Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Dog training is not complex, and it does not require psychic abilities.
Of course some people think that must be the case! After all, if they have trained a dog to jump over a low fence, they must have a "gift" and a "special talent" for dog training, right?
Wouldn't that make them "special"?
One of these types wrote in yesterday to claim clicker training required "empathy, sensitivity, patience, excellent observational and mechanical skills, self-awareness, planning, appropriate utilization of canine ethology/canine body language and signals, and a knowledge of nutritional factors".
To which I can only say ..... Ri-i-i-i-ggght!
Clearly this poor soul does not know much about operant conditioning.
If she did, she would know that the best operant conditioners in the world have NO empathy, NO sensitivity, do NO planning, have NO knowledge of canine ethology or body language skills, and do not give a damn about nutritional factors.
And you know why these excellent animal trainers are so cold-hearted?
Because some of the bestoperant conditioners in the world are machines!
Machines are great at operant conditioning because they have infinite patience and perfect timing.
And here's a thought: they have infinite patience and perfect timing regardless of whether it is rewards-based training or aversion-based training.
This is Skinner 101.
The Skinner reference, of course, is to B.F. Skinner, the father of modern operant conditioning.
Watch the videos below, and you will Skinner's training machines in action.
And what is one of the best training machines for humans? Skinner points to the slot machine!
Of course, we have progressed beyond Skinner boxes and slot machines. Now we have online tests and even online universities. Click and treat!
I suppose, I should note that there is nothing wrong with empathy provided it is moderated somewhat.
You see, a good dog trainer is not overly emotional, while a bad dog trainer is one that is wearing a little too much on his or her sleeve.
The dog does not need the trainer's "concerns." The dog does not need the trainer's sympathy. The dog simply needs a clear, well-timed consequence or signal. And guess what? Well-designed machines are pretty good at delivering those, while "deeply concerned" arm-flapping humans who assume dog training is all about them, often are not!: Reposted from May 2010.
We all make mistakes. I make 'em every once in a while, and you do too.
The true test is not whether you make a mistake, but whether you own it, and by that test Lee Charles Kelley comes out alright.
I don't know Kelley. Never read him before. We might disagree on nothing, or disagree on almost everything. I have no idea. That said, I give him a small nod for cowboying up for a serious error. It would be nice if other dog trainers would follow suit.
When it comes to understanding canine behavior, Dr. David Mech — the world's leading expert on wolves — and Dr. Mark Bekoff — the world's leading expert on coyotes and canine play — are two of my biggest heroes. So imagine my chagrin to discover that they're both irritated with me....
I wrote a piece last week titled "Deconstructing the Dominance Myth (Again...)," which was a response to a personal blog post written by Dr. Roger Abrantes, posted on another part of the internet, far, far away. The main thrust of my article wasn't that dominant behaviors don't exist, but that the terms we're using to describe them are anthropomorphic, and that saddling dogs with these labels is harmful to any dogs whose behaviors may, in fact, be the result of stress or anxiety, not dominance. I now realize, and freely admit, that I made mistakes in my article, mistakes I wasn't aware of until Dr. Bekoff pointed them out to me here.
My first mistake was referring to the concept of dominance as a myth. That's a charged word, one that carries with it the implication that scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding animal behavior are all operating under some kind of mass delusion. I deeply regret making that insinuation, however unintentionally. In recent years, it's become fairly common in the dog training world for some of us to talk about "the myth of dominance" in a somewhat cavalier way. What's generally meant by this is that the idea of dominating a dog, as the basis for a training system, isn't based on real science and can be harmful to the human-canine bond.
Dr. Bekoff also took me to task for the following passage:
"Dr. David Mech, the world's leading expert on wolves, says that in 13 years of studying the wolves on Isle Royale in Michigan he never saw any displays of dominance. In other packs Mech says that dominance displays are so rare as to be almost nonexistent."
I turns out that this isn't exactly true. I was basing what I said on the following passage from a 1999 paper ("Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs," Canadian Journal of Zoology.): "In natural wolf packs, the alpha male or female are merely the breeding animals, the parents of the pack, and dominance contests with other wolves are rare, if they exist at all. During my 13 summers observing the Ellesmere Island pack, I saw none." (I made another mistake by getting the geographical location of Mech's studies wrong.)
Dr. Bekoff apparently sent a copy of my post to Dr. Mech, who responded with the following: "A quick scan of the Kelley article reveals much misinformation attributed to me. This misinterpretation and total misinformation like Kelley's has plagued me for years now. I do not in any way reject the notion of dominance."
In his post, Dr. Bekoff pointed me (and other readers) to a 2010 paper written by Dr. Mech and H. Dean Cluff ("Prolonged Intensive Dominance Behavior Between Gray Wolves, Canis lupus") in which they write: "Dominance is among the most pervasive and important behaviors of wolves in a pack."
Clearly, I'm not keeping up on my research. So I was wrong to insinuate, here and in other pieces I've written on dominance, that Mech believes dominance is rare or doesn't exist at all in wild wolf packs. I apologize for my mistake and will attempt to make corrections to all the pieces I've written that contain this outdated view (there are a lot of them).
But wait. It gets worse!
My thesis about the cause of dominance and submission—as outlined briefly in my post—is that they're primarily the result of a wolf's internal tension and stress. But in the comments section of Dr. Bekoff's post, Simon Gadbois, from the Canid Behaviour Laboratory at Dalhousie University in Halifax, wrote: "My PhD thesis was on social stress in wolves... Jane Packard, that had done the stress studies with Mech in the 80's was on my committee. Here I can tell you that your interpretation is wrong because you are over-generalizing. We simply do not have enough data to jump to the conclusions that you get to."
Read the whole thing, but let me be clear that I am applauding Kelley for owning up to his error, setting the record right, and putting it in print.
Contrast that to another person who will remain unnamed, but who was the subject of a blog post about dominance (in which David Mech weighs in -- see the comments) authored by Dr. Mark Johnson. Read that post here: Is Dominance Always Bad? And, of course, the answer is NO. I featured excerpts from Dr. Johnson's post on this blog some years ago (see here) and even featured video of wolf dominance filmed by Dr. David Mech and Dean Cluff (see here). For those who like video-enhanced story, I put up a post entitled Dominance Creates and Maintains Wolf Packs which told the story of the rise and fall of the Druid Wolf pack -- the largest wolf pack in the world at the time it was being filmed.
And yet we still have this nonsense about dominance in wolves and dogs as a "myth." Why is that?
