Tuesday 25 June 2013

Leader of the Pack Episode Review - Mojo... the big baby!

Blog two of the night... this one killed me a little bit inside.

Mojo is a stunning, strapping big GSD boy. He is 2, he is an owner hand in from people who had him from 9 weeks old and couldn't hack the adolescent stage, failed to train or socialise him.

The hype at the start of the show is that Mojo is horribly dangerously dog aggressive and dominant, oooooh he's so dominant DOMINANT in massive letters, mega dominant boy this. Very dangerous.


Oh, and he is entire but we don't get told that till later on, shh its a secret.

He has been in rescue 4 months and in that time he appears to have just dragged folk around and yelled at other dogs. We get a smashing 'here's what NOT to do' clip, not that its labelled as that, of the rescue facing him off against another male dog, hes doing the very typical GSD lungey bark bark look at all my teefs behavior here. He stops almost immediately the other dog is heading away from him...

My opinion is that Mojo has not learned any manners, hes all hot air and bluster though, he wants to be friendly but he doesn't know how, hes all full of hormones and he is a massive MASSIVE baby, very sensitive, eager to please, curious etc...

Don't get me wrong, handled wrongly, set up to fail and Mojo quite probably would do some serious harm, but he'd be SO easy to deal with, hes totally food motivated, quick to learn and super super sensitive to his handler.

At some point in the hand over/assessment thing, the rescue rep. says something I am not sure how to translate. She is discussing how he has humped other males (Cesar immediately declares him dominant) and then that he bites - I actually think she means he redirects onto a handler, not that he has bitten other dogs, but I can't be sure.

Cesar then as part of the assessment, takes him roller blading, where Mojo is expected to pull Cesar along, just from a collar or slip leash, not a harness, and Cesar says this is so he can evaluate Mojo's energy levels...

On his return he takes him STRAIGHT into a pen full of bitches and its clear the real reason for the roller blading is to ensure Mojo is exhausted before the intro is done, as he doesn't want to introduce him to males due to him being entire.

I find it odd that he decides, without actually mentioning this, to introduce him to the bitches he has previously declared very 'soft', the big brown galgo, a tan and white collie x type and a couple of others...

He takes Mojo in on the lead and stands around whilst the bitches practically mob him and Mojo doesn't look too happy, hes trying to follow the bitches and Cesar says he is intimidating them... so he lets Mojo off to carry on pushing the tan and white bitch, getting up in her face and he is licking at her (quite obvious that he is puppyish and has no clue how to behave), she eventually starts to do little polite snaps which he ignores, he is trying to appease but he is being pushy.

The nice soft galgo marches in and snaps at him and he doesn't retaliate at all but he clearly doesn't understand either.

Cesar states he must be neutered... but again this is not done until AFTER the decision on who wins is made!

Cesar then takes him and basically picks him up and throws him in the pool - nice. Voice over rambles on about dominance.

I have a feeling that there was a lot of 'rehab' done that we didn't see, with  male dogs - if there was NOT then Cesar is actually more stupid and a bigger risk taker than even I thought. My personal thinking here is that he then did a lot of work with Mojo around male dogs, jabbing and tsssting him for looking at them etc and generally teaching him to fear Cesar more than anything else and not to DARE do anything to another male.

The reason I think that is two fold, firstly the later footage shows Mojo very cringy and appeasing to Cesar which he wasn't earlier on. Secondly.... well, read on... I cannot believe he would do this without knowing the likely outcome!

Now we meet the candidates, and first its Katrein who has two dogs, Bento and Ziggy, both older males.
Bearing in mind we are to believe that Mojo is dangerous and has never met males without issue, you'll understand why I was shocked and disbelieve this, as Cesar has K walk her two dogs straight up to the fence and then into Mojo's paddock.
Cesar gives Mojo a good jab in the neck as he approaches the gate, and then Katrein does the same quite harshly - Cesar is quite impressed by this of course.

Mojo is quite shocked as he has done nothing wrong, but you can clearly see that he is used to this from Cesar at this point. Cesar then follows them all around and jabs Mojo whenever he sniffs one of the other dogs - again this is NOT something you'd do if you were not sure of the behaviour that would follow.

