Cesar Milan Live Show

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Many of you know that we went to see Cesar's show last night.  We had told our DS that we were taking him to a comedy show...that's the only way to get him to come with us, and we can't really leave him alone at night.  Well, he wasn't disappointed.  Cesar is a really funny guy in person, and we laughed through the whole show.  Here are some of my "take aways"....

-He had his dog (Junior) on stage through the whole evening.  This dog was amazing.  I noticed that Cesar never once gave him a command....no sit or down stays.  He just let Junior do his own thing.  He walked around the stage a little, looked into the audience a lot, and rarely took his eyes off of Cesar.  He seemed totally relaxed...I'm sure he does this all the time.  There was just some sort of "unspoken language" going on between the two of them...pretty neat.

-He talked about the importance of rescue.  He stated some frightening numbers on how many dogs are euthanized each year and gave his perspective on why this is happening.  He shared a story of a woman who had contacted him because her dog would not listen to her.  This woman had been into cats her whole life...never owned a dog.  She watched Cesar's show and read one of his books and decided she was ready to get a dog.  She went to the local shelter and adopted a rottweiler.  She felt sorry when she found out about his past life and wanted to save him.  He was a big, troubled, high energy dog....a terrible match for her.  You can picture the rest, right?  He spoke a lot about understanding your family situation and getting a dog that will match it...and the dog's energy level is key.  He talked about Labs as an example.  More and more people want Labs but they don't understand that these dogs need tons of exercise.  Then he talked about the dogs who are really smart and need lots of mental stimulation.  You need to understand your breed and how their needs will fit into your life....can you realistically give them what they need?  This made me thing about Labradoodles....dogs who by nature will need lots of physical exercise AND mental stimulation (Lab & Poodle).  I wonder how many really understood that before we got our dogs.  I know I never thought about it in this way.

-He talked about our love for our dogs and our tendency to humanize them.  I was surprised to hear him say that he LOVES his dog as much as he loves his children (that shocked me coming from him).  But he respects his dogs AS DOGS.  He understands that their needs are very different than human needs.  When we treat them more as humans than dogs they are confused and while we think we are making them happy, that is not the case.  He gave lots of examples of what he believes is going through a dog's mind when their humans treat them as "little people".  It was funny and also insightful. 

-As a society we are busy, often stressed out, don't communicate well even within the family, and we feel lots of guilt because of what we think we're not doing.  This translates to our relationship with our dogs.  He described a typical morning of a Mom doing everything she has to do to get the kids off to school and get out to work.  The dog gets a quick walk, and then she gets busy doing everything else.  Before she leaves she's feeling really guilty about the dog being home alone all day, so she starts filling the Kongs with peanut butter.  She leaves a few around the house, and leaves feeling bad.  The dogs pick right up on how she's feeling....they know she was not in a calm "balanced" state when she left, and that's going to impact their day.  It can lead to separation anxiety (which it seems is very common) and stress.  He said it would be so much better for the dog if the owner could find a way to give them a really good walk to drain some of their energy and then leave knowing that they are tired and will be just fine.  That sense of confidence will result in a more confident dog....it's giving them a much better day than the peanut butter Kongs.  He acknowledged how difficult this to accomplish, but how good it is for your dog. 

-He always talks about "the walk" on his TV show, and he did last night too.  In his opinion, a fenced yard does not replace the walk.  He said that before long the dog knows the yard...every smell...and it becomes just an extension of the house.  He then described how most people approach a walk, and that was hysterical.  Some of it certainly hit home with me.  He described people panicking when they saw another dog walking toward them because they were afraid that their dog would react.  The tension they are feeling travels down the leash and the dog says....oh that dog is making my human really scared...I should be scared too.  She doesn't have my back...I better take over.  That was certainly food for thought for me. 

-He gave an example of going to a client's house and knocking at the door.  That resulted in a fury of loud barking from inside, then he heard someone yell "get the dog", then he heard someone say "put him in the bathroom and close the door".  The humans in the house were completely stressed.  Then they let Cesar in and he told them to get the dog out of the bathroom.  Of course, the dog was crazed and although he was leashed he was barking and dragging the owner.  He then went on to explain how all of this chaos translates to how the dog will react to strangers.

