You have to be cruel to be kind??

Stills from video footage belonging to Christopher Upton, Callington, Cornwall

... Said the man who picked his spaniel up by the ears, threw it to the ground and then hit it a couple of times across the back for good measure.

It is shocking that even now, despite science and plenty of very successful, modern, force free trainers writing books, demonstrating their dogs work - despite the fact that all manner of dogs from pet dogs to dogs with serious jobs such as search and rescue, assistance dogs, bomb detection dogs... we STILL have people insisting that they need to use abusive methods to train dogs.

And let me ask you, just HOW serious a job actually IS a working gundog doing? Really, whose life depends on that dog quartering nicely, stopping promptly, recalling swiftly?

Nobody's, except perhaps the dog itself and that's the same for ANY dog off leash anywhere.

So why do people like Christopher Upton of Corleone Gundogs, think that it's not just acceptable, but completely necessary, to pick dogs up by their ears (he prefers this to a single hand on the scruff as it limits the dogs ability to whip round and bite him, which one presumes some dogs have done!)?

The video footage I took the stills from here is publicly available on Christopher's facebook page - I reproduce stills from it here under the UK copyright legislation 'fair dealing - using the work of others' as specified here:

"Criticism or review
Quoting parts of a work for the purpose of criticism or review is permitted provided that:

• The work has been made available to the public.
• The source of the material is acknowledged.
• The material quoted must be accompanied by some actual discussion or assessment (to warrant the criticism or review classification).
• The amount of the material quoted is no more than is necessary for the purpose of the review."
  
  Just in case Mr Upton does not like me discussing his behaviour or use of his publicly available video footage.
  
  
  So - is it necessary to use force? Or painful methods? Or fear? Or intimidation?
  
  I don't believe so, and a great many people agree with me - if we don't need to use force, fear, pain, intimidation etc to train dogs to detect bombs and save peoples lives, and we don't need to use these things to teach dogs to tell deaf people that the smoke alarm is going off...
  
  Why do we need to use them to teach dogs to flush game or retrieve dead game? These jobs cannot possibly be claimed to be serious or of life-or-death importance. They are just the things we need dogs to do as part of a hobby!
  Would it be acceptable to claim that we must use force and pain to teach heelwork-to-music, which no one would claim was a serious job - of course not!
  
  In one of Mr Upton's videos (one where he demonstrates teaching a loose leash walk by jerking a slip lead so hard he lifts a little spaniel bitch off her feet, whipping her round and seriously risking injury to her neck) he claims he has to be "cruel to be kind" and setting aside the fallacy of this thought process for a moment, this suggests very strongly that Mr Upton KNOWS that these methods are cruel - he is not of the opinion that picking a dog up by its ears, hitting it, jerking it off its feet by a noose round its neck, is NICE, he KNOWS it's cruel.
  
  It is perfectly possible to teach a dog any number of tricks (and yes Mr Upton, retrieving game is a trick, staying at a distance is a trick, dropping into a stay when running is a trick, these tricks are no more nor less difficult to teach than any other, they just happen to be relevant to your hobby, where reversing in a circle around someone's legs, hopping on three legs or closing a door might not be!) using positive reinforcement.
  
  Emily Larlham has some fantastic videos demonstrating a wide variety of behaviours trained using the clicker, some of them are frivolous and fun, some of them really useful for responsible and safe ownership of a dog.
  
  To a dog though, they are all the same - just tricks.
  
  Mr Upton claims that his training methods are justified because they work - personally I disagree with that concept.
  Now that we know WHY various methods work, and now that we have a choice in what methods we use, it really is not as simple as saying 'this works, I'll use it'.
  
  Allowing myself a little hyperbole at this late hour - I can cure a dog of stock chasing in under 30 seconds and I can promise you a 100% success rate, that dog will never chase stock again.
  
  How? Oh well I'll shoot your dog.
  
  It works right?
  
  Clearly this example is over the top, but the point is certain methods come with a price - and it is up to us to judge if that price is fair and acceptable.
  
