;)
Just for informational purposes, I'm trying to figure out what IS IT exactly that Cesar Milan teaches?
Koehler...has his method of training...its a process..follows a specific order...whether or not you agree..its an ACTUAL method of training....
There is NILF.....specific description of this training...etc...once again a unique method
and lots of others, I'm sureWhat exactly does Cesar Milan teach? To me his training is a rip off from 10 or so "Puppies for Dummies" books. Its not precise...there is no method to his madness..lmao...just random bits of commonly known training tips
I DONT see him as a trainer...by the way...but apparently there are books written by him and everything...What exactly makes HIS training method unique and distinguished ?
SitStayFetch: Dog Training To Stop Your Dog's Behavior Problems (Review)
Recommended Answer:Time for me to put in my two cents!
Cesar Millan teaches nothing. Here comes my standard answer on him – longer than ever.
Here I go again…let me explain why I despise Cesar Millan...but first...for all you Cesar Millan fans out there.
Some people need to do some serious reading… http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com/ http://www.4pawsu.com/cesarfans.htm
I highly recommend these books. The Power of Positive dog Training by Pat Miller and Positive Perspectives 2: Know your dog, Train your dog by Pat Miller. Both of these books are very detailed and advanced, (The second book more so than the first one) and it will enlighten ANYONE on positive reinforcement dog training. These books bust the silly myths that people have about positive dog training.
Sorry to disappoint everyone, but Cesar Millan IS NOT a real dog trainer! Not even close! He is an actor!
Cesar Millan is a self taught “professional” dog trainer. I despise him! I don't see any certifications from him or any sort of schooling whatsoever! He just declares himself a dog trainer! Excuse me, but if you are serious about becoming an honest to god GOOD dog trainer, then you need to work for it. To start with, you must SLOWLY work with a local dog trainer (positive reinforcement) and then move on to working with well known, respected dog trainers. This will take YEARS of COLLEGE and SCHOOLING! Secondly, you MUST be willing to devote the time and hard work it takes to become a trainer. You MUST be willing to do a lot of research and work through all of the myths and craziness in the dog training world! You MUST love dogs and be passionate about training them! Has Cesar Millan done any of this? NO!
In my book, I only respect dog trainers that have gone to COLLEGE and WORKED for their animal behavior degree!
He has been in some “minor” legal problems. People have sued him and he has been greatly criticized. No honest, good, dog trainer gets sued from their own clients! And yes, he does do cruel, abusive, inhumane, so called “training” methods on dogs. I can't believe so MANY people worship him! It's sick!
Cesar has a huge ego that I would LOVE to deflate! That kind of attitude NEVER goes over well with me.
Cesar Millan doesn't genuinely care about dogs. If he cared about dogs he would march himself out there and actually get an education in dog training and behavior and he wouldn't be such a show off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQUegRGo0… Watch this video. All Cesar is doing is waiting for the dog to get so tired of jumping and of getting strangled, that he collapses to the ground. The dog was NOT finally letting up and becoming “submissive.” Without a doubt this is ABUSE! I will say once again, I despise Cesar and I'm desperately trying to get people to use their brains and stop worshiping him!
I love positive reinforcement training. Positive reinforcement is not a death sentence. The goal of this method is to make training a more pleasant experience for the dog and owner while STILL producing a well trained dog.
You can't deny the fact the Cesar Millan isn't qualified in any way to train dogs. He has no business waltzing around telling people what to do with their dogs.
This is the 21st century. Things have changed. People have found more effective ways to train dogs without fear or force. And yes, that INCLUDES aggressive dogs.
Now, lots of people will argue with me because Cesar Millan is accredited and recognized bythe International Association of Canine Professionals. Did he have any former training to begin with? No. He is still self taught. I know he claims that he reads dog psychology books all of the time, but I see he learns nothing from them nor do I believe that he reads those books in the first place.
A large association like the IACP is not going to deny Cesar Millan a spot in their accreditation area since he has such a huge following. It all has to do with business. Its good business for them to accredit him whether he should be or not. And of course it does a lot of good for Cesar too.
The dominance/alpha training method has proven to do more harm than good! People will NEVER master the art of trying to be a dog or wolf! We will never be able to perfectly replicate what a dog will do to another dog. This is why the dominance/alpha/pack leader method is useless and has hurt many dogs and people. People have gone WAY overboard on this method. People become total idiots and power happy and all they focus on is more ways to enforce their position as a “PACK LEADER” and “THE BOSS.”
