About me

Dogs have always been an integral part of my life, right from an early age. Even when we didn’t have a family dog at home, I could inevitably be found at the neighbours’ house playing with their dog.

When I became older, my love for dogs only grew stronger and when my, then husband to be, agreed that we should have a dog, I was straight to the RSPCA in search of an animal to lavish love and affection on. That was when Pete came into my life.

Pete was a 5mth old GSD x Collie who had been found as a stray wandering the streets of York and had been a resident of the RSPCA for 6 weeks. Because he was a stray and he’d been given the name by the staff, I decided that along with his new life, he’d get a new name. From then on Pete was known as Orion.

Well, what had I let us in for! Mayhem and Destruction.
You name it, Orion did it. He ran off and wouldn’t come back when called, he terrified people with his aggressive barking, he even destroyed our house one morning and we had to make an extremely large insurance claim!

We just couldn’t understand why he was behaving this way.

We had taken him to obedience classes where he went through the ranks really well, he was a clever dog. He was well trained because we had the Certificate to prove it. Yet we had no control over him.

We then decided he was lonely, so off we went, back to the RSPCA, to get him a friend. That’s when we fell for Murphy. Murphy was a 5mth old Flat Coat Retriever x Collie who had been surrendered due to a family split, the poor chap had spent only 1 night at t he RSPCA but when he looked at you with those big sad eyes, there was no way we could let that double to 2 nights. Home we went, two dogs now, Orion & Murphy, hoping it wasn’t going to be double the trouble!

Things did improve for a short time but the wayward Orion still had us on a back foot. Murphy on the other hand was great, he did at he was told, or was it that he wasn’t as bad as Orion so we never acknowledged the problems?

Enough was enough, I enrolled Orion into boot camp. A well known local Trainer who had a way of dealing with wayward dogs had agreed that they could sort him out, fantastic!

What had I done, my dog, my best friend was being yanked around on the end of a lead and was being bullied. I was told that when he was off lead and didn’t come back when I told him to, I had to throw the lead at him, like that’s going to make him want to be with me. But I’d paid good money for this advice so they must be an expert, and if they were an expert what they said must be true. The fact I hated doing it didn’t matter, it was tough love.

Well, it did work to a certain degree, but the price we both paid was high. My dog was now scared of me, he looked at me with fearful eyes, I couldn’t do this to my best friend, there had to be another way, there HAD TO BE.

That’s when I read the book “The Dog Listener” by Jan Fennell. Suddenly I was shown an alternative way, a way which didn’t involve force and fear. Even though it made perfect sense it me, it couldn’t be that easy, could it? Surely if it was that obvious and easy, everyone would be doing it. I had to try, for Orion.

IT WORKED!

It wasn’t an overnight transformation but the improvement and successes grew and grew.

As time went on and we were learning to enjoy Orion & Murphy, we found ourselves back at the RSPCA feeling ready to help another dog who had been let down by humans and deserved a good life.

That’s when we spotted Bailey and I knew straight away he was the one who needed me. He was a 11mth old Newfoundland x GSD x Rottweiler x Husky, right at the back of his cage barking his head off in pure terror. My husband looked at me as if I was mad, we had two well adjusted dogs, why did we want to upset the status quo?

I knew that using Jan Fennell’s method I could help this poor dog, and after several discussions with my husband, he had faith in me and agreed.

Our pack grew by 1.

Life then changed completely for all of us, we packed up our possessions, including all 3 dogs, and moved to the other side of the world, we were going to live in New Zealand.

Jan Fennell was relatively unknown down here but when I heard that she was doing a series of talks and offering places on her Foundation Course, I had to go, she was like a hero to me, she’d changed my life and the lives of my dogs.

After completing the Foundation Course I was honoured to be invited to attend the Advance Course in Canine Communication. All participants are hand pick by Jan and her team, but only if they feel that they possess the skills needed to become a member of the Dog Listener network.
I am the very proud holder of the Certificate of Advanced Canine Communication, my course was conducted by Tony Knight, Jan’s son and fellow Amichien® Dog Listener.

With the full support of the ‘Jan Fennell International Dog Listeners’ network, I formed my company ‘Talking Dog’ with the intention to help all dogs and dog owners out there who are prepared to be open minded and become “Their Dogs’ Best Friend"

For those of you wondering how Bailey is, well he’s another success story and tribute to how well Amichien® Bonding works. He’s still a slightly nervous dog, but that’s his personality and I work with it.

I know that had he not received the right signals from his owner, this aspect could have manifested itself into extreme Nervous Aggression that could have resulted in him being beaten, passed from pillar to post, or the awful fate that many dogs suffer, he could have paid with his life.

So, Orion, Murphy & Bailey would all like to say a big “THANKS JAN”