Cesar's Blog Archives - Page 5 of 22

Cesar trains a group of new pack leaders

Cesar Millan

Calm And Consistent

There’s one thing that’s inevitable in Nature, and that’s change. There are simple and constant changes, like sunrise and sunset, and the turning of seasons. There are unpredictable and enormous changes, like hurricanes and forest fires. A physicist would tell you that change is the only way we can tell which way time is passing. Put an ice cube on the table and you’ll wind up with a puddle of water, but it never works the other way around. Now, since they’re instinctual, you’d think that dogs would be better at adapting to change than humans are — but that

September 15, 2017 No Comments

Cesar Millan

Unnatural Disaster

Natural disasters like the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey can be devastating, but if there’s a silver lining to those rain clouds it’s seeing the great acts of compassion and selflessness that people are inspired to — for example, when a group of bakers were trapped in their shop for two days, they didn’t panic. Instead, they made pan dulce to give to people in need, using over two tons of flour. And, of course, rescue organizations have swung into action to help not only people affected by the flood, but their animals — including dogs, cats, horses, and cattle.

August 31, 2017 No Comments

Audiobook/Audible

A New Fix For An Old Problem

I always like it whenever science backs up something that I’ve known for years, and that was why I was very excited this week to start up a new project with the audiobook company Audible. After a study with a hundred dogs, the findings suggest that leaving a virtual companion behind can help dogs remain calm and prevent separation anxiety. I’ve always known the power of the human voice as a calming influence, especially on our dogs — but that’s because, even as a little kid in Mexico in the 1970s, I had audiobooks around. Of course, those audiobooks didn’t

August 11, 2017 No Comments

Be the Pack Leader

Failing In Order To Succeed

Before your dog can learn to respect you, she has to learn to trust you. To earn a dog’s trust, you have to be a confident Pack Leader and provide protection and direction — sufficient exercise, and consistent rules, all with calm-assertive energy. But before you can provide any of that to your dog there’s one other place where you need to earn trust. First, Trust Yourself That place is in yourself, and it’s true not just for dealing with your dog but dealing with life in general. If you can’t trust yourself, then no one and nothing can trust

August 4, 2017 No Comments

Dog Deception

If I were to ask you what one of the most frustrating things people can do to you is, I’m pretty sure that your answers would probably mostly revolve around miscommunication — whether someone doesn’t explain clearly what they want or even goes so far as to lie outright. It’s easy to take that kind of thing personally even when it’s not, but it’s also easy to miss when we do it to others. And yet, it’s the kind of thing we do to our dogs constantly without knowing it. We mislead our dogs when we are not absolutely clear

July 27, 2017 No Comments

Cesar Millan

Bounce Back Like A Dog

One of humanity’s most powerful emotions is empathy. It’s a trait not shared by a lot of animals, although elephants, dolphins, whales, and chimpanzees seem to be capable of it. So are our dogs. However, being human and emotional, we take our empathy a step further and do something that animals do not: we feel pity for other living things, and we can feel pity for ourselves. Dogs don’t do this, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, particularly in the case of lacking self-pity, it can be a powerful lesson to all of us. If you’ve ever

July 21, 2017 No Comments

A Dog's Senses Form His Reality

Making Scents

If you had to do without one of your five main senses tomorrow, which one would you give up? I’m guessing that most people would put sight and hearing at the bottom of the list, and not having any sense of touch would just be strange. Lacking a sense of taste would also make eating pretty uninteresting. We actually have a lot more than just five senses, but only considering the classical five, this leaves the sense of smell as the one that a lot of people would give up if they had no choice. And I’m not just guessing

July 7, 2017 No Comments

Cesar Millan

To Independence

This week, America celebrates the anniversary of declaring independence from England, but what does independence mean? At its simplest, it means freedom from control or support by someone or something else. When children grow up, they become independent from their parents — although it frequently takes longer to give up that support from their parents’ wallets! And that growing-up process involves lots of little independences: learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels or assistance, going to school alone, deciding on your own outfits, people to date, college to go to, etc…. Growing up is all about achieving that independence.

June 30, 2017 No Comments

Cesar Millan

Frustrating Dogs

I want you to think for a moment of something that frustrates you. Maybe it’s a co-worker, or being stuck in traffic. It could be a vending machine that doesn’t work or a bus that’s late. It can even be your kids or spouses — and probably frequently is! Since you’re here, I’m guessing that it’s also your dog sometimes. But what is frustration? Simply, it’s the feeling that comes when we are blocked from fulfilling a need, whether it’s a goal of arriving somewhere on time or communicating something with another person. Our dogs can experience the same feeling

June 23, 2017 No Comments

Cesar Millan

Our Magic Mirror

Mirrors have long been associated with the truth, whether it’s Harry Potter’s Mirror of Erised showing people who look into it their sincerest wishes, or the magic mirror on the Evil Queen’s wall that tells her Snow White is the fairest of them all, leading to all kinds of trouble. This connection is made clear in the lyrics to a very popular song written by Marco Antonio Solis: “El espejo no miente,” which is Spanish for “the mirror doesn’t lie.” Another way to put it is that a mirror only reflects the truth. Lucky for us, when we have dogs,

June 2, 2017 No Comments