As a huge dog lover I thought I would love this book but unfortunately I found it problematic and disappointing more than anything. There are far too many hunting and dog fighting references and the highlight for the poor Greyhound according to this book is their exploitation by the racing industry. Man's best friend deserves a far better tribute than the demonising qualities selected in this book. I also didn't care for all the clichés with show dogs and 'Royal' breeds. Furthermore I found the majority of the poems to be very repetitive, just describing the physical attributes of the dog.

I LOVE dogs, so I simply had to read this collection of poems about them.


It was fairly entertaining, though I have to admit that I expected something a bit more funny, and maybe a bit better rhymes, too. I don't know. It was okay, though.


This book's strength is how well it characterizes the different breeds. Not only with the words themselves but also with the versification and style. I loved this aspect! This should have been a game when one reads the poem and the other dog-lover should guess which breed 'talks'

A nice collection of poems about our canine friends and some lovely illustrations Togo with some of the poems too . A nice collection for the dog lover in your life.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was a book of poems about the different breeds of dogs. Most of the poems were short and very easy to read. The book itself was a quick read. The poems were nice and written well. There were some drawings as well that were nice. Somehow, even though it was written nicely, it just did not engage me. But it was written well. If you like dogs and poetry, you would probably enjoy this book.

So I was hoping to really enjoy this book, it seemed like a dorky dive into a fellow animal lovers glee over these animals we don't deserve. The author's passion certainly came through loud and clear but unfortunately the poetry was weak and juvenile. I expected silly, so the fact that it was all in rhyme wasn't too surprising. Rhyme causes a natural cadence to set in a you read, and the rhythms were terribly awkward. Just didn't work for me. It was a distraction. The content became redundant and boring with a couple chuckles here and there. I commend the effort but if failed to hit the mail for me.

A truly wonderful Book of Poems about our Canine Friends & Companions from their perspective about their own Breeds High & Low points. I especially liked the one about the Bagel ( & yes this is a Breed it's a cross between a Beagle & a Basset Hound ). I also greatly enjoyed those about The Old English Sheep Dog ( Dulux Paint Dog ) & finally The Yorkshire Terrier.
For anyone who has or does own Dogs this is a delightful Book to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
I guess I was expecting something more from this book. The poems were so-so but the illustrations were fairly good. I didn't like that parts about certain breeds as "fighting" dogs. I am a big lover of dogs but this didn't quite work for me.

I'm going with a middle of the scale rating because this collection, Tails You Win from Gill Rowe, was just that, middling. It neither met my initial expectations nor gave me a reasonable set of expectations that I could say it met.

I was expecting something a little on the cute side. This is a book written from the dog's perspective so even any meaningful tidbits weren't going to be deep. This isn't that type of poetry and to think it would be deep is more a comment about you than the book. That said, the poems were not really particularly cute or poignant. They lacked anything that made them stick in my mind after reading them. And I am that dog-lover that some people would buy the book for.

On the flip side, with the exception of some questionable decisions about what "attributes" to highlight, there isn't a lot to necessarily dislike here. While the poems are not great works of literary merit (did anyone really expect that?) they are not horrible pieces of poetry either. Again, as a likely recipient of such a book, I would not have been unhappy receiving it.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

A collection of poems on different dog breeds written from their perspective. Featuring gems of lines such as, and I quote, 'For my collie mum was pleasured/by the visiting thatchers lab' and 'I have a broad chest. I am stocky in build./I don't mind how many creatures I've killed'
Some, like that of the cockerpoo are on point, especially to those who've ever had the breed, though reading back I'm not as sure. Others less so. Again, some of the poems flow well, others flow until abruptly interrupted then stutter along. Some lines make literally no sense at all.
A few bits confused me too, like the labradollie being a 'rare find' in a cross breed poem whilst the bagel gets its own poem just pages earlier? Then it's mentioned again in an additional bit written by the dogs dad on the labradoodle page (which was very confusing in itself).
The greyhound was a very short poem and, though a dog previously raced, the poem was centred more heavily on men betting. There's a lot of press around dog racing and a lot more to the breed so it felt under researched. Indeed, quite a few of the poems feel under researched or have just had bits added to make it rhyme leaving a confused look on both myself and my partner who I read a couple of poems to (his review being 'absolute waste of time' and when told that was uncharacteristically harsh, he said it was 'absolutely accurate').
It also mentioned fighting in various poems quite a lot, which would offend me if I was the owner of one of the breeds described as that.
All in all, not something I'd read again. I wouldn't even feed these poems to my dog.

I recieved this book for free from NetGallery in return for my honest review.

Thought these poems were really cute. Actually learned things about the breeds I didn’t know and I loved the drawings throughout, although would have loved a drawing for each dog.

A fine collection of poems and line drawings for all manner of breeds of dog lovers. Each poem is a glimpse into the nature of the eponymous canine, coupled with a portrait.

This was a cute little poetry collection. I liked how each dog's voice was distinctive and it had a cute and heart warming message at the center. This book would make a wonderful stocking filler gift for someone as it is short and very, very sweet.

Cute poems, this is the kind of book that I would add to my collection of dog books already on my coffee table. I wish it had more illustrations, and what about Border Collies, Corgis, German Shepherds and Chihuahuas? Cute over all though if you're a dog lover.

I have a couple of students who are crazy about dogs. I may select particular poems in this book to work on appropriate pace and fluency with repeated readings. The poems are cute, though some of the rhyming doesn't feel overly natural. The drawings are lovely, but not what I expected based on the cover illustration. I received this book as an ARC from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for my honest review.