Change of heart

POSITIVE TRAINING
At just 21 years of age and faced with such a barrage of criticism, Jordan could perhaps have been forgiven for going into lock down, but that’s not Jordan’s style. Within days he had booked a flight to America, accepted an invitation to stay with top trainers Ian and Kelly Dunbar, and attended their Sirius Puppy Training classes.

He attended Ian’s science-based conference ‘Training with feeling’, and went to the annual conference of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (ADPT). In effect, Jordan embarked on what he described as a ‘real learning curve’ to discover kinder, more effective positive training techniques.

Fast forward three years and so complete is Jordan’s transformation that he recently received an ambassador award from the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) in recognition of his achievements.

“When I look back, I shake my head in disbelief,” admitted Jordan, who has three rescue dogs.

“I looked at my dogs and felt terrible. I realised I’d been continually correcting and suppressing behaviour when it was not necessary. I felt so guilty because I know now that we can’t expect dogs to understand what we want from them — we need to teach them.

“I’d left school at 16 to work in Spain. I worked as an assistant in a veterinary surgery, which in many ways was my dream job.

“I’d always been interested in dogs and their behaviour, particularly those that came into the surgery and were struggling because they didn’t want to be there and didn’t like vets. “I was a fan of Cesar Millan and I also met two ex-army dog trainers who told me that my approach needed to be tougher. I was young and thought they were experts, and so I believed them.

“Sadly, when I was 19 my dad died and as I am the oldest of four children, I moved back to London to help the family. I started working as a dog walker and then as a trainer.

“One day, I met a TV producer in the park who was impressed with my dogs. Within months I ended up doing a pilot TV show but unfortunately before the project was completed the producer died. “With the experience I gained I went on to work with another producer to make a second pilot, and it was edited and extracts of this were shown on ‘The One Show’.

“I realise now that my training methods were very old school but at the time I was shocked at the public’s reaction, and it was a very diffi cult time in my life. There were journalists outside my door and some really negative stuff was written about me.”