My first Dog Whisperer commentary is on “Bella”, from season 8. (Episode 9 according to Hulu.) This episode was first shown in August of 2009. It is the newest complete episode on Hulu, so I am starting with that. In order to avoid charges of “taking things out of context” (another frequent Cesar Millan defense,) I will only provide commentary on complete episodes.
Here is a link to the episode. It appears that NGC has disabled embedding, even though they offer the code to do it.
This episode only covers one dog, which is a pretty good starting point. We see Cesar work in depth (relatively speaking) on one case.
Bella is a 4 1/2 year old American Bulldog. She belongs to Nate, a rehabilitated alcoholic who adopted Bella during a pretty chaotic time in his life. It appears that during Nate’s time partying she was teased and maybe even abused.
Bella displays very serious food guarding. Footage is shown of Nate trying to get to her bowl and she reacts very aggressively. She also displays very serious aggression toward other dogs when walking on leash.
After showing us (very dramatically) Bella’s issues, we see an interview between Nate and Cesar. Cesar immediately gloms onto the Bella’s terrible behavior on leash:
“I think that’s the first thing you have to learn. If you can’t walk a dog, you can’t tell her anything.”
Um. Why? For Cesar, walking the dog seems to be some sort of ritual for establishing dominance over the dog. We’ve coexisted with dogs for at least 10,000 years according to most anthropologists. When did we start walking them on leash? 100 years ago? Maybe 200? How did people handle them before that?
Nate also says that he feels guilty about the current situation with Bella. Cesar seems dismayed by Nate’s admission:
The more you live in that…guilt…or whatever other energy, the more weak you appear to her. So if you are soft energy, she have to take the dominant position.”
So here we are, about 8 minutes into 45 minutes of TV, and already in a struggle for dominance with Bella. This is my fundamental problem with Cesar. All of our dealings with our dogs are phrased in terms of a battle for control. It shapes everything he does, as we see in this episode.
Nate’s behavior toward Bella displays a lot of stress. He shouts a lot. He struggles for control over the leash. His body language has a lot of “big” movements that undoubtedly contribute to Bella’s behavior. In this way, his stress is visible to Bella and most likely makes things worse. But why “weak?” Why must it be positioned as an opening for Bella to “take over?” Is she hoping to get him to change his will? Relinquish the remote control? Finally let her drive the car?
Next, Cesar “evaluates” Bella by approaching her where she is tied up in the yard. His reading of her body language is pretty good, but it is a terrible situation and sets Bella to become stressed and fail. Being tied up is very stressful for most dogs, and having a strange person (not to mention a camera crew) approach her only makes things worse. Evaluating her in this circumstance is not going to provide Cesar with any useful information.
Bella reacts with barking and lunging so, of course, Cesar declares that he is going to “defeat” her psychologically. Here again, we are in a struggle. We’re not trying address her aggressive issues or help her deal with her problem. We are in a battle of wills!
After a short time Bella stops reacting to Cesar and lies down. This is great! Bella is able to adjust to Cesar very rapidly. Cesar’s technique, standing still and not reacting to her, is effective and helps her with settling down, although the idea that this is a “defeat” for Bella is anthropomorphic. Even though I would never put a dog in this particular position, if I somehow got there I would take her ability to relax so quickly as a good sign.
Cesar then says something that completely baffles me. Dogs with short noses like American Bulldogs don’t “really” use their noses. What?? He tries an experiment with some vanilla scented spray to get her to “use her nose.” This is an interesting idea – attempting to redirect her attention with a strong scent, but I find his assertion about brachycephalic breeds bewildering. While their short noses make their sense of smell weaker than other breeds, it still dominates their perception of the world and they use their noses just as much as any other dog.
After some more experimenting, Cesar decides the Bella is too stressed and calls it quits. Excellent. Cesar makes the right call. Bella does appear to be very stressed and pushing her any more would have accomplished nothing good.
I would have handled our first meeting very differently. Cesar explicitly mentions that he did not want Nate there so he could “send her into a different emotional state.” (Whatever…) I would have wanted him him there. He is part of the package, and how Bella reacts when he is not there really isn’t the point. I also wouldn’t have made my first approach with her tied to a tree. It would have been either in her house or outside, with Nate holding her leash (loosely) in either scenario.
Back on the show, Cesar jumps from saying that Bella is too stressed to immediately throwing her into an even more stressful situation. He has Nate do a couple of “walk-bys” with Bella on leash to see how she reacts to another dog. Why? If she’s too stressed, she’s too stressed. I would have called it a day.
However, when Cesar sees Bella straining at the end of her leash on a prong collar, he decides to remove it. Good call! While I dislike a choker, in this situation it is a far better call than a prong. The pinching of the prong, as Cesar says, is probably contributing to, if not triggering, Bella’s violent reaction to other dogs while on leash.
