Thoughts on Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer
As in anything these days, dog training and dog behavior work can be very political. We at Dog Behavior Rehab try to stay out of anything to do with dog politics, as we are in this to save dogs lives, show people their dogs' innate potential, and create happy households where people can truly live with "man's best friend." We really are not attached to any one set of techniques or ideas, in fact we feel that the more we learn, the more we can integrate into helping others. There is no end to the learning when it comes to dogs!
We want to be up front about how we feel about Cesar Millan. We are unabashed fans. We don't agree with everything the guy says, but we sure do like the impact he has had on our own work, and thus on the work we do with our thousands of clients and their dogs. There is a lot of talk out there about "dominance theory" and how it no longer applies in the dog world, and therefore Cesar is a bad boy for even talking about it. What hogwash! This is not the place for a treatise on dominance theory, just suffice it to say that we believe sometimes it's true. Sometimes it's not.
We work with a lot of truly bad aggression cases. There have been times when we, as a last resort, and after referring out to other dog trainers/behaviorists/veterinarians, have recommended euthanasia. That's the plain truth, and we have done this maybe 5 times in our career. However, it is our goal to always always always give a dog a second chance, to try to figure out what went wrong along the way, and offer solutions for a better life. We are not attached to any specific theory. We are attached to finding a better way for the dog.
Cesar has offered hope for thousands of people and their beloved dogs. We support him and are very happy that he brings a common sense approach to the world of dogs.
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San Jose, CA
