Leader of the Pack Episode 2

 Episode 2 - Rosie. Copied from my post on Beyond Cesar Millan Facebook Group

 

For the UK folk, particularly those avoiding watching Leader of the Pack.. latest episode run down by me!

Rosie, a very stressy staffie, again from Animal Helpline, supposedly has mange but I am not convinced entirely about that as its mainly under her neck and front and shoulders where shes rubbing on collars and bouncing against kennel wiring... mm.

Shes apparently been returned three times to Animal Helpline and is supposedly dog aggressive. Shes also evidently been neutered recently and has the nipples of a bitch who has been bred so one does wonder if she got pregnant with one set of adopters and was spayed following that... hmm.

Anyway, off to sunny (hot, blistering, baked) Spain with her, with the person (name i forgot) from AH saying that 'underneath shes a good dog really'... wtf, Shes a good dog on the outside too if ..... gah!

So, lots of stressy dog in the hot sunshine, being dragged about on a thin slip lead which Cesar makes a point of (several times) explaining should be right up under her chin, so that you can get her head up, of course... because once her head is up, then everything else is fine...

He does a lot of waffling that makes little sense. He says some nice, emotive stuff about staffies and how its people that are the problem.... and people with no knowledge are very dangerous (oh, the irony!)

Rosie gets taken for several short pointless walks up and down and displays a lot of the symptoms of a dog who has been severely punished (she totally blanks dogs barking at her through wire runs).

There is a moment when a family with two small boys sit down with her and they have a bag of treats, and Cesar tells the Dad off for giving Rosie a treat when she was excited (she was sitting nicely, wagging her tail, ears forward, interested. Apparently, one should NOT reward THAT behaviour.. nono!)..

He took the food and as soon as she sniffed it he 'tssssst' her and she did a strange thing, and I've only ever seen it in one context before... she turned her head slightly and she blinked her eyes very very fast. It was a very flinchy movement. I have only seen this in dogs expecting a physical punishment, a kick/jerk/smack in the face/shock type thing... thoughts anyone?

I thought that was a tad risky given shes just a foot or so away from the faces of very young kids but I suspect Cesar knew what her reaction to being punished would be (not that he makes that clear of course so roll on the redirecting dogs who bite toddlers faces)..

This weeks 'bit from hell' - one potential owner had a leonberger and a gsd, the gsd bitch was VERY pushy indeed.

Rosie was allowed out of her run to meet these dogs, with a fabric 'Mikki' style muzzle on, she could barely poke her tongue out, never mind pant (and remember that blistering spanish sun??) - the GSD basically flattened her at every opportunity and Cesar stated he thought there would be a fight if Rosie were not muzzled. THere might have been but all I saw was a small staffy getting bullied to hell and back and barely able to breathe, in my experienced, muzzle or no muzzle an actually dog aggressive dog would have attempted to fight, all Rosie did was try to avoid!

The other horrid parts were Rosie being stomach kicked, and Rosie beign DRAGGED on her side and back on the slip lead, as she would lay down and refuse to move (and remember that sore skin under her neck, the 'mange' that sits exactly where a collar sits... ouch!)

Rosie went home to a Mum and Son from Oldham (who don't appear to have started a training school on the back of this,phew!), the worst quote from the son being, after he had dragged and tssted and jerked Rosie about 'I feel really powerful'... VOMIT.

The after clip of Rosie some 5 weeks later showed the mange almost entirely gone (and still not really looking like mange to me) and Rosies new mum wielding her new found power by makinig Rosie sit for ages before being allowed to eat and extolling the virtues of being the pack leader because if she ISNT then the dog will definitely try to take over.

Mm - did someone last week say that this ISN'T getting another series on Nat Geo? If that is the case I can definitely see why - theres far too much waffle and not enough shock tactics going on.

I am also curious, if I haven't made a mistake somewhere, why Animal Helpline make NO reference to their involvement on their site or FB page, nor are they credited on the program (they just state it in person or in the voice over) - you would think they would have benefited financially from this (one would hope so as the footage of the rescue facility at the start of the program shows some VERY substandard kennelling facilities, which would almost certainly NOT pass boarding kennel regs for the UK) - does anyone know anything there?