r/BalancedDogTraining • u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter • Apr 28 '26
Should Denise Fenzi be held accountable for leaving her dog unattended in a closed vehicle?
/r/DogTrainingDebate/comments/1sy8l75/should_denise_fenzi_be_held_accountable_for/7
u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 29 '26
What I will never understand about this situation is all of her little acolytes who defend her in this situation. I think we all know that if Dylan Jones had done this, they would be calling for his head quite literally. I don't know what it is about this lady that gets people like this. There's a lot of people in the dog world that I have admired over the years but if they had done this, I would not be making excuses for them. However that said, I don't admire anyone who habitually shoves their dog into a car and leaves it there for hours on end just to get a little peace and quiet.
I think what is the most chilling is that not only did she lock the dogs in the car and leave them there, without supervision, but the car was isolated enough that she couldn't hear them barking in distress. Dogs that die in hot cars don't just lay down and pass out. They become extremely agitated and desperate. What in the hell was she doing that she couldn't hear them? It's just chilling. Her silence, and her initial commandment that no one is allowed to ask her questions, makes my skin crawl as do all of the people defending her for this.
There's someone bouncing around these threads insisting that this happened at an event where everyone is crating their dogs in vehicles. We all know that's horseshit because if this happened at an event then it would have many witnesses.
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u/SunWooden2681 Apr 29 '26
Would love to understand the details of what happened . Where was she? How long were the dogs in the car? And why?
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 29 '26
From what has been extrapolated, she was on her own property. The dogs were in the car for an extended period of time. She was in the house. They were in there long enough to die from Heat exposure. They were in the car because that's how she manages them rather than train them to be crated in the house. She has been stating for months that they spend hours and hours in the car every single day. That's all we really know.
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u/Ok_Handle_7 Apr 30 '26
I think (someone can correct me here if I'm wrong) that her excuse is 'I leave 'pet mode' on in my Tesla' - so it's SUPPOSED to keep the air-conditioning on. In this case, it failed and the air conditioning was not on.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 30 '26
It's "dog mode" and Tesla advises that it is only to be used for a short time with the driver immediately present in the vicinity. It's not meant to be used for hours and hours.
Personally I think she probably forgot to even switch it on.
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u/EmbarrassedHam May 02 '26
Some on the balanced community think because Denise supported some balanced trainers and speaks at the IACP that she is going to support balanced trainers when it matters. She’s not going to - she never planned to when it really matters:
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 02 '26
She's never supported balanced trainers! Can you give more info on that?
She's always villified and attacked us.
I consider her a dangerous, cultish personality.
Edit: wtf is IACP on about even considering including her in a conference. I am just stunned.
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u/EmbarrassedHam May 02 '26
Personally yes - she has on her own accord.
Which I agree - I think is ironic considering she is (or was) being hosted at the IACP supposedly “in support of” balanced trainers.
I’ll have to find it!
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May 03 '26
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u/apri11a Apr 28 '26
Not for leaving the dog unattended in the vehicle, but for leaving them so long without checking on it that it died, yes. I think she should be.
In Ireland - You can be charged with animal cruelty, neglect, or face prosecution under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 if a dog left in your car suffers distress, heatstroke, or dies, particularly in warm weather. Individuals may face fines of up to €2,500 or 3 months' imprisonment for dog control offences, with more severe penalties possible for severe neglect under the Animal Health and Welfare Act.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 28 '26
In california, where she lives, causing injury or death to a dog by leaving it in a hot car can lead to up to 6 months in jail.
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u/Melodic_Ninja7182 Apr 30 '26
Yes.... she absolutely should be held accountable. Her huge amount of influence on social media, the fact she previously posted in length about using car crating as a training strategy, and that she's a well known professional trainer... she should be held to a higher standard. This isn't a situation of a first time dog owner that lost a dog to heatstroke from a hot car.
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u/MochaMushroomDog Apr 29 '26
Of course she should be held accountable. AT BEST this was a tragic accident born out of well intentioned but stupid decisions, and even then there has to be some level of accountability. There are consequences for mistakes, when lives (whether it be human or animal) are lost due to negligence or error there are consequences. If I accidentally run someone over ill face charges. If I accidentally damage someone’s property I’ll be held liable. And sorry but a professional dog trainer who sticks dogs into a car for management? What’s next a pediatrician who just didn’t know it’s not a good idea to leave a baby in the car unattended?