Cesar places an improvised choker high on her neck and walks Bella past the other dog with the leash very, very, tight. He corrects her if she looks at the other dog. He points out that she is now “calm.” To me she looks very stressed and almost afraid to move. “Calm” and “still” are not the same thing. Her tail is tucked, she is licking her lips, and she tries to steal a few nervous looks at other dog. I would have used a flat collar or a head halter and a lot more distance for this exercise. I would not have used corrections for looking around. I want a calm dog, not a stiff robot.
Cesar takes Bella to a “ranch” that is run by one of his students. He puts a muzzle on her and has her on a long lead. He lets her roam with a group of dogs. This is risky, but not necessarily a bad idea. Bella is much more relaxed than she is on leash, which is not a surprise – many dogs that display aggressive behavior on leash are perfectly fine off leash.
However, a dog scratching at the ground gets Bella’s attention and she lunges toward him. Cesar immediately grabs Bella, pushes her into a sit, and then pushes her to the ground and pins her. When she relaxes, he lets her up. Grabbing Bella and pulling her away from the other dog is a risky move. Not because Cesar might get bit – she’s wearing a muzzle, remember – but because it runs the risk of creating yet another negative association with being near other dogs. Approach another dog, get manhandled by a human. Likewise with pinning her to ground. Pinning her to ground may have “put her into another emotional state” as Cesar would say, but what did she learn from it? What was taught in that situation?
What Cesar tried to do, teach Bella that it’s OK to be near other dogs, is a viable strategy for helping her, but I would have done weeks, maybe months, of foundation work beforehand. I would have done some desensitization to both the muzzle (to reduce the stress of wearing it) and to other dogs, starting from a distance. I would have trained Bella to respond to her name and basic obedience commands, even in the face of distractions. I would have included Nate in the exercises because, as I said above, he’s part of the package and how she acts with him and his ability to what I would have been hired to address. I know I can handle dogs, it’s Nate that needs help.
Cesar then removes the muzzle and has Bella on leash in front of other dogs while they are in their pens. This takes setting Bella up to fail to an entirely new level, as she now has at least a half dozen opportunities to engage in fence fighting. She takes advantage of one of the opportunities. This exercise is completely pointless and places unnecessary stress on her.
After a while, Bella stops fence fighting. It’s not clear how much time has passed. Either she finally gave up, or something happened that we missed. Cesar drops the lead and lets her explore while the dogs behind the fences are barking. She starts to sniff the perimeter. Cesar says he likes that she is “using her nose”…but he doesn’t like it because it makes the other dogs nervous. Good point…but I guess stopping her isn’t an option? Cesar approaches Bella with a hand up while she is sniffing a dog and his pen. She walks up to him with her tail wagging. She looks at him and then looks away. Cesar smacks her on the side of her head.
Cesar explains that she looked at another dog and “gave him an energy that I didn’t agree with.” (Whatever…) Cesar then waited for her to be distracted (his words) before hitting her to “catch her by surprise” and then “followed through with the energy.” (How many whatevers are too many for one paragraph?)
If you are having problems following that, you are not alone. I’m not sure what Cesar is talking about when he refers to energy. Sometimes it seems like an abstraction. Sometimes it seems like more of the new age-y woo-woo bullshit that TV and the Internet is full of.
I can say that the smack was far too removed from anything Cesar accused Bella of doing wrong to be considered a valid correction.
Sometime after the smack, the dogs become quiet. Cesar then takes credit for the dogs getting tired of barking.
I don’t see the point of this exercise and can’t really tell you what I would do different. I just wouldn’t do it.
Next, Cesar does some work with Bella on her food guarding.
We briefly see Cesar exercising Bella on a treadmill to burn off some energy. Then, he gets her agitated by pointing a scrub brush on a stick at her. And then he kicks her.
Sorry, watching this stuff gets to me. Let me explain.
Cesar presents Bella with a bowl of food, and then uses a scrub brush on a 4 foot pole to get between her and the food. Cesar seems to be saying that by using the brush as both a shield and a taunt, baiting Bella into attacking it, and then refusing to back away he is demonstrating to her that aggression won’t work. The kick was to deliberately set her off and then prove to her that he won’t back down.
In other words this is a battle and if Cesar can win, Bella will stop guarding her food.
Before I go any further, let’s hear a word from our sponsor, real behavioral science. Food aggression is a manifestation of “resource guarding.” It is a “hard wired” behavior that dogs and wolves share. Many dogs never display it. Some display it in only very specific circumstances. For others, it is always apparent. It is not learned, and the fact that Nate mentions early in the show that Bella drew blood over a piece of dropped shrimp when she was a very small puppy reinforces that.
Punishment is not the way to go with this behavior. With food guarding, hand-feeding is sometimes an option. It’s also good to train a “give” command, starting out with low value items and working your way up to very valuable items. I would also train a release and use it to tell Bella when it is OK to approach the food bowl. It’s a tough problem to deal with and I don’t want to make an already too-long post longer.
Cesar gives up on the scrub brush and moves to a “vibration” e-collar. He goes through great lengths to demonstrate how mild it is. I see electrodes, but I am going to take his word for it that it only vibrates. When he places it on Bella and triggers it, she jumps off the bowl and looks cowed and miserable.
