Meet the author – Toni Shelbourne

Meet Toni Shelbourne, author of H&H's The truth about wolves and dogs.  

 Toni Shelbourne began her career with animals in 1989 when she was employed by the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. She quickly progressed from kennel staff to supervisor, and then on to the staff training department where she managed all the City and Guilds kennel programmes.

        In 1997 Toni studied under Linda Tellington-Jones and other top Tellington TTouch Instructors to become a Tellington TTouch Companion Animal Practitioner. She was one of the first to qualify in the UK, and has really seen TTouch grow over the years in Britain and around the world.

        In September 2000 Toni left GDBA to pursue her passion for the Tellington TTouch Training Method, and has been practising ever since. As a level 3 practitioner, Toni is now one of the highest qualified practitioners in the UK. In 2004 she dual qualified as an equine practitioner, although chooses to concentrate on companion and captive wild animals.

        Toni has appeared alongside Sarah Fisher (the UK’s top TTouch Instructor) in the hit TV series Talking to Animals, and has also been featured in articles for Dogs Today and Your Dog magazine.

        For ten years Toni worked with socialised wolves at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust as a senior handler and education officer, although left in 2011 to concentrate on her TTouch work and writing. Toni writes articles for national dog magazines and rescue society newsletters. Her first book, The truth about wolves and dogs – Dispelling the myths of dog training, was published by Hubble & Hattie in 2012, and has received amazing reviews. In 2013 Toni teamed up with MSW Media to create four short videos for YouTube to accompany the book.

        Toni has experience working with domesticated, wildlife, exotic and zoo animals. As well as seeing private clients, she runs workshops and gives talks and demos, as well as teaching staff from all sorts of animal organisations, including zoos.

        Between writing and working with dogs, for part of the year Toni teaches children about farming and the environment. The charity where she works part-time runs out of a thousand-acre organic farm. Toni lives in Berkshire, England with her rescue dog, Bea.

 The truth about wolves and dogs is available now over at the Hubble & Hattie website.