The Dog Whisperer?

Felix84

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#1
What does every one think of the Dog Whisperer and his training methods? I have watched the show a lot, and read his books. I think that he his training methods are pretty good. The results that he gives are extraordinary to me. I think that he has helped a lot of people that had given up in their dogs. However, I have had people say that his training methods are mean, or worthless, etc...

What do you think?
 
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#2
Umm there in another huge thread on this on the front page already, up to 6 pages I think. Scroll down a bit, it says "Cesar Milan?"
 

Felix84

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#6
just took a look at the thread. it is pretty negative. what i don't understand is why everyone views Cesar's methods so negatively? I have never seen anything from him that I personally felt was wrong. i think what he does truly helps a lot of people. but that's just my opinion.
 
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#7
Basically the problem with Cesar is that his methods are very easily screwed up in the hands of people who are not working with trainers. Also, his methods are based on bad theories and he doesn't realize that he is causing the dogs more stress, not less.

Read through the threads and follow the links provided, his "dominance" theory is way out of whack with how dominance really works in the real world.

Also, because of his show we have people thinking that every time their dog does something doggy such as sniffing along a path they are "Showing dominance". I see it all the time at my store. People come in and say "My dog is licking me. He is trying to be dominant." "He is sniffing at people when on the leash." "He sees something and wants to check it out and so pulls." What Cesar has wrought is people who think their dog is out to rule them, that is so far from the truth it is not even funny.

Also, most actual behaviorists call Cesar methods crap because they work on overstressing the dog, causing it to shut down and not teaching it in a supportive setting.

Look at it from the dogs point of view, how fun can a walk be when I am constantly jerked around? You hate being pulled by your dog, your dog will hate being pulled by you.

He has some basic theory sort of down, but his application is not that great.
 

Felix84

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#8
thank. i never thought of it that way. i will take a look at the resources in the threads.
 

houndlove

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#9
You have to understand that "not seeing anything someone is doing that is wrong" is purely subjective and based on one's own level of experience and education in the field. I'm an educator, my masters is in teaching and I'm currently working in educational research that has me "in the field" in schools and classrooms all the time. What I see when I go and observe a teacher teaching is going to be very different than what someone who has no background in teaching or education sees. I've seen some really great teaching and I've seen some pretty rotten teaching. The rotten teaching I've seen, the biggest problem with it is that so much of the time when we're working with children, our first instinct in a given situation is the absolutely wrong thing to do. For instance, when your students are being loud and disruptive, our instinct is to yell, right? Well, that doesn't really work. It may work the first couple times as you startle your students (much like shaking a can of pennies at a puppy), but once your students get acclimated to you being the "yelly teacher" they stop paying attention again. The thing to do is actually to lower your voice, or stop talking completely. Wait them out. It works, I've used this technique many times, and instead of adding more noise to a noisy classroom, you're doing the opposite. To the outside observer, the teacher who is yelling appears to be "doing something" and getting their kid's attention (especially if it's still the beginning of the year and the kids are still startled and haven't yet learned that you yelling is a frequent, boring occurance they can just ignore) and beign a "good teacher" while the teacher allowing her students to be noisy and speaking even more quietly or not saying anyting at all seems to be a "bad teacher'.

Cesar Millan has no formal background in animal behavior. He works on gut and on instinct and like in my analogy he frequently does things that "seem right" to the similarily uneducated observer, they seem to make sense. But something that seems right when you don't really know much about the topic can in fact be the last thing that someone who was really knowledgable about it would do. What's especially insidious about his show is the running commentary voiceover and narration that goes on that tells you, the viewer, what to see. But is that really what is actually occuring? Are you being sold a bill of goods in order to sell some books and some ad time? Are you being told how to think by this guy?
 

Lilavati

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#10
If we must resurrect this conversation, lets resurrect the old thread . . . at least we can pick up where we left off :D
 

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