Centuries ago, people came up with their own ideas, opinions and methods about training dogs. This is not so anymore. This is the 21st century. Science has come into play and numerous studies have been done, therefore, there is now a RIGHT and a WRONG way of training dogs. You can train a dog with positive reinforcement without the crap Cesar millan preaches and STILL be the pack leader.
All he does is tell people to take your dog for a walk and exercise them a zillion times! Exercising your dog is very important, but it's not the cure to EVERYTHING! He also is CONVINCED that EVERY single dog is dominate and was put on this earth to overtake you!! WRONG! There are dominant dogs out there, but not many!
The huge problem that Cesar Millan has is the way he deals with aggressive dogs. Two wrongs don't make a right and he shouldn't fight and be aggressive right back to the dog. Obviously, literally fighting with an already aggressive dog WILL cause harm every single time. His dog psychology is quite mixed up. There are practicing, DEGREED animal behaviorists that use positive reinforcement and positive punishment to rehabilitate dogs. You can't tell me that Cesar Millan's “expertise” is more important than a VETERINAIANS opinion can you? Vets SEE first hand the physical damage that these outdated training techniques do! True animal behaviorist SEE the emotional damage.
He abuses dogs in my opinion! Violence and physical abuse is NEVER the answer!
Dog trainer, dog whisperer, dog behaviorist, canine behaviorist, animal behaviorist WHATEVER you call the man, does NOT change the fact that he hasn't a CLUE on what he's doing. He is the WORST thing that has happened to the dog training world!
Cesar Millan is a big celebrity, celebrities need to get used to people loving them or hating them. I'm sure he could care less whether I hate him or not.
So just because the rich and famous chose HIM to showcase or train their dogs (Oprah, Jay Leno etc.) means we should all listen to him? I don't think so! Why should we “follow” the lead of whoever celebrity/useless talk show host is big at the moment? That's just ridiculous! That's not a good reason to like Cesar Millan because “Everyone else does!”
I got news for all of you who come back with THAT argument. Celebrities are NOT the sharpest knifes in the drawer! They just spend their lives getting paid big bucks to interview people, and the get the latest “scoop” on matters or if movie stars, act as a different person everyday.
I'm perfectly aware of the fact that Millan is into rescue. My answer - So what? He knows that's going to make him look good so that's why he does it.
People go to church every day and that doesn't automatically make them "wonderful." Some pretty downright horrid people go to church. Going to church doesn't get you "off the hook" and Cesar Millan being into rescue doesn't get him "off the hook" either for all the other things he's done.
Oh, I'm sure Millan has had many, many un-trainable dogs that he hasn't been able to save with his so-called “training” techniques. Those shows will NEVER EVER air. Why on earth would Millan want the world to know that he failed? Cesar Millan uses his charm (Yeah, right. I don't buy it.) and big ego to win people that are watching at home. He's nothing but a con artist.
I think I've covered everything…after answering countless of Cesar Millan questions I have a big list of excuse and arguments that people try to bring up and I, in turn, have one right back at them.
Bring on the TD's!
Common Tools Used In Dog Training Schools
- What Cesar teaches is how to be a stable pack leader, how to create a relationship with your dog focused around respect, trust and love and what these things are important. That's it really. Its a fairly simple concept. There are people out there who disagree with his methods. Some of them can be respectful in their disagreements, most are not. By and large all of the "Cesar Haters" out there COMBINED have not done as much good for the plight of dogs on this planet as Cesar has.
- Cesar's EXACT and UNIQUE method is understanding the behaviours and thought processes of the dogs. Learning to adapt to their chain of command and how things work in a real pack of dogs, correcting them as they would be corrected in the wild, watching and mimicking what their mother or pack leader would do in a situation. He is not outdated he just uses common sense and has taken alot of time to study dogs.
PS Theresa B obviously you have never seen his show, read his books, been to one of his seminars because at his seminars you can watch it all beginning to end. I have used many of his training methods at home with both my dogs and have had very posetive results.