Mostly it's because a small slice of dog trainers have decided that in order to differentiate themselves in the world of dog training they need to brand what everyone else is doing as "abusive" while proclaiming "their" method (click-and-treat) as the only one that is "scientific."
This is the Internet School of Dog Training where Lee Charles Kelley has apparently been hanging out and drinking the Koolaid, and it seems he has simply not bothered (up to now) to actually read the sources that he and others have been referencing.
Even now he cannot quite let go of the nonsense, writing that what he meant "is that the idea of dominating a dog, as the basis for a training system, isn't based on real science and can be harmful to the human-canine bond."
Um. Mr. Kelley, you still don't get it. Dominance is not violent. It is not bad. It is simply taking control and establishing respect and leadership on your part and establishing respect and followship on the part of the dog. It is not a threat to the human-canine bond, it is the essence of it. And, to be clear, dominance occurs every day and not only with wolves, but also with dogs, people, elk, bison, and pretty much every other animal that lives in social groups (as well as many that do not). Dominance makes the world go around.
Kelley, describes himself as as a "neo-Freudian" dog trainer. I have no idea what that means, but he seems to think it has something to do with prey drive. I guess I know a little about prey drive in dogs since I have working terriers with the scars to prove it, but I have never felt any need to quote Freud. Let us remember that the real experts on dogs have tails.
I have to say I find it amusing that Kelley says words like "dominance" and "submission" are "anthropomorphic" and then turns around and calls himself a "neo-Freudian" dog trainer. Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot. Not too much self-awareness there!
So what is this contrived and entirely fake controversy about dominance in dogs about?
It is about marketing.
Remember that dog trainers are trying to sell a service and so they are trying to differentiate themselves.
In order to differentiate themselves, a dog trainer may claim to be neo-Freudian or "gentle" or "natural" or "positive" or "holistic" or "balanced."
Casting about for a rationale for why people should choose their training methods as opposed to their competitors, many of these folks have done two things simultaneously:
Mis-characterized scientific work on wolves and dogs, including and perhaps especially the work of David Mech, and; .
Mis-characterized the training methods of thousands of years of dogs trainers, including and perhaps especially the work of Cesar Millan, who happens to be the most famous dog training personality on television these days (a spot previously held by Barbara Woodhouse).
Since the previous text straightens out much of this mis-characterization of Mech, let me address the second one -- the mischaracterization of Cesar Millan.
In Cesar's Rules, Millan and co-author Melissa Jo Peltier write about what Millan actually does and what he has actually written:
My co-author tells me that on occasion someone will say to her, “I don’t approve of Cesar’s training methods.” When she tells the person that what I’m doing isn’t dog training but dog rehabilitation, he or she often grudgingly admits to having watched only one or two episodes of the show or a one-minute clip on YouTube and typically has not read any of my books or seen my videos. When my co-author asks, “What do you think his methods are?” the answer invariably is something like, “Oh, all the choke chains and the e-collars and the alpha rolls.”
Well, any regular viewer of Dog Whisperer knows that these tools don’t fairly represent what such a critic would call “my methods.” Curious about this, our producers did a show-by-show breakdown, watching hundreds of hours of television and counting when a particular technique was used in any given episode. At the time the breakdown was done, we’d filmed 140 shows, covering over 317 separate cases of problem dog behavior.
The person who doesn’t approve of my “methods” might be surprised to learn that the number one thing I advocate nearly every show is simply leadership (in 98 percent of the episodes), which I teach as the calm-assertive energy that any leader, teacher, parent, or other positive authority figure projects to her followers. I’ve used the word dominance to describe the energy of leadership, but in the animal world dominance doesn’t mean “brutality,” and assertive certainly doesn’t mean “aggressive.” I believe that good leadership never involves bullying or intimidating; instead, it depends on confidence, knowing what you want, and sending clear, consistent messages about what you want.
The number two method I advocate, according to the producers’ breakdown, is body language (91 percent), which is a primary way in which leadership is projected in most animal species. My third top “method” is exercise — walk your dog properly at least twice a day (72 percent). And what is the fourth most common “method” I’ve used on Dog Whisperer episodes?
This one may shock a few people. I used positive reinforcement in one form or another 67 percent of the time in the first 140 shows. As Barbara De Groodt reminds us, positive reinforcement doesn’t have to mean cookies. It can mean anything that a dog likes and that becomes a motivator or reward for the dog.
Personally, I don’t think I have a specific “method” or “system” that I apply in order to change or improve a dog’s behavior. For me, there is no magic formula. I believe in trusting my instincts and in treating each dog as an individual.
So there you go: those are Millan's "methods," and if you oppose them, then you are telling me and the world that you oppose leadership, exercise, body language, and positive reinforcement.
There is much more in the book of course, but you will have to actually buy the book and read it. Since a quick glance through Lee Charles Kelley's previous writings tells me he has not actually read Cesar Millan either, he might take a hint and do a little reading there too.
Does reading books (and not just Internet bulletin boards and Facebook posts) make me an "old school" dog trainer?
When I turn on the radio, the songs of my youth (such as Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk Railroad) are now on "the Oldies" station."
Oldies?
Perhaps.
Now to be clear I listen to new music -- a lot of it. And I will also venture that we have more great musicians alive right now than we have ever had in the history of the world.
But "new" does not always mean better. Sometimes it does, but not always. I am pretty sure the work of Little Wayne will be forgotten long before that of Mozart, Armstrong, Sinatra, and Springsteen.
Of course, a lot of times, the "NEW" is simply the OLD in a new wrapper.
The kids call this "sampling" which sounds so much better than plagiarism.
And, of course, it is not new is it?
When Leonard Bernstein pitched Westside Story, he pitched it short: "It's Romeo and Juliet with Puerto Ricans in New York."
When Steven Spielberg was trying to raise money for his first real movie, he said: "It's Moby Dick.... but with a shark."
When Francis Ford Coppola pitched "Apocalypse Now" he did not waste a lot of time: "It's Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness ... in Vietnam."
So what am I to make of all these folks claiming to be "new and improved" dog trainers? These are the folks ripping off 80-year old techniques which are derived from 150-year old techniques, which were lifted from stuff stolen from the folks who built the pyramids.
I am all for this "new" stuff. But I am not for tossing out the "old" stuff either. You see, it's all the same thing!
But of course this may come as new information to the fuzzy thinkers and instant experts.
Take the anonymous coward who showed up the other day to say he or she thought Cesar Millan's methods were "outdated."
Eh? What? What are his methods?
And what are his methods to do WHAT?
Does this person think Millan is training dogs? He is not.
