Before I got my puppy, my dad was really determined to make me watch The Dog Whisperer. My dad has persistently been training our two Labradors and Chihuahua in harmony with the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan's, teachings.
He focuses on dog rehabilitation and strong pack leadership from the owners. This requires the owner to exude extreme dominance and leadership in the form of severe discipline, then following with affection.
However, I find his practices to be incorrect, through vigorous research. This website, http://www.4pawsu.com/cesarfans.htm, gave me a lot of insight. It gives multiple examples of dogs being harmed physically, and though researches don't believe they will be in pain, they do fear the psychological damage that some of his rehabilitated subjects could experience.
Likewise, critics show an example of psychological disturbance, and not of rehabilitation by describing learned helplessness or shut down. This happens when a dog is so scared or psyhcologically traumatized, that they are completely obedient and subservient. This was first observed by scientists when test dogs were placed in a box with no exist and experienced shocks from below. The dogs first tried to escape and exit, but when they had no other option, they began to lay down and take the abuse.
The dogs were obviously traumatized, but relinquished their own attitude and fight. It appears many times that Millan's subjects experience this or other psychological.
Objectors to this, like my dad, think this is a load of shit. Many people view this not as abuse, but discipline. Like dog training, parenting has had similar debates. Is spanking abuse or discipline? I agree dogs need discipline, however I do think their is a difference in training and discipline and scaring the shit out of a dog, so it behaves. I respect Cesar Millan for his training efforts and love for animals, but I do believe at this point that he scares dogs, and I'm trying to TRAIN mine.
My boyfriend has a training approach more similar to Millan's. Lydia has misbehaved and he has trained accordingly like Millan. Lydia immediately acted behaved and respectful when he was around for a day. She followed him around, sat when he sat, and came when he came. She never pooped or peed on our floor. However, she never pooped. She was terrified the entire day. Then, she forgot about what had happened and began misbehaving again. He now let's me do all of the training for Lydia, and so far it is progressing successfully.
I hope if you watch this hit on National Geographic hit, that this gave you an insight as to a different opinion on his techniques and practices.
I have actually watched a few episodes of that show and I always find it amazing how he is able to change the dogs behavior so quickly. I am not sure if I believe he is abusing or torturing the dogs, he does seem to focus a lot on letting the dogs be dogs, and allowing them to do what makes them happy. I also think that a lot of his control comes from the fact that he is just naturally a dog person. Dogs, and most other animals for that matter, are very intuitive and tend to react to people based on the way they feel around them. I have noticed that dogs tend behave better around men, this may be because they accept them as the leader of their "pack." Whatever it is I have always been a cat person and I think that my Pom saw me as a nurturer rather than as a leader, unfortunately I was in the middle of trying to re-train him when I had to give him up. :-(
ReplyDeleteBut, it does sound like you have made a lot of progress with Lydia and I think you should stick to the training practices you are most comfortable with! BTW she's sooo adorable!!
I have a Scottish terrier and we have been house training her since we got her in january--shes 10 mos old! She's such a smart dog I hardly ever have to spank her. Once she understands what I want from her-- what certain words mean like no, off, get down, etc--all I have to do is raise my voice to get her attention and she instantly obeys! I treat trained her for just about everything and it worked out really well! I started out rewarding her after everything good she did until she got the picture and now she does it without having to receive a treat. I think its difficult to draw the line between discipline and abuse at times. My scottie is super easy to train and therefore doesn't need much spanking, but a few years ago I had a pitbull mix who was more stubborn than a door nail so I had to be harsher with her to even get her to listen. I think it depends on the dog but I don't believe you should ever have to scare the dog shitless to get him to obey.
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