Book Review: The Practical Dog Listener; Jan Fennell
Yesterday,
I reviewed Jan Fennell's The Dog Listener today is the turn of the follow-up book, The Practical Dog Listener "The 30-Day Path to a Lifelong Understanding of Your Dog".
ISBN: 0-00-714570-5
Price: £10.99
Pages: 185
Unlike the previous offering from Jan, this book is far more informative and laid out in a much more organised and structured manner.
One thing I have learned about Jan Fennell's methods is that there are generally two reactions from people:
1. Her methods require too much ignoring the dog and so must be cruel.
2. She's too soft and wouldn't recognise dog discipline if it bit her on the nose.
Let me start by saying I'm a big fan of her methods. They're sensible, they're logical, and more importantly, they do work. Of the latter, I am convinced as I've used them, and continue to do so. No, there is nothing outstandingly new in the book that hasn't been said elsewhere, but show me the book which does give brand new, never before seen insight and revolutionary methods. You just can't when it comes to dogs and their behaviour. We've all lived with them far too long for there to be anything new and ground-breaking in every book published.
The book is ideally designed for those who are just about to purchase a new dog, or have quite literally just purchased it and now want to give it the best start in life, in order to end up with a well naturally trained adult dog.
As the name suggests, the book is really divided into sections, constituting days in your new dogs ownership. It describes some of the most common pit-falls of new dog ownership, such as giving too much affection to the oh-so-cuddly new puppy, as soon as it lands its paws on the doormat. More importantly, it tells you why this is such a bad idea.
One thing I will stress about this book is that if you are the type of owner who believes your dog should be just like your child, follow you about everywhere, get all the attention it wants, when it wants it, you will absolutely hate this book and its author.
The basic premise behind the book (and indeed the methods of the author in general) is that of pack hierarchy, and how your dog should be shown that its place is at the bottom, not at the top.
I read this book a few weeks after I'd obtainedour GSD but even then, it is still relevant. As stated above, ideally, you would purchase it at the same time or before your dog, but it is still very much relevant for longer-term ownerships too. One thing I have learned with Blondi, and previous dogs is that it's never too late to change a dog's behaviour.
The book is divided as follows:
Part One - A Reintroduction to Dog Listening
Discusses the things you will need for your new dog, such as sleeping quarters, feeding utensils, etc. This is a very short part of the book, as to many it should be quite obvious.
Part Two - New Horrizons: Settling a Dog in Its Environment
An extremely valuable part of the book (perhaps the most valuable in my view) of how to get your dog accustomed to its new surroundings, the first seperation and so forth. Steps learned here will prove so valuable for other parts of the plan.
Part Three - Why There's No Place Like Home
Here some "rules" are established over such things as who responds to a knock on the door, you or the dog? Why should it be you and what should you do with the dog when you go to the door. It then leads on to basic training on the leash, etc.
Part Four - Home and Away
This section deals primarily with ealking your dog away from home, ephasising again, the importance of the pack mentality. A lot of focus here is placed on owners who have more than one dog.
Part Five - Off the Leash
As the name suggests, this section is designed to help you walk your dog successfully off the leash and what to do when your dog chases that tasty squirrel across the field. Again, there is a lean towards to those who own more than one dog, but it's not vital to learn her methods.
Part Six - The Counter-Revolutionaries (Leadership Challenges)
Again, as the subtitle suggests, this deals with what to do when your dog is determined that it wants to be pack-leader at all costs.
Part Seven - Keep an Open Mind
To me this was a redundant chapter. It was essentially going over the previous chapters and emphasising the importance of sticking with it.
If I could levy one negative comment at the book, it would be the same as the original Dog Listener book. There is far too much page space taken with self-praising from the author. It can get infuriating listening to her telling us how good she was with dog A or dog B and how greatful the owners were. The annoying thing about it is, that you just feel she doesn't have enough confidence in her methods to let them stand for themselves. Or that she gets so much criticism (and I know that she does) that she feels she has to defend her methods at every opportunity.
That aside, it is an invaluable book for anyone who doesn't see ignoring their dog as an act of cruelty but rather as a peaceful and natural means to a wonderful end.
I believe she sums that constant accusation up very well for herself when she argues what can possibly be cruel about ignoring a dog for a few minutes at a time, and ending up with a dog who can have all the love in the world, in a controlled and relaxed manner. You just can't argue with that logic.
Another argument I often see levied against the author is the notion of "gesture eating"; that being eating something before you feed your dog. I've seen it described as many things from critics; from a pointless exercise, to unfair cruelty. All I can say is that I use if with my dog now, and I used it with my GSD/Rottie cross years ago, and it works. Or at least as best I can say it works. We can never say whether the dogs would have turned out equally as well without it as they did with it, but I see no harm or cruelty in it whatsoever, and for me at least, it just works.
Well worth a purchase, if for no other reason than you will gain insight into why dogs do the sometimes whacky things that they do.
I think one could also put a good case for saying that owners of multiple dogs may get a little more from this book than that of single dog owners. However, do not, for a second, let that put you off.