imported_nea Posted February 10, 2004 Posted February 10, 2004 What do you think of her methods? At another board some people were discussing her books, and it seems like she thinks practically everything the dog does is being alpha. Which (if I remembe correctly) is basicly the opposite of what I read in Suzanne Clothier's book, and I thought that book made sense and was good. But the reviews on Amazon.com are good for Fennells books. What do you think of her? Quote
imported_Kat Posted February 11, 2004 Posted February 11, 2004 Nea, personal experience... she is a TWAT! She spent 8 weeks with Mary Ray from England who is a very good friend of mine and she copied all Mary's training methods and wrote about them in "her book" only applied her own crap about dominance to each exercise. She came to N.I on a training night oh about a year and a half ago maybe and gave a seminar. Some guy had brought an unuly GSD that he was having problems with to walk to heel. At question and answer session at the end of the seminar (which was total crap and she had no confidence and kept contradicting what she was saying :roll: ), the guy asked her to work with his dog. She panicked like hell, you could see it right across her face and she refused to work with the dog or even to go near him. She is a total fraud and has no CLUE whatsoever when it comes to dogs. In fact I have actually included her in my thesis saying how her assumptions are wrong and that she has no research to back up her statements. Dominance in a dog can be pre-determined by so many environmental factors (the position of a dog in a uterus horn..if a pup is beside 2 males it will be more dominant due to an increase in exposure to testosterone and genetic factors and when I quizzed her on this, she didn't have a baldy notion! Actually because I put her on the spot, people came up at the end to talk to me including the guy with the GSD, so that night our dogclub gained several more members through explaining proper real facts to people, and not the rubbishy crap she spews about. unfortunately doggy people who don't have background knowledge will go out and read her book and ruin their dog by attempting to strongly dominate it :roll: My advice to you is to avoid her fiction. You would learn more reading about Harry Potter! :o Quote
courtnek Posted February 11, 2004 Posted February 11, 2004 I have never read her books, or interview or anything...but from what Kat said I would be at odds with her. I am a firm believer in dominance training using yourself as alpha, when necessary, but not all dogs need it. My Lab Mix is full of herself, around other dogs, but she does what I tell her. My Foxhound is scared of her own shadow, no dominance issues with her. I have had dogs with dominance issues, my Malamute mix comes to mind, but they are very headstrong dogs in the first place. Dominance training using Alpha roles is necessary with some dogs, but not all. They all dont want to be King, and in fact some are happier in a more minor role.... If he was having trouble getting his dog to heel, was that it? Was it just heeling, or were there other power problems? Shepherds are powerful, strong dogs, and do tend to want to lead, but they can be trained without dominance issues if you take a little extra time...and make the dog think he's working....they want nothing more than to work, and if you do it right they can see heel training as a form of work as well...no alpha issues, you both end up happy... If I was your friend I would be very angry that she took my training techniques and called them 'hers"... Quote
ellieangel Posted February 11, 2004 Posted February 11, 2004 Kat your post has cheared me up no end,Ellie has started crying when she is left and I was considering doing the ignoring stuff to see if it would help but the last time I followed her methods Ellie became depressed and withdrawn at home. I am keeping coming and going low key but that is it.Ellie knows her place in the family she is a good girl. Nea just keep an open mind :wink: Quote
imported_nea Posted February 11, 2004 Author Posted February 11, 2004 She sounds terrible! :o But now I'm so curious that I'm giong to have to read one of her books :lol: . I'll see if the library has them, I certainly don't want to waste my money on them. :-? Quote
imported_Kat Posted February 11, 2004 Posted February 11, 2004 Whenever I say Mary ray is a friend, that might sound a bit offhand.. :P She is totally fantastic and all you UK lot will know her I'm sure from her famous canine freestyle display she does (usually with Quincy) before the BIS. She is to be admired for taking her dogs to the top for Obedience and Agility, flyball and canine freestyle, and she only uses proper positive training methods. She really is a brilliant example to the doggy world! http://www.maryray.co.uk/ Check out her wonderful dogs for yourself :wink: Her Quincy (Ob. Ch Woodsorrel red wine) is a relation of Meg. We performed a canine freestyle routine a few years back at Crufts together :wink: Quote
mouseatthebusstop Posted February 12, 2004 Posted February 12, 2004 I have not read her books-- I have never heard of her Quote
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