Dog Tricks: Eighty-Eight Challenging Activities for Your Dog from World-Class Trainers (Hardcover)

~ Captain Arthur J. Haggerty (Author), Carol Lea Benjamin (Author) "This easy pair is sweet and simple..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sit Stay, Cracker Jacks

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In Dog Tricks world-class trainers offer more than 80 challenging and unusual activities to teach your dog, including simple tricks that even the most stubborn pets can be taught to perform. Jumping rope" and the "telephone answering machine trick" are among the more advanced acts outlined in this amusingly illustrated guide that comes packaged with a colorful plastic flying disk. The book, which features 45 drawings, was previously published at $27.50.

About the Author

Captain' Arthur Haggerty was a well-known and popular dog trainer whose "students" went on to careers as attack dogs, guard dogs, rescue dogs, bomb sniffers, and even actors and actresses.

He was an Army K-9 Unit commander, and when he left the service, he established the Captain Haggerty School for Dogs in NYC. It was there where he became known as dog-trainer to many Hollywood and Broadway stars. He also provided dogs for advertisements as well as movies and tv shows.

Capt. Haggerty was a hulking figure, 6-feet 3-inches and over 300 pounds. He did some acting himself, appearing in "Shamus" (1973) with Burt Reynolds, "Home Movies" (1980), and "Married to the Mob (1988), as well as a few others.

In early 1983, Capt. Haggerty appeared on David Letterman's tv show, talking about his career as a dog trainer it was from there that "Stupid Pet Tricks" was born.


CAROL LEA BENJAMIN, a professional dog trainer, is the author of five books on dog behavior. For the past ten years, she has written a monthly column, Dog Trainer's Diary, for Pure-Bred Dogs, American Kennel Gazette, the official publication of The American Kennel Club. Ms. Benjamin is the recipient of the 1985 Dog Writers' Association of American Writer of the Year award, the 1985 Gaines Fido award and the 1987 Kal Kan Pedigree Outstanding Pet Care Journalist award.  She lives in New York, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; Book and Access edition (January 5, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884822460
• ISBN-13: 978-1884822469
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #198,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OK book, for ideas at least., February 19, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Lothian, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dog Tricks (Hardcover)

I've read through this book and found it a decent book for ideas about various tricks to teach your dog. However, it gives you very little info about how to train your dog! Nor does it prepare the unitiated with the typical responses that you might expect from your dog during the initial training phases, or how to react to various situations.

Finally, the book is dated. Written in the late 70s it doesn't cover newer trainer methods. Some of there methods could really use updating (i.e. there is very little in the way of motivational training, mostly corrective training is used. If you and your dog want to have fun shouldn't it be a little less work for them?).

I highly suggest skipping over this book, unless you need help in new trick ideas and are confident that you and your pooch can work well together.

There are a few other books out there that are newer and stress the fun aspect of dog tricks much better than this one did.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, nice ideas, lack some detail, December 18, 2000

By	"flechman" (Caguas, Puerto Rico United States) - See all my reviews

This is an almost complete training book. It give some nice ideas to train your dog. The amount of "tricks" given is very nice. Some of them are easy to teach, some are extremely hard. The info is prersented in a humorous way making the book not only good for teaching these behaviors but also fun to read. I can not say this is a complete book because it doesn't explain ways to deal with some basics problems that all trainers, myself included, encounter. For this reason I don't recomend this book to a beginer trainer. Experienced trainers will appreciate all the ideas presented. It give some entertaining ways to spend time with your dog.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Abuse your dog to make him do tricks? No thanks!, June 20, 2004

By	Ann Rab (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews

Written by a very old trainer with the old "make your dog do it or else" attitude. What fun is this for the dog?
Motivational training has come a long way in the past 30 years, but this author has chosen to totally ignore new and more humane methods of dog training.
If you used some of these training "tricks" in modern obedience classes, you'd be asked to leave the class - or else they'd call the cops on you.
Cruel training methods and a lot of bad advice, all in one book. What a bargain!