Reasons Why You Should Never Listen To The Dog Whisperer

The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan, where Millan "rehabilitated dogs, but trained people," had a tremendous viewership while on the air, reaching 11 million US viewers every week. Many celebrities contacted Cesar to work with their dogs, and Millan even became caretaker of Daddy, rapper Redman's American Pit Bull Terrier, aka The Most Perfect Dog Ever. Daddy's temperament was one of Millan's key tools for convincing the public that all dogs were capable of impeccable behavior. Of course, that isn't true so, despite the show's popularity, that's one reason (among others) you shouldn't listen to the Dog Whisperer.

Cesar, by his own admission, has a natural way with dogs, and has since he was a kid. On his biography page, he says that dogs on his grandfather's farm following him everywhere caused a bit of bullying. The children would call him el perrero, or "the dirty dog boy," which somehow inspired him to work hard to become the best dog trainer ever. El gran perrero, if you will.

Many of his critics admit that he has a particular talent for communicating with dogs and yet, despite all this inborn talent, Millan received no formal training. His methods are his own, developed over his many years of living around canines. Yet, the Bergin University of Canine Studies still actually awarded Millan with an honorary master's degree, much to the dismay of Marc Bekoff, Ph.D., who resigned from the university upon learning this news. Some students asked for their money back, and many of the school's faculty members spoke out against the degree.

Incidentally, the only country that requires someone to pass an exam before becoming a dog trainer is Germany. To prove himself to the public, Millan took the exam. And failed. That's not to say that Cesar isn't good with dogs. He totally is. His methods just aren't the traditional, scientifically accepted ways of changing dog behavior. Which brings us to ...

There's an oft-shared review of four Dog Whisperer episodes, conducted before the show ever aired. In it, Andrew Luescher, animal behaviorist and board certified graduate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, had quite a bit of criticism of Millan's techniques, even going so far as to call them "cruel."

He explains that the two major techniques used on the show are positive punishment and flooding. An example of positive punishment is tapping a dog's leg sharply when they exhibit a certain behavior. Flooding, meanwhile, is when a dog is exposed to a negative situation (one they usually react adversely to), and restricted from leaving the situation until they fail to react. Both of these methods are bad, according to Luescher. Positive punishment, in the wrong hands, could be flat-out abuse, in the form of striking the dog (so maybe we shouldn't call it "positive" punishment). Flooding, meanwhile, can cause major anxiety — Luescher likens it to locking a arachnophobe in a dark closet filled with spiders. That might cure, say, Rambo, but it would send the average person into therapy at the very least. Do you really want to do that to your dog?

Luescher goes on to say that that, if the show aired, it would be an embarrassment for National Geographic. He encouraged the network, in fact, to "pull the plug," but obviously, they didn't listen.

*NOTE: People who don't find animal cruelty awesome probably will find the above video disturbing. Fair warning.*

As we mentioned before, the D-Whisperer isn't actually a trained professional. So when he took a dog that was trained to kill pigs, and tried to make it not kill pigs, well, he had a bit too much faith in his ability to succeed. See, a normal dog trainer would probably introduce pigs slowly, or maybe dogs dressed up as pigs. Bacon, maybe? We don't know. We're not dog trainers.

Of course, neither is Cesar! Which is perhaps why he decided to just let the dog off the leash, with a bunch of juicy walking pork standing across from him. Luckily, his training worked and ... no, of course it didn't. The dog attacked the pigs, ripping off an ear, and then just laid into the pigs like a plate of baby back ribs.

How did anyone find out about this? Because it happened on his other show, Cesar 911, which is almost exactly what any rational person would have screamed upon seeing this. But apparently, his producers weren't rational, because their reaction to the footage was to show it to the entire world. Unsurprisingly, he was investigated for animal cruelty because, despite pigs being delicious, you can't just let a dog attempt to eat a live one. If you want pork, you gotta kill it first. Come on Cesar, watch some Temple Grandin. Oh, wait, does that count as educating yourself? We know you're not a fan of that.

The training of most of the dogs you see is heavily edited. So, what's the big deal with that, you ask? It cuts out the boring bits, all shows do that, what's the harm?

Well, think of this way. You know how, in a training montage, you see dozens of different locations, spread across a long range of time, depicting the training happening over the course of at least dozens of days? That's because, if you tried to cram all of that training into one day, it not only wouldn't work, it'd be really bad for you. Same thing here — the "training" takes place over a much longer period of time — he's not constantly up the dog's butthole — but the way the show is edited, it makes it seem like Cesar is just doming the dog basically non-stop. This is incredibly bad for those at home who think constantly smacking and yanking and TSST'ing is how you should treat their poor pooch. Remember, just because someone's on television, doesn't mean they're smart. Look at *waves hand in the general direction of all television, ever*.