[Erin]

He's full of it.

What Cesar says and what he does are two different things. He'll point to the dog and say "look now he is calm" but he's NOT. The dog is obviously showing stress signals and he just says "he is in the calm state". It's BS. Just because Cesar says it does not mean it's true or what is actually happening.

There was an episode with a Golden Retreiver and a pool. The dog LOVED to swim in the pool but the family didn't want him in there for whatever reason. So rather than teaching the dog a down-stay or simply locking him out of the safety gate that surrounded the pool, Cesar basically chased him out of the pool every time he jumped in until he stopped jumping in. While that seems to work and makes for good TV - it was obvious that the dog was stressed and confused and afraid of what would happen if he jumped in the pool!!!

Yes dogs need exercise.
Yes dogs need leadership.
Yes dogs need boundaries.
ANY good trainer will tell you that. But what you won't get from a trainer is all the BS about being dominant or "biting" your dog with your hand or any of that BS. They will explain there is a difference between leadership and dominance. And they also know that dogs aren't stupid enough to think people are dogs. Cesar uses some stuff he made up that has NO basis in science and dog training and some stuff that is way old school dog training and no longer favored. The experts - those with Ph.D's who have been training dogs for 30 years and doing research - favor positive reinforcements techniques. The problem with that? It's not sensational enough for TV. It's slow, methodical, and requires a committment on the part of the owner. Cesar swoops in and appears to fix everything and suddenly he's a hero.

Cesar talks about some of the right things, but he DOES a lot of the wrong things. And I feel that actions speak louder than words in this case.