Book Review: Cesar's Way

Millan, Cesar, with Melissa Jo Peltier. Cesar’s Way: the natural, everyday guide to understanding and correcting common dog problems. NewYork: Harmony Books, 2006.

I hoped that Cesar’s book would assist me in reaching our obedience goals as my current dog, a chocolate lab named Guinness, is a challenge to train. Since Cesar is a dog whisperer, I also hoped to learn how to read my dog – why his hackles go up, what do ear and tail positions mean, what is safe play and what is not safe play, what do growls during play mean, etc.

Cesar became a dog expert by watching the dogs on his grandfather’s farm as a child in Mexico, noting how they interact, deciphering their language, and learning to gain control. He came to America with the dream of training dogs for movies. He crossed the border into San Diego where he was shocked to discover that many dogs in America are “unbalanced.” The reason he found American dogs to be unbalanced is because Americans coddle their dogs, not allowing them to be natural. He contends that dogs need pack leaders, not buddies. This discovery led him to opening the Dog Psychology Center in LA where he became famous as a handler/trainer of aggressive, difficult dogs – particularly rottweilers, shepherds, and pit bulls. His success brought him television fame with the program Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan on the National Geographic Channel demonstrating how to manage dogs. He is renowned for rehabilitating dogs on death row.

His basic premise for dog owners is to walk your dog for two hour walks every morning and one hour every afternoon. Cesar cited pets of homeless people as examples of well-balanced dogs who follow their pack leaders because they have sufficient daily exercise. There are not many productive humans who have the time to give their dogs that much activity.

This book is not for the happy dog that requires some obedience training, but for problem dogs, though he never says that. He promotes his methods should be followed for all dogs. I disagree. He writes about fixations being "wasted energy," and that a dog needs to use up their energy in long walks rather than in "fixations." He writes, "Another kind of fixation is when a dog obsesses or fixates on a toy or activity. Ever meet a dog who goes insane over a tennis ball, begging you to throw the ball again and again and again until you want to pull your hair out? Many owners think they can substitute taking a dog out to play fetch for giving him regular walks. That doesn't work. Yes, it's exercise, but not the kind of primal activity that migrating with a pack leader provides. ... Playing catch is excitement; a walk is calm submission. If an owner skips the walk and just plays with the dog, the dog will have to use that playtime as the only way to totally drain her energy. The dog is being given that activity while her mind is anxious and excited. She'll play until he drops, which will be long after the owner does. At the same time, she'll go into the kind of high gear she would never reach naturally." Then he goes on to say, "The problem is, owners often see fixations as 'cute' or 'funny.' Or they describe them as love, 'She just loves that Frisbee!' 'He just adores playing with that ball' That's not a healthy kind of love. A fixation is just like an addiction in a human, and can be just as dangerous."

He may understand aggressive dogs, but he does not understand a lab. Retrieving is what a Labrador Retreiver was bred to do. It is their passion. He says that dogs need jobs yet neglects to recognize that retrieving is a job.

He advocates that owners must be “calm assertive” to have a “balanced” pet, but he never adequately describes what a calm assertive demeanor is. I would not describe myself as a calm assertive person nor do I think that I am capable of becoming one or even want to. He infers that a person who is not calm assertive cannot be a good dog owner.

He defines energy as the language which dogs understand. They detect the energy that a being, animal or human, emits and responds to that energy. That is an amazing and incontrovertible discovery. It explains how dogs are able to sense when someone is afraid of them. Yet I, a mere human, cannot read the energy of others or of dogs. Does this again mean that I should not own a dog?

Another point he makes is that, in nature, there are very few dominant, pack-leader dogs. While in America, he says, many if not a majority of dogs take on the role of pack leader out of necessity. It is only those natural few who should "strut around with his tail up and chest forward projecting dominant energy to the others." Everyone remarks on the gait of Guinness while heeling: he prances, head high, tail up, literally bouncing with each step. At those moments, he is behaving perfectly – walking at my pace beside me. I cannot be convinced that he sees himself as the pack leader while walking with a spring in his step as he happily heels at my side. It is when he is forging ahead in a position similar to a Pointer that he is trying to usurp my leadership role.

Cesar’s indicators that your dog is the dominate member of your family include:
1. he jumps on you when you come home from work.
2. he dashes through doorways before you.
3. he awakens you at 6 AM to go potty.
If these are true, we have never been the leader of the pack for any of our dogs. I disagree that these are signs of the leader. Obeying commands and allowing objects to be removed from the mouth are greater indicators of who is the leader. Cesar declares that pack members should not roam on a walk but stay behind the leader. Allowing your dog to roam on a long lead should only be done for ten minutes after having heeled for half an hour. Again I disagree. The whole purpose of the walk is for their enjoyment. Dogs need to exercise their strong sense of smell. I contend that they get more exercise by running around on a long lead than by heeling at my pace.

Something which Cesar said that I totally agree with is – do not play tug with your dog as that instills aggression. We have never played tug with our dogs as someone told us that years ago, though, our dogs have played tug between themselves. A local, well-known, expensive school taught Guinness to play tug. The owner was encouraged to place a favorite toy in the dog’s mouth while pulling on it and dancing around saying in a sing-song voice, "Playtime, playtime, playtime." The exercise ended with an assertive "Settle," and the dog was to stop playing and sit. Guinness now wants to play tug. He brings a toy to me wanting to have "playtime," but I refuse the game as it does bring out some aggression.

The author contradicts himself. In the first half of the book, he says that dogs do not have the capacity to love. One of my favorite dog books is Masson’s Dogs Never Lie about Love in which he writes of several emotions expressed by canines along with examples. I am convinced of a dog’s ability to express emotions, especially love. In the second half, Cesar, with no explanation for his discrepancy, states that dogs do love.

His book is annoying with his continual telling, not showing. By the end of the book, you do not know what a calm assertive person really is except that Oprah is one, though she has problem dogs. Another activity he recommends, if you cannot give your dog sufficient walks every day, is to teach your dog to run on a treadmill. But he does not explain how to do that except to hire a professional trainer. He advocates that all humans in the household should be perceived by the dog as the pack leader including infants. How does that happen? Over and over, he tells what he does, but never describes the process so that the reader can learn. This book is an obvious marketing tool for his business.

Many people will read Cesar’s Way because the author is a famous Dog Whisperer with a television show. Though I have never seen his show, I am sure he comes across as a miracle worker. But his methods are not applicable to the average, well-adjusted pet. He does give some concrete suggestions for working with aggressive dogs or dogs with phobias. I would recommend this book only to those who have dangerous, difficult dogs.