Even if the collar is not shocking her, it’s obvious that Bella finds the collar very aversive. Cesar has “fixed” the issue by finding a punishment that is severe enough to override the resource guarding. I don’t trust this as a “fix.” I believe that there is a very high risk for unintended consequences, and I am not sure that someday Bella won’t find something valuable enough to guard again. I also dislike punishing a dog this severely. As I said above, there are more humane alternatives.
The show gives us a update on progress. According to the narrator, Cesar has worked with Bella for a total of two hours. Two hours to “fix” leash aggression and food guarding is insane. The video shows Bella reacting violently to another dog on leash with the prong as compared to off leash. Apples and oranges.
Cesar brings Nate back. He arranges some walk bys with a large number of dogs. He has fit Bella with a Gentle Leader head harness, which I like a lot as a solution! Bella responds very well to the head collar. However, after a minute or two I see Cesar coaching Nate on jerking the leash to pull Bella away from another dog. This is dangerous with a Gentle Leader, and I have never seen an experienced trainer recommend leash corrections with a head collar. By jerking a dog’s neck very violently there is a real risk of injury. Again, with some foundation work Nate could instead call Bella’s name and reward her for responding.
Otherwise, I like the “walk by” drills for working on her leash aggression. The process does seem completely rushed, but it is most likely for the camera. Cesar’s coaching of Nate is very good. Cesar is great at praising people. If he was more willing to tell dogs what to do, he would be a lot easier to watch. I liked the positive finish with a side-by-side walk of the dogs.
We return to the food guarding and a utterly pointless seven minute standoff with the scrub brush. After the seven minutes Bella gives up and it is presented as some kind of victory. To my mind, Bella deserves the credit for figuring out how silly the whole thing was.
Cesar returns to the e-collar, and uses it in conjunction with the scrub brush. Bella again reacts very fearfully to the collar and moves away from the bowl. She looks very unhappy. Cesar then pets her with the brush to show her that it’s OK. (Whatever….) He then demonstrates that she will leave the bowl when the brush approaches.
As I said above, whether the collar is actually shocking her or not, Bella obviously finds the collar to be extremely aversive. It’s not clear that there will be no side effects to this form of punishment.
Six and a half weeks later we see that Nate has been working with Cesar’s student on Bella’s training. Bella seems to be doing fine, but there is a big difference. Bella is now responding to cues: “take it,” “off.” and a “go to place.” Cesar did not train these cues; at no point did he discuss the idea of training a dog to do something rather than punishing her until she stops doing something. It looks to me like Cesar’s student is a bit of a better trainer than he is.
This episode was a mixed bag for me. While Cesar frequently teeters on the edge of showing a great understanding of both dogs and their people, he almost always falls back to an adversarial model and a heavy reliance on punishment. He is adept at reading dogs, but fills his readings with anthropomorphic motives and jumps to very bold conclusions about what is going on. His explanations for what he is doing are almost always completely baffling.
19 Comments
I give you a lot of credit for doing this Eric. My copy of ‘Cesar’s Way’ is full of comments in the margins such as; ‘huh?’, ‘since when?’ ‘???’, ‘where’s the evidence for this statement?’, ‘what??!”
Nice job, Eric. I’m glad you explained what was going on in the video as you commented because I could not tolerate watching the entire show. I alternately felt fury, sick to my stomach , and sad. I even at times felt embarrassed for Cesar. Let me put it this way, if that were me in the video doing and saying what Cesar is doing and saying, I would feel so humiliated at my name and visage being associated with such nonsense that I would find the nearest doghouse and hide in it and not show my face until every last remnant of the program was pulled off the the ‘internets’ and TV. How the NGC channel and the CM PR machine can pass off such utter bullshit and incompetence as a dog training, excuse me, ‘dog psychology’, is beyond my understanding, unless it just comes down to the usual suspect, money. Looking forward to future posts.
Nice play-by-play! I appreciate your willing to concede when Cesar is doing something right, although I am NOT a fan and have lost my ability to watch his show on a regular basis. I just find it so completely impossible not to stand up and throw things at my television. Still it is only fair.
As a new student of positive, dog-friendly dog training, I have to confess that before I began researching, studying and reading I was not nearly so aware of how aversive and how psychologically damaging Cesar could be. As a layperson, I found a lot of sense in what he said about being “calm and confident.” I still think those are good words to describe a good frame of mind to be in when handling a dog, but I also think you have to respect the dog and his/her attempts to tell you what he/she is feeling. I don’t think Cesar does this at all. I think he definitely suffers from “machismo” and it is clear that he is unwilling to yield to the dogs’ emotional needs a lot of the time.
Since I have begun to read wonderful authors like Pat Miller, Patricia McConnell, Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, and Karen Pryor I have finally found what I have been looking for as a dog-lover. I spent the past five or more years thinking about dog training, considering options, and then deciding I just wasn’t willing to do it if it involved choke chains, leash jerks, etc. Then I finally found out I didn’t have to! Finding positive and dog-friendly training philosophy and the behavioral science behind it has made me feel like something has clicked. I found out that my intuition and instinct, which I have always had, about dog behavior is backed up by science!!