  I can't comprehend that any right minded sane person thinks that causing pain, discomfort, fear, is an acceptable price - even if there was no other way...
  
  And of course, this is not the case, because there IS another way. There ARE people training dogs to do serious jobs, without using force, pain, intimidation, fear... there are also people very successfully training gundogs to do their jobs without using any of these things!
  
  For positive gundog training in the UK, speak to Helen Phillips or buy her book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clicker-Gundog-Level-Learning-about/dp/1890948306
  
  For US readers - http://www.duckhillkennels.com/forums/index.php
  
  There are undoubtedly more out there, these are just the first two I found in under one minute's googling - they are NOT hard to find!
  
  Mr Upton has been reported to the RSPCA and they are allegedly dealing with the matter.
  
  Mr Upton is most assuredly not the only person using methods like this across the world, but for it to be stopped, we do have to stand up and be counted. Saying 'it shouldn't be allowed' is not enough - please take appropriate action!
  
  I would ask anyone reading this to keep their comments clean (no matter how hard that might be) and not to harass Mr Upton in any way - but if you feel strongly that abuse under the guise of training should not be permitted, do feel free to contact the RSPCA, your local press, dog magazines etc.
  

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.

Leader of the Pack Episode review - Mambo the terrier

Sorry for the delay on this folks, bad week or so, totally lost track of where I was at, so you get two blogs tonight!

First one is Mambo, a little JRT type job, 8 years old and apparently he has been given too much affection so has become aggressive to other dogs and dominant.

Okay then - what I am seeing is a dog who appears to have little impulse control and he hasn't learned how to communicate with other dogs appropriately.

The voice over tells us immediately we see Mambo that he is dominant and has issues with other dogs and that Cesar needs to assess his dominance... By the way, sick bags may be found in the drawer on the left.. do help yourselves.

Cesars first step in his evaluation is to take him in with his 'hard' confident bitch Leda - she's on a lead and Mambo goes straight for her butt, which she sits on and generally tries to avoid him getting at - when this fails and shes allowed off the lead, she chases him around, she looks worried until she is allowed to bully him, when the roles change and he looks worried.

This is apparently a fine success, we move on and Cesar brings in other bitches, particularly a soft greyhound/galgo bitch, which Mambo totally ignores  but interestingly, Leda, our supposedly tough dominant (hes called her that in other shows) confident bitch solicits the galgo's attention, mouth licking and grovelling to her...

Junior comes in and Mambo sniffs his butt and nothing untoward happens.

So, he isn't dog aggressive off lead - he is lacking impulse control and manners. I don't doubt that on lead if handled wrong he could get snappy and defensive, but his intentions are not 'kill everyone I see' in any way.

Our candidates this week are Marlon and Wendy, The Bruggink Family and Gina and Dana.

Gina and Dana currently have cats having lost their previous dog at 12, and they are up for the first challenge.

The challenge is to get Mambo out of the car and go and see some dogs on lead. They have food and can use a leash.

Dana uses food to get Mambo out, which Cesar comments on in a way that sounds like hes going to be negative because shes given Mambo food when he is excited, but its cut and edited so I think they changed their mind on that.. don't know. Odd.

Gina does the same thing - they both walk him on a short slip leash around some leashed dogs and Gina is hesitant with Mambo, so Cesar shows her the TSST and jerk and marches Mambo about. They don't actually introduce him to any dogs and I am not sure what the challenge really was.

Wendy and Marlon do the same - he's been pushed into agreeing to a dog and actually has some fear of small animals. Cesar professes he will help but the chat he has is not remotely useful or enlightening. Marlon sees Mambo chewing the blanket in the crate in the car and thinks this means he is aggressive.

Wendy gets him out, there is a lot of pushing him back in but she seems to not be doing this quite the way Cesar would, not sharp/hard enough, he says shes negotiating with him. Mambo looks confused and stressed. Cesar demonstrates some finger pointing and  Tsssting to make mambo sit.

Once out of the car, Marlon has the lead quite tight and Mambo starts choking, Cesar says stuff about tension (though not specifically tension on the LEAD) and readjusts but also gives Mambo a correction and a TSST for apparently nothing.