Does this person think non-associative habituation is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think operant conditional extinction is outdated? It is not.
Does this person think a leash is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think exercise is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think consequences are outdated? They aren't.
Does this person think walking a dog is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think clarifying the point that dogs are not children is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think showing affection for dogs is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think the notion that a dog trainer has to be calm is outdated? It's not.
Does this person think the idea that a dog trainer has to send clear and well-timed signals is outdated? It's not.
So what is "the method" that is outdated? And what is that method being used for again?
This is a genuine question.
I hear people saying "Millan's methods are outdated" but no one seems to know what that means in the context of what he actually does, which is RE-habilitating dogs.
Instead, what I hear are anonymous cowards who are willing to "fence fighting" but stand as complete punks, ignorants or fools if that fence is removed.
And so they keep the fence up! No names. No email addresses.
When you tell me so little, you tell me so much!
Of course, along with the anonymous cowards, the zombies and the trolls, you have the parrots. These are the folks who repeat whatever they just heard on a board, or who regurgitate whatever they just read in a book, never once subjecting the idea to rationale thought, research, or field experience.
Parrots are the folks who write all-breed books and who read them and believe them.
They may squawk a lot, but their brains are the size of a shelled walnut, and they are incapable of original though or use of tools. Most spend their entire lives never leaving their cage.
And then there are the folks who actually do things. And guess what? The most successful of these use tools, both old and new, as they find them, and as they need them.
But we also use electronic locating collars in order to locate the dogs under ground. And we use plastic water bottles and, if the need arises, a veterinary staple gun and antibiotics.
Tools are not completely the same from one place to the next, either.
In the U.K., they do not use posthole diggers as the ground is a bit softer. When a UK terrierman comes over here, however, he figures out he may have a use for this "new" tool!
What? Not all geography is the same? True! But tell no one.
And not all dogs and dog problems are the same either.
But mum's the word.Tell no one.
As for my old tools, I try to keep them well-oiled.
A few years back I realized I could not scrunch down into a hole like I used to, and so now I go to the gym a couple of times a week just to keep things moving.
But I still dig on my dogs the way it has been done for over four hundred years. I am not so vain as to think that because I invented a cheap game snare I invented digging on the dogs.
The world did not begin the day I was born! - A repost from 2010.
Howie Mandel, Cesar Milan, Howie's wife, and psycho Chihuahua, Lola.
The first episode of season seven of The Dog Whisperer starts tonight (Friday) at 8 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.
The show features “Deal or No Deal” host Howie Mandel, who has obsessive compulsive disorder and cannot stand to be touched.
Nonetheless, Mandel is married to a woman with lots of little vicious lap dogs, and she does not even try to control them. Yow! How do you spell dysfunction?
The most interesting part of the show, however, is not the Howie Mandel segment, but the the English Bulldog story that precedes it. Two things to watch if you tune in:
LISTEN to how breath-restricted this poor brachycephalic animal is. Every moment of its life, it is struggling for breath. This is not an obvious behavior issue, but a clear visual case statement of the wreckage and violence that the American and British Kennel Clubs have done to pedigree dogs.
WATCH how Millan turns the prey-predator tables on this bulldog. As someone who hunts with prey-driven dogs, and who has seen what happens when a really aggressive fox, raccoon or groundhog turns from prey to predator, I was much amused. Cesar Millan clearly knows quite a lot, and in this episode, it shows in a very, very funny way. .
Today two people sent me the same article about Barack Obama, his dog Bo, and Cesar Millan, but after reading it, I am not sure what the author was trying to say, or why.
Apparently some guy named Steve Dale thinks Millan is "full of crap."
Right.
Someone is throwing rocks to get attention for himself.
Again.
Pathetic, but as common as ditch water. This is how wannabe dog trainers get their air time now.
What's funny here is that Steve Dale does not appear to be a competent enough writer to start the fire, much less sustain it.
So how come no President in modern memory has ever had much control over his dogs?
Answer:No one at the White House has time for a dog.
That is the core problem.
In fact, no one at the White House has time to even read a book on dog training, much less follow up with reinforcement over a sustained three-month period.
Walk the dog?
That's a task generally delegated to a rotating pool of young, low-level interns, volunteers, or kind-hearted staffers with little or no dog training. The President, First Lady and First Kids have a jaw-dropping number of appearances to make, all over the nation and all over the world.
All the Presidents and all their families have meant well, but something has to give, and it's always the dog.
Of course, an "inconvenient dog" is a pretty big problem all over, isn't it?
[M]ost people do not live lives very well-suited to dogs. Unlike a bicycle or a shotgun, a dog cannot be tucked into a storage closet, and forgotten. A dog requires attention several times a day, every day, rain or shine, vacation or not. Is your life really that stable? Is anyone’s these days?
.... If your living arrangements are unstable, skip a dog entirely and get a cat -- they won't mind long periods alone, and are much cheaper to care for.
I think that's a message that needs to be said more often!
Of course this is not the first time I have written about the need to "unsell" dog ownership.
To admit to all the liabilities of dog ownership is not to value them less. I love my dogs and spend a lot of time and money on them, but dogs have never been a surprise to me or anything less than a responsibility and a burden that I have cheerfully accepted on myself.
Dogs are not for everyone, and they are not a relationship anyone should enter into lightly. The more we dog owners tell that story often -- and loudly -- to new and prospective dog owners, the fewer dogs we will see in shelters. If pound pups are a disease, the remedy is a talking cure.
Right.
And guess what? To some extent, that's a talk that Cesar Millan gives his viewers every show.
"Exercise," he preaches. You need to walk that dog for 30 to 45 minutes twice a day, every day.
Oh, and by the way, when you walk that day, shorten up on the leash.
You are supposed to be walking the dog; the dog is not supposed to be walking you.
And yes, that really is Dog Training 101.
Apparently, however, its still news to some.
My recommendation for Mr. Dale: Get a copy of Cesar Millan's new book, Cesar's Rules.
There he can read Martin Deeley's excellent advice on training a dog to walk on leash, or read Ian Dunbar's good advice on walking a dog off-lead. And he can read a few tips from Cesar too.... not that he is as gifted a dog man as Steve Dale, of course. How could he be?
In the first page of the introduction to Cesar's Rules, Millan notes:
People don’t usually seek me out when their dog won’t sit on command. They beg me for help when their dog is destroying their life. In the opening of my show, "Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan" on the National Geographic Channel, I always say, “I rehabilitate dogs; I train people.”
Yet, still, the press refers to me as “dog trainer” Cesar Millan. And owners constantly ask me for my favorite training tips.