So, now at almost-34-years-old, I am finally embarking on my dog training education with Pat Miller’s Level I internship class. Better late than never, right? I am like a puppy with a treat dangling 6 inches from her nose….”Is it April yet? Is it? Is it?”
Wow, didn’t mean to ramble on so, but there you go. This has all been to say that I understand Cesar from an “ignorant” perspective and a more learned one, and in the end I must confess he does a few things right, but in the overall picture….not so much. I hope his 15 minutes end soon, so we can go about the business of de-Cesar-fying all those owners and dogs…
Enjoy Peaceable Paws Petra! (I love alliteration.) I learned a lot there.
Thank you, Eric, for your commentaries on The Dog Whisperer. I don’t watch the show (don’t have cable), so I’m finding it very helpful for you to post these episodes with the commentary. What I find most distressing is that people see these shows and believe these methods will work for them. I will say to them, “These methods might work for Cesar, but you are not Cesar.”
And yet, because so many of our dogs are so accommodating to our failings, people will use these domineering methods and so their dogs acquiesce to them. Person and dog then miss out on the possibilities of a more mutually satisfying relationship.
Thanks!
J
Wow. An intensely food-aggressive dog lets Cesar take away his food after only 2 hours of work and you Criticize the guy? An intensely dog-aggressive dog lets Cesar walk her calmly past an array of dogs the next day and you Criticize the guy? The owner gets taught how to himself walk his dog past the same array of dogs the same day, something he and nobody else had been able to do for years, and you Criticize the guy? At the end the owner shows how he too, after a few weeks, can now get his formerly food-aggressive dog to step away from its bowl and you Criticize the guy? What is WRONG with you? Cesar is freaking brilliant, not only at understanding and calmly modifying the formerly vicious dog's behavior, but also in teaching the owner how to maintain his dog's new state of mind. The good news is at least you watched the entire episode, something you didn't do prior to your other Cesar-bashings. The bad news is that somehow you misinterpret so much of what you see, really inexcusable for someone who charges clients representing himself as a knowledgeable professional. That you find these shows 'baffling' does not speak well for you, but maybe if you watch a few more you might begin to get it. One can hope….
Yes, after all of that I still criticize Cesar. If you look at the other commentaries I criticize him even more.
I was very specific in my criticism too and you failed to address any of it directly. Which is pretty much what I have been waiting for from Cesar's more vocal fans. How am I misinterpreting what I see? What is it in a heavily edited TV show that I missed? Do the ends always justify the means, even when other professionals say they can get the same results without being so heavy handed?
Are you interested in a discussion or just insults?
Okay, let's discuss. Per your request, I'll address all of your specific criticisms. This could be lengthy, so make yourself comfortable.
Regarding your criticism of “if you can't walk your dog, how can you expect to control any of its other, more complex behaviors?” — how can you disagree with this self-evident observation? It's obviously true. Walking a dog (not having your dog walk You) is a microcosm of the relationship between dog and handler. If your dog won't listen to you walking on leash then you have no control of your dog — restraint, perhaps, but not Control.
If your dog is pulling you around like a toy, or guarding you like a toy, then you Are a toy in its mind, and it's absurd to think the dog is going to respect or obey its Toy. Master the walk and you are well on your way to mastering everything else — fail to do that and forgettaboutit
when it comes to dealing with more extreme behaviors like food aggression, dog aggression, etc.
Your criticism of Cesar's desire for Control over a dog that is food-aggressive and dog-aggressive and whose owners fear for children's very Lives is to me unfathomable. Of Course you need to control your animal. One can't even Begin to have an intelligent discussion without conceding this point. Again, Control, as opposed to simple Restraint, comes from the animal's Respecting its handler, and clearly this dog has no respect for anyone — that is, until Cesar establishes it by not giving in to the dog's attempts at , yes, Domination. By not backing away, by waiting till the Dog backs away, he gets the dog's Respect. By not abusing that respect he gets the dog's Trust. From there he can do whatever he wants with the dog, and what remains is getting the owner to learn how to establish that same relationship. Cesar shows the owner that it is Possible, lets them See it, then explains How he did it, and Why it works, all to get them to do it themselves. Once the owner accepts the mantle of Leader and knows how to act accordingly it's just a matter of time before the unwanted behaviors are no longer exhibited.
The reason yelling, pulling back, etc, are 'weak' is that they garner no Respect from an animal. If you yell at me, I respect you Less. If you run from me, I respect you Less. Same with dogs. If you want to be respected as an animal's Leader then, as Cesar puts it, you must be calm and assertive. Yelling isn't calm. Backing away isn't assertive. Quietly stand your ground, wait for the dog to back away, and you are now free to move Forward. This is primal animal stuff, not limited just to dogs. Watch a nightclub bouncer quietly escort an out-of-control drunk patron out of a bar — no arguing with the person, even though the person may be yelling and screaming, and no backing away, even though the person may be threatening. In the end, the drunk willingly (though reluctantly) walks Himself out the door.