There is a lot of talk about submission and calming but  what is actually demonstrated is suppressing unwanted behaviour.

Next are the Bruggink family, Mum, three girls and Dad.

They have never owned a dog but do appear to have a lot of other small animals and horses.

Same challenge as before, get Mambo out of the car and walk him about near some dogs. Some discussion about gaining trust and respect - almost immediately, Mambo barks at Hank who is a pretty big gruff guy.

Cesar helpfully tells us that Mambos yappy high pitched bark means he ISN'T telling Hank to go away (Hank thinks he is, good boy Hank I agree), because if he meant that he'd have a low gruff bark. Note here, Mambo is a very small high pitched dog, I actually don't think he CAN bark in a low, deep tone!

Anyway, Hank gets him out of the crate but faffs and Mambo runs away from him into the car, despite the fact that Hank has food.... refer to my previous point that Hank thinks Mambo is worried about him - I agree.

The wife comes over and she does it fine, gets Mambo out and he is twirling on the leash and pulls over toward Leda and the galgo and some other dogs all on leads. Leda has a bit of a pop at him but notably, all the OTHER dogs, handled by Cesars staff, are also pulling, up on hind legs and lunging at Mambo.... ho hum!

Wendy and Marlon are kicked out - I forget why, I don't really care.

Now, Cesar introduces a halti or gentle leader head collar - can't remember which and he changes his mind which it is throughout the rest of the show.

The Brugginks are up now, we get a screen cap telling us that obedience can result in a calm submissive state in your dog. Ok.

The girls take turns to walk Mambo. The first one asks for a sit, lifts up on the headcollar and shoves his butt down - when she moves off again she does a classic Cesar kick in the ribs move which Cesar notes and compliments. Catch em young eh Cesar...

The other two girls do basically the same, minus the foot kick, but also neither of them ask for a sit, they just shove his butt down and we get a few seconds of footage of Mambo just being paraded about, shut down, ignoring the handlers almost entirely. Yay.

Hank has a go next, note at this point although Cesar has explained the headcollar a bit, he has NOT explained that they should be careful with it in anyway or what the risks might be.

As a result, Hank walks along with the leash too short for tiny Mambo and he has to walk with his head on one side being pulled up by Hank.

Cesar DOES notice this, excellent observation Cesar... now, does he do anything about it??

No. He points it out to the girls and Mum, and laughs, repeatedly, and does a hilarious little impression of poor Mambo with his head pulled to one side. At no point does he bother informing Hank who hasn't noticed, that Mambo is uncomfortable. No, because its funny, so lets not bother.

Next the girls take Mambo to Cesars doggy paddling pool and force him in using the headcollar. Cesar forces him to sit saying this will teach him to relax, and then holds him whilst he swims, and then puts the headcollar back on at the end of the pool and pulls him around making him slip over a few times.

Fairly predictably, Mambo looks damn stressed and uncomfortable with all of this.

Next Gina and Dana have a go. Again he is on the halti and again Cesar doesn't bother to explain that care ought to be taken.

We are told that obedience will make a dog submissive, and that giving a dog a job to do makes him a follower which makes him submissive. (What about guide dogs Cesar??)

Obedience actually appears to be dragging him around on the halti, past other dogs - Dana keeps giving him little corrections with it, they are not particularly harsh but I know I'd hate to have my face constantly jerked about.

Next is the pointless chat with the rescue representative, who says she likes both people but worries bout the Brugginks small animals, but then Dana and Gina have cats too so...

So far, Mambo's supposed issues actually haven't been addressed. He is still rude and doesn't know how to behave nicely with other dogs, he still has no impulse control either.

Cesar comes in to make the decision, bringing Mambo back on the slip lead with him forging ahead and pulling.... oooooookay.

Dana and Gina win and the follow up 5 weeks later (but they have only had him 18 days) is quite positive - One of them (I forget which, sorry) says she has rushed him a bit but now realises she can't do that and her expectations were not fair. They are using food rewards, puzzle toys, tug toys etc to train and play. They have rules for visitors pinned to the outside of their front door so people know how to behave (calmly, ignore him until he is calm before greeting etc).

