Dog Whisperer Commentary: Chihuahuas From Hell 3

Peanut is "balanced"

Peanut is initially introduced as a chihuahua that “controls the household,” but then the rest of the lead-in focuses on how he “hates” Shelly’s brother-in-law, Mike. We see Peanut growling and snapping as Mike tries to touch Peanut, over and over again. (Sigh) We also see Peanut barking, growling, and whining…well, take a look for yourself.

Doesn’t it make you wish there was someone dog savvy enough on the set to figure out that shoving a camera in Peanut’s face was upsetting him?

Cesar Millan doesn’t like the way Mike looks at Peanut. (Maybe he’s a cameraman.) He feels that it reflects a lack of trust that Peanut can pick up on. While I think he’s making much ado about not very much in this particular case, it is an interesting point – especially coming from him. Our actions, both intentional and unintentional, do influence how dogs act. If only Cesar was a little more circumspect about his own actions.

Cesar Millan starts a segway into a lecture on “animal sense” and then gets up to approach Peanut and Shelly. Watch what happens.

Wow. What was going on for those first 10 seconds?

Cesar seemed pretty troubled with the chihuahua’s reaction when he approached and, quite predictably, refused to back down. On one level I can see his point – demonstrating to Peanut that displaying an aggressive behavior makes strangers go away can certainly increase the likelihood that he will display these behaviors. But does that mean that it was necessary to wade in and try to grab collar or do that obnoxious little finger poke thing? No, he could have simply stood his ground and then backed off when Peanut stopped.

This isn’t a subtle point. There is a difference between not rewarding unwanted aggressive behavior and punishing it. Both can, when done correctly, reduce or eliminate the unwanted behavior. But one of them risks escalating the aggression and/or creating even more undesirable associations. What starts as a dislike of strangers can quickly turn into a fear that strangers will try to poke you in the neck. No amount of experience, skill, timing, or Nielsen ratings makes one immune from this risk.

There’s a real head-scratcher at around 10 seconds into the video: “There you go.” He was trying to force the little chihuahu to retreat behind the cushions? Really? What exactly was that supposed to accomplish?

Cesar Millan then teaches Shelly how to correct Peanut for growling. “Physical touch” is a very nice euphemism (I guess one could say that Mike Tyson used to be a champion at physically touching people) but sugar-coating aside, he is teaching Shelly how to poke Peanut in the neck when he growls until he stops. Correcting a growl is never a good idea.

A growl is a warning. You might not like the warning, but that’s what it is. Punishing a warning does not fix the underlying problem. It masks it. Similar to Millan’s correcting Amalie for guarding a toy, correcting Peanut for growling doesn’t address the underlying problem. What’s to say that he won’t eventually skip the growl when he feels threatened and just go right to biting?

Take a look at the photo I used at the top and then at approximately 1:10 into the second video. Tight lips, stare, Peanut just looks tense. Are the corrections really changing his emotional response? I don’t think so.

Desensitizing Peanut to approaching people would consist of a few simple exercises involving finding out the specific trigger (Is it just men? Did Cesar take any time to find out?) and then using something he likes (probably food, at least at first) to gradually change his emotional response when they approach. This could be done by having the people approach slowly and stop well before Peanut reacts aggressively but when he is still aware that they are near. This is call sub-threshold. While Peanut is in this state, he is fed. Over time the distance that the people can approach will shorten. This is the same process described in the Baby Girl commentary.

Cesar’s really batting a thousand in this one, telling Shelly that it’s not enough to be calm around Peanut, she needs to be calm and assertive. I thought Shelly was actually on to something and deserved some praise for not panicking when Peanut is behaving aggressively.

Overall, Chihuahuas from Hell continues to be an example of why so many dog professionals dislike this show.

Related Posts

1. Dog Whisperer Commentary: Chihuahuas From Hell 1
2. Dog Whisperer Commentary: Chihuahuas From Hell 2
3. The Dog Whisperer Commentary: Bella
4. The Dog Whisperer
5. Dog Whisperer Commentary: Baby Girl