language. I recommend this book highly to all of my friends that have dogs and my clients. You will learn to identify when your dog is stressed, how to recognize it, and then take appropriate action to help decrease and alleviate the dog’s stress.