Skip to main content

I love Cesar!

Captain's Log, Stardate 02.06.2008

The Wasabi Wednesday winner of
Awaken My Heart
by
DiAnn Mills
is
Angela
Congratulations!








I’ve now finished both books by Cesar Millan and the first two seasons of The Dog Whisperer on DVD. I love Cesar!

Captain Caffeine and I have noticed a change in Snickers since we started watching the DVDs and reading the books. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that we’ve changed how we act as dog owners, and so she’s become more calm and submissive.

There’s still some food aggression and dog aggression, but we’ve been slowly and consistently dealing with it. For those two things, we needed both the books and the DVDs to learn how to handle her.

The books talk about his general philosophy for dog psychology, and the DVDs show it in practice (the TV show kind of glosses over his philosophy, while the books go into greater detail so we understand his point on the TV show).

For example, just the other night we realized that we were letting her enter our space between the coffee table and the couch in the living room. She was walking in and lying down under the table—where we put our legs—as if she owned it, not us. When we tried to move her, sometimes she’d growl and not move.

She’s better at listening to verbal commands these days (I think because I started walking her more regularly and establishing myself as a pack leader), so I told her to move from under the coffee table. She moved, probably expecting me to get up.

I didn’t. I stayed, and kept watching Cesar on TV. When she tried to move back, I firmly told her no. Every time she tried to move back under the table, I told her no. Eventually she went to lie down on her dog bed.

Later in the evening, she again tried to move under the table and I told her no. A few minutes later, I invited her next to me to pet her, and then told her to move again. Now she understands that the space between the coffee table and couch is my space and not hers.

In watching the DVDs the other night, I realized that I might need to move into her when correcting her for her dog aggression on our walks (she tries to rush the other dog and sometimes growls). She has stopped growling in past weeks, but she still pulls at the leash, and that’s not good.

Snickers can’t be more stubborn than Jordan the bulldog from the TV show, so we have hope!

Comments

Geekwif said…
I may have to pick up those books. My dog isn't particularly aggressive, but she's a 85 pound spaz who thinks she's a lap dog. Probably our fault since she's so darn cute we have trouble denying her anything.
Delia said…
I love Cesar, too! I'm in the middle of one of his books right now and our whole family loves his show.

My whole way of thinking when it comes to dogs and the way we're supposed to be with dogs has changed with Cesar.

I'm glad his method is working for ya'll and Snickers.
Karen said…
I've not watched or read Cesar, but he sounds very much like the trainer that we are using with our dogs right now. Dave Baron has trainers in several parts of the country (including the Bay Area). Some of that stuff (like showing the dogs whose area it really is) was something I'd never really thought about. We have seen so much change in our dogs since we began the training. It only took one dinnertime to teach our Great Dane puppy (whose head is over the table) to stay in the other room while we ate rather than walk all around the table.

I'm glad Cesar's ideas are working for you.
Myra Johnson said…
Yea, another Cesar convert! I got hooked on him during a Sunday afternoon Dog Whisperer marathon last year while my hubby was away on business and there was nothing else on TV. Now we DVR every new show. Our little black border collie mix actually watches with us--I think he recognizes the sounds of other dogs. Or maybe he's just trying to get a heads-up on what techniques we'll be trying next.

One of the biggest helps Cesar has bee is clipping toenails. Now, instead of fighting with the dogs, we just "be the pack leader," and it's over quickly.
Anonymous said…
Cesar Millan's philosophy has become a way of life in my two terrier dog household. Life has become a lot easier since my husband and I have adopted the leader of the pack mentality. One main thing to remember it isn't something that you do one time and your dog's unwanted behavior is corrected. It is a daily occurrence for the life of your dog. After all if you are truly a dog lover you want what is best for your best friend. Having them be balanced and happy is all they really need from us.

http://netwebmarketer.com/audie/wordpress/

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...

New book idea a la Captain Caffeine

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.14.2009 So my husband, Captain Caffeine, had lunch with a few friends a few days ago. And they asked about my writing, and if I’d been on Oprah yet. (Yeah, right) They then discussed NYT bestselling books, and why can’t Camy write a NYT bestseller. (Sure, let me just open a vein over a blank page and it’ll come right out.) So Captain Caffeine came home with ideas for my new NYT bestselling novel. First it starts with vampires, because Twilight is so hot. But not just any vampires. This one’s an Amish vampire. And he’s not just an Amish vampire, he’s a cop in disguise, infiltrating the Amish community to protect a witness. (Hmm, that storyline sounds familiar ...) But wait! There’s more! To add more conflict and stick with my brand of Asian fiction, we introduce the Tibetan monk! Who joins the Amish community to get away from the pressures of monkhood. But in reality, he’s protecting the Chinese princess on the run, trying to escape from her father’s Hong...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...