Book Review:
I found the book to be mostly just a review of his TV episodes. (Probably ment to get you to watch the show!!!) The only thing that was new was in the back of the book. It had some "What to Do If ..." ideas.
After reading the book, I felt like I had watched several months of re-runs over again.
Comments:
(Sorry, it's kinda long)It's good that his show (and others like it) are geting ppl interested in training thier dogs and opening lines of communications about what is the best way to do the training. The proplem is that his methods and thories are a best "out of date". I've worked with several ppl who watch him religiously, but are getting less than stellar results with his methods. After talking with them and explaining that Cesar uses "Dominance" when he should be using "Loving Leadership" the lightbulb usually goes on.
As I've said in several past threads, I think his philosiphy (Exercise, Disipline, and Affection) has great merrit as long as it is put into a more positive light. I like to refur to it as: Exersize, Training, then Reward. It is a proven fact that dogs are easier to train after they have burned off pent up energy. I also agree with Cesar about the fact that you need to show strong leadership to train your dog! I also believe that affection can be a great form of reward. From that point on, we have very little in common.
The core of my training philosophy starts with becoming trusted friends with the dog. Once a dog trusts & respects you, it will want to do anything for you. I don't agree with heavy-handed "dominance" traning. It is just not effective in most normal cases. Cesar works with A LOT of "Red Zone" cases and he gets results b/c he uses "flooding" or simply overpowers the dog to get it to comply ... While this works short term, (in front of the camera) he never spends the time to explaining that the owner MUST continue to spend a lot of time working with the dog in order to extinguish the bad behaivor. Taking it for long walks only makes the dog tired, it is NOT a substitute for a trusting relationship and proper obedence training.
I've worked with a few dogs that have had some fairly serious problems. To be fair they were not what he would call "Red Zone". I may not have gotten "instant" results like CM, but I have a 100% rate of success. It took a lot of work by the owner and with some input and instruction by me the issues were gone in 1-4 months in most cases.
One dog that I worked with suffered from fear aggression. It took me just 4 one hour sessions to help her become more comfortable around new ppl. She still has some issues with "first time" meetings, but she doesn't go blistic when new ppl walk by her now. After she meets them once, (is allowed to smell them from a distance and is allowed to be around them without them forcing themselves on her) the second meeting goes with no problem. The key was to get ppl to pay NO attention to the dog and allow her to come to them on HER terms. Once she realized that ppl were not going to hurt her and that they had lots of treats in their pockets ... she became fine with it!!! Over the course of the past 4 months, the owners have had 20-30 ppl come by with treats in their pockets.
CM had a simular issue and his solution (he calls it "rehabilitation") was to force the dog to sit or lay down and allow ppl to touch, pet and stroke it. Any time the dog would react, growl or lash out in fear, CM snap the leash or pinned it to the ground. This kind of "rehabilitation" does nothing to help the dog overcome the fear, it only teachs the dog to freeze when it is fearful.
Subject: Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Milan 
Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:00 am