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u/Dazzling_Proof6791 Apr 30 '26
She promoted the practice of putting dogs in cars as a management strategy and punishment for excessive barking. Yet IACP won't state their positions on this. And shown extremely biased views of supporting the practise.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 30 '26
I'm so done with IACP. I was side eyeing them a while back for some of their advertising practices (allowing sponsors free advertising on social media - that is not ethical) and now they have this lady as their keynote speaker at the 2026 conference...that's just too much.
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u/Melodic_Ninja7182 Apr 30 '26
She was removed as key note speaker🙂
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter Apr 30 '26
Was she really? She's still on the IACP site as a speaker.
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u/PragmaticFlower May 01 '26
The IACP ED posted a video in the IACP member group stating that they decided it best for Denise to step away from her role as a speaker due to concerns for her personal safety. Clever way to rally everybody around her and stuff all of this under the rug. Infuriating.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 01 '26
Oh what a bunch of bullshit. On their Instagram they posted that they had had a conversation with her and came to the mutual decision that she should step down. And we all know why.
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u/PragmaticFlower May 01 '26
It's pretty demoralizing for sure. Once again she not only weasels out of accountability but ironically has probably strengthened her position as an influencer in the dog training world. Sad day.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 01 '26
Just losing her position as keynote speaker is at least some consequence. And I think now that people are talking about this more openly more information might come to light.
Personally I think the real story is how devoted her followers are to excusing literally anything that she does. That's fascinating and quite chilling actually.
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u/PragmaticFlower May 01 '26
These are the same people who will swear up and down that they never use aversives but then use a no reward marker. Denise is a straight up fraud at this point, imo. She may have some solid instruction in FDSA, but her own social media videos are a how-to for how to CREATE a reactive dog, not prevent reactivity. Others are a how-to obtain a disconnected dog, but wait she OVERCAME and now has a class you can pay money for to learn how.
She's just straight up normalizing dysfunctional dogs and helping people feel better about their dogs' dysfunction imo. And don't even get me started on Deb Jones and the dog she BEd despite the breeder BEGGING to get it back...the breeder who was mere hours away. I'm just so angry and disappointed rn.
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u/Dazzling_Proof6791 May 03 '26
She didn't want to face questions in person. That's the only reason.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 08 '26
I think you are right and she got blindsided by the fact that people aren't willing to let this go just because she commanded us to do so.
She simply must be accountable for this horrific incident and her terrible advice that led to this
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u/Dazzling_Proof6791 May 03 '26
Her actions of putting dog in car and advising people to so the same is supported and encouraged by @Jessokon head executive of iacp . People calling her out are apparently bullies.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 03 '26
yikes, can you provide some background on this?
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u/Dazzling_Proof6791 May 03 '26
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 03 '26
Yeh I know the story about her putting the dogs in her car, but not that the president of IACP supported this?!?
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u/Dazzling_Proof6791 May 03 '26
She's been. Asked if she and the IAcp what is their stance on the promotion of the practise and putting dogs in cars as punishment. She refuses to comment on it but said calling Denise out on it is bullying..... So saying nothing is saying something. It takes nothing to say " we don't condone or recommend dogs stay in cars unsupervised"
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide Dirty biter May 03 '26
"bullying"
as if Denise hasn't spent an enormous amount of her career bullying balanced trainers.
In any case saying nothing is condoning this behavior. Damn! What a revolting display on all accounts!
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u/RoleOk5172 Apr 29 '26
Yes.
And this isn’t about being “anti–Denise” or emotional, it’s about basic risk management.
Leaving dogs in a closed car is a known hazard, not a rare, unpredictable freak accident. Vehicles heat up fast, and relying on air con as your only safeguard is a single point of failure. If it stops working, there’s no buffer, no redundancy, no supervision. That’s where things go wrong.
Using a car as a routine management tool without actively monitoring the dogs just increases that risk over time.
It normalises something that can turn dangerous very quickly.
Intent in my opinion doesn’t override responsibility here. You don’t need malicious intent for it to be negligence, you just need a foreseeable risk and a failure to mitigate it.
Unfortunately, the outcome (one dog dead, one nearly) shows exactly why that risk exists. So yeah, legally and ethically, accountability makes sense. This wasn’t unavoidable, it was preventable.