Dear Dr. Horowitz,

THANK YOU for your comentary and your thoughtful responses. I hope educated, informed, and respected animal behavoirists like yourself will continue to speak out against Cesar Millan's methods. His method of "training" is animal abuse and nothing less. Hopefully, National Geographic Channel will eventually stop thinking about their profits and take this show off the air.

Thanks again,

Lori Malone

Debra,

I'm writing in again to say that yes, its an older video and I remember seeing it. Yes, it was an intense case but he did EXACTLY what needed to be done. When a dog is in that state of mind, you cannot stop. You HAVE to keep going until the dog submits. Yeah Cesar sure got a few bites but He did NOT hurt the dog, the dog was not peeing and he could breath. I do NOT see any kind of animal abuse here. 

I have been working with animals for about 20 years and I would have done the same exact thing! and have had to in the past.

I think that for some people it may have been like watching a horror movie so I'm glad they took it off. Its not for everybody.

"Kdog" One of the other commenter's took the words right out of my mouth.

Most Sincerely, ~Micki~  F.A.B.  Canine Companion

I thought I would take a few moments to respond to the most recent post. 

You say:

 <<So as I said at the beginning of this comment, you are a vet and Cesar is a dog trainer, you deal with medical problems and he deals with real life, hands-on behavior issues.  There is a huge difference between seeing and medicating dogs everyday of your life and training them and knowing how they think.>>

Yes, I am a veterinarian, but I am also a board certified veterinary behaviorist and I have been treating behavior problems in companion animals for 27 years.  I think that I am quite aware of what it takes to change behavior and believe that dominance is not the issue.  If we only use dominance to explain what a dog does, then we do not leave any room for any other explanation including that the dog does not understand what we want him to do, that he is frightened or anxious or even that the dog does not feel well.

I agree, it is not safe for people to own aggressive dogs, I work with owners of aggressive dogs daily and know full well what the dangers are. I also know that when they confront these dogs they usually are bitten. 

You say:

<<Dogs learn from what they are shown day in and day out, they aren't born knowing what we as humans expect from them, >>

This is very true, they do not know what is expected of them, therefore we need to teach them what we want them to know.  And, we should assume that they choose a behavior because they think it is the right one, not because they wish to dominate us.

<<it is best to practice a pack-leader role from the time the puppy is young so as they grow they won't question authority, however, a lot of families don't understand what should be taught to the innocent young puppy they are raising.>>

The entire idea of pack theory came from some very flawed research on captive wolves. We now know that wolves do not act that way, that they act as a family unit in a very cooperative manner without much aggression at all.  And, we also know that domestic dogs do not really form packs in the traditional sense when left to their own devices.   We also know that dogs attempt to communicate with us using that methods they know and understand which include body postures, facial expressions and eye contact or avoidance.

You say:

<< If you treat your dog like a human, your dog will treat you like a dog.>>

Of course they will treat you like a dog, that is the ONLY way they know how to interact.  If you watch dogs interact with one another they do not do the things that are done in that video.   It just doesn't make sense to me that on the one hand we maintain that dogs treat us like dogs and then use that explanation to treat them so badly and in ways that dogs do not do to one another.

Another problem that I have is that just because a very accomplished dog handler can do something and get away with it and not be hurt, does not mean that it is a good method of training.  And, if that individual does get bitten why would we want to emulate that?

For me, the idea that we have to injure dogs and be very physically harsh with them is just not upheld by science.  And, if we can clicker train a Gorilla to place their arm out so we can take blood, why do we need to choke a dog to get it to do what we want?  If you take a look at the literature there are scores of articles that show that aversive training techniques compromise welfare in all sorts of animals and in people as well.  While dogs may be more persistent, we are smarter and should be able to get a dog to do what we need them do do without hurting them, choking them or kicking them.

 The principles of learning actually do not vary between species, although the motivation and the reinforcement might.  So, we all learn the same way regardless of whether we know language or not. 

I have learned in my 30+ years of working with dogs is that treating them with respect, kindness and patience works wonders.

Thanks for listening and challenging my views.

Dr. Deb