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Originally Posted by QuickSilver  I'm going to come out and say that I don't like "The Dog Whisperer" very much. My impression is that Cesar IS in fact a dog whisperer - he is very intuitive and I think he connects with dogs on a deep level. While this is fantastic for him, I don't think he is a very good teacher, because I think a lot of the time he himself doesn't know exactly what's he's doing.
I feel like "The Dog Whisperer" is more about the legend of Cesar than it is about actually training dogs. He throws around words like "energy" and it seems to mean about twenty different things. Often he'll attribute his methods to some type of "energy" when it's a basic, established training method - desensitization, for instance.
I think Cesar has done a lot of great work for dogs, so I admire the man himself quite a bit. It just boils down to this: I think everyone should watch "It's Me or the Dog"!
I read a very interesting book recently that said that dogs are basically baby wolves, so they don't need a "pack leader" so much as a momma and poppa wolf. Which boils down to something pretty similar, since you need to teach your children that you are in charge and show them how to behave. |
You're right, and I doubt if Cesar has had any professional training, but he "gets it" and he helps others get it. I watch his show, and I understand exactly what he's using when it comes to behavior theory, but while using the correct terminology makes it easier to understand the concepts behind everything, you would need a whole class on terminology. Most people don't understand what desensitization is, but when he shows you how to do it, and then you can use those principles with your dog, who cares about the word? Same with pack lead/or mama and poppa, same idea, different words. I think what he's contributed the most to the field is his explanations on the way we behave around the animals. I think as you watch the program more, you begin to understand what he means by the energy you give off, but you're right, there are probably twenty different meanings behind it. So many behaviorists, seem to want their share of the pie, and seem to want to set themselves apart from him by bringing up the differences. Find what works with you, and what you are confortable doing. There is more than one way to train a dog!