-He worries that lots of training methods are now too mechanical.  People are getting focused on having their dog follow commands which is great, but it's only part of the answer.  He said that he's met many dogs who were great at following commands, but in the house they would eat/destroy things, counter surf, or just drive the owners crazy with their "misplaced energy".  In his opinion this is often because the "total relationship" isn't what it needs to be, and often because the owner is not helping the dog to drain energy in a more appropriate way.

There was a short "question and answer" session, which was great.  Someone asked about "trading" when a dog takes an object he shouldn't have.  You can imagine his response to that.  He talked about playing "do's and don'ts". 

I could go on and on.  Bottom line to me, he clearly cares about dogs.  He's kind of "on a mission" to try to help people understand HOW to help their dogs to live more fulfilled lives.  He must be doing something right because as I watched Junior with him I saw a calm, confident, happy (tail wagging), dog who clearly respected and loved his owner.  That's what I want.

I know there are some Cesar fans and others who do not agree with him.  I'll tell you, it was hard to find much to disagree with last night.  Here's my "crew" with Cesar (it was a bad hair day).

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Wow, thanks BG....I have my days when I feel at least 10 years OLDER.

[sandy b]

Thank you for sharing. Watched a lot of his shows, would love to see him in person.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is so exciting, Jane! I would love to see Cesar in person, I have heard portions of some of his "talks" and I do think he's very funny. I also agree, it would be hard to disagree with what he had to say last night. I do think, as Adina has said, that what works for Cesar wouldn't work for most of us. He makes it look effortless on the show, but it always seems to me that the dog is just responding to Cesar, and not to anything specific that he's done. In fact, most of the time, I can't figure out what he has done, it's like he picks up the leash and the dog just does what he wants, lol.  I think BG's comment about "channeling your inner Cesar" sounds about right.

Any chance Murphy will be making an appearance on his show?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I think you're absolutely right, Karen.  Some of what he does seems to be "magical".  We were right up front for the show and I did notice there were lots of subtle "body language queues" that he was giving Junior.  For example, he let him play with a tennis ball on stage for a while, and then Junior seemed to be getting a little too excited, so he had to end the game and take the ball.  He made some little gesture with his hand, and he said that was the signal for Junior to know that ball playing time was now over.  They just seem to have this subtle way of communicating with each other...it's really interesting.  My trainer can do it too....my boys are little angels when he's around.  Oh and no Murph was not asked to be on the show.....unfortunately.

[Becka]

I too have great respect and admiration for the work Cesar does and his commitment to helping dogs. Thanks so much for sharing this! And Junior! I love hearing you describe his relationship with Cesar--it was fun to watch him grow up on the show.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

You're welcome Becka.

[Bonnie and Kona]

I am so grateful that you posted this summary of your visit with Ceasar. I am quite sure that we are not giving Owen adequate mental stimulation. I was telling someone last night that Owen needs a job. I'm sure Ceasar would agree. Now to figure out what that would be daily to tire out his active mind!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

All of our guys are so smart....we're working on "jobs" for our Doods too.

[Julia Bibbee]

Thank you for sharing.  I always enjoy his shows.  My oldest son introduced me to him when he first came on TV.  I wished he was around when my late beloved pitbull Chewy was young.  I completely agree with Cesar regarding exercised -- tired dog is a good/happy dog.  This past weekend, I was under the weather with a bad cold so I did not exercise Finn, my 4 mo. goldendoodle.  Oh my, I paid for it.  He just learned to ring the bell to let me know he needs to go outside and was quite proud of himself and bored, so what did he do?  He rang the bell every 5 minutes whether he had to go potty or not because he figured it out, that I would take him out.  Later in the afternoon he started counter surfing and getting into things because he was bored.   This morning, we went out for our morning walk regardless how I felt. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Yup, boredom sure brings out the worst in many of our dogs.

[Anne G.]

Before we got Murphy, we bought Cesar's book "How to Raise the Perfect Puppy". He raised 4 puppies while he was writing the book and Junior was one of them. It really helped, especially considering that this was our first dog! Thanks for sharing, Jane. It prompted me to get the book out again and read about the "humanizing" part. I'm afraid DH and I both need a little refresher course in this area! :-)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

You're welcome Anne.  I fall into the "humanizing" thing all the time....I have to catch myself.