- I was watching him 3yrs ago when I got out of the hospital and was wondering what all the fuss is about..I was watching how he takes his 3 fingers and makes that sound like he's spitting and puts them on the dogs neck...I did that and my dogs hated it,so when they are barking at the window I will sneak up and do that and they cowar..lol..I also if I can't get to them across the room throw a plastic water bottle filled with a few pennies..Works everytime as that scares the hell outta them..I just see what he has done, I grew up with..Basic Training and training the owner...
- One of the most important things out of his mouth as advice to people is to stay calm & assertive. Which most people fail to do. You cannot ever as a human train a dog with frustration & anger & expect that dog to 100% trust you afterward.After reading ms manners answer & a few others, there is really nothing more for me to add.
- He uses his ability to "project" his authority on the animals. What we don't understand is the fact that all animals will follow an authority figure when they find one, we typically just get a dog or cat as a "pet", meaning they have full run of the house and we just let them! So...
- he does not have any formal education about dogs or dog behavior.
and his methods are not a method. they are **** he came up with some day.
everyone can irritate the hell out of a dog to make him do whatever.
more about this:
http://www.4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm
- He teaches me to change the channel. What is his method: People are "Blinded by the *white*, la la la. I wonder if he really knows how many people talk more about his teeth than his methods.
- .... the fact that he has been reported to use such outdated, ineffective methods such as alpha roll?
- I am sure that he has taken his ideas from other places and put together what works for him....who among us has not?
What I have gotten from him:
Exercise, discipline, and THEN affection.
First dog, then breed, then name (in other words, treat your dog like an animal, not a person or a fur kid).
A better awareness of pack dynamics.
Purposeful walking with the dog at heel is not only good exercise but good discipline.
Dogs are best introduced to each other by parallel walking.
Dogs pick up on their handlers emotions, so a good handler needs to stay calm. Fearful, nervous people need to stay the heck away from problem dogs.
How to recognize nervous barking as opposed to aggressive barking.
A finger poke to the shoulder works wonders as a correction, especially with small dogs.
HEY works very well as a verbal correction.
Say what you will, the man made his living working with problem dogs before he became famous or got a show. That makes him a trainer in my book, whether you agree with his methods or not.
- Okey Dokey now. Ms. Manners pretty much got it down. I do use some of his training/teaching/whatever.
Exercise, discipline, affection. In that order.
Rules, boundaries and limitations.
*Owning* your space.
No touch, no talk, no eye contact.
Pack leader. It works for me.
Using your body language.
Assertiveness.
Implementing hand signals with a command.
Using your energy to have better control over the dog.
Not every dog needs the same kind of training.
His *alpha roll*? Never saw him put a dog on it's BACK. Always on the side. Not that I always agreed.
He uses prongs, harnesses, E collars......AND! If warranted: TREATS!
I have watched his show from the first airing. I don't watch it much anymore because he is pretty much gotten into the *celebrity* dog thing.
But, what parts of his *teachings* I have used I have found work and work very well.
What I do not agree with is Cesar thinks ALL dogs can be saved. I don't.
- I think people seem to forget that this man, was not always on tv, and he was still working with dogs before he was on TV and obviously got great results enough so that he was confronted about making a TV show. Now what exactly was Stillwell before It's me or the Dog?
I am not condoning him or praising him or whatever, I take a neutral stance on him. I really just hate people bad mouthing a guy they really don't even know and have never worked with him.
His training method is a mesh of various training methods, not just a single one, if meshed together techniques that seemed to work for him and went from there. Nothing bad about that in my opinion, I like variety.
He has never said he trains dogs, if you ever hear him talk he always say he is training the people. Training them to properly handle their problem dogs.
But hey everyone has their opinions on him, wether it be good or bad, I can't stop someone from bad mouthing him. Such is life I suppose.
I do admire one thing about him though, he worked his but off all the way up from nothing and did it himself.
Edit- Uhave: I lost all respect for that woman after I heard the comment she made on Greatest American Dog I think, there should be a youtube video of it. And I barely had any respect for her to begin with, but the way she acted was distasteful.
- Bravo to Manners, UHave, Chaos, Launi. I think you nailed it.
Yeah, the dude learned about dogs growing up among packs of dogs in Mexico, where dogs are left more to their own devices and more allowed to be dogs and behave as pack animals - as opposed to the overcoddled 'only child' playthings American owners tend to turn them into.