The vanilla spray is intented to Accentuate the use of the dog of its nose. Cesar wants to shift the dog from focusing on use of its Eyes towards him to its using its Nose towards him, since scent brings with it Familiarity but sight is used to maintain Separation. A dog that smells you is less fearful than one that can only spot you approaching menacinly from afar. It didn't work in this case, so he went the muzzle route.
The reason for the approach at the tree was to see the unwanted behavior in action. As you say, one couild have had the owner take them all inside for some hot cocoa, but then Cesar would not have seen the Problem. He was there to evaluate the dog's Bad behavior. As warm an fuzzy a feeling you would have gotten by meeting inside on the couch, you would not then have any idea what the owner wanted you to 'fix' for him. Cesar was not there to be the dog's Friend, he was there to be the dog's Analyst.
Your criticism of the choice of collar is bizarre in that you lament that he doesn't use a head halter when in fact that is Exactly what he ended up using. Are we watching the same show?
Your criticism of his use of the 'alpha roll' yet another voice of handling inexperience. Dogs put each other down all the time. It's how the dominant dog establishes order in the pack, not by Attacking or Biting the other dogs but simply by using its mouth in a manner that gets the other dog to semi-voluntarily Submit. Submission to the dominant dog Prevents further aggression and is how dogs instinctively know who is now the boss. Cesar does this when a dog is aggressive against Him or against another dog within the pack he wants the dogs to consider as His pack. It is Very effective, Very fast, and as we see in countless episodes results in no harm to the dog — to the contrary, the most vicious dogs are quickly seen kissing-up, figuratively and literally, to their newly-conceded pack leader.
You concede you would have done 'months' of 'foundation work'. Cesar had the whole thing finished in two days. Maybe you charge by the hour, but I see nothing superior in dragging out the process. You can talk to someone who's afraid to fly till they can no longer afford your excessive fees, but at some point they need to just get on with it and board the damn plane. Cesar minimizes the pompous chatter and just takes you flying.
Regarding the 'smack on the head' — nonsense. He used his hand to bite the dog on its side.
He did it as follow-thru when the dog failed to respond to his verbal correction regarding its behavior at the fence with the other dogs. He was making it clear that the one in charge on his side of the fence was Him, not Bella. The message was understood, as one sees Bella sit down in response and no longer go after the other dogs at the fence. You, I suppose, would still be in your office coming up with a plan for laying your vaunted foundation, but Cesar's message is loud, clear, immediate and Brief. Bella knows why she was corrected, which is why she sits down and doesn't bite Cesar's hand off. This knowledge is reinforced by Cesar's only doing it Once, indicating to the dog that it can still Trust him, that it was not some arbitrary act of fearworthy abuse but rather an act of Correction by its pack leader. Your purjorative use of the term 'smack' is unwarranted.
I am getting tired, but will continue…
The scrub brush was brilliant, as it taught the dog that Cesar was not going to back away yet did not risk Cesar getting his hand bitten in the process. The brush never Struck the dog, it just was used as an extention of Cesar for him to Claim the dog's food from her. As he noted twice, the dog associated the brush with something previously used to abuse her, and so even Cesar's gentle approach resulted in a violent defensive reaction. The vibrating collar was a painless, rapid, effective tool for getting the dog to submit to Cesar's self-extension via the brush. Again, the dog learned that the brush, i.e. Cesar's extension, was not going to Harm her, it was merely establishing Dominion. The dog learned to Respect the extension as it respected Cesar — no fear, and trust in the tool not being something to Fear. By the end of the exercise the dog is seen happily accepting Cesar feeding it by hand, removing her bowl with his unprotected hands, and all the while staying relaxed. A great result, a happy dog. Pretty darn impressive, as I see it. When you say that food aggression is 'not learned' you again miss the point — whether learned or not, it can be UNlearned, and Cesar showed how the whole stressful anxious paranoia can be eliminated in one sitting by someone who knows how to 1) not back down, thus establishing respect, and 2) not moviing forward prematurely, thus establishing trust.
Back to the gentle-leader dog-walkby exercise. You accuse Cesar of 'jerking', which is exactly the opposite of what he said and did. Again, your use of purjorative terms, mis-describing what happened, is just bizarre. Watch again, it's clear Nate is being coached to use the most Gentle of pulls on the halty. I read this from you and find it hard to consider you intellectually honest, but I like to read my own writing sometimes, so I accept your offer to 'discuss' the episode in the hope that maybe you'll go back an see what you missed the first time. This intellectual dishonesty feeling I get from you again occurs when you repeatedly accuse the participants of using the collar in Shock mode, when they went to the greatest of lengths to demonstrate that they were not. Your insistence on repeated, baseless accusations of Shocking the dog, Smacking the dog, etc is frankly just sleazy,
Lastly, accusing Cesar of anthropomorhizing the dog is just jaw-droppingly crazy. There must be 50 episodes where he goes to the greatest of lengths to explain to owners to NOT anthropomorphize their dogs. Anyone who knows anything about Cesar knows this charge is bogus. That you come away 'baffled' by the show is sadly disappointing.
