The Only Dog Tricks Book You'll Ever Need: Impress Friends, Family--and Other Dogs!

by Gerilyn J. Bielakiewicz

This book is a great introduction to the joys of clicker training your dog. The author spends a good portion of the pages defining the ins and outs of clicker training. She even goes over how to train basic tricks like sit, down, and stay using the clicker. The book gives you a strong foundation in clicker training to build on by the time you get to more complex tricks and behaviors.

That being said, for me, the book spent too much time on the basics and not enough time on training more complex behaviors. I'm already quite experienced using the clicker and many of the tricks in the book I have already trained my dog how to do. I did, however, get a lot out of it and would definitely recommend this book to others. Especially novice trainers who do not have a lot of background in the finer points of clicker training.

The book is well-written and easy to follow. The author outlines the way she trains the behaviors in a nice, step-by-step process. She even goes on to describe many of the activities you can get involved in with your dog if you find training to be a lot of fun for you both. Some of this information is out of date (AKC does allow mixed breeds to compete now and she only lists 2 of the 3 canine freestyle organizations) but all one needs to do is look online for more information on the various activities.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in training their dog how to perform crowd-pleasing tricks or needs a quick introduction to clicker training.

I give it 4 out of 5 Wheeks.

Up next, Spellbound by Kelley Armstrong