With the advent of his show The Dog Whisperer, which first aired in 2004 on the National Geographic Channel, the world of dog training, behavior and psychology was brought to the limelight. Cesar is adored by fans worldwide and has even trained dogs belonging to celebrities such as Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith and rapper Redman. He is certainly a celebrity in his own right.
But are his methods effective? Yes. Are they feasible? Possibly. Are they harmless and beneficial to the dog, as he so often explains? Certainly not.
The whole “dominance” nonsense.
Cesar’s biggest explanation for the reason that dogs do the things they do is dominance. Whether the dog is aggressive, hyper-active or even painfully shy, the dog has somehow “gained power” and “dominance” over its owner through it’s behavior.
The original studies of dominance theory took place in the 1940s and centered around wolves during hunting and meal time. The wolves’ displays during these times were very ritualistic and did not cause any actual harm to each other, and also reinforced pack ranking.
A popular myth is that dominant wolves and dogs “alpha roll” subordinate animals to get a point across. Cesar has flipped or pinned numerous dogs on his program. These so-called alpha rolls have only escalated the problem, causing the dog to fight or even bite Cesar, who has kept them pinned until they stopped kicking and screaming. He calls this “submitting”. This is actually called “learned helplessness”. The dog is giving up because it has no other options to rescue itself from what it perceives as physical harm and biting/fighting no longer work.
Dominant wolves and dogs do not forcibly pin or flip subordinate animals. The subordinate animals willingly present their undersides on their own accord to appease the more dominant animal. A wolf would only pin another wolf in order to kill or seriously injure it, so imagine what you’re saying to your dog by displaying this type of behavior.
Exercise for controlling behavior.
Strenuous exercise is certainly necessary for active, intelligent breeds, such as German Shepherds and Pit Bulls, but Cesar pushes the exercise regimine to the extreme. In fact, that is the first line of his personal aphorism; “exercise, discipline, affection”. Exercise in many cases does help dogs control behaviors, but training and redirection should always come first.
Cesar Millan’s methods of correction.
He calls his method of controlling aggressive or otherwise out of control behavior “whispering”, but other than his persistant “Tsst!” sounds, there is nothing soft about what he does. He forces dogs past their comfort zone and then gives them painful leash corrections, alpha rolls and kicks to the abdomen to control their behavior. He’s even hung a few dogs in the air (think back to the Korean Jindo episode) and has held dogs on their hind feet by their throats (Buddy the Pit bull). His methods are nothing short of cruel.
Cesar floods dogs.
Rather than slowly desensitizing fear biting dogs to an unpleasant stimulus, he instead forces them to face the issue head on, known as “flooding”. Not only is this dangerous to the human performing it (he doesn’t put warnings in his show for nothing), but it’s terrifying to the dog and often causes an extremely depressed, shut down dog.
Final verdict.
Americans are obsessed with fast solutions and are drawn in by media hype and attention. With his charismatic personality, Cesar has no problem convincing his fans that his methods are safe and humane. But before you deliver a well executed kick to your dog’s flank, or choke your dog with a pinch collar, test it out on yourself first — you may well change your mind.
This post sponsored by: On Talking Terms With Dogs (Calming Signals) by Turid Rugaas at Amazon.com.
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