Dog trainer Cesar Millan

Dogs and wolves parted ways many moons ago – thousands of years. They have a common ancestor yet when we look at the domestic dog of today he is just that, an animal that has evolved to live with people. When we look at wolves, they are animals that have evolved to be suspicious of people – and rightly so as we seem to continually persecute the poor things – we can’t logically associate dogs with wolves in any other way than that common ancestor long, long ago.

Wolves Don’t Fight for “Alpha Position” Anyway.

When left to their devices, wolves live as family groups. The parents lead and the youngsters follow and learn. They are highly bonded and actual aggression, or even serious challenge, is a huge issue which rarely (if ever) occurs.
When we look at how wolves live naturally, as a happy family, we can’t help but see how a theory created on a group of strangers pushed together is highly flawed and has been repeatedly rejected by more recent findings and scientific awareness, eh Cesar?

Cesar Uses Nasty Tools.

Prong collars, electric shocks, check chains and even his booted feet or rigid fingers. Each are part of the man’s toolkit. When we take into account the fact that most dog behaviour problems are based in fear, insecurity or confusion there is absolutely no way that we can seriously believe that any of the above tools can help.

Dogs are Co-Operators

We only need to look at books such as The Genius of Dogs by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, or In Defence of Dogs by John Bradshaw to really see how co-operative our dogs are. The problems that, as a species, humans have with their dogs are not based on canine rebellion that’s for sure. The things we deem “behaviour problems” are based on poor or even non-existent (past or present) human to dog communication. Although they exist, problems for any other reason are quite rare.

Dogs Are Individuals.

Dogs have personality and each is different. Cesar treats them all the same, like all dogs have one mind-set and simply want to take over the home (and in fact the world). Anyone that has ever lived with a dog knows that each has a personality and this fact alone blows Cesar’s brand to smithereens.

Cesar Is a Crappy Translator.

When Cesar tells us (from our TV screens) that we must dominate our dogs, he is taking us further away from proper communication, not closer to it. It might look successful on TV but the dog often has a serious breakdown afterwards.
In actual fact, if you look through educated eyes, the dog usually has a serious breakdown on the program too (Which Cesar claims is submission on the dog’s part) and in reality is emotional shutdown due to a huge amount of stress hormone flooding the body and brain of the animal. The same hormone shuts off the digestive and immune system whilst activating the fight, flight or freeze reaction.

So folks, I could go on all day about this. I don’t have time though. I hope I have given you enough to go on just now and that you never visit Nat Geo again. For your dog’s sake and your own.

Take a look at a far better approach, from people like Sophia Yin, Stanley Coren and Victoria Stilwell. The information is all out there, most is free and by embracing positive communication your relationship with your dog will be better than it has ever been.

If you are having problems with understanding your dog, then learn how to do it properly. You will find that your best friend may be feeling very different to how you thought. Take a look at the Dog Decoder App, or even better, watch an episode of “The Dog Whisperer” with the sound down whilst using the Dog Decoder to Interpret the dog’s feelings.