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Smarter than Jack
Dogs Are Smarter Than Jack: 91 Amazing True Dog Stories
From the tiniest Yorkie to the majestic Newfoundland, dogs are incredibly bright creatures. This enchanting anthology showcases dozens of canny canines, including the dog who loved to skateboard; the miniature poodle who alerted his owners to another dog in distress; the Labrador who made sure her smaller friends got their share; and the sheep dog who liked to "sing" -- but only to Mozart. These true stories, shared by canine lovers from all over the world, highlight the many ways dogs enrich our lives. The "Smarter Than Jack series was created by Jenny Campbell as a way to entertain with reader-written books that actively contribute to animal welfare.
150 pages, Paperback
First published February 17, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 18, 2025
Books filled with dog stories are easy to digest because you can take as many bites as you want in a sitting. This will make I think number 38 for the books filled with dog stories I have read and I would put this one near the top. A few other books may have made moved me more emotionally, but this one did move me. What really made it exceptional was I thought there were stories with things I had not heard before. And even the usual stuff, like dog protecting their owners from harm, were written well (maybe because a lot are from the UK and countries formerly under the UK banner). And buying the book benefits helping animals worldwide.
Here is one of my favorites from someone who owns a dog that likes to get stuff from the neighborhood homes and bring it back. He comes back home to find his fox terrier with this:
‘It was a wide, shallow dish of rice pudding, untouched and still warm. Someone must have put it out on their porch to cool off.
‘How did you do that, Peter?’ It wasn't a light dish — in fact, it was as long as he was, and the pudding was heavy. He must have somehow dragged it along the street or back alley. It was amazing that no one had seen him. I carried it into the house, a happy dog prancing at my side.
We called everyone nearby. No one was missing a rice pudding We never did find out who it belonged to; no one had seen a small dog dragging an enormous dish around. So waste not, want not. It was delicious, almost as good as Mum’s own. ‘A little heavy on the cinnamon, my father announced, but cleaned up his share anyway.’
We gotta laugh sometimes at what our dogs do, especially in the middle of the night to keep from killing them like what this lady’s German Shepherd was doing:
‘She had a sense of humour and would play tricks by hiding things from us. She would stand round wagging her tail while we searched frantically. Once, she repeated this every night for several weeks. Around 1 or 2 am she would wake me up, with her bowl in her mouth, asking for a drink. I was obliging enough to get out of bed and refill the bowl. However, she grew tired of this straightforward transaction and began to hide the bowl before she woke me.
I had to go round the house looking for the bowl, which she was dever enough to hide in a different place each time. You might say I could have just ignored her and stayed in bed, but it isn’t that easy to ignore a nine-stone-plus German shepherd who is determined to get you out of bed. I’m sure Sheba thoroughly enjoyed watching me search, while she stood round wagging her tail and ‘grinning’ way some dogs do.’
Another theme common with dogs is them fetching a ball. In one story when the Golden Retriever’s owners got tired of throwing a ball for him, he would go out and find his own:
‘Sometimes it was in long grass, or a bush, or a hedge, or even in a wet muddy ditch. Anywhere, it just didn't matter ~ he would find it and bring it back, — even if you didn't know there was one there anyway!
And it didn’t make any difference what size or colour it was - it wasnt invisible to him. It could be red or blue or yellow or orange of any colour at all and it could be any size as well, because he brought back golf balls, tennis balls, footballs — any ball would do. If they were made of leather, of rubber, of canvas or even of sponge - it just didn’t matter, he'd find one and bring it back - he was a retriever, wasn’t he?’
Another great story is of someone who needs to be rescued in a winter gale in the Shetland Islands from an unlikely group. I love seeing dogs run and this paragraph brought a nice mental picture to mind:
‘At that point, eight shivering bundles of whippet, all crowding together until the last possible second, would fire out of the doorway as though from a cannon. They would fly in all directions around the house to find a sheltered spot, before skidding to a halt moments later back outside the door, piling in like jets onto a carrier deck. Safely back inside, once admitted beyond the sanctuary of the inner door, they would race to get first position on their bed of sheepskin rugs beside the fire, before finally settling back down.’
This last excerpt maybe isn’t on an action of a dog doing something too spectacular but love the way it finishes up with a feeling a lot of us have about the love and devotion from our dog:
‘if we're going out for a walk she will pick up my discarded shoes and give them to me. When we return she fetches my house shoes. This is such a welcome little gesture, because I look after my elderly mum all the time but there's no one to look after me — except Tess.’
