Anonymous wrote:His techniques work but people hate acknowledging that dogs are pack animals and not humans. Scientists have studied dog behavior for many years and fundamentally they think and understand differently than humans. Cesar approaches training and dogs the way a mother or leader dog would. It’s not always pretty but it’s what happens in the natural world. He is also very intuned to subtle dog signals like hackles, ear direction, body positioning, facial tightness, etc to be able to see what is about to happen and stops it, or tries to, before it does. He encourages good behavior, not bad and always gives the dog a purpose or job. Humans don’t always want to hear this or like to think their dog doesn’t need a job or purpose. This is where you can get a lot of bad behaviors, fears, or anxieties. We would rather medicate and perhaps send away to board and trains rather than educate ourselves on rearing a dog. So enter the world of strictly positive and force free trainers. Not all bad in my opinion, but in another camp. I’ve done years of dog training with trainers from all sides of the training spectrum. The best in my opinion are the balanced ones and understand that a dog, no matter what size and how cute, is a dog, and to have a great relationship with them, we need to approach them as a dog and not a human. But I guess until humans realize they might be a little broken too, we will break some dogs in the process.

Anonymous wrote:He’s been bit more than a few times for his methods. They are dangerous for Joe dog owner to try to replicate on their own (hence the warning that was at the beginning of episodes)

It can be effective if done well, but it’s really dangerous if done poorly. No one is going to make things worse by feeding a treat at the wrong time, but they could potentially make things really bad with an improperly timed correction.

I’m not against punishment in dog training, but I think it’s best left to the professionals. I teach my clients only +R to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that stuff is carefully edited for television, right. It is entertainment not advice.

+1

Its not 2010 anymore.

Anonymous wrote:He’s been bit more than a few times for his methods. They are dangerous for Joe dog owner to try to replicate on their own (hence the warning that was at the beginning of episodes)

It can be effective if done well, but it’s really dangerous if done poorly. No one is going to make things worse by feeding a treat at the wrong time, but they could potentially make things really bad with an improperly timed correction.

I’m not against punishment in dog training, but I think it’s best left to the professionals. I teach my clients only +R to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that stuff is carefully edited for television, right. It is entertainment not advice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently re-watched some old episodes of his show. He is pretty incredible with animals. He is very attuned to their cues and very good at using his own body language and handling to de-escalate reactive dogs.

But….I don’t think his experience + intuition based approach can be easily replicated by easier people unless their dogs have much milder problems. The average dog owner can definitely benefit from his general advice - exercise your dog, show them calm leadership, etc. - but dogs with severe problems cannot be magically cured. It takes incredible amounts of expertise, time and effort to have a chance at being successful.

Who asked for that?

Fwiw we tried very pricey trainers and behaviors with our reactive dog bc that’s what everyone said to do and it was a waste. Ultimately we had to almost totally isolate the dog- which is what it seems many people do with their reactive dogs- avoid triggers- and it only made things more progressively worse

Right, that was my point. Cesar makes it look easy to fix these things but it is not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recently re-watched some old episodes of his show. He is pretty incredible with animals. He is very attuned to their cues and very good at using his own body language and handling to de-escalate reactive dogs.

But….I don’t think his experience + intuition based approach can be easily replicated by easier people unless their dogs have much milder problems. The average dog owner can definitely benefit from his general advice - exercise your dog, show them calm leadership, etc. - but dogs with severe problems cannot be magically cured. It takes incredible amounts of expertise, time and effort to have a chance at being successful.

Who asked for that?

Fwiw we tried very pricey trainers and behaviors with our reactive dog bc that’s what everyone said to do and it was a waste. Ultimately we had to almost totally isolate the dog- which is what it seems many people do with their reactive dogs- avoid triggers- and it only made things more progressively worse

Anonymous wrote:I recently re-watched some old episodes of his show. He is pretty incredible with animals. He is very attuned to their cues and very good at using his own body language and handling to de-escalate reactive dogs.

But….I don’t think his experience + intuition based approach can be easily replicated by easier people unless their dogs have much milder problems. The average dog owner can definitely benefit from his general advice - exercise your dog, show them calm leadership, etc. - but dogs with severe problems cannot be magically cured. It takes incredible amounts of expertise, time and effort to have a chance at being successful.