Of course, Millan can obedience- and trick-train a dog. Let's face it; basic obedience is not rocket science. Millan's own dogs can go anywhere with him off-leash, and he has trained dogs to do fairly elaborate tricks as well.
But tricks and simple obedience drills are not what interests Millan about dogs. He is interested in something else.
Millan's interest is in what goes on inside of dogs; how they see the world and how they think, and how they get along in our world, and theirs.
Training?
Yes, by all means, but as Millan notes, for so many dogs obedience training is not necessarily where to start.
Millan notes that after he first arrived in Los Angeles, he took a job at a dog training facility where the sales gimmick was to show folks a dog that was trained in Germany and tell prospective clients that in a few short weeks (and for many thousands of dollars) their dog could be just like the dog they saw before them. Folks never knew the dog was trained overseas by someone they were not hiring!
What bothered Millan more than the deception was that many of the pet dogs he saw entering the training facility did not need basic obedience so much as they needed rehabilitation to deal with the confusions and anxieties already embedded within. And here we come to the crux of it; so many people seek out a "dog trainer," when in fact their dog needs something else.
Do you want your dog to learn basic obedience commands, or to stop attacking the neighbor's dog or the postman? These are different things.
I began asking the question, "Is obedience training really what this dog needs right now?" Many of the dogs were fearful and insecure, and the process of training made them worse.
Millan goes on to note that the question of whether a dog needs obedience work or canine rehabilitation is still front and center with every in-take. You need to "Choose the right tool for the job you need done."
Now, here's the funny part; most people are not that interested in getting their dog to retrieve a canvas dummy from 120 yards. In their real lives, few people need a sit-stay that lasts for 20 minutes, or a go-out-to-mark. In all my years with dogs, I have never needed a dog to run an agility course, or climb a ladder. Yes, I have trained dogs to go out to marks, retrieve over fences, do fetch and returns, and play "bang, you're dead," but there was no need for it. I was just goofing with the dogs.
So what do people want from their dogs? Why do people seek out Cesar Millan, but show less interest in other trainers?
The answer, is that Millan actually gives them what they want. He is the patch that fits their hole.
If you have an adult dog that is eating the sofa, or biting and scratching a hole in the door when the postman delivers the mail, you intuitively know that a "puppy socialization" class is not what you need. Neither is a class that teaches your dog to do a front-finish after sit. Nothing wrong with either of those, but they simply do not address the problem at hand.
So what does Millan offer?
Simple advice.
Exercise for one. The dog that is eating the sofa will change dramatically if it is given 30 or 45 minutes of exercise twice a day in which the owner is walking the dog, and the dog is not walking the owner.
Discipline for another. Your dog is attaching the mailbox when the postman arrives in the morning? Have you ever done more than yell at the dog from behind, and in an excited high-pitched voice, when that was going on? I bet not! And guess what? Your yelling probably sounded more like encouragement from behind (followship) rather than a clear NO signal from the front (leadership). Here's a hint -- dogs don't speak human, so you have to speak dog. Stand between the dog and the door when the "postman" (a friend playing the role) comes, and square your shoulders to the dog while giving it a low-pitched guttural "naaahh" that means "we could use less of that." Do not move around or flap your arms or talk beyond the deep guttural "naah" signal. Stand and present and keep your body square to the dog. If you want to add a little more emphasis, a light wooden yardstick or batten snapped on the ground once does wonders -- it is a sharp sound that startles the dog out of its obsession, and it is neutral, loud, clear and emphatic. When the dog stops dead, walk the dog back back to a doorway and do thisevery time.
And, of course, Millan rounds up with affection. Not affection for nothing. Not indiscriminate rewards. Not soothing and gentle strokes for the dog while it is attacking the postal slot ("Calm down Muffy").
Instead, once the dog starts to do the right thing, Millan may shift his body from square-on to take a little pressure off the dog, his voice may change tone, or he may pat the dog on the head or (gasp!) give it a piece of kibble. And things change, sometimes very rapidly, but always needing reinforcement over a period of time.
Is this what you need more ofin your life?
Or is your training goalto get your dog to master weave poles, teeter-totters, scent tracking, and a 20-minute sit-stay outside the donut shop?
This is Question One, and yet too often it is never asked because the real subtext of so much of what is written about dog training is not dogs at all. It's humans. It's humans saying, "I am right and you are wrong... Respect My Authority!
Long before anyone had ever heard of Cesar Millan, back when he was still an illegal alien who barely spoke English, he would travel long distances in Los Angeles with a pack of 30 dogs, all of them off leash, and all of them as tighly bound to him as a wrapper.
Then one day he was stopped by a cop who said it was illegal for him to walk dogs off leash.
As Millan rather humorously puts it, "I knew I was illegal, but the dogs?"
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.
Cesar Millan has a new book coming out the first week of October, and it features Bob Bailey, Ian Dunbar, Joel Silverman, and Mark Harden, among others. .As the Amazon description notes,
Cesar takes on the topic of training for the first time, by explaining the importance of balance as the foundation for a healthy relationship between you and your dog. In order to provide a variety of training options, he calls upon some of the foremost experts in the field to offer their advice so that you can find the perfect approach that works for you and your dog through a variety of methods.
Filled with practical advice, anecdotes, tips, and trouble-shooting techniques from Cesar and his colleagues, this is the ultimate guide to a well-behaved and well-balanced dog—from a new puppy to an old dog who can still learn new tricks. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The Only Training Book You’ll Ever Need
#1 New York Times bestselling author Cesar Millan shows you how to communicate well with your dog and shares the most effective and humane methods for teaching your dog how to be a happy, well-behaved member of your household. In Cesar’s Rules, he’ll address:
* The most popular training techniques, including positive reinforcement and using a clicker
* Ways to teach basic obedience commands sucha as sit, stay, and come
* The importance of balance, and why a well-trained dog does not necessarily mean a balanced one
* How to use your dog’s own natural inclinations to create better behavior
* The methods and theories from a variety of renowned trainers, including Bob Bailey, Ian Dunbar, Joel Silverman, and Mark Harden
This 9-minute video clip was filmed by Dean Cluff, in collaboration with wolf biologist Dave Mech. The caption on Youtube reads:
An adult male wolf we radio-collared in the arctic near Eureka, Nunavut, Canada in July 2009 displayed continued dominance aggression on a younger male wolf, believed to be one of his offspring from a previous year. We suspect the behavior of the collared wolf represents domination on the part of a parent toward a maturing offspring that will eventually lead to the dispersal of that offspring. Filmed by Dean Cluff, in collaboration with Dave Mech.