He still has pretty huge issues with their cats which was 100% predictable, and they are still using a headcollar to walk him. No idea about his other dog issues, they don't mention it at all.



This one was pretty classic Cesar to be honest - over exaggerate the initial problem, and then completely gloss over it and ignore it - he hasn't DONE anything here except slap a headcollar on the dog and find him a new home, there is no training, no 'rehabilitation' at all. If Gina and Dana keep Mambo and make a success of this it will be down to their hard work, and nothing Cesar has actually done bar give them the dog (and I understand it is the rescues final decision anyway, not his).

Leader of the Pack Episode Review - Janna the Malinois

Here we are again, somewhat late this week because its been a shitty week where I've had a load of work, felt like crap and then someone went and died. Oh and I spent half the week not knowing what day it actually was!

So, I only got round to poisoning my eyes with this weeks episode, last night!

Poor Janna is a Belgian Malinois seemingly in a world filled with total fools. I feel like that sometimes too.

Shes super high energy, needs a job, bored off her tits and has a pushy nature with other bitches.

She also self-mutilates.. they say.

Here we get a fantastic Cesar fuck-up, he clearly states that such problems are ALWAYS neurological.. and then a milisecond later the voice over tells us that Janna has been checked by a vet and the problem is not neurological, it is behavioural. Snort!

Actually what she does is flank suck - they tried to make out on the show that shes really biting into herself and doing damage, she isn't, and its very clear to see that there is no damage.

She does have a damaged nipple which shes obviously worried at - given shes having pretty severe phantom pregnancies, I would hazard a guess shes had mastitis and has worried at a sore infected nipple.

Despite pointing out the  phantom pregnancy, and showing us a clip of her frantically trying to nest in cupboards and on soft furnishings, digging so hard shes actually made her paws bleed.... the rescue shes come from have not thought to spay her. Nor does she get spayed before the rehoming process starts (you'll be glad to know she DOES get spayed before she goes to her new people but it would have been a damn sight more sensible to spay her before the assessment!).

So,  the premise is that Janna's self harming is the reason she needs a new home - it isn't. The reason is that shes an active high octane breed living with an old lady, who had to return her to the rescue.

 That's not to say that flank sucking isn't a worrying symptom - it is, but its a symptom of an animal who hasn't enough to do, has far too many hormones whizzing about and as self harming behaviours go, Janna's level of flank sucking is not massively serious. She's clearly not lost any fur, the fur isn't discoloured, shes got no scarring or open wounds. Animals who are serious self harmers will have all the above!

I am thinking they had to pad this show out a little, as at the beginning there is a weird section that's never been included before, where Cesar stops to chat to a lady who is presumably an employee, checking over a dog on a table. They discuss vaccinations and how its possible to over vaccinate and one can blood test to check for immunity. This is just skated over and no real  useful information is actually given.

Cesar takes Janna round some agility jumps, he uses a chuckit and ball to lure her and then reward her - nice, but this is the last we will see of any reward!

Cesar introduces Janna to the pack - as per usual, theres some TSST and jerking and kicking as he brings her in and lets her off lead. The other dogs are interested but not overly so, Janna pointedly ignores them which Cesar tells us is because shes confident - it isn't, at one point she actively seeks comfort/protection from the people and shes clearly pretending the other dogs are not even there, even when one tries to hump her.
My personal feeling here is she is not great with other dogs and in a group situation shes avoiding confrontation rather than actively happy.

Now we meet the candidates - Gill, Sven and Kylian - Sven is disabled and uses a cane to walk, Kylian is around 10 years old and they haven't had a dog since Gill's old collie/shepherd mix died some years ago.

Craig and Evita and their dog Noah, who they say is an American Stafford but shes clearly a mix - shes on a harness and collar with a double lead and they admit they have some issues with control.

Wendy and Brian and their old shepherd mix Rosa who has the manners of a saint.

