People Whisperer

One of the more popular shows in US television nowadays is the National Geographic feature Dog Whisperer. In the show, dog behaviorist Ceasar Millan goes to from home to home helping dog owners fix their dog--no,no, not that "fix" kind. He is a not a dog castrationist; besides in the US even when you are a dog, you don't get your thing cut-off by simply misbehaving. By fix, I mean cure their dogs of their problematic behavior.

It was funny to see all those dogs giving their owners problems. There was one, a pit bull, who is just scared of anything (some good guard dog he is). Another, a chihuahua, bites anyone who goes near his man owner. My favorite one, a beagle, is quite a drag literally. He gets depressed all the time and that he just lays down and never moves. His owner has to drag or carry him just to get him anywhere.

For almost every case, the owners were thinking that they were in a hopeless situation. But as soon as Cesar comes in the picture he immediately gets results. Almost everyone were surprised by how easy it was for him to do it. And how easy it was what he did.

Cesar's method is very simple and is summarized as: be the pack leader. Oftentimes the problem is not the dog but the owner. And in the show, it can be seen that Ceasar is more often than not, fixing the owners than the animals. Dogs he say, are very simple creatures and that they need a leader to get them in control, or they will handle things themselves, the dog-eat-dog way. And so in the sessions that they were performing, Cesar was teaching the owners how to become leaders: how to be calm and dominant, confident, and in-control of the situation. He is showing them that dogs misbehave because the owners let them get away with it; and that if they want their dogs to be behaving better they need to let the animals know how things should be. The results are amazing: both the dogs and the owner really become better.

There is also one tenet in his show (which has caused some controversy resulting into criticism and even condemnation from organizations such as the American Humane Association): treat dogs as dogs. Which I whole-heartedly agree. Which of course doesn't mean I could maltreat a dog anytime I want. Dogs are wonderful animals, and very loyal, but to treat them almost to the point of being like human beings is just too much (dogs are almost like gods here!). Dogs and humans think differently, and that how you treat a human being should be different from how you treat a dog. In fact I want to take that tenet to a higher level: treat things the way they are (dogs, humans, situations, etc). The reason people never get past a problem is they do not see things the way those things should be seen.

In the show, I learned that dogs are similar to people (and vice versa). They also have insecurities, which often result to behaviors showing aggression, fear, or dominance. And that in general, they need a leader (in their case a "pack leader") who will make them calm, secure, and well behaved.

Cesar Millan's show is called the Dog Whisperer, but I think he is a people whisperer too. And the work he is doing is something worth doing, even though most of what he gets out of it are hugs from his female clients (which is awesome, since he has alot of celebrity clients. The hug he gave to Denise Richards in one episode seemed to be to be a split second longer than usual).