You will note that this is the same David Mech who wrote a paper that the Cesar Millan-bashers are only too happy to routinely misrepresent. In fact, Mech has always been clear that dominance does occur in wolf packs. In fact, dominance creates and shapes wolf packs, from beginning to end, as older dominant males drive out younger males at age one or two.
An old cartoon, but a good reminder that dogs are not verbal, and that they are more likely to look for cues (body movement, hand signals) than listen for them.
Most people talk to their dogs far too much, and the result is that they are creating a background of "white noise" that tends to drown out and dilute the information they really want their dog to receive.
Watch a really good dog trainer, and you will see less talking and less flapping of the arms and wild body movements than you will see from the amateurs at the dog park.
Whatever "calm and assertive" means, it is certainly the opposite of multiple high-pitched calls, endless babble, arm flapping, side conversations with any people that might be in the room, anxious pacing, and meaningless head patting.
"Calm and assertive" means sending fewer signals and sending clearer ones. .
How come Cesar Millan, a dirt-poor former illegal alien from Mexico, with a strong accent and no college degree, has risen to the top of the dog world while Ian Dunbar, with perfect English, some obvious money, and veterinary and animal behavior degrees behind him, remains virtually unknown?
It's not that Ian Dunbar does not know how to train an animal -- he does. He understands operant conditioning. He is not a fool or an incompetent.
I have no doubt he is brilliant. I assume he has impeccable timing and can train anything.
So why has the world not beaten a path to his door?
I have an idea.
Watch the video, below, and pay careful attention to the first minute and a half.
Ian Dunbar says some smart things at the end.
He talks about the lack of thought that goes into solving common canine problems.
He says if calling your dog always means the dog is leashed up and all play is over, don't expect it to come!
Full applause for the last four and a half minutes of this presentation.
But what about that first minute and a half?
At the start of this talk, Ian Dunbar tells us he is a FAILURE AT DOG TRAINING.
Listen to what he says.
He says you can tell people what to do, but no one listens.
You can tell people what to do, but they they are not going to do it.
Whoa! Think about what he just said.
Ian Dunbar is saying people come to him for help, they pay money for help, and then he prescribes a solution.
But then the owners do not take his advice.
An amazing statement.
Now has he considered WHY?
Let me make a suggestion: Has he considered his presentation?
You see, most people have never heard of Ian Dunbar, just as once-upon-a-time (and not so very long ago) they had never heard of Cesar Millan.
Ian Dunbar claims he knows dogs, but most people have never seen him in action, and they have no proof of that.
People are naturally going to be a little bit dubious.
They are going to look for evidence of real expertise or its opposite; fakery.
Does this guy know what he is talking about? Is he a truth-teller?
Dunbar's speech is his "job interview".
For most of the people in the room, and everyone who will watch this video, his presentation is the answer to the question Do I want to buy his book? Do I want to hire him to train me and train my dog?
The first question of every job interview is almost always the same: "Tell me about about your last job, and how you did it."
And what is Ian Dunbar's answer to that predictable question?
Basically, he says: "The main problem in my last job was that my boss was an idiot and my co-workers were incompetent."
Think about it.
Isn't that exactly what Ian Dunbar is saying here?
You see, if you are a professional dog trainer, your client is your boss; they are the ones paying you, and they are the ones who may (or may not) recommend you in the future.
And, to put put a point on it, they are also the folks whose behavior you want to ultimately change and shape.
Dunbar seems to show a kind of exhausted contempt for dog owners, including his own clients.
"I am leading," he seems to say, "and so many of you are simply too stupid to follow."
Not exactly the right message!
Cesar Millan has a different approach. He begins with a simple question: How can I help?
He does not begin by telling dogs owners they are idiots; he begins by asking how he can be of service.
Yes he will lead them forward (rather quickly), but he never starts the lesson by "jerking on the leash" as Dunbar does here.
How ironic!
Question: Who do you trust more, the person who asks "How can I help?" or the person who says with exhausted disdain, "Look, I will repeat what I have already said, and you have already ignored."
Now let's look at how Dunbar talks about his co-workers.
The co-worker in question is Cesar Millan. That is who Ian Dunbar is slagging here, and everyone in the audience knows it.
And here's the thing: Cesar Millan is the most famous and successful dog rehabilitator in the world!
Has Ian Dunbar thought about that for even one dispassionate second?
You see, when an unknown person with unknown success slags a known person with known success, there is a massive credibility problem.
Most folks have seen Cesar Millan work half a dozen miracles on the National Geographic Channel, and they have seen his books in the store (even if they have not yet read them).
Oprah Winfrey says Cesar Millan is a God, and Barack Obama says he would be happy to have him visit the White House.
His reputation precedes him.
And yet Ian Dunbar, who most people have never heard of, much less seen train a dog, slags Cesar Millan right at the top.
And look how he does it!
Dunbar never comes out and actually mentions Millan's name. Instead he slips into a sly passive-aggressive style to talk about "a bloke on TV."
No doubt, he thinks he is being cute, but in fact he is displaying a failure of character.
A passive-aggressive style is not a position of strength. It is a sign of weakness.
Dunbar is not even content to tell the truth. He claims Millan has said "becoming a stronger leader" is how you end a dog's chronic backyard barking.
There is not one person in that audience who has ever heard Millan say that.
Not one.
And whether they have watched every episode of The Dog Whisperer or not, most of the audience will intuitively know it is a lie.
In their mind, they are saying,
"There is something wrong here.
I have never heard of Ian Dunbar before, but Cesar Millan did not become the most famous dog man in the world accidentally.
Millan came from nothing and is now on top, while this tired-looking British guy who obviously came from some money and thinks we are all idiots, is on the bottom.
SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH HIS STORY!
And bang, right there, Ian Dunbar has lost credibility and some respect.
And here's the funny thing:He did not have to shoot himself in the foot. It was unnecessary.
Dunbar could have reached across the table and said, "There are a million ways to train a dog, but the tapestry of every method is sewn with the same three threads, which are at the core of all operant conditioning."
That story is told in 20 seconds.
He could have explained the difference between dog training and dog rehabilitation.
That story is told in 15 seconds.
And then he could have gone on to explain why people so often fail in their training... And how he can help them all succeed.
Succeed!??
Ian Dunbar does not tell his audience they can succeed!
He tells them they will probably FAIL because they are idiots who will not listen to him.
And here we come to the crux of the problem .... and how ironic it is!
