The courses she's done and advertising as her experience are the ones Jan Fennell offers I believe. If you didn't support JF, would you use that as one of your selling points?
The method, rather than "my method" - suggests to me she's still following what she was taught by JF. If I was a trainer and found some of JF's methods less than agreeable I would be ditching her term for the method to make it clear we weren't linked - this trainer could easily explain what her methods were rather than coining JF's term for it.

Hi everyone

Thank you all so much for your responses. This forum is such a valuable resource I'm so grateful you're all here.

Pam Shaw had a small section in the local newspaper (not a paid for advertisement) detailing the information day, a fee of £20 is payable which goes to charity. When I emailed her she emailed me back suggesting I just come along to that information day rather than try and book her for assessments/consultations. I genuinely believe her heart is in the right place and I'm happy to go along and listen to what she says. I would never ignore my dog for extended periods nor would I deny him his walks - I suspect i'd suffer more than him! There may not be any benefit to being pack leader for some dogs and there may be for others - I take mine to training classes, agility classes and do clicker training with him - all have their places I guess.

I've come to the conclusion that we all get to know our dogs and what works and what doesn't, I think I said before my last dog would simply do without question anything I asked her to with a compliant smile on her face, she was dedicated and loyal. The current one is virtually the opposite - he is more than happy to run off and lose me and would have no problem moving home, he obeys as a final resort - when he absolutely has nowhere else to go or the treat is irresistible, maybe he'll always be like that I'm not sure, perhaps I'm banging my head against a brick wall rather than just accepting what's in front of me - a wilful and rather egocentric ABSO dog!

I will definitely come back after the information day and let you know how it went.

Sandy.

That's great news Sandy, I'm so glad you've decided to at least go and see what it's all about, and please don't forget to report back here afterwards I'm very interested about this JF aspect to this, because I don't feel this is the basis of her training, but that's just the gist I'm getting, so be interesting to hear all about it. I wish I could go. Hope you enjoy it.

I hope you enjoy the information day and I would be very keen to hear about it - and whether you found it useful.

I will definitely come back and report on the day.

Incidentally I took my dog to training last night and there were 20 dogs in the group and there were two other groups going on at the same time (3 groups in one very large converted barn/stables), it was bedlam! The dogs were in very close proximity to one another which made mine and others quite agitated.

Mine decided he was going to go into a down but he wasn't going to stay and the trainer came over and tried to show me how to force him physically to go into a down - he resisted and failed to go down so she gave up. He is built like a little USSR tank and trying to physically force him into something is destined to fail I think.

Don't forget that there are lots of other trainers out there - plenty of members who would use kind, non-physical methods without going to the extreme of being a "dog listener". Personally, nowadays I would stand up and walk out of a class that tried to physically coerce my dogs into doing anything, definately wouldn't be returning to that class!

I have no time for fancy titles such as whisperer, listener blah blah

You are either an effective dog trainer or you are not.

After you have determined whether or not an individual is effective you then look at their ethics/methods to see if they agree with your outlook.

Any trainer worth their salt understands the opposition reflex and how modelling dogs into position is pointless.

If the trainer gave up it demonstrates they have few tools in their box to provide dog friendly alternatives.

You can't just do reciprocol links to JF's website and she'll link to you. She'll only link to you if you have done her courses and pay a quarterly fee and send off a specified amount of evaluation forms. It's no secret that I did the courses myself with JF but fell out of her spell (I was young when I did the courses and have since learnt alot) and left.
There are some things I still agree with about her method (such as ignoring when you come home and leave and 'making nothing of nothing') but I don't withold attention or communication for long periods or withold walks.

To the OP - I'm glad you've decided to find out more for yourself Please let us know how you get on

Incidentally - the training that I took him to last night is not the Canine Communication person that I'm going to listen to on Sunday.

I was quite surprised last night that firstly the trainer tried to push him into a down and secondly that she didn't know what to do when he wouldn't comply - I stood there knowing that he wouldn't go down! He's a mighty strong lad. I think he felt uneasy last night because of the volume of dogs and how vulnerable he would be staying in the down position - just my thoughts. He goes into a down and stays there at home.

I take him to agility and the couple who run that class also have an obedience class run on ADP (or something like that) which I know from the forum is a good philosophy so will speak to them tomorrow and join their group I think.