So of course there is going to be resistance from some with only formal, human-centric training backgrounds
Milan says in every show and throughout his books: he rehabilitates dogs, he TRAINS humans
And yeah, his shows are edited to make tidily paced TV entertainment.
My take on Milan and other dog trainers and methods is that they are a buffet line of ideas and values. You pick and choose what things from each of them makes sense and works for you.
Kinda like my take on politics.
- I think that's part of the controversy surrounding him. He has no method. Also I think that's why people who follow his techniques make mistakes. No one knows what he's really doing and can only be imitating him without knowing whether or not whatever they are doing is actually what the dog needs. But he shows quick results and that might be what draws people to him. Key word there is "show."
I think probably his "method" most closely resembles NILIF.
I can watch him and be entertained. Sometimes I can hear something he says and go "ohhhhhhhhhh" okay, that makes sense. Other times I just want to turn the TV off.
PS I haven't watched his show in like 2 years. We got rid of cable some time ago. Wasted money on that.
I do have a certain *****amount of respect for the guy. But he is the only one who knows what he is doing and he can't even really explain it. His books are not page turners for me because of it. I have to put them down and I haven't read one of them all the way through.
Would I let my dog spend time in his Dog Psychology Center though?
Nope.
- I go back and forth. I do think that dominance and submission issues can exist, but his "energy" and "state of mind" nonsense is...nonsense. Surprise, surprise. Some of the things he says make sense to me, but none of his methods do. Saying "ch" and snapping his fingers at a dog may make the dog cower at him, but the dog certainly won't cower from his owners. The most minute results are turned into big deals, with him saying such things as "That's a good first step; you'll get better results later."
My dog trainer and I use the exact same methods on my dog. However, my dog is somewhat frightened of the trainer, and not of me at all. It has to do with the unfamiliarity of the trainer and the fact that while dogs get away with many things at home, they never get away with anything while with the trainer.
Cesar Millan's thinking, a lot of it, and all his methods are outdated and basically useless. He has made numerous implications with no proof from a small amount of hard evidence, and since they seem to work a little, he has made them very popular with pet owners. He's got some things straight, but everything else is loopy.
- Ms. Manners last statement hits the nail on the head.
This guy made a living training dogs before he found fame and fortune.
He absolutely took on dogs that had been given up on my others.
My breeder had him out for one of her dogs before he was famous. She was astounded at the dogs change in front of her eyes.
I love watching his show. More so since I started assisting with training classes 5 years ago (Koehler), because it really is 99% the handler/owners issue not the dogs. That is what Cesear is great at figuring out right away. What is it the owner is doing that is causing the behavior.
I appreciate his use of corrections and willingness to use e collars, and other training aids, as opposed to that Birtish ninny who declared that choke chains were inhumane. That was my first and last time watching her show. (Oh and she was a Dog WALKER and Actress before getting her show)
I can not base Cesars effectiveness on an edited show, designed to entertain and keep John Q public- who has the attention span of a gnat- interested, but I can base it on the success he had before he ever became famous and those that used his services, who had nothing but good things to say about him.
- There is no method he uses....He just slaps on a choke chain or prong collar and forces the dog to be scared of him so he can control the dog long enough for the cameras to capture his "factual methods of training" then leaves the owners a dog who is confused in they're behavior towards them...Victoria Stillwel uses positive training and actually makes sense to show to train a dog with respect and actually SHOW the dog that what they are doing is NOT acceptable just like you do with children. Cesar is an abusive joke if ya ask me....
- All he does is cause more problems with the dogs and destroy their relationships with their owners. His show has a disclaimer at the beginning for Christ's sake.
Pretty much all I ever see him do is slam the dogs to the ground. That fixes everything! >_<
I laughed when in one episode he supposedly cured a dog's aggression towards other dogs using that ridiculous pinning method, but when he brought the dog to see his dogs it got in a fight with one of the other ones.
His methods are incredibly outdated. It upsets me that people are actually stupid enough to try them. I heard a story a few years back about this woman who tried the pinning thing at home, and her dog bit her.
While I agree that HE is an actor, Victoria Stilwell's show is very helpful. I use her methods with my dogs all the time, and they work wonderfully, plus I don't have to worry about my dogs attacking me...
EDIT: Actually, Victoria Stilwell was a trainer for nearly ten years before she started the show.
