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Hannah Wood - Dog Listener
Hannah Wood
I have had dogs all my life and grew up with my father training gun dogs. I discovered Amichien Bonding when I persuaded my friend to take on a rescue dog I heard about that desperately needed a home, a little black Cocker/Springer cross.
When she first arrived she was extremely nervous, but once she began to settle in her behaviour began to change, she suddenly started to become extremely agitated when visitors arrived and nipping and barking at them, she would also chase people down the street if she could get past the front door.
Having convinced my friend to take her on I felt somewhat responsible, we had exhausted all of the usual methods I knew about but neither of us were about to give up. In my search to find out what to do next I came across Jan Fennell’s website. I bought all the books and read them all but I still was not confident that I knew enough about the method to help my friend and her dog so I booked myself onto Jan’s training courses, from there on in I started my journey as a Dog Listener and as they say the rest is history..
Lindsey Coates
Throughout my life dogs have always been a part of my household – beginning with Graf the German shepherd who guarded my pram on the village front street while my Mother went into the shops. I shared my school years with Spaniels Mac and Glen, and teenage years with Flat Coat Retrievers – Angus and Finley. Angus still lives with my parents; along side more recently acquired rescues Patsy (Irish setter) and Jess the Terrier.
I have a long held affection for and fascination in dogs irrelevant of shape, size and breed. Their behaviour has always fascinated me, and this interest deepened when I spent long periods (between 2004 and 2008) living in Central America with a pack of dogs, who although domesticated lived to a degree like a wild pack. They were local dogs (or ‘pot lickers’ as the locals called them) that had been bred to some degree by my partner, (a mixture of hound and various other mostly indistinguishable mixtures – the dogs, not my partner!), with the addition of a rescued Mastive. They were largely intelligent happy dogs with even and relaxed temperaments.
Partly, we believed, as a result of the fact that we only spent six months a year living with them, they always looked to themselves when decisions were to be made and there was a clear hierarchy which served to protect and manage behaviour within the pack. It was my relationship with these dogs that brought about my interest in the work of Jan Fennell. Watching the pack dynamics evolve as litters were born and females came into heat was a fascinating thing to behold. For me, these dogs clearly highlighted the proximity of our domestic dog to the Wolf. Living with them was a joy and an education.