Most of us are familiar with the work of Monty Roberts who is known as the ‘horse whisperer’ He revolutionised the world of horse training by developing a way of preparing horses to be ridden that was totally different to the often violent and aggressive way that was considered both normal and acceptable. The methods he used were studied by Jan Fennel who wanted to know would something similar work with dogs. In order to find out Jan studied the behaviours of wolves as they are so closely related to the domestic dog. What Jan discovered was that wolves lived in very well structured packs that have strict hierarchy. Each pack has an alpha male and female who essentially are the bosses! They make ALL the important decisions about pack life. When to hunt, when to rest, when to play, when to mate, all of these areas of pack like are decided by the alphas. Jan then experimented with applying this knowledge to dogs with amazing results which resulted in the Alpha system.