Regarding your criticism of “if you can't walk your dog, how can you expect to control any of its other, more complex behaviors?” — how can you disagree with this self-evident observation? It's obviously true. Walking a dog (not having your dog walk You) is a microcosm of the relationship between dog and handler. <snip>
If your dog is pulling you around like a toy, or guarding you like a toy, then you Are a toy in its mind, and it's absurd to think the dog is going to respect or obey its Toy.
Sometimes a dog pulling on leash is a dog pulling on leash. It can certainly be indicative of a lack of control, but to say that without it you can't do anything is a stretch. Like I asked (and you didn't answer) what did we do before leashes?
The reason yelling, pulling back, etc, are 'weak' is that they garner no Respect from an animal. If you yell at me, I respect you Less. If you run from me, I respect you Less. Same with dogs. If you want to be respected as an animal's Leader then, as Cesar puts it, you must be calm and assertive. Yelling isn't calm. Backing away isn't assertive. Quietly stand your ground, wait for the dog to back away, and you are now free to move Forward. This is primal animal stuff, not limited just to dogs. Watch a nightclub bouncer quietly escort an out-of-control drunk patron out of a bar — no arguing with the person, even though the person may be yelling and screaming, and no backing away, even though the person may be threatening. In the end, the drunk willingly (though reluctantly) walks Himself out the door.
My problem is with the word “weak.” Cesar positions everything as weak-strong, dominant-submissive, leader-follower. This filters into his techniques, which are heavy-handed. It filters into his language. I think it's unnecessary. I think positioning everything as a struggle for dominance is unnecessary. I didn't say that Nate's behavior was OK – I even said “his stress is visible to Bella and most likely makes things worse.”
The reason for the approach at the tree was to see the unwanted behavior in action. As you say, one couild have had the owner take them all inside for some hot cocoa, but then Cesar would not have seen the Problem. He was there to evaluate the dog's Bad behavior. As warm an fuzzy a feeling you would have gotten by meeting inside on the couch, you would not then have any idea what the owner wanted you to 'fix' for him. Cesar was not there to be the dog's Friend, he was there to be the dog's Analyst.
It's not always necessary to trigger bad behavior. Your description of hot cocoa and warm fuzzies is really amusing and all, but it's not what I said I would do. Getting the dog riled up when you first see her is good TV and bad behavior consulting. It also makes just about any behavior you see after that questionable.
I also didn't catch the client's description of “she's aggressive when strangers with camera crews approach her while she is tied to a tree.”
Your criticism of the choice of collar is bizarre in that you lament that he doesn't use a head halter when in fact that is Exactly what he ended up using. Are we watching the same show?
Yeah, but maybe we're not reading the same blog? I disliked what he used in that situation. I also complimented him for ditching the prong, for crying out loud.
Your criticism of his use of the 'alpha roll' yet another voice of handling inexperience. Dogs put each other down all the time. It's how the dominant dog establishes order in the pack, not by Attacking or Biting the other dogs but simply by using its mouth in a manner that gets the other dog to semi-voluntarily Submit.
This is bullshit, plain and simple. Dogs don't do that. Wolves don't do that. The people that claimed to see wolves doing it recanted. A dog or wolf forcing another wolf or dog to the ground is not a signal, it's part of trying to kill the other canid. See this and this for a start. If you want to accuse me of inexperience, go right ahead Mr (or Mrs.) anonymous-e-mail-address-with-no-profile, but try to stick to stuff that occurs in nature as your proof. It's better form.
You concede you would have done 'months' of 'foundation work'. Cesar had the whole thing finished in two days. Maybe you charge by the hour, but I see nothing superior in dragging out the process.
I'm sure you don't. Neither do I. I just believe in doing it right. (But nice one with the charging by the hour part! You should be on stage!) The show ends with Nate continuing to work with another trainer, who went back and taught things like cues….it wasn't really done in 2 days, was it? I wonder how she bills. I bet there's good money in finishing those 2 day jobs.
Regarding the 'smack on the head' — nonsense. He used his hand to bite the dog on its side.
He did it as follow-thru when the dog failed to respond to his verbal correction regarding its behavior at the fence with the other dogs. He was making it clear that the one in charge on his side of the fence was Him, not Bella. The message was understood, as one sees Bella sit down in response and no longer go after the other dogs at the fence.
He smacked her after she walked away from the fence. She had already stopped. Punishments and rewards delivered more than 4 seconds or so after the behavior are generally not effective. As for the difference between a smack and a “bite.” Yeah…whatever. I'm sure dogs don't know the difference between a hand and teeth.
