The Sitting Tree

I recently have been introduced to Cesar Millan, who is better known as the host of the National Geographic show The Dog Whisperer. At first I was somewhat skeptical mostly because I hadn’t heard of him and it was just a co-worker telling me of his methods, but after reading some web pages about how to take care of your dog, with lessons taken straight from Millan, I decided to order the Mastering Leadership DVD box set.

I didn’t find anything cruel about his methods. None of them actually harm the animals, and if you think that his methods “upset the dogs” then you are also asserting that you have some kind of empathic ability to read the dog’s emotions. After only using his methods on one walk, the change in my dog’s behavior was a night and day difference. Now people will argue and say that the changes are only temporary because it’s an easy rebuttal. See, it’s difficult to see into the future, and thus impossible for anyone to really be able to combat that argument. I’m not saying this is their intention, but it is definitely the outcome.

Cesar Millan says that it’s the people that need the training, not the dogs. He is right on so many levels, except that he is committing a generalization here because not all humans are completely ignorant of Mother Nature, although, regrettably, most are. Let me talk about the different arguments I have seen the past couple days against Mr. Millan’s methods: (more…)