Hey, no I don't mind you rambling at all! Thank you for sharing your story and I love hearing actual stories of people who grew up in that time, as I did not, so I definitely don't have as clear-picture view that someone like yourself would have. I actually believe it was the '60's when things started going downhill, LOL.
HaHa-to much drugs and rock n roll...
I also wanted to point out that I don't believe things were perfect, by any means. I feel like every generation has their weaknesses, as well as their strengths, but lately I've just been disgusted by the human race in general.
Easy to do but then you will meet someone who is "passing it on" and it will surprise you and give you faith in mankind again.
However, I need to sit back sometimes and remember how grateful I should be to be living in such a place as America. Actually, when I graduated high school, I decided to travel all over the place with a great group of friends and it was the best time of my life. We went all over the US, going from Ohio to Seattle, into venturing into Vancouver, BC and Victoria, BC. It was an absolute blast and I'm extremely grateful I was able to do such a thing.
My older brother lived on Victoria Island for years (old hippie) who now works for NG. I was lucky and got to visit him many times up there..it is beautiful and I love Canadians.
Everything I
bolded I totally agree with (not that I disagree with your non bolded statements, the bolded ones are just ones that stuck out to me!) I think animal abuse is absolutely horrifying and terrible as well as child abuse. I do NOT agree with it at all. But that's where I differ I guess... spanking does not seem cruel to me. Could I do it to my own child? Probably not! I'm not that kind of person. I'm just saying I don't find Cesar abusive so I guess that's why I can't make a clear argument here. Because I agree with everything you're saying... yet don't. Argh! lol. And here I sit defending Cesar but I've never actually DONE any of these techniques really because I've never had to. I don't own a larger dog currently and I have never trained one. I've grown up with them, but never trained them. I occasionally volunteer at a shelter where we rescued my dad's dog from, but they also don't take aggressive dogs generally.
Basically, I think Cesar is a good person with a big heart, who loves dogs and means well.
Yea - high five - we agree on this. I don't think he is a bad person either...IMHO he is just using old skills that my fathers generation used.
I don't think he is abusive but I don't think he's "soft" either. I think he's done a lot of good for the dog owners of America and I really enjoy watching his program and learning different methods. Have I ever alpha rolled my own dog? No. Have I ever so called "kicked" my dog? No. But I most definitely portray his calm assertive energy and his exercise, disipline, affection. On the other hand, I do look at Jackson like he's my child, but I still treat him like the dog that he is at the same time. I let him sleep on my bed and he doesn't think he's Alpha.
All 6 of my dogs sleep with me and one does sleep on the pillow but she is the tiniest (3#) and I believe she does this for safety as I can't roll over on her. While all of my dogs are dogs first, they are terriers second and we all live in harmony together...as long as I have the spray bottle if they go nuts barking which they tend to do...so there, I do something that not everyone would agree with.
Even Cesar does different things for different dogs, most of the time he teaches that the dog walking in front of you is bad but other times he will allow it depending on the case. He differs his methods every case. So, there's always exceptions to rules and ways and it's just how each invidual decides to go about it. I'm always up to hear others training methods as well.