Be The Pack Leader (Audiobook) by Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar’s Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life
(Link to Cesar’s Way)

In this one Cesar pretty much goes into the same stuff with way more philosophy. Talking about quantum science, mysticism and human psychology too. Impressive.

Summary:
– When you give too many treats/rewards to the dog they get conditioned to it (tolerance) so don’t spoil them every time they do something good. He talks about trainers replacing the treats with clickers.

– Dogs don’t have a me mentality like humans, they have us/pack mentality. And they like to have jobs, work to do. Different breeds have different specialities.

– Now in the other book Cesar mentions owners attributing the dogs bad behaviour as their personality but here Cesar says the personality depends on the breed. So like an IT person is on the comp more and doesn’t move around compared to the builder. And each person has to know which breed is good for him.

– From the many case-studies the firemen one stood out most because one dog had maybe 40 owners and everyone was spoiling him more and more. Until Cesar saved the day and how they don’t even feed it at the wrong time. If all 40 firemen slipped the dog a little cheat treat things would be out of control so they had a special roster.

– Using tools like electric fences to know it’s boundaries, scat mats to stop it jumping on tables and backpacks with weights to drain the energy faster.

– Case studies of how people improved themselves when they take the effort to learn how to balance dog. And when you want to know the owner just look at the dog because the dog is basically ‘4 legged mirrors that reflect the lives of the owners’.

– Another story of how when the dog starts barking at a bad person it’s really the dog smelling the energy from the owner and that humans have excellent intuition. It’s just that the dog knows how to smell it better.

– Cesar makes fun of the presidents because they all have small dogs and if you look at them the dog is always leading them. Cesar also suggests that the next president should be elected on how well they handle bigger dogs.

– Now in the previous book Cesar was talking about how well balanced a homeless person’s dog is. It’s because the dog is living the kind of life it’s genetically predisposed to. Being outdoors, travelling around, in a pack hunting for food etc. And also the homeless don’t humanise the dog. (More on that in the previous review).

– And finally he has a message for Americans. See in Mexico him and his peers did not humanise the dog. If the dog had to be told off, then so be it. While in America he came across people that told him off for ‘hurting the dogs feelings’. Things like that. And in the American house the family will get Mexican house help who treat the dog how they should be treated so the owner, in the dogs eyes, is lower than the dog. The owner not only gets confused that the Mexican help is rougher on the dogs but gets more love and dedication. While the Mexican help gets tired of de-conditioning the bad behaviour that the owner re-conditions the dog with.

So the book was ok. Main thing is walk walk walk your dog, religiously down the streets! And the most important part of the book starts at the Appendix: Quick Reference Guide to Becoming a Better Pack Leader. I think you can see some of it in Amazon’s quick look area.

Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Mirror, Mirror?

PART ONE: Balancing Your Dog
Chapter 1: Identifying Instability
Chapter 2: Discipline, Rewards and Punishment
Chapter 3: The Best Tool in the World
Chapter 4: Fulfilling Breed
– The Sporting Group
– The Hound Group
– The Working Group
– The Herding Group
– The Terrier Group
– The Toy Group
– The Non-Sporting Group

PART TWO: Balancing Ourselves
Chapter 5: Dysfunction Junction
Chapter 6: Transforming Energy into Action
Chapter 7: Leadership for Dogs
Chapter 8: Our Four-Legged Healers
Epilogue: Humans and Dogs: The Long Walk Home
Appendix: Quick Reference Guide to Becoming a Better Pack Leader
– Meeting a Dog for the First Time
– Introducing Your Dog to a New Person (Especially a Child)
– Introducing a New Person into Your Home
– Mastering the Walk
– Returning from the Walk
– The Feeding Ritual
– Managing Food Aggression
– Facing an Aggressive Dog
– Claiming Your Space
– Dealing with Obsessive and Fixated Behaviors
– Managing Stress at the Vet
– Going to the Dog Park
– Choosing a Dog with the Right Energy
– Introducing a Dog to a House for the First Time
Notes
Bibliography and Additional Recommendations for Further Reading
Organizations to Turn To
Illustration Credits
Index