Cesar's Dedication

I am going to write about Cesar Millan's dedication, but perhaps not the one you think.

I am not going to talk about Cesar Millan's dedication to the dogs, or the TV show, or the Dog Pyschology Center he founded in Los Angeles.

I am going to talk about the dedication to his new book Cesar's Rules, which came out yesterday.

I was at National Geographic last night, for his first book-signing of the tour, and to see episode one of Season Seven (very funny and smart).

Cesar has the gift of all famous great speakers, which is to come out small, slightly disorganized, and a bit tentative (note that the rules are bit different if you are not famous).

If you are expecting a Massive Ego to enter the room, you do not see it.

If you are expecting to get a shtick you do not get it.

When Millan shows up, it is the opposite of a television evangelist; there is no shiney suit, no carefully orchestrated hand movements, no set stump speech.

Which is not to say he does not have speaking modules.

If you talk a lot, you learn to say your lines and not bump into the furniture too much. The trick is to have several hundred bits in your glad-bag of stories and ideas, and to let those pieces tumble out in a natural and unforced order as people ask questions or raise points that need further illumination.

Millan does it masterfully. There is a reason he is the People Whisperer.

OK, back to the book, but before I get there, let me note that this book was NOT written by Cesar Millan alone any more than his television show is produced as a one-man band. It takes a team.

The team on this book, as in all the others, is Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier.

Now if I know one thing from writing quite a lot myself over the years, it is that the second name in a lineup is the person who probably did most of the writing and sentence shaping with a blow torch. Been there, done that. So let me give a huge tip of the hat to Melissa Jo Peltier who has, among her many other credits and accomplishments, an Emmy, a Peabody, and a raft of movie production credits, including being co-producer of one of the greatest movies of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. You go girl!

But back to Cesar Millan's dedication.

You see, this book is a controversy between pages... or should I say a small wound carefully bound and anointed with the hope that it will knit up.

The wound, of course, was not inflicted by Millan. As I have noted in the past, Millan has never said a single bad thing about another trainer or dog rehabilitator.

Which is not to say that those who have been a bit less successful have not said a few bad things about him -- often without even taking the time to read his books or see his show!

Most are know-nothings and wannabes, but at least one has a dog training show of her own, and another has a dog training center.   And I have good news: the former finally got her very own dog!

Right. So there you are. No names.  I am a dog man and I will not get catty.  Let the healing begin!

But I am off track.

I started typing this morning to tell you about the book's dedication. Let's get on what that. What's it say?

Here it is, entire:

I dedicate this book to my sons, Andre and Calvin, because I want them to learn that many different people from varying experiences can come together for the common good. As a father, I want to train my kids to know that they can have a meeting of the minds with the people who might come from different belief systems than they do. I want them to always keep their minds open to new ideas and knowledge, because only with an open mind can we change the world for the better. I don't want to leave my boys great material wealth. I want to bequeath them a wealth of knowledge so they can become men of integrity with the power to transform the world.

Geez, that's pretty good.

And it's not artifice either.

It was Millan that reached out to his critics, not the other way around.

It was Millan who walked (can we dare say it?) calmly and assertively up to the barking dogs.

And, oddly enough, it is Millan that clicks and treats, even as he shows there are (pun intended) as many ways to train a dog as there are to skin a cat.

More later, I promise. 

And get the book.  There are surprises inside!

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