Early life Edit

Career Edit

Cesar Millan Live! Edit

"Cesar Millan Live!" is an international touring dog training lecture and stage performance where Millan presents his techniques and philosophy from his television shows and books in front of a live audience. The show consists of one-half lecture and one-half demonstration with local shelter dogs, in which he uses his pack-leader training techniques to modify negative behaviors.[29]

Dog training technique Edit

Millan's work focuses on handling a dog with what he calls "calm-assertive energy".[9] He believes that dog owners should establish their role as calm-assertive pack leaders.[18] According to Millan, dogs have three primary needs:[18] exercise, discipline and affection, in that order.[30] In other words, it is the owner's responsibility to fulfill the dog's energy level needs through challenging exercise; then to provide clearly communicated rules, boundaries and limitations; and finally, to provide affection.[31] According to Millan, a common pitfall for American dog owners is to give a great deal of affection with very little exercise and even less discipline.[31] He encourages owners to understand the effect their own attitudes, internal emotions and physical postures have on a dog's behavior, counseling owners to hold strong posture (i.e., shoulders high and chest forward) and to project energy that is calm-assertive.[16][32] Millan's TV programs are centered on the rehabilitation of dogs while Millan concurrently educates the dog owners in his dog-handling philosophy. Conversations with owners typically revolve around his philosophy: that healthy, balanced dogs require strong "pack leadership" from their owners,[18] while Millan demonstrates how owners can achieve and maintain a leadership role with their dogs. In some cases, Millan takes dogs with severe behavioral problems to his Dog Psychology Center for an extended period of more intensive rehabilitation. The programs are not intended as a dog training guide, and[24] each episode contains repeated warnings that viewers should not try the behavior modification techniques at home without the guidance of a professional.[18] While working with a dog, Millan often uses vocal marks such as tsch,[33] gestures, and body language to communicate with dogs rather than speech or the dog's name. Millan encourages owners to create their own unique sound that works for them.[32] He believes that dogs sense, understand, and respond to a person's energy more easily than their speech.[34] Millan has said, "My goal in rehabilitating dogs and training people is to create balanced relationships between humans and canines."[11] In 2009, The New York Times attributed Millan's success to his personal sense of balance,[9] describing this as "a sort of über-balanced mien".[9]

Criticism Edit

According to a January 2007 article in the Indian scientific journal Current Science, some professional dog trainers find Millan's methods outdated, flawed and "unscientific and inhumane."[35] Millan's detractors say that what Millan calls "calm submission" is actually a state of helplessness that is the result of averse dog-training techniques.[35] A study in Applied Animal Behaviour Science said Millan has been influential in popularizing punitive techniques, but that bad behavior from dogs was caused by fear and anxiety, not a lack of the owner's alpha status.[36] Malcolm Gladwell, writing for The New Yorker, said that critics were responding to a "highly edited" version of his approach on television, which exaggerates the frequency and intensity that he uses when he disciplines the dogs.[35][37] In October 2012, Millan appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show. Titchmarsh called his methods "cruel" and "unnecessary", citing a video in which, Titchmarsh said, Millan punched a dog in the throat. Millan called it a touch, not a punch. Titchmarsh read out an RSPCA statement saying that "Adverse training techniques which have been seen to be used by Cesar Millan can cause pain and fear for dogs and may worsen their behavioural problems."[38][39] Writing in the British newspaper Metro, features writer, Andrew Williams, described the interview as the first time that Titchmarsh has "deviated from his usual interview strategy – which runs the gamut from mild to wild sycophancy" and described him as "probably the only celeb Millan has failed to win over..."[40]

Personal life Edit

Daddy and Junior Edit

In popular culture Edit

Bibliography Edit

Videography Edit

Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 1: People Training for Dogs (2005)

(2005) Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 2: Becoming a Pack Leader (2006)

(2006) Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 3: Your New Dog: First Day and Beyond (2007)

(2007) Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 4: Sit and Stay the Cesar Way (2008)

(2008) Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 5: Common Canine Misbehaviors (2009)

(2009) Cesar Millan's Mastering Leadership Series, Volume 6: Raising the Perfect Puppy (2010)

(2010) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – The Complete First Season (2006)

(2006) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – The Complete Second Season (2007)

(2007) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – The Complete Third Season (2008)

(2008) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – Celebrity Edition (2008)

(2008) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – The Complete Fourth Season, Volume 1 (2010)

(2010) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – The Complete Fourth Season, Volume 2 (2010)

(2010) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – Season 5 (2011)

(2011) Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan – Season 6 (2009)

(2009) Cesar Millan's Leader of the Pack (2013)

(2013) Cesar Millan: Love My Pit Bull (2014)

(2014) Essentials of Dog Behavior, Volume 1: Socialization (2014)

(2014) Essentials of Dog Behavior, Volume 2: The Language of Dogs (2015)

(2015) Cesar Millan: Viva Las Vegas (2015)

(2015) "Mutt & Stuff, Season 1" (2015)

"Mutt & Stuff, Season 2" (2016)