You see, Ian Dunbar thinks to be a leader you proclaim your leadership. Look at my degrees! Feel the searing force of my self-proclained expertise! I am an expert!!
Millan thinks something different. He thinks you are a leader when others follow.
Millan thinks his job is to "train people," not insult them.
And he thinks people will follow if they see what can be done
Now, to be clear, there is nothing wrong with Ian Dunbar's training methods. I am told he is a brilliant man, and I take it on faith that he can train anything.
He and Millan are actually using the same core techniques, even if they are using a slightly different language and have a different mix of methods, which reflects the different goals of training versus rehabilitation.
But, according to his own presentation, Ian Dunbar is a failure as a dog trainer.
And why is he a failure? Because he is not very successful at training people. The people will not follow.
My advice?
Click and treat, Ian. Click and treat.
And I could say the same for many other wannabe-a-big-name dog trainers who also have miserable presentation skills. Some are goofy, some talk to their audiences like they think they might be retarded, and most swirl around the arcane lingo of operant conditioning without ever talking in plain English or using simple words like "consequence."
No wonder Millan owns so much of the waterfront-- look at what he does through demonstration, and what he is competing against in terms of presentation!
Here's another Cesar Millan episode to complement yesterday's offering.
The dog in question here is a Korean Jindo, which is a spitz-type hunting and guard dog.
You will note that the owner and rescuer is a pretty experienced person who seems to have had a lot of success settling, calming, training and rehoming damaged dogs.
Jonbee is the first dog he cannot tame. In trying to help Jonbee, he has already seen two other professional trainers, one of whom recommended putting the dog down, and the other who got himself chewed up.
Jonbee's would-be rescuer is clear:If Cesar Millan cannot fix this dog, he is going to have to be put down.
As you can see in the video, when Jonbee is touched towards the back, he explodes in a savage rage.
Millan remains calm as the dog tries to bite him. He always keeps the leash up, but he is not participating in the craziness at the other end of the leash.
If Jonbee wants to go nuts, that is his choice.
Jonbee explodes again and again trying to bite Millan, before finally relaxing and rolling over on his side, physically and emotionally spent.
What happened?
To reiterate a point made yesterday: No animal can sustain a temper tantrum or a fight forever.
A dog that explodes like this is a bit like a massive thunder storm -- it will blow itself out if it continues unabated. In fact, that is exactly what has happened here.
Why is Cesar Millan doing what he is doing, and why does it work?
The simple answer is that he is de-sensitizing the dog to touch, while at the same time removing the reward that the dog has gotten in the past from attacking anyone who touched it.
Strip it away, and what you have are two fundamental tools that can be used to rehabilitate a problem dog:
Habituation and;
Extinction.
Habituation is a type of non-associative learning. Simply put, it means the dog gets used to something to the point it no longer produces any kind of reaction at all.
Face the phobia. Stand in the river of life for so long that you no longer feel wet.
We have all become habituated to something irritating at one time or another.
If you move next door to an airport, for example, the airplane noise will drive you crazy for a few days, but after two weeks you will have stopped hearing it at all. Only when you are on the telephone will you be reminded that the airplanes are still there.
What Millan is doing with Jonbee is giving the dog the stimulus that sets it off (simply touching him) but he makes sure his response it as flat as possible so that the dog will eventually become nonreactive to it.
Constant stimulus that does not harm or reward is eventually treated by the body as "white noise."
Factory workers do not hear the factory, and oil refinery workers do not smell the chemicals.
If Jonbee gets neither reward nor punishment from being touched, and is touched often enough, he will eventually not pay the slightest mind.
Extinction is also going on in this film clip. While Jonbee is getting habituated to being touched, his violent outburst is also finding no reward.
Again, what is key here is that Millan is as flat, calm, and passive as a man can be while being attacked by a 40-pound dog hell-bent on ripping his throat out.
What happens in the end?
Three things: 1) Jonbee is exhausted and can no longer sustain the attack; 2) Jonbee is starting to get habituated to being touched (i.e. he is beginning to learn that touching is not a big deal or a threat), and; 3) Jonbee is starting to realize that the behavior that got him a reward in the past (i.e. no one touching him) no longer works now.
Watch the clip, above (part 2 of the same episode).
Notice that Jonbee, like Shadow (the dog shown in yesterday's post) is lying calm and exhausted on his side. He is breathing fine, his tongue is pink, and the leash is loose.
This is what a dog or small child looks like after it has blown off all its emotional and physical energy in a screaming and violent temper tantrum.
What Cesar Millan calls "negative energy" I simply call tension, anxiety and hyperactivity.
Whatever you call it, Millan wants people to get rid of it, and to be emotionally neutral and dispassionate.
By the the end, Cesar and the dog's owner can actually play bongos on Jonbee's side and back, and he loves it. Perfect!
Jonbee has, very quickly, become habituated to touch, and just as quickly he has allowed his violent outbursts to self-extinguish.
Why has Jonbee reformed so quickly?
Simple: He was not happy with his own response to the situation, but he was trapped in a cycle and did not know how to get out of it.
Terrified of being touched (especially within the confines of the house), he reacted out of fear, which made humans scared to touch him, which increased the tension, which further escalated the situation, and made the dog even more reactive and phobic.
Millan simply showed Jonbee a new way, and he did it by pairing habituation of touch with extinction of biting which no longer resulted in any kind of reward or reaction (thanks to excellent leash work on the part of Millan).
Getting Jonbee back together was a process, not an event. A relatively quick process, but not an instant miracle.
For example, watch the second clip and notice how Jonbee has his tail tucked in hard at 3:30. He is not yet comfortable, and he is still scared of this new way of doing business. He is trying to work through her fears, but .....
Looks at the owner too. He is also not yet comfortable.
Both of these actors are still remembering their old parts, even if Cesar has them both dressing up and reading for different roles.
And what happens in the end?
Trust.
Trust and then love.
Of all the dogs in all the world, Jonbee has found a home right here!
My favorite line towards the end is a simple declarative sentence by the owner:
"Dog's aren't throw away."
YES!
But how many dogs like Jonbeehave been thrown away? Millions.
Most dogs will do well under ANY training system that supplies exercise, consistent well-timed signals, and love.
But some dogs, like Jonbee, need more than that; they need someone who understands habituation, extinction, and pack dynamics. They need someone who has more tools and techniques up their sleeve than a mail order clicker and a cheese ball.
Yes, those are core tools in ANY dog training kit, but they are not the full kit.
And that is why you call Cesar Millan; because he knows a few things that the people down at PETCO do not. He know how to rehabilitate difficult dogs. And he is not too timid to do it.
