Puppy Kindergarten

The New Science of Raising a Great Dog

By: Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods

Narrated by: Isabella Rossellini, Daniel Henning

The New York Times bestselling authors of The Genius of Dogs take us into their “Puppy Kindergarten” at Duke University, a center to study how puppies develop, to show us what goes in to raising a great dog.

Don’t miss Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods in Netflix’s film Inside the Mind of a Dog!

“A firehose of knowledge suffused with levity and charm.”—Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog

What does it take to raise a great dog? This was the question that husband-and-wife team Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods hoped to answer when they enrolled one hundred and one puppies in the Duke Puppy Kindergarten. With the help of a retired service dog named Congo, Brian, Vanessa, and their team set out to understand the secrets of the puppy mind: What factors might predict whether a puppy will grow up to change someone’s life?

Never has cuteness been so cutting edge. Applying the same games that psychologists use when exploring the development of young children, Hare and Woods uncover what happens in a puppy’s mind during their final stage of rapid brain development. Follow the adventures of Arthur, who makes friends with toy dinosaurs; Wisdom, the puppy genius; and Ying, who fails at cognitive games that even pigeons usually pass with flying colors. Along the way, learn about when puppies finally start to retain memories for longer than just a few seconds, or when they finally develop some self-control.

Raising dozens of puppies on a college campus means you get pretty good at answering big questions, such as: When do puppies sleep through the night? How do you stop them from eating poop? How can we help our puppies grow up to be the best dogs they can possibly be? Whether you are a new puppy parent or a perennial puppy lover, Puppy Kindergarten will answer every question you’ve ever had about puppies—and some you never thought to ask.

My new puppy & I loved it!

What a great book. I am a long time dog owner but I'm sitting here with my new Westie, Buddy, wondering what's possibly new. We'll, you can teach an old dog some new tricks! I really did learn some things about my puppy's development and have gotten some terrific advice just in time. So if you're looking for a good book about puppies, this is it. Narration is good as well.

Bad Choice for Narrator

Interesting book but the choice of narrator really took some of the enjoyment out of listening to it. It should be re-recorded

Inside the puppy brain!

Wonderful content and very informative to those of us who work hard to connect and learn from our pupil’s companions.

Entertaining and educational

This was an entertaining adventure through the development of puppies. He explains well the uniqueness of individual dogs and how dog vary even same breed and even same litter. Explains how both nature and nurture play a roll in who our dogs become. I would love loved to see temperament / intilegence tests that they used and how to interpret those test to better help match puppies to their homes and help people build realistic expectations,

Can I go work at the puppy Kindergarten?

Note to people considering reading this book about the narrator in the sample: the sample voice is not the voice for most of the book. I liked the voice in the sample but I worried it was a bit slow and I was concerned my brain would find it sleepy. I ended up very much liking the sample voice and accent but a male narrator with a US accent reads most of the book- I also liked this narrator.

I loved this book! As a puppy raiser for a guide dog organisation, I found this illuminating and useful.
Puppy brain development is fascinating and I love the work that Brian and Vanessa have been doing!