Dog Listeners in Yellowstone 2008

It has taken me 53 years, my past mistakes and some pretty dodgy advice given, I add, with the best intentions, to be selective about where and from whom I seek my education these days. 

My mistakes thankfully have taught me and I’ll be forever grateful for the uneducated advise, which led me to follow a path to gain true & educated knowledge. I believe - “You have to realise where you don’t want to be, before you know where you do want to be.”

For the purest canine interaction in its freest form I needed to research and study correctly in order to gain true knowledge to offer help to owners of and for our dogs.

Sitting in classrooms studying canine behaviour from a human perspective didn’t offer me correct answers – only human thinking solutions to symptoms developed by a human perspective.

The basis of Amichien® Bonding comes from the studies of free canine packs which not only have the ability to choose their leaders but the privilege of freedom without any human intervention and include not only Wolves but Coyotes, African wild dogs, Dingo’s and many other free canines that form packs to survive, provide and protect themselves and are able to make choices for themselves.

Jan Fennell has also worked and successfully used Amichien® Bonding with other species see her website, www.janfennellthedoglistener.co.uk linking the techniques employed by Dog Listeners the world over to aid understanding of the power to choose with positive results.

“You can take the dog out of the wolf but you can’t take the wolf out of the dog.”Jan Fennell.

So, I found myself standing with 18 other Dog Listeners and Jan Fennell from around the world in Yellowstone Park in Northern Montana, USA on a very cold February in 2008. Anyone who has just viewed the recent series ‘Yellowstone’ on television  (BBC) can relate to the conditions there at this time of the year.  For wolves however, it’s their best time- no bugs, they can see prey clearly and use the conditions & environment to their advantage.

If I may quote Dr. Douglas W. Smith  “I’ve never know it too cold for a wolf!

Dr Smith Ph.D. is the Wolf Project Leader in Yellowstone National Park and has studied wolves for 24 years. He has led the project since it’s inception.
Thankfully it was a mere -10 degrees in a dark, snowy car park at 5.30 am when we ate hot muffins and drank hot tea & coffee in a frozen car park outside the lodge where we slept, preparing for our journey into the bleak wilderness to catch a glimpse of canine behaviour from our domestic dogs ancestors.
The Yellowstone Wolf project has not been without its difficulties. Prejudice and bias thinking generated by decades of human & wolf Semitism has born an uneasy co-habitation for both species.

Dr. Doug Smith, along with his co-author Gary Ferguson have written a book “The Decade of the Wolf”

It explains the powerful bonds that exists within the canine community, gives us an insight into their world and how and why it works. Also how the re-introduction of the wolf has once again balanced the eco system of the park were humans had unbalanced it by eradicating natures top predator from Yellowstone’s landscape.

We were sponges for the education offered from our hosts Linda Thurston and Nathan Varley (www.wolftracker.com) who are part of his team.

We listened spellbound to lectures from naturalist and biologists Dr. James C. Halfpenny and Dan Mech. 

We visited and viewed the photographic records, witnessed and understood wolf behaviour from celebrated wildlife photographers Dan and Cindy Hartman who kindly allowed us a glimpse into their world.

It’s the knowledge imparted from these dedicated people who live their every day lives in the company of these inspirational animals that have increased my knowledge and those of Dog Listeners worldwide to bring correct & informed knowledge about canine behaviour to help you overcome misunderstood issues in our domestic dogs.

I am thankful and grateful to Jan Fennell for nurturing those relationships and sharing them with me. The bonds I made in Yellowstone with my fellow colleagues and friends will forever have a special place in my heart. 

To be in the company of canines, free to make choices about which member they elect as their leaders to make decisions for the pack without fear or aggression from humans was as relevant and natural in the lives they led for us to witness and to return home to help our understanding of our dogs today as it was 14,000 years ago.

Is this method revolutionary? Revolutionary simply means we’ve gone full circle.

Without trying to sound to ‘soppy’ the journey has inspired the way I have raised my own family since returning and led me to be a more benevolent parent and person.

It offered me a new perspective on how leadership is gained and given me goals from the lessons learnt from my own dogs that if in some small way I can begin to understand their language I can aspire to their teachings.

Trust should never just be given; it’s a gift we have to earn through cohesive agreement, solace, support and co-operation to create a harmonious relationship.

Our dogs do it every day; can we dare to think we can too? Sure we can – we’ve just got to get in the game, their game.