A Whole Different View
by Ines Gaschot
A video of Cesar Millan is going
around the internet right now of him training a dog. Thought I’d give it a look
and sure enough it was an episode I had previously watched back before I had
crossed over. I was surprised at my reaction. With all the new knowledge on dog
behavior and emotions, I was rather appalled while I watched him hold the dog
up at the end of a slip lead – “hanging” the dog. Before, when I was a fan, I
would have understood and agreed with his methods. I would have seen this as
the dog was being dominant and needed to submit to the exercise, that the dog
needed to become calm submissive in this situation – around other dogs. I was
well versed in his descriptive dog behavior language. However, my reaction
today was completely the opposite! I wanted to yell though the computer at him
to tell him to stop choking the dog! This reaction actually surprised me, this
was the first time I had really watched one of his episodes since my crossing
over. It truly pained me to watch this poor husky be strangled and tortured –
the dog showed so much discomfort and panic as he chewed at the leash to try to
set himself free. He jumped up not to be “dominant to Cesar, but to try to
alleviate the pressure around his neck – as any normal living-being would! It
hit me hard because I saw my own dog in that position. Loker, who is a husky
mix, would have most likely done the same thing. I probably had done this to
him myself at some point (although not to this intensity). I am so glad I am
through with that kind of “training.” In fact, it really isn’t even training.
You aren’t teaching the dog to do ANYTHING, you are choking it out so that it
gives up and becomes a zombie… The dog in this video, Shadow, did not want to
be near the other dog. He wanted to get away and was already in “fight or
flight” mode, but since he could not get away, he was forced to fight. When a
dog is in that mode, or anyone for that matter, they know their safety is in
danger and you cannot expect ANYONE (dog or human) to learn anything while in
this state of mind.
But how do I know he wants to get
away? Well, there is a series of body language signals I saw. If you watch at
0:34, Shadow actually backs up and tries to get behind Cesar, he is trying to
avoid confrontation with the other dog. If you watch at minute 2:50, he is
avoiding eye contact despite being super close to the other dog. In general,
Shadow never really ever charges at the other dog, Cesar never lets him get to
that point because as soon as Shadow shows interest or alertness, he is
“corrected” or choked. Shadow’s face expresses concern – in my eyes. Every time
Cesar chokes him out, he tries to chew the leash to escape. When Cesar puts him
on the ground, Shadow is still tense – licking his lips (calming signal) as
well as a bent front leg which shows tension at about 4:15 of the video. His eyes
are squinting at this time which is not a sign of relaxation – in this case it
is stiffness and tension.
Cesar approaches dogs as if they
are still highly primal animals, but really they are incredibly intelligent and
are capable of creating new emotional reactions to stimuli with our (humans)
help and proper training – through building new associations in their mind of
the stimuli. I wish people would realize this – I am sure glad I did!
Answers:
I remember
watching that video the first time. My heart rate was incredibly high and I let
out a few sobs. How is this entertainment? He set that dog up to fail, then
gave it no escape option, then provoked a response, then violently forced the
dog into terrified submission.
I too use to be Compulsion/aversive/archaic/balanced
(pick a word they use now to describe using force, threats and pain to train).
I tell People I use to work on the dark side of the force, but moved onward and
upward to the light side, I used those methods back in the 70′s but I am not
stuck in the 70′s I found new research and changed with the times. I see Cesar
show and now describe to others what is going on in real life, and it doesn’t
quite match what he is saying. Someone told me in some of his newer shows he
has used +R methods, I have not seen them, so can’t say yay or nay. Thank you
for standing up and be recognized for changing to better help the “best friends”
we take into our lives.
Jamie CPDT-KA
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