Millan does not cluck and wring his hands. He is not confused. He does not think a dog thrashing at the end of a leash is a dog being choked. No aggression is shown to this dog; there is only the dog boxing with the wind, unable to connect, making the choices that, in the end, leave it exhausted and ready to try something else.
Millan uses habituation and extinction all the time to deal with fearful and phobic dogs, but it always seems to confuses the click-and-treat crowd who are a bit unclear as to how habituation, extinction and physical exhaustion can work together. What? You mean there might be something more than click and treat?
Yes. There might be.... Those are good tools. Those are core tools. But they are not the tools for this job. .
For some time now, the Cesar Millan haters of the world have been engaged in a whispering campaign.
One of those in the whispering campaign wrote yesterday because she wanted me to know that "the debates about him and the concerns about what he does" were "complex."
Specifically, she wanted me to know that it involved "on-camera asphyxiation of a dog, off camera harm of dogs and much, much more."
Right.
Sorry, but I call bullshit, and so should you.
My first advice to this woman was that her comments were, in fact, libelous.
Not one scrap of what she said was true, and she had to know it, as she had not supplied a single link or citation.
My second pointwas that she needed to use her brain. Cesar Millan is a public figure who appears weekly on the National Geographic Channel. If one iota of the nonsense she was saying was true, someone would have won an Emmy and a Pulitzer with it. But guess what? They haven't!
My third point was simply to supply the link to the supposed on-camera "asphyxiation" of the dog in question. Funny that this link was not supplied, eh?
But that's how it is with a whispering campaign -- say anything, support nothing with links or footnotes, never appeal to common sense or reason, and always suggest there's a grand conspiracy behind it all.
Shhhhhhh!!!! I know secret things.
Right. Sure you do. Go ahead and ride the crazy train all by yourself. Lyndon LaRouche is conducting, and Sarah Palin is serving drinks.
The rest of us, however, can slow down and actually watch the clip. I append the clip in question at the bottom of this post, but before you jump to that, let me walk you through it using freeze-frames.
To start, let's set the stage: Cesar Millan has been called in because a large and very dominant Husky by the name of Shadow routinely rips into the other dogs in the house. The owners of this dog, a family by the name of Ament, no longer feel they can control this dog. Do they need to put it down? Does he need to wear a muzzle for the rest of his life?
Look at the picture above. This is from the first second of the video clip. Notice the placement of the tails. The Husky's tail is up and "flagging." The other dog's tail is tucked firmly between its legs. Yes, a flagging tail can mean happiness, but not in this case. These dogs know each other, and one is intimidated by the other. That Husky's tail is flagging because it is excited.
Notice that Millan has the Husky on a short leash with a standard slip chain collar placed high on the neck. Millan is a pretty strong, but he is not a very big man, and he knows if things "go south" with this large aggressive dog, he is going to have to maintain control in order to not get seriously bitten. A slip collar should be high on the neck to use it properly. No surprise that Millan actually knows what he is doing!
Remember that the owners of this dog have called Millan because this dog is very dog-aggressive and has posed a danger to them and their other dogs in the past!
Look at the picture above. This is the sixth second of the video. The Husky has turned away from Millan and towards the Border Collie, with mouth open and ears up and forward -- a classic sign of aggression. Millan has tightened the leash, given a "tssst" sound, and he has also given a light "heal tap" to the back of the dog as a correction. This is often described as Millan "kicking" the dog, but in fact this heel tap is designed to do nothing more than send a corrective message. Notice that the dog's body is not moved at all by the heel tap -- it a simple bump, and nothing more.
This is the exact same second as the shot in the previous freeze-frame. Yes, this is how fast it takes for a dog that is "loaded for explosion," to turn and bite.
Notice that the dog is NOT leaping away from Millan like a dog might if it were hurt. This dog is leaping into Millan, with his mouth open, his teeth barred, and his entire body going upward. This is pure aggression -- a dog seeking to establish injury. For the next three seconds Millan works to control the dog, which is used to biting its way to the top of the household pack hierarchy.
Remember why Cesar Millan was called -- this dog routinely rips into other dogs and people in this household!
The picture, above, is taken in the 10th second of the video. The dog is back under control. This setup does not last long. The dog decides to explode again, and again tries to bite Millan four seconds later (second #14). By second #17, the dog is back under control and sitting. The dog explodes again in seconds 20-26, but then it settles again. It explodes again at second 31.
Apparently these bite-and-release episodes continue for a while. Millan simply keeps the leash high (to avoid being seriously bitten), and the dog cycles through the explosions. The dog is making a choice to explode, albeit a very emotional, excited, and not entirely rational one. These same choices are made in street fist fights -- you keep punching forward until you are either too exhausted or you have your ass kicked.
At the one minute mark in the clip, the dog's emotional melt down has begun to drain off. The dog is exhausted, and he has lost the battle.
This is a simple, but core point: No one can keep a temper tantrum going forever! No one can throw punches forever. There is a reaon there are rounds in a boxing or mixed martial arts match!
Millan knows that waiting out the emotional and physical storm of this dog is critical. Once that happens, Millan has little trouble getting the dog to roll over on its side.
The dog is breathing fine, and the leash is now loose. Millan keeps his hand on the dog's neck to signal to the dog that he is still in control, but the hand comes off pretty quickly, and now the dog is clearly relaxed, resting, and thinking it all over.
In the picture, above, the leash is entirely relaxed, and the dog is resting on its side and licking its lips. This is a frame 1:17. Some have said the dog's tongue is "blue." It is? It is not! Watch the video yourself. That's a very healthy pink tongue being used by a dog to moisten its lips.
What does the dog feel like inside? I have no doubt it feels the kind of physical and emotional exhaustion a small child does after throwing a screaming, hitting and flailing temper tantrum ... and then being put in a time out to allow the emotional tide to drain away.
The dog is now centered inwards. It is resting, exhausted from acting out, but it is also calculating and recalculating what has just occurred.
What the hell just happened here? A lot of work for no gain! This is new. I am tired, and I have exhausted myself physically and emotionally, but for what? No gain.
Slowly a simple realization drifts in: I do not seem to be running the world anymore.When did that happen?
For a dog or a child, facing calm non-reactive discipline for the first time is more than a bit of a shock. Up to now, the world has revolved around them, and they have been able to manipulate their way to success or bulldoze their way to the top through sheer force of will or body strength.
But apparently, no more.
Will this be the last explosion we can expect to see from this dog?
No. Probably not.