Craig and Evita are up first and Cesar wants to deal with Noah's behaviour - Evita shows how she walks Noah, with a few ineffective collar jerks (on a very broad flat leather collar). Cesar is not impressed with her handling or her assertion that Noah is insecure, he say's shes dominant and takes over.

He puts his thin slip lead on her, and almost immediately takes her to the pack pen door, kicking, TSSTing and jerking. We get a screen caption that tells us really usefully:

"A 'TSSCH" sound accompanied by a correction with the leash can become a useful tool when walking a dog"

This however seems to be increasing Noahs reactivity and hes having to jerk her, lift her off her front feet and causes her to make a choking sound. She has her ears tightly back, and is panting heavily.

Then she is taken away, and no attempt is made to introduce Noah to Janna (which suggests to me that Cesar knows damn well, Janna is dog aggressive and so is Noah).

Janna is brought out to them on a thin slip leash, she is let off lead and seems a bit nervous. Then we cut to her lying down and she starts to flank bite. Cesar asks what they'd do to stop it and Evita immediately gets down to Janna's level, and puts her hand between Janna's mouth and her flank, pushing her head away.

This is yet another example of where Cesar allows people to take risks with their safety, some dogs WOULD have redirected aggressively at an intervention like this and I don't actually think Cesar knows enough to tell which would and which wouldn't.

He demonstrates his method, jabbing Janna in the ribs on the opposite side to that which she is biting, but its quite clear he has to jab pretty hard and when Craig and Evita try it, they have to jab her really hard to achieve the same results.

Next up are Gill Sven and Kylian.

Janna is brought out to them, now she is wearing a thin prong collar instead of the slip leash - this is not mentioned at ANY stage, nor is it mentioned that care should be taken with this device or what the potential outcomes are if they are not careful with it (personally I think it shouldn't be used at all of course!).

For those Cesar fans who state he never uses such things, or that he only uses them when the owners use them first... Janna has no owners, Cesar chose to use this collar, here is a photo!




Cesar asks Sven to go first and hes a little hesistant, clearly has no idea about the collar so gives Janna plenty of little tugs on it to keep her with him.

Cesar takes over (and takes Svens stick off him too, with very little warning!) and does a rather grim pretence of being disabled to demonstrate how he can make Janna go wherever - of course she complies as in the prong collar, shes got no choice.

Next the little boy Kylian has a go, again, tugging Janna all over the place. In each clip we see the prong collar moving position on the dogs neck, and again, no mention is made of it.

Finally it is Wendy, Brian and Rosa's turn.

Rosa is lovely, they have trained her with food and toys and she has a good repertoire of tricks and useful behaviours, shes really well behaved and clearly has a good bond with her people.

She's almost immediately introduced to Janna in a smallish pen.

Rosa is not hugely impressed and mainly ignores Janna. Janna on the other hand rudely shoves her nose up Rosa's bottom (impressive as Rosa is a big girl and shes SAT on her bottom at the time), and then starts some very pushy mouth licking, ear sniffing/licking behaviour.

This tells ME that Janna doesn't really know the rules of adult dog interaction. This behaviour is very puppyish, but it lacks the innocence of a pup soliciting attention from an adult, as a pup would NOT have stuffed its nose up another dogs jacksie whilst the dog was sat down.

Cesars evaluation is that they want to be friends. I disagree pretty strongly, Janna is insecure and pushy, she wants to know where she stands and shes going to push Rosa until she finds out exactly what the score is.

Rosa is not interested in this young bitch at all, she'd rather be somewhere else but shes too damn polite to say so... for a while.

Eventually, Rosa does politely tell Janna to fuck off, its a really reserved growl/snap as Janna again barges and shoves her about.

Janna however, reacts really badly, she turns and REALLY goes for Rosa, throwing a paw over her shoulder as she bites at her neck and throat, she keeps going for her and has to be pulled off by Cesar, who then scruffs her, and then pins her down.

Whilst Cesar then discusses what happens the camera shows us, slightly out of focus, Janna STILL bugging Rosa and Rosa very clearly looking away, moving away, turning her head away, yawning and lip licking. Rosa wants NO conflict, Janna either does not understand, or does not care and really WANTS a reaction.

