Americanata. Energia positiva assertiva. Ritorno ai nostri instinti per comprendere il cane, storie vere edificanti, roba da Reader's Digest.
Molto meglio la Fennell (Ascolta il tuo cane).

I liked watching Cesar Millan on his show, treating problem dogs; and I liked reading his book also. Didn't know he was an illegal immigrant who had to sleep on the streets for a while.

If you are only interested in the information about treating your dog, it can fit into a sticky note page. However there are interesting things to learn when you read between the lines. Especially about leadership and anxiety, how a calm leader/partner/society can calm others, the instinct about yielding and leading. Very interesting.. One major mistake we all do is letting our dogs go before us. I see it all the time walking at the park, I used to do it with my dog (now in heaven). Apparently this confuses them to the point that they think they are the owner (and leader).

I enjoyed this book and it was very easy to read.

This is the first time since I was a kid that I picked up a book by a dog trainer. I’ve read several by horse trainers and I definitely prefer them. Cesar’s book is more about an attitude while handling your dog rather than methods to train. There were a couple of things I agreed with him. One was that dogs need more exercise. The other is the amount of confidence you have while working with your dog (or any living creature) does affect your outcome. Now he calls this energy and I can’t say I’m onboard with how he discusses it. He’s big on dominance. Honestly I found how he discussed it almost humorous. Pretty much if your dog breaths, it’s trying to be dominant. The book became redundant. Cesar begins discussing his rise to fame and it feels like he may have left a lot out. He’s also very proud of himself. Not just of his life story but also with how he handles dogs. There are some good suggestions but I think you can find a much better book. Honestly, pick up a Monty Robert’s books on horses and you would learn a lot more about relating to dogs.

We don't have any dogs but I checked out this book from the library after my son watched reruns of Cesar 911 on Netflix and became fascinated with the show. For the past few months, I have read a few pages of this book to him every night. Surprisingly, my son made it to about page 250 before he tired of it. This book contains advice on maintaining pack leader status with your dog, dog psychology, and general dog care.

Que excelente manera de conocer la mente de los perritos, me encanta como explica Cesar cada uno de los aspectos más importantes de convivir con un amigo de cuatro patas, y muchas cosas en el libro me sorprendieron. ¡Ultra Recomendado!

It should really be 2 1/2...this book could have been a pamphlet. It is clearly a way to make more money off a successful franchise; however, i give him mad props for the recognition of gender dynamics in our society. There was one chapter that was useful...the rest was a recap of the show.

OK, so if you manage to slog through Millan's incessant and cringy name-dropping, this book actually has good advice. Mostly in the area of walking. A lot of people will probably read this and think, "I don't need to read an entire book to be told, more or less, that I need to walk my dog," but I really do believe that his reasoning for it, the timing of it, and some of his anecdotal stories relating to achieving a calm state in dogs is helpful. (I do not agree with his instructions for how to walk a dog).

At the same time, don't expect explicit instructions on achieving the calm state he so emphasizes throughout the book. Millan is encouraging you to practice a calm-assertive energy, but aside from repeating that alongside, walk your dog for an hour, or if you can manage, 3 hours before you do x,y,z... there isn't a step-by-step guide, it's sort of woo-woo. I guess this is where visiting a dog trainer after having read this book would be helpful, so you can actually see someone properly pulling this off. (I'm sure Millan would rather you just watch his show, but after all the name-dropping and self promotion in this book I'm pretty reluctant to.)

The part of this book that I struggle to get behind is his insistence on the withdrawal of affection, having the dogs walk behind you, not letting dogs sniff, and not letting family members or visitors to the home interact with the dogs in an affectionate way. I guess if I wanted an android, these tips would be useful.. but I'm not going to just walk around the house like a proud turkey and ignore my dog until 8pm, when it has done everything I have asked perfectly, and then give it pets. I'm far to shitty of a human to expect this from any living creature. Also, I like dogs because they're dogs, not because they can be trained into robots.

Need to write a disclaimer here to say that I am not a dog person and have never owned a dog. So for all I know, when you actually try to apply these theories, they do absolutely nothing at best and are dangerous at worst. Got no actual knowledge, personally.

I do love watching the tv show though, back when I could find it. I find Cesar very soothing to watch, and it's nice to see aggravated dogs become calm. I know that I personally couldn't do it, because I am one of the anxious people who sets dogs off into becoming aggressive, since I'm super passive and off in my own dream-world, not paying attention to anything around me.

That's my happy place, right? Inside my head, barely aware of my body. I couldn't do any of the stuff he suggests in here. Being a calm-assertive pack leader? Heck no. I don't lead my (human) pack, or follow my pack very well. I am kind of oblivious to my pack and just crossing my fingers things work out. So in that, I can very very much see myself as the problem Cesar points out here. I am not providing the calm discipline, the sense of rules and stability and continuity and routine that helps everyone feel settled.

Basically I am reading this book and seeing in myself the episode of South Park where Cesar comes along and tries to teach Cartman to behave. I reckon if I followed his advice, my house would be running smoother, and I'd probably be a happier person who gets more exercise and finds life generally easier.

Only I am inherently lazy, so I am not going to implement any of his advice. Like good diet and exercise advice, I am going to note it, think that 'yeah, that sounds like it would probably work,' and then continue eating brownies for breakfast. Because I don't do things in my best interest if they look hard.

But long and the short of it, I find hanging out in Cesar's mindset very soothing, and I enjoyed reading it on a purely theoretical level. If you have to choose between reading it and just watching his videos, though, go for the videos, because seeing it is like ASMR.

Great insight on the psychology of a dog. A must read for everyone who has a dog or is going to get one. I wish there was more on actual training but I guess you have to buy one of his other books.

Meh. This book is fine, but it's really just Cesar repeating the same things over and over. Be the pack leader! Take your dog on more walks! Dogs experience the world with their noses! Take your dog on more walks! Did I mention how cool my life is? Take your dog on more walks! Etc.

I mean, I don't know what I was expecting; it's not like a very general book like this is really going to tell me what to do with my specific little Napoleon-complexed terrier who is all sweetness and cuddly light until he sees a pitbull, at which point he transmogrifies into a slavering crazy monster.

I know also that a lot of people violently hate this book because of some of Cesar's more questionable techniques, but like I said, meh. I wasn't going to try "flooding" anyway.

The only thing I really took away from this (other than the fact that I really should be taking Prufrock on more walks) is that I do try to sort of act more leader-y when we're out now. You know: head high, no-nonsense tone of voice, quicker pace, etc.

Is it helping? Well kind of—assuming there are no pitbulls around.


(Sidenote: For those who have been following the gendered pronoun discussion, Cesar [and/or his ghostwriter] have done an interesting thing here: alternating pronoun genders by chapter. So in odd chapters the dog is "him" and the person is "her," and then vice versa in even chapters. This was made further obvious by including a pre-text mention of the fact that they did this. Pretty cool.)

Interesting client stories and useful info. It basically boils down to: walk your dog daily (1 hour per day, or more for bigger dogs) and set rules and boundaries for your dog.

People in the reviews are saying Cesar Millan contradicts himself in the book but, like, use common sense, y'all - there are things that are situational. He says dogs should walk by your side or behind you (behind does not seem great to me, since then you don't know what your dog is doing) but they shouldn't be pulling you around being in charge of the walk. He gives the caveat of service dogs leading a blind person or perhaps someone in a wheel chair. Someone says this is contradictory. Umm if a dog has been trained to lead someone, that's different than someone being dragged along while the dog runs around the neighborhood terrorizing people.

That said there are some things that are extra, e.g. a dog needing 8 hours of exercise a day. Like, we're not all Jada Pinkett and Will Smith and can just do whatever we want all day (I don't think they would even want to spend all day exercising their dogs, even if they technically could). Or the idea that we have to be projecting calm-assertive energy 24/7/365 in order to be a good leader to the dog. This honestly had me very nervous because in general, I'm not an aloof and detached person, which is the vibe CM insists is the only one a dog will respect. Idk, I think I can get excited about things and still reasonably expect the dog (if properly trained from the start) to chill calmly while I happily greet a friend or something. I don't think it's one or the other.

All in all, I found good guidelines for raising a dog in this book. It's not a how-to (CM emphasizes this many times) but there is useful advice. Just use your common sense and critical thinking skills to take what is helpful to you and leave the rest.

Cesar's way is not about dog training. It's about a way of living. I can see how it might not be for everyone, but it's certainly for me. He has taught me that living with and domesticating other species should involve honoring who those beings are. Having a dog isn't just about fulfilling our needs; we must fufill theirs as well.

I know he rubs some people the wrong way. I think that's because we grow up believing that dogs are all love and cuteness, in the face of the fact that they end up running our lives or making our lives more hectic and crazy because we've made them unstable. Yes, WE'VE made them unstable.

Cesar has taught me so much about myself. I used to get frustrated with my dogs when they'd excitedly crowd me, for instance, as I was putting on my running shoes or preparing their food. I didn't realize if I was a balanced, calm pack leader, I could make the boundaries clear--and we'd both be more calm and happy.

My dogs are different beings since I started internalizing Cesar's techniques after watching his shows, reinforced with this book. I'm a different being too. Definitely calmer and more centered. More in the moment. Thank you, Cesar.