Originally Posted by
Shabbychic
As far as I was aware, Victoria Stillwell is a dog trainer and Cesar is a dog psychologist. Two different things entirely. There is so much hype being spouted about Cesar on the net, and some of it is being repeated here almost verbatim, kicking, pinning, jabbing and all the rest. If anyone actually sat down and watched Cesar dealing with dogs, rather than reading the nonsense being put out there by dog trainers who are raging that Cesar is now getting the attention that they used to get, (especially Ian Dunbar) and will do anything to discredit him, they would understand what he is doing and why. He is not kicking the dogs, he is nudging them to break their concentration on a particular item or situation. He also does not use the same methods for all dogs, like many trainers do. He studies the situation, the human element as well as the canine one, and treats each case as an individual. Very often, all it takes is for the owner to change their bad habits or hang-ups, and the dog changes in response.
While I do not see Cesar as the be all and end all, I do believe he does have an understanding of how the dog's mind work. This, "the modern day dog and current thinking is that our pet dogs today are about as close in habit to a pack of wolves as our current habits are to Neanderthal man," that always gets quoted, is also nonsense. Dump some dogs out to fend for themselves and see how long it takes them to revert back to the wild, pack mentality. There are examples of this happening in many poor areas throughout the world. I have a young puppy right now that stalks, pounces and worries his teddy in such a manner, that I have no doubts at all that if teddy was a small animal, it wouldn't survive very long. This is completely natural to him, and is exactly the same as some wild animals I have seen doing the same thing.
It should also be remembered that many of the cases seen on The Dog Whisperer, are extreme cases and not the norm. Having also watched Cesar with his pack, to me they all appear happy and calm in his presence, and in no way fearful of him.
I personally don't think anyone has the perfect method, and believe a mixture of training and psychology is the best way to go, but I feel Cesar gets a really bad deal from some dog trainers who believe that they are the only ones that know what to do, and that their methods are gospel.
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