Cesar’s Way (Audiobook) by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier

Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems

Starts out with his life story. He was in Mexico, loved dogs, got to the US illegally and how the right opportunities hit him at intervals in his life. How he saw hidden messages in his bosses and learnt from it. The lessons are pretty darn amazing. How Jada Pinkett helped him with his TV show, etc.

And then he really gets into dog psychology. The cool part was Cesar himself narrates the whole thing and I guess the accent and his philosophy were very stimulating and refreshing. You know things like how humans take words as assertive to mean aggressive and submissive to be a sign of weakness. Oh and because of his accent there is one line I really loved because it sounded like ‘Animals are put in our lives for a porpoise’. There are lots of case studies with his wisdom and thoughts peppered throughout.

I also love this quote because it easily fits for problem children and problem teachers/guardians ;oP
“There is no such thing as a problem breed. However, there is no shortage of ‘problem owners’….”

Ok so lets get down to the summary.
– There are no problem dogs. Just because a dog is doing something out of the ordinary it’s not a cute thing and you can’t say that it’s the dogs personality. Having said that every breed has their kind of personality but the personalities humans GIVE dogs are what Cesar calls issues.

– Every dog will play along with your ‘energy’. So think of it like the dog always smells your energy, like a sixth sense. You know how the ‘smell your fear’ thing goes. Like when Oprah Winfrey is so alpha in public at home he was messing up the dog with worry because her dog had one bad experience and since then every time the dog would be in the same situation the dog would smell her fear/worry energy and make it worse by consoling the dog. So basically the dog gets rewarded for being a pussy. (Do not pardon the pun, it was intentional) Cesar calls it humanising. There is a difference between the dog being a part of the family and humanising it.

– Dog owners, friends and family all have to how this calm-assertive demeanour with the dog. ALWAYS! You have to show who is the leader so the owner is the alpha while friends and family are like sub-alphas and the dog is at the bottom of the pack.

– So while dog owners have to be calm-assertive. They have to get the dog into a calm-submissive state. No rewards, no consoling, no nothing until the dog is chillax. The best way, and Cesar recommends this A LOT, is to take it for walks. Burn out the nervous energy. Things like dogs are supposed to be hunters and out in the open so when you come home and you find leftovers of your shoes it’s because the dog had all this energy, smelled you in the shoes and got excited and got carried away.

– Another thing Cesar really emphasises is the Exercise, Discipline, Affection model. And after mentioning it he always stresses IN THAT ORDER! Humanising the dog is giving it affection and like he said most people either only give affection or exercise and affection. So from day one the dog is already walking all over their owners. He was so surprised because he never saw this problem dogs or ‘personalities’ until he came to the US. So the routine should be burn out energy with a walk, even before going for the walk make sure it is behaved, make sure it does not leave the house before you for the walk, make sure the dog walks next to your or behind you (until you allow it). After it’s burned out it’s energy you decide when it gets a treat, when it goes to relieve itself and where it sleeps.

– Being part of the pack is very important to doggy. If you don’t have time for the morning walk, gradually get it used to the treadmill but it should not be the only walk. Dogs need to feel a bond with you when you walk, it needs to know the area and see what other packs roam the area.

– Oh boy, the chapter on the Red Zone has some nasty stories. Basically there are dogs like Presa Canario, Pitbull and the fighting breed that need to burn more energy and if you reward them for wrong things … people die. This is when you better take it to a specialist and learn how to fix your faults.

– Now this part may be touchy but we’ve all seen this with dog owners and Cesar has a special section just for this, even with a Q&A part in which even if one of your answers is No he suggests getting a cat or other low maintenance pets. So basically you’re going the wrong way if you’ve got a dog to fill voids like loss of a loved one or inability to have children, to get attention, to feel loved or have confidence or even intimidate people. The children and intimidation ones seem to be on top of the list and these folks end up screwing up the dog with too much rewarding/babying/humanising.

Big up Cesar you’re not only just a Dog Whisperer.

Contents
– Foreword by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith
– Forward by Martin Deeley, IACP
– Introduction
– A Note About Gender
– Prologue: A Dog’s Life
– Chapter 1: Growing Up With Dogs: A View From the Other Side of the Border
– Chapter 2: If We Could Talk to the Animals: The Language of Energy
– Chapter 3: Dog Psychology: No Couch Required
– Chapter 4: Power of the Pack
– Chapter 5: Issues: How We Screw Up Our Dogs
– Chapter 6: Dogs in the Red Zone: Dangerous Aggression
– Chapter 7: Cesar’s Fulfillment Formula for a Balanced and Healthy Dog
– Chapter 8: “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” Simple Tips for Living Happily with Your Dog
– Chapter 9: Fulfilling Our Dogs; Fulfilling Ourselves
– Appendix 1: Cesar’s Glossary of Terms
– Appendix 2: Recommendations for Further Reading
– Appendix 3: Cesar Recommends: Organizations to Turn To
– Appendix 4: Information on Cesar’s seminars and the Dog Psychology Center
– Footnotes
– About the Authors

My two cents – I’ve love cats and dogs but I’m a cat person. What I’ve seen with quite a few dog people is their contempt for humans. I don’t know if they’ve been wronged or what but you’ll hear things like a dog will always be there, be happy to see you, be faithful to you… you know needy stuff like that and I just want to tell these people to enjoy being human. The needy cycle is just weakening you and your dog. Like Cesar mentioned, there is a difference between making it the part of the family and humanising it. The best way I can put it is that an animal can only replace a human so much.