Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan – The Complete First Season
December 23, 2009 by Jim Trainer
Filed under Books And News
- Cesar Millan has been called the Dr. Phil for Dogs. With an uncanny ability to rehabilitate problem dogs of all shapes and sizes, Cesar has captured the national spotlight with his hit TV show on the National Geographic Channel. Each episode of the Dog Whisperer documents the remarkable transformations that take place under Cesar s guidance and teaching, helping dogs and their owners live happier
Product Description
No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: DOG WHISPERER
Title: DOG WHISPERER
Street Release Date: 07/11/2006
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Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan – The Complete First Season
Tags: Cesar, Cesar Millan, problem dogs
I’m a certificated Behavioral Therapist for Dogs from The Netherlands. I had to rate this show with 1 star in order to be able to comment on it, but I think 1 star is too much.
I watched Cesar’s show several times on TV. I think his methods are very old fashioned. Why use corrections if you can teach dogs things in a positive and non-threatening way.
The Dutch association of Behavioral Therapists has officially protested against the broadcasting of Cesar’s show.
Cesar should watch Victoria Stilwell’s show. She teaches dogs and owners how to deal with problems in a positive and ethological way.
Rating: 1 / 5
Cesar Milan, the so-called ‘dog whisperer’, bases his training methods on a dog behavior model that is so out of date as to be archaic – from the dinosaur age. He teaches that dogs base all their behavior on their pack status, and that you need to use painful ‘corrections’ to convince them that you are Alpha. This idea hasn’t the slightest shred of evidence going for it.
Yes, dogs do have dominance roles, but that hasn’t the slightest thing to do with problem behaviors. Dogs do ‘bad’ doggy behaviors because they work. Dog guards his food bowl? Dog wants to keep food and knows that growling keeps you away. Dog pulls on the leash? Dog wants to get somewhere faster and knows that pulling speeds things up. The dog doesn’t care whether or not you’re alpha; he only cares that what he’s doing works to get him what he wants.
Technically, Cesar’s methods work. But they use force, fear, and pain to teach the dog, when you can teach the same things faster with the proper positive motivation and non-forceful techniques. I have three hyper, active, highly driven Border Collies, and they’re all very obedient and mannerly. They don’t haul me around the leash, nor do they leap at guests, nor do they ignore me when I tell them something. And I don’t need to be ‘Alpha’ to get them that way; neither does anyone else.
I strongly suggest that you don’t buy this item. Good books to start with are Karen Pryor’s ‘Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs’, Melissa Alexander’s ‘Click for Joy!’ (also with a great problem solving section), and Jean Donaldson’s ‘The Culture Clash’. You can easily have a happy, obedient, well behaved dog without causing him fear and pain.
Rating: 1 / 5
Cesar Millan’s methods are old fashioned and psychologically violent.
He calls himself a behaviorist but he’s not. Ask any real dog behaviorist (Ian Dunbar, Patricia McConnell, The Animal Behavior Associates) or serious trainer (Trish King, Pat Miller, Karen Pryor the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) and the Council for Pet Dog Trainer) or the Humane Society of the United States or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and they will tell you that his methods work in a short term because the dog is just afraid of reacting to the new environment. But in a long term the dog develops other serious issues.
I am a dog trainer in an area with a high concentration of Latino families; here Cesar Millan is seen as a god and people buy his books and DVD and follow his methods for about one year. Then reality strikes and their dogs become extremely fearful and start to soil the house or hide away or they become aggressive (a natural reaction to fear in dogs) and the owners end up calling me and spend precious time and money to have me fix the mess they made following Cesar Millan’s methods…
Amazon.com offers literature written by the behaviorists mentioned above. Buy that, instead.
If you really need help with your “Fido” and want to make him a favor, contact one of the Associations listed above and have them refer you to a professional.
Rating: 1 / 5
I was a fan of Cesar’s until I bought this DVD set for a friend for Christmas. I was wondering why she didn’t say much about it when I asked. She didn’t say anything becuase IT IS TERRIBLE. Nothing but out-takes by amateur videographer.
PLEASE don’t waste your money on this. And someone out there knows Cesar tell him this production is giving him a bad reputation.
Rating: 1 / 5
Dogs deserve humane treatment, and that is not what Mr. Milan’s training gives them. Even aggression does not need to be treated with force and outdated training methods. Granted, the show is quite popular, but that doesn’t mean the techniques are humane or should be done at home.
The American Humane Association has written the following about his show:
“The training tactics featured on Cesar Millan’s `Dog Whisperer’ program are inhumane, outdated and improper.”
Another excerpt about the “Dog Whisperer” TV show: “It also does a disservice to all the show’s viewers by espousing an inaccurate message about what constitutes effective training and appropriate treatment of animals.”
Rating: 2 / 5