Thoughts On Jan Fennell

[jools]

I'm really sorry but I can't stand Jan Fennell   someone told me she was brilliant so I went to one of her talks when she had a new book out and Ben was about 14 weeks old and being a right pain, very agressive and real biting (not just puppy play biting)
I asked her how to overcome this and she told me to grab him firmly by the scruff of the neck where he couldn't reach and 'hold' him firmly just off the floor until he submitted and gave in to my authority. Being new to puppies and cockers I tried this and Ben went ballistic, and became even more agressive within a few days - I think it terrified him poor pup and he would snarl whenever I went near him - to be fair looking back I don't blame him!

We got a good behaviourist who taught constructive ways of managing Ben (NILIF) that worked.

sorry but JF is a bad word in our house!

Ben's mum

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How AWFUL! Poor Ben...and poor you!

Most of the posts focus on ignoring your dog. As I said in my original post, there are about another dozen reasons I could list for not liking Jan Fennel!

When I first got Millie, I bought The Dog Listener and was pretty sold on the whole thing. The whole family did the eating before Mills and standing in her bed! Within a week, Millie was showing signs of depression - I am sure of it! Her little face when we ignored her was terrible to see.  

Penny introduced me to NILIF -THANK GOD!!!! It is fantastic.

[Cob-Web]

she told me to grab him firmly by the scruff of the neck where he couldn't reach and 'hold' him firmly just off the floor until he submitted and gave in to my authority.

A few years ago this was advise that was given by many dog trainers - this is how the Rescue Centre that we got our last rescue dog from told us to handle her when she began to behave badly (in the mid 90's)  
Fortunately, I stumbled across NILIF by accident and realised that unless we shaped her behaviour by setting boundaries, all the physical domination was going to do was make her a scared dog who didn't want to spend time with us      

There are still a lot of people who "believe" in these methods though - even within dog training circles, as JF proves  

[Ben's mum]

Yeah - looking back perhaps common sense would have told me this wasn't a good method, poor old Ben being our first cocker he probably got lots of 'dodgy' treatment, tips from well meaning people who knew how to handle dogs?
When Ben was little I was surprised by the amount of people who still think you a should show a dog who is boss, and the most surprising people said to me 'if he was mine I'd give him a good hiding that'll stop him'    !!!!

Fortunatly we never smacked Ben,actually I tell a lie I once smacked his bum when we had laid a new lawn and he pulled it all up and ran round the garden with turf hanging from his mouth (I was devastated - about smacking him not the lawn!)
Like other people have said as soon as we found out about NILIF our problems were solved.

Its a strange old world when people think you have to resort to force to master a small furry animal.

Ben's mum

[Top Barks]

Its a strange old world when people think you have to resort to force to master a small furry animal.

Ben's mum

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Don't forget these methods were taken as the thing to do by the experts for many years.
Progress has moved the way we think on a bit, but who's to say we won't come up with something even better in years to come as more research is carried out.
Just come back from another Jan Fennel debate at college and it went pretty much the way this one has
Mark Doug and Oliver