Cesar however decides that actually this is not aggression (WHAT?) this is actually a dominance ritual.

We cut to another round of flank biting, but notably now the jab to the side doesn't work on its own and Cesar has to give her a good jerk with the slip leash as well before she will stop. I'd put money on her learning to redirect if this carries on.

Fairly predictably, Craig and Evita are chucked out at this stage as Noah and Janna are clearly going to be a horribly bad idea together - so much so that even Cesar hasn't suggested introducing them. (Oh.. and I thought Cesar could cure everything, he never has failures you know... mm!)

Final challenges -

Wendy and Brian and Rosa.

Cesar has Janna on a short slip, whilst in the back of the big paddock several dogs are doing the agility jumps.
Janna is twirling and jumping and squealing and really, not under control and Cesar has to kick her a few times.
He tells us that she is excited and she wants to do agility and this is why she is behaving this way, that she is not interested in the other dogs.

Personally, I'd disagree, its a bit telling the way her eyes and face track the other dogs as they  move!

Cesar blathers on about Janna needing a job and thus Wendy and Brian must be prepared for that... ok so far.. and then he insists they make Rosa do it.

Now Rosa is a heavy set 10 year old shepherd mix, shes really well trained and she can do some of the lower level stuff but Wendy  particularly is really NOT keen to force Rosa to do some of this stuff because shes got some old injuries and its risky, and potentially painful for her.

Cesar is really unhappy about this and bullies them into making Rosa do a dog walk - so he makes them FORCE a clearly scared Rosa up the dog walk (she wimpers at one point) a couple of times and declare her really happy about it (pinned back ears, heavy panting, tense, curled up body all suggest otherwise).

Next they take Janna, on lead, around the jumps - shes on the thin slip lead and at almost every jump she gets a good jerk in the neck. You can see Janna getting less and less keen on jumping because of this.

Throughout this, Rosa and Janna ignore one another completely.

Gill, Sven and Kylian have their final challenge now.

Janna is back in the prong collar, again no mention is made.

Bit more flank biting which Cesar stops with the prong collar and then we gloss over that and cut to Cesar jumping her on the prong collar.

Then Gill takes her round and again, lots and lots of accidental jabs on that prong collar, each time she jumps, as she lands she gets a good hard jerk to the neck and shes becoming more and more reluctant to jump, and more and more confused as to whats expected of her as there is no encouragement, and no reward at all.

Sven has a go and he drags her over a couple of fences then Cesar decides Janna should jump on a big table, so Sven runs her at it, but because he is not encouraging her to look up, she just runs under the table and around Sven.

She looks really confused and scared now, shes got NO idea what they want from her and almost every attempt at anything just results in a correction from that collar.

Cesar makes little Kylian stand on the table and call her and between them, they practically haul her up by the neck a couple of times.

Theres a brief discussion with the rescue rep, but Cesar mainly talks over her, or her real responses are cut as its very disjointed, he asks questions but doesn't wait for the answers etc.

Final decision, Sven Gill and Kylian win.

Six weeks later, Janna is spayed. There is no mention of the self harming behaviour that was supposedly SO serious, and clearly no evidence of it on Janna's body.

There is no prong collar in sight, there MAY be a spray or e-collar unit on in some shots but I really can't be sure at all and I'm erring towards it just being a bulky clip on her nylon collar.

Sadly she is now being walked on the type of anti-pull harness that has thin cords running under the armpits - these do cause pain, and also muscle damage :( .



So to conclude - Cesar has done nothing to sort out Janna, except have her spayed which the rescue should have done anyway, and Cesar certainly should have done BEFORE assessing and introducing to potential rehomers.
She is strong, and high energy, and pulls on the lead, which he addressed using the slip and the prong collar, and the new owners address using an anti-pull harness.
Yes, she now has a home, but I am not 100% convinced she will stay in it if the family really do use Cesars methods long term.

