Testimonials

What Our Customers Say

I first experienced The Natural Way techniques at a training day organised by my dog training club. There were around a dozen dogs present on the day, each one was individually taken through the basic steps and their responses explained to the group. The instinctive behaviours displayed by the different dogs were fascinating and, in some cases, very surprising. The responses ranged from very passive and at ease with the techniques to very confrontational at the handler's attempts to take leadership from their dog. Whilst clearly not a surprise to Sarah, the group did not expect some seemingly very laid-back dogs to be very reluctant to relinquish leadership to their handlers. I was relieved that my two year old clumber spaniel accepted the techniques well and Sarah explained that he was comfortable with my leadership even though he is a naturally high-ranking dog. Despite not having any behavioural issues with him, I am fascinated by The Natural Way and the ability that it gives you to communicate with your dog. I have started one-to-one training sessions with Sarah in the hope that I can further strengthen the bond with my dog by speaking to him in a language that he so clearly understands.
Kerry Osbourne

I took my Border Collie to Sarah six months ago, as I wanted to train him to help me with my few sheep. I soon realized that what Sarah was offering was far more than sheep dog training – a whole new way of looking at life with a dog. We had some sessions with Sarah without sheep, and I began to learn to read Sanju’s body language and to make my body language understandable to him. We both needed to learn that it is not necessary to have four legs and a tail to be the pack leader! I can’t say he became perfect instantly, but there was a definite change in our relationship, difficult to describe but never the less real. He became much calmer, more inclined to keep with me on walks and generally more in tune with me, and as we learn more our relationship progresses.
I have watched Sarah working with other dogs and their owners too, and the change in the attitude of the dogs is often apparent even after one session.There is no mystery or magic about Sarah’s methods, only the application of knowledge gained over years of working with and studying dogs. Her calm, positive approach gives you confidence that she can help you solve any problem of dog behaviour, and if you have no problem then she will help you and your dog to a greater level of understanding and a more rewarding relationship. She seems to understand owners as well as dogs, having endless patience with both, and is always encouraging and generous with praise. She is generous with her time too, never seeming to be in a hurry. 

Jen

Well it’s been quite a long journey if I’m honest, and hard work, but nevertheless, very interesting and well worth it.

We started to go to dog training classes with Sarah when Brynn was 12 months old. He had been to puppy classes when he was young, but this just seemed to make him worse. We first thought about going to Sarah because not only was Brynn a pain at the best of times, but he really needed a job to do. He pulled on the lead, tried to chase anything that moved, with the most worrying thing being cars/motorbikes and lorries. He couldn’t be let off his lead when out because of the chasing and also because he jumped at other dogs and people.

We started training with Sarah with the intention of finally getting him to work sheep (which is what he’s doing now).

Firstly though I had to learn how to read, understand, and most of all control Brynn.
I started off by using different body language to communicate with him, as this is a big part of how dogs understand us. I now feel confident using different body language to communicate with him and can now also read his body language and interpret what he is doing (or thinking about doing next!) This is always very helpful with a dog like Brynn because he constantly tries to give me the slip.

During training I am also learning how to control my voice with Brynn. This helped him to understand what sort of mood I was in with him and also what I wanted him to do.

Sarah has been a great help with Brynn and has completely changed him from the dog that he used to be. Brynn is 16 months old now and a few months ago if I had asked him to come back to me or to leave something, he would have ignored me completely. Now, however, we can walk with him confidently off lead knowing that he will come back to us when asked and do as he’s told and he now only gives cars and bikes a glance as they pass and ignores other dogs (most of the time.) He’s a different dog and one we enjoy being with!