So great dog stories among the best. I will be looking for more in the Smarter than Jack series.
And for those who want to know ‘if the dog dies in the end,’ yes, there is some mentions of the dogs in the stories passing, but nothing too drawn out and painful.
Here is one of my favorites from someone who owns a dog that likes to get stuff from the neighborhood homes and bring it back. He comes back home to find his fox terrier with this:
‘It was a wide, shallow dish of rice pudding, untouched and still warm. Someone must have put it out on their porch to cool off.
‘How did you do that, Peter?’ It wasn't a light dish — in fact, it was as long as he was, and the pudding was heavy. He must have somehow dragged it along the street or back alley. It was amazing that no one had seen him. I carried it into the house, a happy dog prancing at my side.
We called everyone nearby. No one was missing a rice pudding We never did find out who it belonged to; no one had seen a small dog dragging an enormous dish around. So waste not, want not. It was delicious, almost as good as Mum’s own. ‘A little heavy on the cinnamon, my father announced, but cleaned up his share anyway.’
We gotta laugh sometimes at what our dogs do, especially in the middle of the night to keep from killing them like what this lady’s German Shepherd was doing:
‘She had a sense of humour and would play tricks by hiding things from us. She would stand round wagging her tail while we searched frantically. Once, she repeated this every night for several weeks. Around 1 or 2 am she would wake me up, with her bowl in her mouth, asking for a drink. I was obliging enough to get out of bed and refill the bowl. However, she grew tired of this straightforward transaction and began to hide the bowl before she woke me.
I had to go round the house looking for the bowl, which she was dever enough to hide in a different place each time. You might say I could have just ignored her and stayed in bed, but it isn’t that easy to ignore a nine-stone-plus German shepherd who is determined to get you out of bed. I’m sure Sheba thoroughly enjoyed watching me search, while she stood round wagging her tail and ‘grinning’ way some dogs do.’
Another theme common with dogs is them fetching a ball. In one story when the Golden Retriever’s owners got tired of throwing a ball for him, he would go out and find his own:
‘Sometimes it was in long grass, or a bush, or a hedge, or even in a wet muddy ditch. Anywhere, it just didn't matter ~ he would find it and bring it back, — even if you didn't know there was one there anyway!
And it didn’t make any difference what size or colour it was - it wasnt invisible to him. It could be red or blue or yellow or orange of any colour at all and it could be any size as well, because he brought back golf balls, tennis balls, footballs — any ball would do. If they were made of leather, of rubber, of canvas or even of sponge - it just didn’t matter, he'd find one and bring it back - he was a retriever, wasn’t he?’
Another great story is of someone who needs to be rescued in a winter gale in the Shetland Islands from an unlikely group. I love seeing dogs run and this paragraph brought a nice mental picture to mind:
‘At that point, eight shivering bundles of whippet, all crowding together until the last possible second, would fire out of the doorway as though from a cannon. They would fly in all directions around the house to find a sheltered spot, before skidding to a halt moments later back outside the door, piling in like jets onto a carrier deck. Safely back inside, once admitted beyond the sanctuary of the inner door, they would race to get first position on their bed of sheepskin rugs beside the fire, before finally settling back down.’
This last excerpt maybe isn’t on an action of a dog doing something too spectacular but love the way it finishes up with a feeling a lot of us have about the love and devotion from our dog:
‘if we're going out for a walk she will pick up my discarded shoes and give them to me. When we return she fetches my house shoes. This is such a welcome little gesture, because I look after my elderly mum all the time but there's no one to look after me — except Tess.’
So great dog stories among the best. I will be looking for more in the Smarter than Jack series.
And for those who want to know ‘if the dog dies in the end,’ yes, there is some mentions of the dogs in the stories passing, but nothing too drawn out and painful.
May 20, 2015
I actually read this book for the first time a couple of years ago, probably just before I joined Goodreads. I loved it then and I love it now! Basically it's a submission style book filled with personal stories from people who believe their dogs are smarter than Jack. The short story format works really well, and makes the book flow nicely. All the dogs are of course very smart and the pictures are cute too. Buying this book helps animal charities too, so it's definitely worth it! Five stars :)
November 11, 2011
it was a good book with lots of adorable stories
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews