He was forced to live homeless
Millan entered the United States with no money, no friends, little to no knowledge of the English language, and nowhere to live. He spent his early days in America living homeless on the streets of San Diego, sleeping under a freeway and surviving on nothing but convenience store hot dogs. Millan recalled that he could get two hot dogs for 99 cents at the time, meaning all he had to do to survive was somehow make a dollar a day. Many hot dogs later, he managed to land his first real job Stateside.
The Show Forces Quick Results
A TV show requires quick results. Unfortunately that isn’t how the dog training world works. In many cases, Cesar has to produce interesting content which means cutting corners to get filmed “results” to cover a 5 or 10 minute segment.
How “The Dog Whisperer” Got His Start
Cesar Millan is a self-taught expert. His real-world learning began when he was a child in Mexico and was known as “the dog boy” because he had a natural touch.
Later, in the United States, he worked with aggressive dogs as part of a grooming business. He then created a canine academy, which began to attract a roster of high-profile clients, such as filmmaker Ridley Scott.
The TV series Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan first aired on Sept. 13, 2004, on the National Geographic Channel. The show was a runaway success.
A bestselling book, Cesar’s Way, soon followed. And as time passed, even more shows hit the airwaves, such as Cesar Millan’s Leader of the Pack, Cesar 911 and Cesar Millan’s Dog Nation.
Cesar Millan’s training philosophy can be summed up this way: Your dog needs strong “pack leadership” from you because you are the true “alpha dog.” It’s called dominance theory.
He says dogs should be handled with “calm, assertive energy” and given plenty of exercise, clear rules and affection when the time is right.
Your dog is a dog, not a human, and should be treated like one, according to Millan.
“What people most often do is humanize the dog. And from that point on, they’re going to practice human psychology on a dog. And when they really want the dog to listen to them, the dog is not going to because this is not the dog’s state of mind,” he said in a 2009 interview.
On his TV shows, Millan seems to think you need to put your dog in their place when the dog is aggressive, using force — such as finger jabs to the abdomen, “alpha rolls” and even choke collars — if required.
But Millan’s critics say the opposite is true — that the dogs are simply being put into a state of helplessness by Millan’s outdated and flawed training techniques.
They say “alpha” status is essentially nonsense.
A 2009 review in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science concluded that “aggression and other behavior problems are not a result of dominant behavior or lack of the owner’s “alpha” status, but rather a result of fear (self-defense) or underlying anxiety problems.”
In September 2006, just 2 years after Cesar Millan’s award-winning TV show premiered, the American Humane Society harshly criticized it, calling some of Millan’s training methods “inhumane” as well as “cruel and dangerous.”
The group said it was especially disturbed by the way he subdued dogs with shock collars, by pinning them to the ground, or by tightening their collars.
The group demanded that the TV network cancel the show, which it claimed gives viewers “an inaccurate message about what constitutes effective training and appropriate treatment of animals.”
In his defense, Millan said he uses only “minimum force” to correct behaviors in aggressive pets, and he added that “my way is not the only way.”
A few years later, the American Humane Society made nice with Millan, saying that despite “some sharp differences of view in the past,” the group actually shares many “areas of mutual interest” with the trainer.
A 2006 New York Times piece headlined “Pack of Lies” lambasted Millan’s methods as “laughable” and “outdated.” The writer, dog expert Mark Derr, concluded:
In 2009, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior issued a policy statement on dominance theory, which didn’t mention Millan by name but denounced his methods, saying they lead to “an antagonistic relationship between owners and their pets.”
As Time magazine explained in 2010, “The debate has its roots in 1940s studies of captive wolves gathered from various places that, when forced to live together, naturally competed for status.”
But “as it turns out, this research was based on a faulty premise…. The pack’s hierarchy does not involve anyone fighting to the top of the group, because just like in a human family, the youngsters naturally follow their parents’ lead.”
In article after article, positive dog trainers urged a gentler approach.
Cesar Millan: From Dog Whisperer to Dog Abuser | Corporate Casket
Caesar Millan, also known as the “Dog Whisperer,” is in the middle of a lawsuit claiming his dog attacked one of Queen Latifahs dogs and injured several others, TMZ reported.
The lawsuit was filed by Lidia Matiss, a young gymnast who claims Millans dog Junior attacked and severely injured her legs in 2017 after the dog had been walking around Millans office unsupervised. According to Matiss lawsuit, which was obtained by TMZ, Matiss says Junior has a history of attacking other people and pets, including one of Latifahs dogs.
After Latifah brought two of her dogs to Millans center in Santa Clarita, California, one was attacked and killed by Junior, the lawsuit says. Staff at the center were allegedly asked by Millan to cover up the attack and were told to tell Latifah her dog got struck by a car and killed.
Matiss, whose mother works for Millan, claims that Millan was aware that Junior has a history of violence.
Before the attack, Matiss was an excellent gymnast at the highest level of the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics Programs, TMZ reported. She was actively being recruited by the University of Pennsylvania and claims she had to leave the sport because of her injuries from the attack.
According to TMZ, Millan answered the lawsuit and claims Matiss knew of the danger related to the dog. He also claims negligence on the part of Matiss but does not specify how, TMZ reported.