Cesar makes a point of telling K not to jab him in the neck but to get him in the ribs where he will feel it, and at one point demonstrates this quite forcefully when Mojo is standing away from the other dogs minding his own business!

K then has a go at walking Mojo on his own without her two dogs.







Now its the turn of Epke and Sebastien - he is scared of big dogs so is sent into Mojo's paddock first and walks in ignoring him, crouches down and Mojo eventually heads over to say hi, which he does nicely.

Then Epke goes in which we don't see but shes in there and Seb is outside, THEN, Cesar goes in and for absolutely no reason I can see, starts demonstrating how Epke should pet and touch Mojo, which involves making a claw hand and grabbing chunks of skin and fur over his spine and quarters and neck.

Mojo clearly looks distressed by this but bless the boy, he doesn't object even though it is evidently painful and very uncomfortable and confusing. Epke follows Cesars instructions and they both do this until Mojo sinks down and 'submits', ie, Cesar forces him over onto his side and pins him.

They are told they need to do this with big powerful breeds so that the dog doesn't think he is in charge. They lap this up like it is gospel, so if anyone copies that with an unknown GSD and gets their face ripped off, please sue Millan!

Next they walk him and Sebastien walks around giving crappy corrections with the slip lead which are generally ineffective.

Next up we have Sandra and her mum Annie and their old entire male, Rico.

Remember, Mojo is supposed to be really aggressive and dangerous with males, particularly entire males...

Again Rico is brought straight up to the pen, stopping five feet out for a second and then up to the fence where they stare at one another and then theres some barking.

Cesar opens the door and forces Mojo to back off as they get into the pen.

He follows Mojo around making him back off and then he picks Rico up and presents him butt first to Mojo, Rico growls and gives him whale eye whilst Mojo sniffs him. Apparently this is to keep Rico safe as he is very small and older, and this will make Mojo think that Rico is dominant.

Sandra then goes in and has a go at forcing Mojo away, then she leashes Mojo and takes him for a walk with Rico.

Then her mum Annie has a go and Cesar says she is too calm and relaxed!

Epke and Seb are kicked out. I still don't really care why!

Final challenge:

Annie and Sandra have to show what they can do with Rico and then with Mojo, on the obstacle/agility course.

Rico does some tricks and sings, if lured with food.  Sandra lures Mojo around the obstacles with food, hes mainly locked onto the food and not really aware what he is doing. Off lead later on with Rico, Mojo sniffs him and Rico freezes up - I am not at all convinced that Mojo thinks Rico is dominant at all!

Next Katrien does the same thing and whilst Cesar has Mojo standing there with K's dogs around, he does some tsssting and jerking the leash to stop Mojo from saying hi or looking at them.

K lures Mojo around the course with food - this time Mojo is TOTALLY blind to the course itself, nearly falling over the steps, and biting K's fingers for the food. He hasn't a clue what he is doing and Cesar does not seem to point out or be aware that this luring is not actually correct use of food rewards. There is a lot of shhhhhht and tssst going on and Mojo doesn't look comfortable or confident about what he is doing.

Then he is allowed off to play with the dogs whereupon he chases Bento around like a lunatic and Bento has to turn and stare at him to stop him (which he does, he is learning). Cesar proclaims that Bento is in charge... and then Bento flops down and offers Mojo his belly, cuz he is so dominant over Mojo of course...


Obligatory chat with the rescue lady where only the bits Cesar likes make the cut.

Sandra and Annie win and Rico looks thrilled, not. In the follow up it turns out that both Rico AND Mojo have been neutered before Mojo moved in (and its only 2 weeks later apparently) and they look ok but we don't see much, just them flat out on the floor or Mojo chasing a ball down the garden.


So, again another problem over stated, and not actually dealt with. Mojo quite probably still does not know how to interact with other dogs properly, as we do not see any of this.

Hopefully he isn't being jabbed and clawed and pinned, but we don't know, Sandra seems to be quite masculine and tough and a huge Cesar fan, so it's anyones guess as to what Mojo's lot is now. Poor boy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for doing these Ems - am enjoying them, although finding it harder to watch the show (missed tonight's)