"Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

Pack of Lies

By MARK DERR
Miami Beach

WITH a compelling personal story as the illegal immigrant made good because of his uncanny ability to understand dogs, Cesar Millan has taken the world of canine behavior — or rather misbehavior — by storm. He has the top-rated program, “Dog Whisperer,” on the National Geographic Channel, a best-selling book and a devoted following, and he has been the subject of several glowing magazine articles.

He is even preparing to release his own “Illusion” collar and leash set, named for his wife and designed to better allow people to walk their dogs the “Cesar way” — at close heel, under strict control.

Essentially, National Geographic and Cesar Millan have cleverly repackaged and promoted a simplistic view of the dog’s social structure and constructed around it a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to dog training. In Mr. Millan’s world, dog behavioral problems result from a failure of the human to be the “pack leader,” to dominate the dog (a wolf by any other name) completely.

While Mr. Millan rejects hitting and yelling at dogs during training, his confrontational methods include physical and psychological intimidation, like finger jabs, choke collars, extended sessions on a treadmill and what is called flooding, or overwhelming the animal with the thing it fears. Compared with some training devices still in use — whips and cattle prods, for example — these are mild, but combined with a lack of positive reinforcement or rewards, they place Mr. Millan firmly in a long tradition of punitive dog trainers.

Mr. Millan brings his pastiche of animal behaviorism and pop psychology into millions of homes a week. He’s a charming, one-man wrecking ball directed at 40 years of progress in understanding and shaping dog behavior and in developing nonpunitive, reward-based training programs, which have led to seeing each dog as an individual, to understand what motivates it, what frightens it and what its talents and limitations are. Building on strengths and working around and through weaknesses, these trainers and specialists in animal behavior often work wonders with their dogs, but it takes time.

Mr. Millan supposedly delivers fast results. His mantra is “exercise, discipline, affection,” where discipline means “rules, boundaries, limitations.” Rewards are absent and praise scarce, presumably because they will upset the state of calm submission Mr. Millan wants in his dogs. Corrections abound as animals are forced to submit or face their fear, even if doing so panics them.

Mr. Millan builds his philosophy from a simplistic conception of the dog’s “natural” pack, controlled by a dominant alpha animal (usually male). In his scheme, that leader is the human, which leads to the conclusion that all behavior problems in dogs derive from the failure of the owner or owners to dominate. (Conveniently, by this logic, if Mr. Millan’s intervention doesn’t produce lasting results, it is the owner’s fault.)

Women are the worst offenders in his world. In one of the outtakes included in the four-DVD set of the first season of “Dog Whisperer,” Mr. Millan explains that a woman is “the only species that is wired different from the rest.” And a “woman always applies affection before discipline,” he says. “Man applies discipline then affection, so we’re more psychological than emotional. All animals follow dominant leaders; they don’t follow lovable leaders.”

Mr. Millan’s sexism is laughable; his ethology is outdated.

The notion of the “alpha pack leader” dominating all other pack members is derived from studies of captive packs of unrelated wolves and thus bears no relationship to the social structure of natural packs, according to L. David Mech, one of the world’s leading wolf experts. In the wild, the alpha wolves are merely the breeding pair, and the pack is generally comprised of their juvenile offspring and pups.

“The typical wolf pack,” Dr. Mech wrote in The Canadian Journal of Zoology in 1999, “is a family, with the adult parents guiding the activities of a group in a division-of-labor system.” In a natural wolf pack, “dominance contests with other wolves are rare, if they exist at all,” he writes.

That’s a far cry from the dominance model that Mr. Millan attributes to the innate need of dogs by way of wolves.

Unlike their wolf forebears, dogs exist in human society. They have been selectively bred for 15,000 or more years to live with people. Studies have shown that almost from birth they are attentive to people, and that most are eager to please, given proper instruction and encouragement.

But sometimes the relationship goes very wrong, and it is time to call on a professional.

Aggression is perhaps the most significant of the behavioral problems that may afflict more than 20 percent of the nation’s 65 million dogs, because it can lead to injury and death. Mr. Millan often treats aggression by forcing the dog to exercise extensively on a treadmill, by asserting his authority over the dog by rolling it on its back in the “alpha rollover,” and through other forms of intimidation, including exposure to his pack of dogs.

Forcefully rolling a big dog on its back was once recommended as a way to establish dominance, but it is now recognized as a good way to get bitten. People are advised not to try it. In fact, many animal behaviorists believe that in the long run meeting aggression with aggression breeds more aggression.

More important, aggression often has underlying medical causes that might not be readily apparent — hip dysplasia or some other hidden physical ailment that causes the dog to bite out of pain; hereditary forms of sudden rage that require a medical history and genealogy to diagnose; inadequate blood flow to the brain or a congenital brain malformation that produces aggression and can only be uncovered through a medical examination. Veterinary behaviorists, having found that many aggressive dogs suffer from low levels of serotonin, have had success in treating such dogs with fluoxetine (the drug better known as Prozac).

Properly treating aggression, phobias, anxiety and fears from the start can literally save time and money. Mr. Millan’s quick fix might make for good television and might even produce lasting results in some cases. But it flies in the face of what professional animal behaviorists — either trained and certified veterinarians or ethologists — have learned about normal and abnormal behavior in dogs.

