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Dog Whisperer
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Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan (also called Dog Whisperer) is an Emmy Award-nominated reality television series that premiered on September 13, 2004 on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar Millan portrays his real life role in rehabilitating and restoring balance to dogs with problems.
Millan's specialty is working with dogs that are known to be aggressive. Episodes of the program often feature but are not limited to work with an aggressive dog and Millan's application of rules, boundaries, and limitations.
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Encyclopedia
Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan (also called Dog Whisperer) is an Emmy Award-nominated reality television series that premiered on September 13, 2004 on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar Millan portrays his real life role in rehabilitating and restoring balance to dogs with problems.
Millan's specialty is working with dogs that are known to be aggressive. Episodes of the program often feature but are not limited to work with an aggressive dog and Millan's application of rules, boundaries, and limitations. Millan believes that pack leadership, by all humans who live or work with the dog, is required for the dog to exist in a content, calm state. Millan demonstrates to the owners how to obtain and maintain this.
As part of the show, Millan is shown as someone who owns 40 to 50 dogs, including Rottweilers, Pit Bulls and German Shepherds, all of whom coexist in peace, uncaged and unchained. Millan is also an honorary member of the International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP). Dog Whisperer is sponsored by Purina and Petco.
Program format
At the beginning of the show, viewers are introduced to the difficult dog (or dogs) and their owners. Home movies are often shown of the pet's misdeeds, and owners describe the problems that they face. Millan is then introduced, and a narrator often describes the experience Millan has had with difficult cases in the past.
Millan then conducts an interview, where he sits down with the family as they describe the issue at hand. He usually then offers suggestions on how the owners may alter their own habits to become a pack leader for their pet.
He then demonstrates pack leader techniques with the dog, often to the astonishment of the owner. The show usually features Millan going through his three step process, as he repeats the words "exercise, discipline, and then affection". Sometimes, in serious cases, he will take the dog to his own Dog Psychology Center to introduce it to his own pack. In the most serious cases, such as an extremely aggressive or obsessive-compulsive dog, it may stay at his center for a number of days or weeks.
Popularity
Millan has been featured twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
In the foreword of Millan's book, Cesar's Way, Jada Pinkett Smith wrote, "Through his patience and wisdom, Cesar has been a blessing to my family, my dogs and me."
Millan has also appeared on ABC World News Tonight (2002), CBS-TV (2001), Channel 7 News (May 2005), CNN (April 2006), Creative Arts Emmys 2006 (August 2006), Entertainment Insider (December 2004), Good Day Live (February 2005), Good Morning America With Diane Sawyer (September 2004), KTLA-TV (2002),Last Call with Carson Daly (November 2006), Martha Stewart Show (April 2006), Megan Mullally Show(November 2006), Nightline (July 2006), NBC-TV (2001), Today Show (April 2006), Tonight Show With Jay Leno (February 2005), The View (July 2006), WUSA-TV 9 News (April 2006), season 4 of the Emmy winning reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and various radio shows.
Criticism
Some professional trainers, behavior consultants, and associations believe that Millan's methods are inhumane, referring to the use of alpha rolls, flooding, and constant leash corrections. According to them, these techniques can have serious behavioral consequences.
Dr. Nicholas Dodman, the director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine of Tufts University, has said "Cesar Millan's methods are based on flooding and punishment. The results, though immediate, will be only transitory. His methods are misguided, outmoded, in some cases dangerous, and often inhumane. You would not want to be a dog under his sphere of influence. The sad thing is that the public does not recognize the error of his ways." In a February 23, 2006, New York Times article, Dr. Dodman says of Millan's show, "My college thinks it is a travesty. We've written to National Geographic Channel and told them they have put dog training back 20 years."
Jean Donaldson, the San Francisco SPCA Director of states, "Practices such as physically confronting aggressive dogs and using of choke collars for fearful dogs are outrageous by even the most diluted dog training standards. A profession that has been making steady gains in its professionalism, technical sophistication and humane standards has been greatly set back. I have long been deeply troubled by the popularity of Mr. Millan as so many will emulate him. To co-opt a word like whispering for arcane, violent and technically unsound practice is unconscionable."
On September 6, 2006, The American Humane Association issued a press release condemning Millan's tactics as "inhumane, outdated, and improper" and called on the National Geographic Channel to cease airing the program immediately.
In October 2006, the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants wrote a letter to the National Geographic Channel regarding concerns "that the program may lead children to engage in unsafe behaviors." The Association called for a change in the program's rating of TV-G.
The National Geographic Society and Cesar Millan responded in a National Geographic News online article titled "Dog Whisperer to Critics: My Techniques Are 'Instinctual.'"
There is a popular positive reinforcement trainer, Paul Owens, who used the "dog whisperer" name prior to the popularity of Cesar Millan. The "original" Dog Whisperer is the author of at least two books, "The Dog Whisperer" and "The Puppy Whisperer". The two should not be confused.
In popular culture
- Cesar Millan guest starred as himself on an episode of the FOX drama Bones on September 17, 2008.
- Cesar Millan guest starred as himself on an episode of the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer on March 30, 2007.
- In 2006, the show was parodied by the animated comedy TV series South Park, in the episode "Tsst." The episode featured Millan applying his techniques on Eric Cartman, a notoriously disobedient child character. Where the nannies from Nanny 911 and Super Nanny failed, Millan's unorthodox approach (using dog training techniques on a human child) yielded positive results. Trey Parker stated in the commentary to the episode that the Dog Whisperer was one of the few shows "that made him cry."
- The G4 show X-Play references the show and Millan frequently, with Adam Sessler complaining about Dog Whisperer ranking higher on iTunes than X-Play.
- References to Dog Whisperer have also been found in the comics "Blondie" and "Bizarro".
- Tegan and Sara mention the show in one of their video chapters for their newly released album, The Con.
- Millan was mentioned in the King of the Hill episode "Doggone Crazy."
Nominations
Dog Whisperer won Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality Program in 2006 and 2007.
External links
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