I am still learning how to handle Brynn and will continue with this – it’s just great fun now, and so much better than when I began with him. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone with a dog that needs training – it’s so much better than you can ever imagine.
Sophie, Age 15 & Brynn’s handler

I first met Sarah Jenkins at a sheepdog training clinic in Sussex where I was impressed by her calm and quiet method of handling and teaching and also by her interpretation of each dog’s natural status within a pack that affected how each dog worked its sheep. Over the last 20 years, I have owned and bred from a line of border collies that have competed successfully at a high level in agility, flyball and obedience; others have been registered PAT and Search & Rescue dogs. However, I had a six year old bitch that my husband and I had never managed to understand or motivate. Her behaviour had been so unusual that she had been subjected to investigative blood tests (all normal) and discussions with specialists at The University of Bristol. She had defeated a number of well-known, experienced dog trainers. I mentioned her to Sarah and she immediately said ‘oh, that’s passive dominance, I can cure that’, she also volunteered the fact that she was not a happy dog which was true – she had looked suicidal which was why we had the blood tests carried out. I was amazed that Sarah could so easily identify these behaviours on such a short resume and that she was confident that she could effect a cure.

A week later, I took Saffy to Sarah Jenkins’ training field. She asked me a few questions about where she slept, how she ate and how she interacted with our other dogs and said that she was a true alpha female who had so little respect for my husband and myself that she saw no reason to obey our commands nor any wish to be sociable with us or the rest of our dogs.

Sarah’s methods are akin to those of Monty Roberts, ‘the horse whisperer’, and they work. Saffy still has to totally accept her new position in the pack but she is much more biddable, is choosing to stay in the same room as us (unheard of before!), is now trying to play with her half-sister (which has been greeted with suspicion!) and is training and competing in agility with barely any mistakes. On my second visit to Sarah’s training field, we started Saffy working sheep – something she had previously absolutely refused to do after I told her to ‘lie down’. It is still early days but the improvement in Saffy’s general demeanour and behaviour has been immense.
Barbara Owen

I have three border collies, Jessie, Breeze, and Casey. All three of them go to Sarah for training, breeze and casey do sheepdog training, but jessie who is the oldest of thee dogs has had quite serious behavioural problems.

She would attack any other dog, which I thought was aggression.

When I first took her to Sarah she asked about the dogs history. Jessie is a rescue dog that had never been taken out and so never socialised with other dogs she was two and a half when I got her. Having watched her for a while Sarah suggested that her problem was not aggression, but fear of the unknown and unsure of her place in the hyriachy and that we had to slowly teach her that I was the alpha one in the pack not her. We are doing this in the natural way where the alpha does everything first and if there is any fighting to be done then the alpha will do it not her. We do all of this by using body language and making me looking big and intimidating when I have to, and relaxed at all other times.

It is a slow process but we are now starting to see the results as I can now stand very close to most of the other dogs at training and be quite relaxed. My aim is to take her to Scotland training in June and be able to have her out of the car with me all day for four days, and I know that she will do it.
A very happy customer

In the year 2003 Ria got the working sheepdog news, there was a new book mentioned “the natural way” by Julie Simpson. Ria ordered the book and we both read it and thought well this writher knows what she is talking about and she can give you a whole new picture about shepherding and the way you can communicate with dogs. So Ria emailed Julie and asked her if she wanted to come to Holland to give a clinic. Julie agreed and the two clinics where a great succes. Since then Julie has been five times to Holland and trained a lot of people and dogs. Every year we are fully booked with people from all over Holland who wanted to learn the natural way in communicating with there dogs. If you listen to the things the people who has been to the clinics say you hear things like:
Julie can asses a dog in 3 minutes, she can show you the bigger picture so that you know what you are aiming for with your dog, she makes you aware of your body language and the signals you are giving to your dog so that you can use your body language in a functional way, she learns you to listen to the tone of your voice and whistle commands, the different signals you give which you are not allways aware off.
Beside this and a lot of other things Julie learns you to understand the character, temperament and ability of your dog and how to make the best of it in working and trialing situations. Julie does this all with patience, humor and respect for the handlers and their dogs. She can explaine the things well and even the different languages doesn´t have to be a barrier. The last two years Julie is not only working on the field with the dogs and there handlers but also the lecture has become a part of the clinic. There she shows again that she is a very good teacher who knows what she is talking about and most important: she can teach you to understand and communicate with your dog in a natural way.

