For some time now, the Cesar Millan haters of the world have been engaged in a whispering campaign.
One of those in the whispering campaign wrote yesterday because she wanted me to know that "the debates about him and the concerns about what he does" were "complex."
Specifically, she wanted me to know that it involved "on-camera asphyxiation of a dog, off camera harm of dogs and much, much more."
Right.
Sorry, but I call bullshit, and so should you.
My first advice to this woman was that her comments were, in fact, libelous.
Not one scrap of what she said was true, and she had to know it, as she had not supplied a single link or citation.
My second point was that she needed to use her brain. Cesar Millan is a public figure who appears weekly on the National Geographic Channel. If one iota of the nonsense she was saying was true, someone would have won an Emmy and a Pulitzer with it. But guess what? They haven't!
My third point was simply to supply the link to the supposed on-camera "asphyxiation" of the dog in question. Funny that this link was not supplied, eh?
But that's how it is with a whispering campaign -- say anything, support nothing with links or footnotes, never appeal to common sense or reason, and always suggest there's a grand conspiracy behind it all.
Shhhhhhh!!!! I know secret things.
Right. Sure you do. Go ahead and ride the crazy train all by yourself. Lyndon LaRouche is conducting, and Sarah Palin is serving drinks.
The rest of us, however, can slow down and actually watch the clip. I append the clip in question at the bottom of this post, but before you jump to that, let me walk you through it using freeze-frames.
To start, let's set the stage: Cesar Millan has been called in because a large and very dominant Husky by the name of Shadow routinely rips into the other dogs in the house. The owners of this dog, a family by the name of Ament, no longer feel they can control this dog. Do they need to put it down? Does he need to wear a muzzle for the rest of his life?
Look at the picture above. This is from the first second of the video clip. Notice the placement of the tails. The Husky's tail is up and "flagging." The other dog's tail is tucked firmly between its legs. Yes, a flagging tail can mean happiness, but not in this case. These dogs know each other, and one is intimidated by the other. That Husky's tail is flagging because it is excited.
Notice that Millan has the Husky on a short leash with a standard slip chain collar placed high on the neck. Millan is a pretty strong, but he is not a very big man, and he knows if things "go south" with this large aggressive dog, he is going to have to maintain control in order to not get seriously bitten. A slip collar should be high on the neck to use it properly. No surprise that Millan actually knows what he is doing!
Remember that the owners of this dog have called Millan because this dog is very dog-aggressive and has posed a danger to them and their other dogs in the past!
Look at the picture above. This is the sixth second of the video. The Husky has turned away from Millan and towards the Border Collie, with mouth open and ears up and forward -- a classic sign of aggression. Millan has tightened the leash, given a "tssst" sound, and he has also given a light "heal tap" to the back of the dog as a correction. This is often described as Millan "kicking" the dog, but in fact this heel tap is designed to do nothing more than send a corrective message. Notice that the dog's body is not moved at all by the heel tap -- it a simple bump, and nothing more.
This is the exact same second as the shot in the previous freeze-frame. Yes, this is how fast it takes for a dog that is "loaded for explosion," to turn and bite.
Notice that the dog is NOT leaping away from Millan like a dog might if it were hurt. This dog is leaping into Millan, with his mouth open, his teeth barred, and his entire body going upward. This is pure aggression -- a dog seeking to establish injury. For the next three seconds Millan works to control the dog, which is used to biting its way to the top of the household pack hierarchy.
Remember why Cesar Millan was called -- this dog routinely rips into other dogs and people in this household!
The picture, above, is taken in the 10th second of the video. The dog is back under control. This setup does not last long. The dog decides to explode again, and again tries to bite Millan four seconds later (second #14). By second #17, the dog is back under control and sitting. The dog explodes again in seconds 20-26, but then it settles again. It explodes again at second 31.
Apparently these bite-and-release episodes continue for a while. Millan simply keeps the leash high (to avoid being seriously bitten), and the dog cycles through the explosions. The dog is making a choice to explode, albeit a very emotional, excited, and not entirely rational one. These same choices are made in street fist fights -- you keep punching forward until you are either too exhausted or you have your ass kicked.
