Jan Fennell

Jan Fennel is a well known dog trainer in the UK. Her emphasis is on a dog's evolution from wolves and thus its need to be part of a pack and to have its human companions behave as pack leaders so that the dog understands its place in the world. She does not believe in physically subduing the dog, but rather relies on communicating 4 rules which she believes provides the structure and security a dog needs to successfully live with humans. These are:
1. "When the pack reunites after a separation- who is in charge now?" This deals with how a dog behaves when it is left alone in the house and then reunites with its owner.
2. "When the pack faces a perceived danger-who will protect us now?" This idea deals with how the owner should proceed with introducing their dog to other dogs and how to protect it from other dangers.
3. "When the pack goes on the hunt-who will lead us now?" This deals with how an owner should interact with a dog on a walk.
4. "When the pack eats-who will eat first?" Here the author mentions how we should handle feeding time with dogs.

The method she uses is taken from wolf behavior and modified to show the way dogs can adapt to living with humans while still meeting their needs. Having read her other books and used some of these methods on my own dog I can say they have worked out well.

The author uses the wolf pack metaphor as she analyses the various stages of dogs in terms of the Seven Ages of Man-babyhood, infancy, puberty, adolescence, adulthood, middle and old age. My criticism of this particular book is that the author tries to do too much in writing a comprehensive guide to a dog's life from puppy hood to old age including not only behavioral advice, but also medical, diet, grooming, etc. She has some good points through out but cannot adequately cover everything a dog owner needs to know. Also having read a number of other books on raising dogs, it is obvious there are many ways to successfully raise a well adjusted dog, and this is just one more method to take into consideration, and will certainly not fit everyone's idea of a good approach.… (mer)

Jan Fennell had many dogs, showing and breeding Springer Spaniels, and attained great success in England doing this in the 1970s and 1980s. In her own dog training, and in teaching other people to train their dogs, she used conventional methods.

She reports that she gradually began making subtle adjustments to her methods -- for example, instead of routinely choking with the choke chain, she started calling it the check chain and used it to make a light sound that the dogs would understand and react, so as to avoid being choked. Of course, the dogs would have had to have been "choked" to know to avoid it. As she says, these were slight changes.

Then in 1990, she went to see Monty Roberts, author of The Man Who Listens to Horses, demonstrate his method. He worked with a two-year-old horse belonging to a close friend of hers, and Jan Fennell knew the horse had never been ridden. For the first time in its life, it was ridden that day, after less than half an hour in the ring with Roberts. Jan Fennell's life was changed:

"For me too, it was as if a light had been switched on.... Most impressive of all, his method has no place for pain or fear. His view was that if you did not get the animal on your side then anything you did was an act of violation, you were imposing your will on an unwilling being... That day, as I watched him working in unison with the animal, looking at and listening to what the animal was signaling to him, I thought 'he's cracked it...'I thought how the heck can I do this with dogs?"[pp 22-23]

She started watched her own pack of dogs, and she learned about wolves. She saw things that wolves did on video being acted out in front of her, in her own dogs. Bit by bit, she developed a method of working with dogs that got good results, and she used her dog training techniques to help others. She is now a world-renowned trainer.

These are completely pain-free methods. They work. It works for her, obviously, from the many stories in the book. Jan Fennel's way of being dominant is to be very calm and confident. Can't argue with that!

The Dog Listener, by Jan Fennell, describes her techniques, which she calls Amichien Bonding. Especially if you subscribe to the dog-as-domesticated-wolf theories, this book offers a loving approach to dog training.… (mer)