Leader of the Pack episode review - Amigo the Greyhound

Hey hey everybody - and a special hi to my secret stalkers who I met on Monday at dog-club, you know who you are! :)

So this weeks Tssssst Fest features the delightfully stripey Amigo, a brindle 'greyhound' (I think galgo actually, hes a lot finer and pointier than a typical UK racing greyhound).

Apparently, Amigo's problem is that he is SUPER dog aggressive, according to the representative of Animal In Need, hes an 8 or a 9 and we do get a voice over early on about 'Red Zone'.. yay, the amazing Red Zone...

The opening scenes do indeed show Amigo lunging and twirling on the lead and apparently, he has bitten an 8 week old puppy and wouldn't let go, and he's redirected onto someones leg in the past as well, these may have been the same incident.

So, hes super dog aggressive and really dangerous and 'red zone' - oh but he lives with another greyhound.

He was adopted from Spain to somewhere else (I missed that) and the lady who took him on hadn't actually met him or his greyhound friend before taking him on.... she returned him to Animal In Need in Spain for this aggression.

Once he arrives at Cesars Dog Torture erm I mean Psychology Centre in Spain, note here he is wearing a martingale style hound collar and a harness - this is the last time he is wearing something safe and comfortable.

Without any muzzle on him, Cesar almost immediately has an assistant walk a strange dog head on at Amigo - they let the dogs get dangerously close and Amigo could have bitten the other dog - he is lunging and twirling and really frustrated and really wants to get to that dog...

Cesar does the old routine, tsst, kick, jab, prod - each time he jabs in the side, Amigo yelps and looks round at Cesar, I can see how Amigo could very quickly redirect if this carries on, unless of course Cesar does something even more scary. We won't see that though of course.

By now Amigo is clearly quite wary of Cesar, as Cesar is punishing any and all attempts to look at the other dog or approach it.

Now Cesar introduces him to the pack and here its damn obvious, Cesar already knows that this dog is NOT dog aggressive - the pack is large, but its mainly sighthounds and fairly solid medium sized dogs, there are at least 8 dogs in there.

Cesar walks Amigo in on the lead and stands near the door whilst all the dogs crowd him - Amigo stands there looking a bit trapped but theres no reaction and soon his tail is wagging in a fairly relaxed way despite the fact he is also tense and panting a bit.

Cesar lets him off the harness but dangerously, leaves the martingale collar on which has an extra long leather loop hanging off it - I am cringing in horror as I have an image of one of those delicate sighthound paws getting stuck in that loop, either Amigos or one of the other three sighthounds in the pen!
At the end of this scene, Cesar just walks away from Amigo, leaving him in the pen full of dogs - suggesting that actually at this point, Amigo already knows these dogs, or, Cesar knows damn well that Amigo is not dog aggressive and nothing is going to kick off. Otherwise this is a damn stupid risk to take!


It is blatantly obvious at this point if it wasn't before - this is not a dog aggressive dog. He lives with a dog, he has shown no fear of other dogs, he is frustrated and he wants to play and he has not learned how to greet appropriately.

In addition he has quite possibly made a mistake in the past (predatory drift anyone?) with a puppy, mistaking it for prey - this CAN happen, and particularly with male dogs who are often utterly horrified and confused by tiny puppies. Of course, we only have the previous owners word for it that he attacked and wouldn't let go, he might have just nipped a pushy puppy and scared the owner - we will never know.

We meet the candidates:

Anya and her two daughters and their dog Herbie, a GSD.

Sevillio - single guy, I didn't catch where from but hes a chilled out kind guy, very quiet and relaxed.

Dagmar and Daniele - again I missed where from. Shes had dogs before, hes a cat person.

First Challenge - meet Amigo.

Anya and family go first and they have their GSD boy Herbie. They admit that Herbie has some issues, pulls on lead, growls if they pet other dogs.

The screen caption tells us: "Dogs that are overly possessive often show dominance as well"

Mm, that was a useful piece of B.S. In fact, dogs that are very possessive are usually insecure and anxious and fear losing their valued resources - a dominant animal is confident and has no such insecurities. If of course, dominance wrt people, existed. It does not.

