He Whispers

He is Cesar Millan and he is The Dog Whisperer! Have you watched his show on the National Geographic Channel? I've only seen 2 one hour episodes and I'm hooked. I even bought
his book at Sam's Club last week.



Now don't worry, I don't buy into the new age stuff he talks about, like 'energy' and 'Mother Nature' but I do believe almost every thing else he suggests. Everything was ok when I heard him say "this dog is not a human, he is a dog". My bil used to tell our dogs when I was growing up "you're nothing but a dog!"

He doesn't train dogs. He rehabilitates dogs and trains humans.

I think that is very funny and very necessary in our home. Two days before Christmas our 135 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback/Lab mix (Dillon) bit my son. Here's what happened....my son and the dog were laying on the floor happily. J. reached over to the dog's lip and pulled on a mole/tag and attempted to pull it off. This hurt and scared the dog and he bit J. on the chest and stood over him (pinned him, actually) and growled ferociously at J. We saw the whole thing and we were screaming hysterically at the dog. The dog stopped, backed away and we promptly kicked him outside. To make a long story short, we decided not to put him down for two reasons (maybe two stupid reasons to you). The first reason was it was two days before Christmas and I felt sorry for the children and the second reason was that this was provoked. It's not like this dog did this sort of thing on a daily basis.




The thing our dog does on a daily basis, however, is act grumpy. If he is not in the mood for attention and love he growls at us. We have learned to avoid him during his grumpy time but it really irritates us. Plus we are afraid of this 135 lb. piece of muscle. Not good.

We are going to start implementing a few things we have learned from Cesar.

* We already bought a choke collar but the dog will wear it high on his neck now, not low.
* The leash will become very short and he will walk behind us a step or two.
* I have been pushing his bum down after commanding him to sit.
* We will slowly take control and he will become submissive. I hope.
* He will get more exercise, more disipline and less affection.
* I practice saying "pst"

I was hoping to invite Cesar to my home but he is not going to be in my area any time soon. He will be in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, New York to name a few. I think he should take a little pit stop in Phoenix on his way to Dallas, don't you think?

I am hopeful that some of these techniques will help our grumpy dog and he will be happy being a dog and know he is not in charge of this family!

PS Don't you just love Cesar's salt and pepper hair color? Reminds me of my Greek uncles.