Mark Derr is the author of “A Dog’s History of America: How Our Best Friend Explored, Conquered and Settled a Continent.”

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Message edited 3/4/2013 12:03:15 PM.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

hmmm..I truly dont see him ever hurting a dog and I cant deny on video watching what he does and the way his dogs at his rehab center are.

I think its like being jealous of someones fame and trying to take pot shots at him....

I dont think he is the GREATEST but I dont think the article made a good point , it sounded like jealousy to me.

One could point out his flaws in training in a more tactful truthful way.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

very interesting article. thanks for posting it!

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

I have actually read those type of things about him before, but since I don't watch him and/or use his techniques I didn't pay much attention.
I am more of a Warren Eckstein fan.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

I appreciate his idea of willing the dog to do what you want, but I have to admit, our dogs are our family (I'm talking about the dogs at my IL's, My grandparents and my mom's) and all of us show so much affection to our pups...so much so, he'd have a canary.

ETA: There is a need for me to show my dogs love...I couldn't be in the same room as a dog and NOT show it affection.

Message edited 8/31/2006 9:44:32 PM.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

heres the thing.....hes telling the owners they are doing something wrong, WHEN they have a problem dog...A vicious, ill tempered etc dog most of the time.

You think the dog just ende dup that way? No, the owners for SURE had a part in how the dogs attitude was determined.

So I think Jess, your example of carrying your dog like a baby is not relevant cause your dog doesnt attack people or other dogs ya know?

I guess I am more into results.....As long as the dog is not being intimidated by fear. which they are NOT, they are DOGS for goodness sakes....or hurt with the training, then Im all for the speedy results he has with reform.

Remember the show is not about Teaching dogs OBEDIENCE , its about REFORMING Dogs with problems...

I think thats where the confusion comes in.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

interesting aricle. I watch his show.. .We even started making a video of rudy to send to him. Rudy is a bad dog (sometimes) He bites growls and runs around jumping on you like a lunatic. Rudy was like this From the Night we brought him home. My best friend tried to lay on the floor with him and he went after her.So while I might have let him get away with it... I definetly didn't "teach" him to do it. We took him to dog training at petsmart and they did nothing but teach him to "sit" and "lay down" which we actually taught him before taking him there. when we addressed the bitting the told us to tell him "no" WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK WE WERE DOING WHEN HE WAS GOING AFTER US!

Someone who trains dogs told us to get a prong collar. I HATE IT but I have to say being that he is 70 pounds and PULLS me down the block... If I use it once for around the block He will not pull and If Keep taking him for walks after WITH OUT it he walks so GOOD. No pulling.

We have to keep Rudy on a leash sometimes when goes after us and its the only way he STOPS

I love him to much to give up but we are kinda getting to the end of our rope.

We also were told by a lot of people on here to do the "alpha rollover"

Let me also Say that when I asked my friend to comeover and be in the video she said "oh thats good to do that since NO ONE wants to come to your house cause the dog is bad" Do you know how bad that hurts!

Message edited 9/1/2006 1:20:19 PM.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

Cesar Milan has created monsters in people who watch a few episodes and then believe that they are dog behavior experts.

My dog is a rescue and has a problem that is known by behaviorists as "resource guarding." We are working with a trainer, which means paid training sessions plus a lot of time reinforcing what we learn, and I have read everything I can about the problem known as "resource guarding." We are making amazing progress, but none of it has been overnight.

The problem I have with Cesar Milan is that we have friends who insist that they could have cured our dog overnight. These friends have made attempts to "work with" my dog, always by behaving very aggressively toward my dog. They have yet to prove that they can offer any assistance to my dog or to me. I am at the point where I tell them that they are not going to use my little dog to prove their manliness. I don't mean to sound angry but Cesar Milan really needs to tell people that if they want to work with dogs, do more than watch a TV show, and get the owner's permission. I find myself putting the dog away, not because of the dog, but because everyone is now a sudden dog expert!!

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

My sister watched Cesar Milan religiously. She has a problem dog and she tries cesar's techniques on him and I really see that the dog is very frightened and intimidated, and it just makes him worse because he is very nervous.

Re: "Pack of Lies" - Cesar Milan

I don't watch Cesar's show all the time, so I may have missed things, but I have never seen him "alpha roll" a dog or act aggressively or intimidating toward a dog.

I do see him encourage owners to understand that dogs are dogs, not furry little people -- they need exercise and most of them need boundaries. When I got my puppy I read everything about positive training and I was totally into it. Positive training has worked well, but it only works when my dog respects me (I happen to have a pushy dog). No, I don't hit him or yell at him or "alpha roll" him to show my "dominance," but I do make him sit before he is fed, sit and wait before I let him out the door, get off the couch when I want to sit down, etc. These simple things establish pack order. I have read tons of books and articles that reflect the author's opinion the "pack theory" for dogs is flawed. But in my experience they couldn't be more wrong -- dogs do understand and respond to pack dynamics. Again, I don't think anyone should use the "alpha roll" or other harsh techniques, but pack order can be established by simple obedience training.

ETA: I can see there could be a problem with people just watching the show and thinking the know how to handle their dogs behavior problem. I think all dogs with true behavior problems should be seen by a behaviorist.

Message edited 9/7/2006 12:35:53 PM.