Ria Vrolijk and Els Wippo.

“The Dog Trapped in a World of His Own”

If you have a dog which is out of control, doesn’t listen, or lives in a world of his own, this testimonial outlining the Dog Whisperer’s work will be of interest to you.

Over the years I’ve taken on rescue dogs, black labs (usually gun-dogs) that are unable to be re-homed as they are:

- aggressive;
- destructive; or
- harm themselves (e.g. chew the skin off their tail and legs).

I was asked to go and see a 5-month old lab whose owner didn’t want him anymore as the dog had become a danger in the yard, jumping up at the race-horses. When she left him in the stables, or her home, he destroyed the place and howled all day.

I changed his name to “Merry” – as he wasn’t a happy dog at all! He was a highly intelligent, but dominant thug! His manners were appalling:

- he pulled like a train;
- tried to bite if you removed him off the furniture;
- had no respect for anyone or other animal’s space;
- had taken to stalking up to dogs and humans like a cat and diving on them; and,
- stole food and destroyed everything in his path.

Un-phased by this behaviour (as I’d had rescue dogs before) I went through the usual process of instilling a regime for him to follow:

- routine and boundaries;
- lots of exercise;
- praise and positive re-enforcement;
- socialise with humans and dogs; and,

- exclusion from the pack when he was being punished.

Usually, in even the worst cases where a dog has been very badly treated, there is a glimmer of hope in the first 3 months. Not with Merry, he didn’t care about receiving affection or praise, and didn’t seek attention or affection. He never wagged his tail, nor gave you eye-contact. He didn’t bond with the other dogs and was a menace when out on walks to the point my friends, from initially suggesting he may be deaf, were now calling him “devil-dog” insisting I got rid of him.

Merry was trapped inside his own world (akin to autism in humans), at times he would sit and stare with hatred in his eyes and I was unsure whether he was about to attack me or not.

I decided we needed professional help, without any means to communicate with Merry I couldn’t make any progress with him. Most rescue dogs develop a bond relatively quickly and become overly clingy; Merry was however, after 3 months, still totally isolated.

Julie Hill, (Dog Whisperer) agreed that although my methods hadn’t done any harm, without a “connection” we would never solve the problem. At Merry’s first lesson he ran about like a wild animal for a full 30 minutes before he gave in and started to listen. Julie then carried out some basic commands which he followed effortlessly. It was a minor miracle, he was calmer, and didn’t dive bomb out of the car when we got home. At our next lesson Julie watched me carry out the same training technique akin to “join-up” with horses.

Unfortunately Merry then had two tumours and was very ill. I did however continue with the training techniques when he recovered, and took him back to Julie a few months later. By this third session we both felt he was unrecognisable as the same dog and Julie’s work was done.

He now walks on the lead calmly, seeks and gives affection, has more respect for other’s space and is now part of the family rather than being the outsider. Best of all, he now wags his tail when you speak to him, feels secure in his environment and is now a self-confident dog.

Julie’s training taught me that:

- dogs need a clear leader, and a dominant dog can display some very unusual behaviour (i.e. Merry’s autistic tendencies) when lacking that framework;

- although you may feel you are “pack leader” this leadership sometimes has to be communicated in a way that the dog will understand, particularly if the dog has been badly treated and has withdrawn into himself;

- leaders lead in a quiet and calm way and using the correct body language towards Merry was 80% and provided an almost instant improvement;

- you need to be consistent, but also dedicate the one to one time with the dog; and,

- even after one training session miracles can happen as (in Merry’s case) we found a way to communicate with each other and understand each other.

The next one of my dogs who will receive the “Dog Whisperer” approach is an old dog with a habitual fear of strangers, whose behaviour has vastly improved over the years, but still remains unpredictable.

I certainly would recommend Julie to anyone who is serious about resolving their dog’s behaviour and will dedicate the time to make it work. All you have to do is listen, and then consistently apply the techniques. Good luck!


Catherine Beattie, Scottish Borders