At the one minute mark in the clip, the dog's emotional melt down has begun to drain off. The dog is exhausted, and he has lost the battle.
This is a simple, but core point: No one can keep a temper tantrum going forever! No one can throw punches forever. There is a reaon there are rounds in a boxing or mixed martial arts match!
Millan knows that waiting out the emotional and physical storm of this dog is critical. Once that happens, Millan has little trouble getting the dog to roll over on its side.
The dog is breathing fine, and the leash is now loose. Millan keeps his hand on the dog's neck to signal to the dog that he is still in control, but the hand comes off pretty quickly, and now the dog is clearly relaxed, resting, and thinking it all over.
In the picture, above, the leash is entirely relaxed, and the dog is resting on its side and licking its lips. This is a frame 1:17. Some have said the dog's tongue is "blue." It is? It is not! Watch the video yourself. That's a very healthy pink tongue being used by a dog to moisten its lips.
What does the dog feel like inside? I have no doubt it feels the kind of physical and emotional exhaustion a small child does after throwing a screaming, hitting and flailing temper tantrum ... and then being put in a time out to allow the emotional tide to drain away.
The dog is now centered inwards. It is resting, exhausted from acting out, but it is also calculating and recalculating what has just occurred.
What the hell just happened here? A lot of work for no gain! This is new. I am tired, and I have exhausted myself physically and emotionally, but for what? No gain.
Slowly a simple realization drifts in: I do not seem to be running the world anymore. When did that happen?
For a dog or a child, facing calm non-reactive discipline for the first time is more than a bit of a shock. Up to now, the world has revolved around them, and they have been able to manipulate their way to success or bulldoze their way to the top through sheer force of will or body strength.
But apparently, no more.
Will this be the last explosion we can expect to see from this dog?
No. Probably not.
But it is the beginning of the end, provided the dog's owners can show they will also not be bullied into submission.
Now watch the entire video tape below.
This is the one and only "horror show" that Cesar Millan haters point to, and yet it shows Cesar Millan successfully saving a dog's life, because is there really any question where this dog was going?
Powerful dominant dogs like Shadow are pretty rare because their genes tend to get weeded out of the pool.
Why does Shadow bite?
Some will suggest that Shadow must have been abused. In fact, Shadow shows no signs of abuse. Dog-on-dog aggression is not a sign of abuse.
Some will suggest that there must be something wrong medically, and a veterinarian should be consulted. A vet will have no answer for Shadow, other that a shot of sodium phenobarbital to end his life.
Cesar Millan says the problem is that Shadow is a rare, but truly dominant, dog.
A lot of folks have problems with the world "dominant."
They sniff that Cesar Millan is not a "trained" animal behaviorist. No doubt they also think paper from the AKC signifies quality, and doing the job in the field does not. Sorry, but that kind of nonsense is how we got into trouble with dogs. I am not sure it is the road out.
They say they read somewhere that wolves are not really dominant, and that "in nature" wolves live in family units as imagined by Walt Disney. Only in the "artificial" wolf packs created in large wolf-pen enclosures is wolf-on-wolf dominance and aggression ever shown.
Right.
Do Shadow and Riley look like a "family group" to you, or an artificial pack with no sanguinity? How about the dogs in your house? Funny how the "instant experts" always leave the obvious off the balance sheet!
The simple truth is that some dogs, like some people, are bullies.
We all know bullies. We grew up with them in grade school.
Bullying is a self-reinforcing behavior. What that means is that bullying is entertainment for the bully, as well as a means to an end -- respect, power, money, food, or sex.
A bully will continue to bully until he or she loses social status, gets a punch in the nose, or is hauled away by the police.
Even if there is no obvious reward other than entertainment, a bully will continue to bully.
In the dog world, that means some dogs will continue to bully other dogs even when the other dog is submissive, and it also means that some dogs have learned that people are also pretty easy to cow.
All of this can be pretty confusing to a young dog with no real role-model or calm assertive hand (human or canine) to lead the way.
Call this dominance if you want. Call it bullying if you prefer. In the real world, it's pretty much all the same.
Most of the folks who hate Millan and who point to the tape of Shadow as evidence of abuse, do not know very much about dogs, and are not competent to judge what is going on.