But it is the beginning of the end, provided the dog's owners can show they will also not be bullied into submission.
Now watch the entire video tape below.
This is the one and only "horror show" that Cesar Millan haters point to, and yet itshows Cesar Millan successfully saving a dog's life, because is there really any question where this dog was going?
Powerful dominant dogs like Shadow are pretty rare because their genes tend to get weeded out of the pool.
Why does Shadow bite?
Some will suggest that Shadow must have been abused.In fact, Shadow shows no signs of abuse. Dog-on-dog aggression is not a sign of abuse.
Some will suggest that there must be something wrong medically, and a veterinarian should be consulted. A vet will have no answer for Shadow, other that a shot of sodium phenobarbital to end his life.
Cesar Millan says the problem is that Shadow is a rare, but truly dominant, dog.
A lot of folks have problems with the world "dominant."
They sniff that Cesar Millan is not a "trained" animal behaviorist. No doubt they also think paper from the AKC signifies quality, and doing the job in the field does not. Sorry, but that kind of nonsense is how we got into trouble with dogs. I am not sure it is the road out.
They say they read somewhere that wolves are not really dominant, and that "in nature" wolves live in family units as imagined by Walt Disney. Only in the "artificial" wolf packs created in large wolf-pen enclosures is wolf-on-wolf dominance and aggression ever shown.
Right.
Do Shadow and Riley look like a "family group" to you, or an artificial pack with no sanguinity? How about the dogs in your house? Funny how the "instant experts" always leave the obvious off the balance sheet!
The simple truth is that some dogs, like some people, are bullies.
We all know bullies. We grew up with them in grade school.
Bullying is a self-reinforcing behavior. What that means is that bullying is entertainment for the bully, as well as a means to an end -- respect, power, money, food, or sex.
A bully will continue to bully until he or she loses social status, gets a punch in the nose, or is hauled away by the police.
Even if there is no obvious reward other than entertainment, a bully will continue to bully.
In the dog world, that means some dogs will continue to bully other dogs even when the other dog is submissive, and it also means that some dogs have learned that people are also pretty easy to cow.
All of this can be pretty confusing to a young dog with no real role-model or calm assertive hand (human or canine) to lead the way.
Call this dominance if you want. Call it bullying if you prefer. In the real world, it's pretty much all the same.
Most of the folks who hate Millan and who point to the tape of Shadow as evidence of abuse, do not know very much about dogs, and are not competent to judge what is going on.
Some are simply liars.
Let us dispense with the liars -- the folks who say Millan kicks the dog, for example, or who say the dog has a blue tongue. If that's a kick, then I too have booted a lot of dogs, and if that tongue is blue then so is mine!
The main issue with this tape is that most people cannot read Shadow and the other dog very well at the very beginning. They see a dog's tail up and think that means a happy dog. They see Shadow turn to the other dog, but they do not see it as an aggressive move.
Let's pause for a minute to look at the face and body postures below. This is from an old (was it Konrad Lorenz??) illustration on canine communication. It is a bit stylized (as are human versions of the same thing). No dog presents exactly like this, but the general thrust is correct and clear -- dogs do communicate aggression and fear, dominance and submission, through facial expressions and body posture.
1. Threat; 2. Uncertain threat; 3. Weak threat; 4. Faint threat - the dog is very uncertain; 5. Fear; 6. Expression of uncertainty in presence of dog of superior rank
1. A self-confident, dominant animal in the presence of another dog; 2. Threat; 3. Trying to impress (tail wags from side to side); 4. Unconcerned attitude; 5. Uncertain threat; 6. Posture when eating; 7. Subordinate attitude; 8. Uncertainty between threat and defense; 9. 10. 11. Subordinate attitudes in the presence of a dog of superior rank.
Photo manipulation has shown that humans too can read and send massive amounts of information by making very slight changes in facial expression or body position. The slightest movement at the corner of a lip or eye can change the message entirely. So too with dogs.
Millan is very good at picking up on canine signals early on, and so he can often nip aggressive behaviors as they develop, and before they manifest themselves into a full-on throw-down.
Many of the folks who call themselves dog trainers, however, are not very good at reading canine signals. Most will never see a truly aggressive, domineering, or bullying dog like Shadow, and if they do, they will get bitten and suggest that perhaps the dog should be euthanized. The dog is clearly broken beyond repair, and they know this because they cannot fix it!
Of course, there is a place for euthanasia. Just as there are paranoid schizophrenics in the human population, so too are there dogs with this condition. Should we treat these dogs with medication? No. The cost is too high, and the medicine does not work that well even with humans. There are limits to all things, and those limits are lower with dogs.
But is Shadow one of these dogs? No. Not apparently.
This is a dog that acts out against other dogs. It is not nuts all the time -- it is specifically nuts. It is dog-aggressive.
It is, in the words of Ceasar Millan, "dom-eee-nate." If it were a human, we would simply call it a bully.
Back to the video tape.
Notice that Cesar Millan was calm and controlled throughout. This is not a man easily riled. He is not adding to the chaos of the fight -- he is simply handling it. Even at the end, his voice is amazingly calm.
Notice toohow quickly he reviews what happened in his mind -- the high tail of Shadow, the low tail of the other dog. He does not use the word "bully" but he knows that is exactly what has been going on.
Some women love to tut-tut about Cesar Millan. They will tell you that "aggression just begets aggression." This is patent bullshit from people who know nothing about it. I have never heard a man say it.
The reason so many kids are miserable in grade school is because their mothers and their teachers (all women) tell them to "just ignore the bully" or else to "try to move away."
What is being missed is that bullies choose their victims because those victims make "prey noises." What I mean by this is that the folks who act submissive and intimidated by a bully are the ones who are reinforcing bullying behavior.
You know what does not reinforce the bully? Someone who will punch him in the nose.
Yes a smaller kid may get a beating out of it in the end, but that bully will not be coming back to repeat that experience, provided at least one good hard punch to the nose was gotten in by the smaller kid.
Notice too that bullying tends to fall off pretty quickly after grade school. Ever wonder why? Simple: Police.
The cops do not click and treat. They hit you over the head with a nightstick, throw your ass in jail, remove your driver's license and fine you a month's wages. They may put you in a cage and leave you there for years.
And guess what? That works! Most young men have a run-in with the law at some time or other, and that run-in is not designed to be a fun experience. It is designed to pull you up short and get you to re-examine the way you have been doing business.
And guess what? That's exactly what happened to Shadow in this tape.
Shadow just dicovered there's a new sherriff in town, and his name is Cesar Millan.
