Dog whisperer?

I've watched this show a bit, and it seems that this guy has some great abilities for getting control of misbehaving dogs, through training their owners. Is this for real, or just more TV BS?

My wife used a lot of his techniques to train our dog (and us). He started out with some behavior problems, but is now the best dog we've ever owned. I don't know if that's coincidence or a result of his techniques, but she says it's the latter. I have found that a big part of training dogs is understanding them, which is the part that involves training the owners.

i watched him for a while. our terrier was a spaz and had a rough first 8 months of his life being caged up for days at a time by a bad guy.

the "tssss" sound thing works like a charm for him. a couple times laying him on his back and making him submit went a long way too.

Right..

He fixes the stupid owners, there is nothing wrong with the dog most of the time.

Some of his ideas are a bit nuts, my wife was wtching the show and he told the owners not to put the leash on the dog until it stopped wagging it's tail because the dog was too excited.

If I did that, my dog would never leave the house. His tail never stops, he's not crazy excited, just a happy dog.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Ever see a springer Spaniels tail stop wiggling while they're breathing? Nope me either...

I think hes the real deal, but 90% of the issues he deals with have next to nothing to do with the dog. Tense, nervous people make tense, nervous dogs. I also wonder, sometimes, whether the smell of pit bull on him makes the new dogs think twice about berkeleying with him.

The shows where he takes the dog away, you know there is a real problem with the dog. Occasionally, he won't even give the dog back.

I found a GREAT dog trainer (people trainer) and his ideals were similar to Milans. They work well. Despite the bad wrap Akitas get, she was very well behaved and well mannered.

drinking beers with Mental at the '03 (iirc) challenge, he told me more about dog psychology than i had ever heard before. years later, i caught the dog whisperer on cable and thought "dang, Mental got shorter and less handsome."

First time I watched his show years ago I was like "this guy is a joke; he doesn't show you how to do anything with the dog!". Some time later, I gave him another chance and opened the mind a bit further and really paid attention to what it was he did.

Then I tried it.

The E36 M3 works. Since then, I've watched every episode and read his first book. I'm a big believer. He's got a lot of critics, but they are usually knee-jerk reactionary people who think touchy-feely positive reinforcement is the only way to train. What I keep reminding people is that the dogs on his show are usually the worst of the worst, and they require more radical techniques.

I'm proud to be a pack leader with my spouse. We look at a lot of other dogs and their owners and roll our eyes, because we can instantly see they aren't the pack leader, which is why their dogs are annoying troublemakers and ours impress most people we encounter because they are calm and balanced.

Cesar actually explains high school quite well, I think.

I didn't enjoy high school.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

Tsssss!

In reply to Trans_Maro:

My cocker does the same thing. If he's awake the tail is going.

Our first dog was submissive from the get-go. We never really trained her, she didn't need it. She was the one that other owners would ask their dogs "Why can't you behave like her?"

Now we have Ralph. Ralph was 5 when we got him, not fixed, never trained, and never walked--just let out to run in a huge yard. He is also 100% alpha male. My mom has tried using Cesar's tricks. Most of them work very well, but I think that Ralph was just too old for it and too much of an alpha for all of them to work.

That being said, when I first tried to roll him on his back to rub his belly, he went ballistic. Now, 4 years later, he rolls over for us to rub his belly. He knows I'm the alpha. We just have to make sure that he is never near any other alpha dogs.

Oh, also, both Shelby and Ralph had/have their tails going 100mph about 98% of the time. Ralph stops to put the leash on since it is a pincher, then it goes right back.

the most troubling thing about trying cesar's techniques on problem dogs is that he has a very highly developed intuitive sense of telling the difference between nervous, and agressive.

for most people, they will miss the visual cues, which means you could end up trying his techs at the exact wrong moment.

He's the real deal, but people shouldn't try exactly what they see on TV because so much of his first approach is intuitive.

The rest of us should watch the dog's behavior for much longer to get the right idea about what's going on.

He's a pretty interesting story. Illegal smuggled into the US by a coyote. Had a real knack with dogs growing up, with some skills he got from his grandfather. Started walking and sitting dogs in the worst part of L.A. and found that his methods were really effective on "red case" dogs, mostly pitbulls from gangster-types. Word spread to celebrity clients (Jada Pinkett Smith) and one thing led to another and he was approached by producers looking to do a show.

More recently, his wife left him and tried to steal every dime she could, his faithful companion Daddy (a putbull) died of cancer, and the production company let him know that he wasn't getting any of the money from the show. The result was a suicide attempt.

Today, he is back on track, has a new show that he controls, a super-hot girlfriend (and a pre-nup I hope) and looks to be doing OK. I like the guy, I hope he overcomes his demons.

He's interesting to say the least. Bravo for being able to turn your talent into a living.

I will second the avg person shouldn't try to apply what he does. There was a house along my walking route to high school that had beware of dog signs all over it, and his fence. BIG rottie in the yard, growled and barked at everyone. Got tired of the barking one day and decided to say hi to the dog, took a few minutes but I was able to walk up and pet him, from that day forward. Blew the owners mind, but I've been handling dogs since I could walk and wasn't challenging him when I first approached him. I've done it with tons of dogs over the years, but reading the dogs body and knowing when and where to move is paramount.