You, I suppose, would still be in your office coming up with a plan for laying your vaunted foundation, but Cesar's message is loud, clear, immediate and Brief.
If by “immediate” you mean “after the dog stopped doing what he was punishing” yes, “loud, clear, immediate and Brief” FTW!
The scrub brush was brilliant, as it taught the dog that Cesar was not going to back away yet did not risk Cesar getting his hand bitten in the process. The brush never Struck the dog, it just was used as an extention of Cesar for him to Claim the dog's food from her. As he noted twice, the dog associated the brush with something previously used to abuse her, and so even Cesar's gentle approach resulted in a violent defensive reaction.
So…using something that she has a negative association with to induce her to violently guard her food is….gentle? Um. Ok.
The vibrating collar was a painless, rapid, effective tool for getting the dog to submit to Cesar's self-extension via the brush. Again, the dog learned that the brush, i.e. Cesar's extension, was not going to Harm her, it was merely establishing Dominion. The dog learned to Respect the extension as it respected Cesar — no fear, and trust in the tool not being something to Fear. By the end of the exercise the dog is seen happily accepting Cesar feeding it by hand, removing her bowl with his unprotected hands, and all the while staying relaxed. A great result, a happy dog. Pretty darn impressive, as I see it. When you say that food aggression is 'not learned' you again miss the point — whether learned or not, it can be UNlearned, and Cesar showed how the whole stressful anxious paranoia can be eliminated in one sitting by someone who knows how to 1) not back down, thus establishing respect, and 2) not moviing forward prematurely, thus establishing trust.
He used the collar and the brush to punish her enough that she stopped guarding. If you trust that after one session, fine. I don't. A lot of other people don't either, that's why they train behaviors like “off” and “take it.” One of them seems to have taken over working with Nate, as shown at the end of the show.
Back to the gentle-leader dog-walkby exercise. You accuse Cesar of 'jerking', which is exactly the opposite of what he said and did.
The exact opposite of jerking would be to not tug the leash at all, like the way the manufacturers of Gentle Leaders and Haltis say you should use their collars.
Again, your use of purjorative terms, mis-describing what happened, is just bizarre. Watch again, it's clear Nate is being coached to use the most Gentle of pulls on the halty. I read this from you and find it hard to consider you intellectually honest, but I like to read my own writing sometimes, so I accept your offer to 'discuss' the episode in the hope that maybe you'll go back an see what you missed the first time. This intellectual dishonesty feeling I get from you again occurs when you repeatedly accuse the participants of using the collar in Shock mode, when they went to the greatest of lengths to demonstrate that they were not. Your insistence on repeated, baseless accusations of Shocking the dog, Smacking the dog, etc is frankly just sleazy,
Again, are we reading the same blog. Let me quote myself:
He goes through great lengths to demonstrate how mild it is. I see electrodes, but I am going to take his word for it that it only vibrates.
I then go on to explain that whether or not the collar is shocking her, she finds it very aversive. It's clear that any criticism of Cesar is unacceptable to you, even in a review in which I not only agree with him at points, but even compliment him. Idolatry must be very hard work. I'm clearly not up to it.
Lastly, accusing Cesar of anthropomorhizing the dog is just jaw-droppingly crazy. There must be 50 episodes where he goes to the greatest of lengths to explain to owners to NOT anthropomorphize their dogs. Anyone who knows anything about Cesar knows this charge is bogus. That you come away 'baffled' by the show is sadly disappointing.
Pack theory is anthropomorphic. The fact that Cesar accuses people of treating their dogs like people doesn't negate anything when he accuses dogs of very human motives for what they do. Primates spend lots of time worrying about who's boss. There's no scientific evidence that dogs are half as worried about it as Cesar is.
To paraphrase an old expression, you can lead a dog trainer to water but you can't make him drink. Hopefully readers of your responses will see the error of your ways, especially anyone thinking of actually paying you for your time. My condolences to the dogs of the owners who fall for your nonsense. Since hope springs eternal, however, I will give it one more go, if for no other reason than to help me hone the edge of my intellectual and literary swords.
Control on the Walk: Your focus on the leash is a distraction from the issue at hand. The leash is just a tool for Developing control. The proof of Real control is a walk Off leash, just like before the tool was invented. If you can ride a horse without reins and stirrups, you definitely know how to ride a horse. If you cannot ride a horse even With reins and With stirrups, you definitely do Not know how to ride, i.e. control, a horse. If you cannot walk a dog With a leash, then you certainly cannot walk a dog Without a leash, nor are you going to have much if any success controlling other aspects of the dog's behavior. This simple truth is too obvious to belabor further.
Most of the other things you don't understand are variations on a single theme. You think dominance is unnecessary, that Cesar is heavy-handed, that dogs don't put each other down, that dogs aren't pack animals. Not pack animals? One can only be astonished at such drivel. One is left to wonder if you've ever actually Seen dogs together. The degree of ignorance exhibited by such statements, especially your closing paragraph, is nothing short of Astounding. Had the last paragraph of your response been placed anywhere in your original article I would have barfed and moved on. Instead I thought maybe you had at least a Clue and ended up writing a lengthy response. Oh well. One can hope other readers perhaps will have benefitted from my obtaining from you this admission of such a profound lack of even the most basic of knowledge.
