The Practical Dog Listener: The 30-Day Path to a Lifelong Understanding of Your Dog

If dog owners up and down the land were heaving huge sighs of relief when Jane Fennell's first book on tackling canine behaviour hit the shelves, they will be building shrines to her for years to come after reading her follow up, The Practical Dog Listener . While The Dog Listener proved to be a fascinating anecdotal study of the various behavioural patterns of man's best friend, many found it lacking in simple hands-on advice. This new volume thankfully corrects that and offers plenty of sound, sensible advice on training dogs in the simplest of tasks, such as walking to heel or sitting on command to more advance techniques such as curbing the over-zealous greeting of guests or introducing new animals to the house. Her style does not involve force, or raising the voice and is more about understanding what it is your dog is trying to tell you and acting accordingly, rather than forcing it to lose instinctive and in-built behavioural traits. The advice is clear, simple and easy to follow and does produce some incredible results--if you have the patience (and if you don't you really shouldn't own a dog in the first place). This is a perfect book for those who have owned a dog all their lives, or for people thinking about taking a dog into their home. In years to come it will still be regarded as an essential dog owner's manual and your pooch will be as glad that you invested in it as you will be. -- Jon Weir

After the success of Channel 5's programme The Dog Listener ('It was amazing.' - The Daily Mail), Jan Fennell will appear in her own series in Autumn 2000. Jan has previously appeared on Yorkshire tv, in the series Problem Pooches. She lives in Lincolnshire but her work takes her all around the country.