Some are simply liars.
Let us dispense with the liars -- the folks who say Millan kicks the dog, for example, or who say the dog has a blue tongue. If that's a kick, then I too have booted a lot of dogs, and if that tongue is blue then so is mine!
The main issue with this tape is that most people cannot read Shadow and the other dog very well at the very beginning. They see a dog's tail up and think that means a happy dog. They see Shadow turn to the other dog, but they do not see it as an aggressive move.
Let's pause for a minute to look at the face and body postures below. This is from an old (was it Konrad Lorenz??) illustration on canine communication. It is a bit stylized (as are human versions of the same thing). No dog presents exactly like this, but the general thrust is correct and clear -- dogs do communicate aggression and fear, dominance and submission, through facial expressions and body posture.
1. Threat; 2. Uncertain threat; 3. Weak threat; 4. Faint threat - the dog is very uncertain; 5. Fear; 6. Expression of uncertainty in presence of dog of superior rank
1. A self-confident, dominant animal in the presence of another dog; 2. Threat; 3. Trying to impress (tail wags from side to side); 4. Unconcerned attitude; 5. Uncertain threat; 6. Posture when eating; 7. Subordinate attitude; 8. Uncertainty between threat and defense; 9. 10. 11. Subordinate attitudes in the presence of a dog of superior rank.
Photo manipulation has shown that humans too can read and send massive amounts of information by making very slight changes in facial expression or body position. The slightest movement at the corner of a lip or eye can change the message entirely. So too with dogs.
Millan is very good at picking up on canine signals early on, and so he can often nip aggressive behaviors as they develop, and before they manifest themselves into a full-on throw-down.
Many of the folks who call themselves dog trainers, however, are not very good at reading canine signals. Most will never see a truly aggressive, domineering, or bullying dog like Shadow, and if they do, they will get bitten and suggest that perhaps the dog should be euthanized. The dog is clearly broken beyond repair, and they know this because they cannot fix it!
Of course, there is a place for euthanasia. Just as there are paranoid schizophrenics in the human population, so too are there dogs with this condition. Should we treat these dogs with medication? No. The cost is too high, and the medicine does not work that well even with humans. There are limits to all things, and those limits are lower with dogs.
But is Shadow one of these dogs? No. Not apparently.
This is a dog that acts out against other dogs. It is not nuts all the time -- it is specifically nuts. It is dog-aggressive.
It is, in the words of Ceasar Millan, "dom-eee-nate." If it were a human, we would simply call it a bully.
Back to the video tape.
Notice that Cesar Millan was calm and controlled throughout. This is not a man easily riled. He is not adding to the chaos of the fight -- he is simply handling it. Even at the end, his voice is amazingly calm.
Notice too how quickly he reviews what happened in his mind -- the high tail of Shadow, the low tail of the other dog. He does not use the word "bully" but he knows that is exactly what has been going on.
Some women love to tut-tut about Cesar Millan. They will tell you that "aggression just begets aggression." This is patent bullshit from people who know nothing about it. I have never heard a man say it.
The reason so many kids are miserable in grade school is because their mothers and their teachers (all women) tell them to "just ignore the bully" or else to "try to move away."
What is being missed is that bullies choose their victims because those victims make "prey noises." What I mean by this is that the folks who act submissive and intimidated by a bully are the ones who are reinforcing bullying behavior.
You know what does not reinforce the bully? Someone who will punch him in the nose.
Yes a smaller kid may get a beating out of it in the end, but that bully will not be coming back to repeat that experience, provided at least one good hard punch to the nose was gotten in by the smaller kid.
Notice too that bullying tends to fall off pretty quickly after grade school. Ever wonder why? Simple: Police.
The cops do not click and treat. They hit you over the head with a nightstick, throw your ass in jail, remove your driver's license and fine you a month's wages. They may put you in a cage and leave you there for years.
And guess what? That works! Most young men have a run-in with the law at some time or other, and that run-in is not designed to be a fun experience. It is designed to pull you up short and get you to re-examine the way you have been doing business.
And guess what? That's exactly what happened to Shadow in this tape.
Shadow just dicovered there's a new sherriff in town, and his name is Cesar Millan.
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