Lastly, this charge of anthropomorphism has me truly worried for any people you encounter. The term means treating animals like people. If you think telling a dog to sit is treating it like people then I feel sorry for people around you. If you think walking a dog on a leash is treating it like people I feel sorry for people who can't get away from you. If you think putting a dog on its side when it disrespectfully misbehaves is treating it like people you have serious interpersonal relationship issues.
I decided early on that I wasn't going to delete your comments, regardless of how hateful and frankly silly they are. (Hone your “sword” with some capitalization rules. Please?) Some hide from controversy behind their lawyers and PR people, others hide in the safety of anonymous e-mail accounts. I refuse to be either type of coward. My name is on the front door and I can handle criticism without using either method of evasion.
But maybe I made a mistake. I'm still deciding.
1) Yes. I believe dominance is unnecessary. That makes me about as alone and unique as a football fan is in Miami this weekend. You can act all shocked if you want, but it's your reality TV star that's standing against accepted behavioral science, not me.
1a) Yeah science. Not reality TV shows that happen to be about dog training. Science.
2) I don't think dogs are pack animals, although I should probably qualify that with “not pack animals as defined by certain TV shows and its fans.” Wolves outside of captivity do not “pack” the way Cesar implies.
2a) That's based on science again.
3) Yes, Cesar tends to be heavy-handed. Here again, I am standing “out on a limb” with literally thousands of other experienced trainers. Many if them are, like me, willing to use their real names and back up their assertions with trained dogs.
4) I know exactly what anthropomorphic means. I didn't use it to refer to alpha rolls. I referred to alpha rolls as being based on bullshit. I used anthropomorphic to refer to Cesar's pack theory nonsense. Believing that a dog cares about who walks in front of whom is anthropomorphic. Who enters a door first. Who eats first. Who sleeps in who's bed. Who sits on the sofa. The very idea of a single, linear, pack leader ruling them all is claiming that a canid thinks like a primate. Anthropomorphism.
I'm done. I let you comment and you responded with a profound lack of respect and by hiding behind a Yahoo idea. Some of your comments imply you've read me before. If that's true keep in mind it's because I'm not a coward.
Best of luck with your “literary sword.” Keep in mind though that if things don't work out, you can also cower in the safety of a new anonymous identity.
This was a great episode, full of subtle observations, effective strategies and an as-usual remarkable outcome. National Geographic isn't producing a how-to show, it's a series documenting how one man brings his expertise to bear to solve behavior problems in dogs that so many self-proclaimed experts would relegate to the euthanasia bin. It should be seen as a wake-up call to owners of such difficult cases that help does exist, and that advice from trainers, behaviorists & veterinarians that these dogs should be put down is simply the voice of overpaid ignorance slash incompetence. If you, as they, find this 'baffling' then one can only hope owners of such dogs steer clear of your assistance.
Ah yes, the “if you disagree with Cesar you must be ready to give up on dogs” canard.
Yawn. Thanks for stopping in anyway.
i love the dog whisperer..and cesar millan..I think his training is spot on
i love the dog whisperer..and cesar millan..I think his training is spot on
Well..you've inspired me once again
I think the question you ask in this post is an excellent one. What is this “energy” business about anyways? I just posted my take on Cesar Millan's “energy” speak.
http://dogandogs.com/energy-what-the-hell-is-ce...
Just to be clear the energy he speaks of is the energy you put out or your dog puts out. I notice when I’m having a bad self esteem day I can’t get my dogs to listen to me for nothing. I have a good strong day, they are behaved and submissive.
Dogs let out an energy as well whether it be “I’m the boss, I’m submissive watch out!” or “Im submissive..” Will determine the output of the dogs around them.
I went to watch the episode and it looks like it’s been removed… Do you know of anywhere else I could see it?
Unfortunately, NGC does this often.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by FrisbeeLuna and dogspelledfwd, Luna Frisbee. Luna Frisbee said: Liked this a lot. Can generalize same 4 many of CM's shows. RT @dogspelledfwd The Dog Whisperer Commentary: Bella http://bit.ly/4mK1fh [...]
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[...] Or, minimization as in it’s not so bad. That’s a good one. I wonder if Bella, the American Bull Dog, would agree that it wasn’t so bad when Millan activated the electric collar he put on her to teach her not to guard her food. (For an excellent deconstruction of this episode of the Dog Whisperer go here.) [...]
[...] point of view of a French pup; and the self-explanatory “Dog Whisperer Commentary” from Dog Spelled Forward, who actually took the time to deconstruct an entire episode of the show. [...]
[...] and Commodifications of Dominion in CM/DW" Is this the episode you speak of: Cesar Millan | Dog Whisperer | Commentary on Bella I have yet to see CM read or describe canine communication with any skill – its like he and i are [...]