Tamryn Fudge
is the founder and teacher of Shamanic Dog Training
is the founder and teacher of Shamanic Dog Training
Tamryn has worked with dogs, in one capacity or another, for over 25 years. As veterinarian staff, dog daycare owner, group dog training instructor, pet sitter, foster dog parent, animal shelter volunteer and private training provider. She has done obedience, agility, flyball, therapy dog certification and tracking.
From the start, Tamryn has been most interested in helping dogs with challenges like aggression and behaviour problems. Her training – a 5 ½ year apprenticeship with Kathy and Gary Gibson – was focused on serious problems and dogs with intense issues. She has always felt easy with aggressive dogs, leading to a natural ability to understand them and help them.
Tamryn and Peasie (10yr Boston terrier) and Bryssa (4yr boxer)
It started with a dog
Carly was her name, and challenging was her game. She stole my heart one night at the Surrey SPCA in 1994, and I took her home the next day. I was unprepared for her level of defiance, stubbornness, sensitivity and her capacity for outsmarting me. Obedience training was all I could find, so I worked as hard as I could at that. The more difficult she became, the more I tried to control her with commands and obedience. It backfired on me- big time. Carly was too smart to fall for these manipulations and she threw a wrench in the works every time.
Then came the next one...
Layla was next, and she made Carly look like a cake walk. Layla was riddled with anxiety and tension. She displayed extreme levels of reactivity to dogs and people, even going straight through a plate glass window at a dog in the front yard. She was stressed and had health problems and would even attack our other dog (Carly) if she got too anxious. My husband and I felt like we were in over our heads, but we stuck in there and didn’t give up. We couldn’t let anyone else take care of Layla, We chose to build our lives around her. For 12 years.
What I learned
Living with Layla and Carly taught me everything I needed to know about dogs. First, they are who they are. Just like we are who we are, and there are some things that are never going to change about any one of us. Second, that I wanted to have a friendship with my dog more than I wanted control over my dog. Third, it was the trying for control that was compromising our friendship. Once I learned that, I had a big question to answer: if I didn’t want control over my dogs, then, what did I want?
What I know now
Living in my own worst versions of life with dogs has shown me that it is not fair for me to treat my dogs like hobbies, like I'm rebuilding a car. Tinkering and toying with this and that and trying to change the nature of the thing I started with. Instead, I learned to be compassionate, to provide space and love, to teach what I can and when I can, and let the rest fall where it may. It took a lot of problems and a lot of dogs for me to finally surrender fully to the wholeness that dogs arrive in our lives with. Even if its disguised as problems and chaos, I have found a beautiful way of dancing with that essence - and milking every bit of joy, love and tenderness out of the process.
How I know it's working
When I first dared to let my dogs lead the way and inform me about what works best for them and what I needed to throw away (for good!), I was worried it wouldn’t work. I was scared everything would unravel and I would be left with nothing but a huge failure. But I noticed the opposite was happening. And over time, I developed systems to explain and share the way I am discovering is working for me and my dogs – so that I could help others do the same with theirs. And now that’s what I do: I help people dare to let their dogs lead the way. And the magic is what happens when both parties have equal say in the matter.
Opening up to
Animal
Communication
I was a skeptic
The first time I heard an animal communicator speaking about talking to her dog - and realized she actually believed she was speaking directly to her dogs, I thought she was delusional. Seriously. I can still remember thinking it in my head, “she thinks she can talk to her dog? TALK TO HER DOG?” At that moment, I tossed animal communication out the window as a crock of hooey.
Then we needed help
When Layla was at her worst, and we couldn’t find the answers we needed to help her and understand her, we were desperate. Funny how desperation changes everything you thought you knew about the world. Suddenly, an animal communicator seemed like an option. I was still unsure about the validity – but, grasping at straws, we tried. We would have tried anything.
We hired 2 animal communicators, because the first one didn’t feel right. She was a little too “out there” for us. The second person we tried was great – practical, grounded, real, and right. She was so right on about so many details that we bought into everything; hook line and sinker.
So how do I do this?
Directly experiencing the effects of animal communication, and becoming a believer, I was left with just one question: “how do I learn to do this?!” Next I found teachers, courses, books and resources to learn my skill and hone my craft. After almost 5 years of learning, studying and practicing, and I was a fully fledged animal communicator.
Now I talk to dogs
I have been talking to dogs for over 15 years. It has been the most profound turning point for me as a dog trainer - being able to directly converse with dogs about what is troubling them. Over hundreds of cases, it has confirmed for me that much of what we assume about dogs - particularly their behaviour and why they do what they do, is utterly false.
Helping others hear their dogs directly, and to watch that bond deepen and those airways of love and connection open up even further puts dog training in an entirely new light. With this new light, I bring shamanic dog training into the world with excitement and wonder.
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“I especially appreciated the reading …, it eased my worries and gave me a sense of peace as it usually does when we connect with the boys in that way. Skeena actually stopped howling completely the next day.”
~ Melanie M. with “Skeena” & “Tiger”
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Tamryn Fudge's skills as an animal communicator are astonishing … she was able to bring clarity to behaviours and circumstances that confounded me.… An animal communication session with Tamryn is paradigm-shifting and life-altering. Prepare to have richly enhanced relationships with the animals in your life.
~ Erin M. with “Beau”, “Leo”, “Seton” & “Minou”
Studying Shamanism
I came to shamanism by accident. When I was learning to be an animal communicator, I opened up to so much of my sensitivity at once that I was searching for help making sense of it all. I thought I needed a therapist, but when I asked around, somehow I got funneled into choosing a shamanic practitioner to be my support. Her work and authenticity helped me make more sense of my gifts, and then I wanted to know MORE!
Learning the language of the Earth
The shamanic path that found me is very Earth-based. Studying with the people who dedicate their lives to the healing of us as individuals and as a collective has been an awakening. It has affected every area of my life, so it was only a matter of time until it found its way into my dog training. At first it was with my personal dogs, and then came the desire to share it with client dogs.
Learning that I am part of creation, that I am a member of the Earth’s family, releases me from any illusion that I am, as a human being, superior to anything or anybody else here on Earth. It caused me to question even more deeply the theories and ideas we are taught to believe about dogs. The last piece of the puzzle was this: I am built into the cycles of nature, and they are built into me. I do not need to control my surroundings, as I am not the orchestrator of my life. Not really – not the way I used to think I was. And if I am not the orchestrator of my own life, I can definitely be sure that I am not the orchestrator of my dog’s life.
What shamanism has taught me
I have studied shamanic teachings from Peru, in the tradition of medicine people called the Q’ero. I have completed advanced teachings, travelled to Peru to receive initiations upon holy mountain Ausangate. I have been in the sacred Canyon de Chelly with the medicine people there to deepen my learning about the Earth and our place in her family.
From everything I have received, I take away this: I am not more important than my dogs. They are not more important than me. We meet each other half-way - and tend to one another with unconditional love. And with fluidity, we build our life together.
Tamryn with dogs in Peru