They describe Herbie as being their pack leader and he's also pulled so hard he's broken Mum Anya's wrist in the past.

I don't need to tell you.... they won't win.

They take Herbie to meet Amigo, first through the bars of the pen and then straight in. Amigo sniffs Herbie and walks away. Once in the pen, they let Herbie off the leash (again, there's no muzzles here and we are told both dogs are dog aggressive...) Herbie barges over and sniffs Amigo's boy bits - Amigo does nothing, sniffs back and the two dogs part totally disinterested.

Oddly, Herbie is wearing a weird bandanna - its not a folded triangle like I am used to seeing, its a flat, wide band, in addition to his normal collar and I am wondering if its hiding either a prong collar or a shock unit. I don't know, it could be for decoration, I really have no idea but it looks odd in addition to his collar, and his flea collar..

Next, Sevillio meets Amigo.

Hes calm and quiet and Amigo seems to like him - Sev puts the lead on him ok (calls him over to put it on rather than approaching him) and they go for a walk.

Here Cesar talks a load of stuff about how Sev is allowing Amigo to walk in front and how thats no good, he must lead, and Cesar demonstrates by taking Amigo on a very short leash and holding him practically behind his back. Interesting to note, Amigo is nice and relaxed with Sevillio, and not so with Cesar.

Finally, Dagmar and Daniele meet Amigo.

They go in the pen and almost immediately fuck up because whilst dithering in the doorway asking Cesar if they can let Amigo out, he slips out (very slowly, there's no barging around).
Cesar tells them off for this and Amigo goes back in his pen, they are told to choose a leash and so they choose..... oh you guessed it, the thin black slip leash. Nice.... on a thin sighthound neck, cringe cringe!

Now they practice going in and out of the gate and Dagmar is better at hoiking the slip leash up under Amigos ears, she is more assertive than Daniele.

For some reason in this test, unlike the other two candidates, Cesar allows his pack to dash into the big paddock and run right up to Amigo... Amigo doesn't bat an eyelid, but then, he's been living with this pack for we don't know how long, and hes been getting corrections and kicks from Cesar for we don't know how long. As we saw when Cesar just walked off and left him in the pen with the pack though, we already know Cesar knows he isn't dog aggressive.

Anya and family and Herbie are out on the grounds that they can't actually control Herbie now.

Final Challenge: Rabbits and Dogs in Public...

Sevillio is first up, and Cesar has a pen with some white rabbits in it to see how Sevillio copes with Amigo's prey drive.

With Amigo on the slip leash, ears up seeing the rabbits, Sev walks him past and just avoids them, in fact if its not obvious that Sev is avoiding and not punishing, we get a screen caption that tells us:

"To address Amigo's excitement, Sevillio chooses avoidance over physical correction with the leash".

Amigo is mainly ignoring Sev at this point and pulling at the rabbits but he is pretty calm. Cesar tells him off though because hes not taught Amigo to ignore rabbits (hes also not wound Amigo up into a leaping lunging frenzy either but hey, you know...)

Next they go into town and Amigo has various dogs walked at him head on - he looks at a few, the slip leash is now up under his ears and its choking him, we actually get a close up of him yarking and Cesar comments on it, because its Sev's fault for not correcting him apparently (nothing to do with the cheese wire slip leash that will NOT loosen, nono).

Dagmar and Daniele face the same challenge. Daniele is confident, but he gives no corrections and again this is wrongity wrong - Dagmar does it and shes not correcting properly, her timing is out and Amigo isn't really paying attention.

We get a nice screen caption here too: " A correction with the leash could refocus Amigo's attention and lower his excitement".

Oh what I'd give for there to be a screen cap that says 'A correction with the leash could damage Amigo's trachea and vertebrae, cause him to redirect aggressively onto his handler and cause fearful associations with the trigger for the correction, ie, the other dog."

Not going to happen is it!

Cesar inevitably has to demonstrate how this should be done and he takes Amigo and he gives him a quick TSST and a kick in the flank. The second click of the fingers and TSST has Amigo sitting, ears back and looking as tragic as only a fucking worried Greyhound can, he slides into a down and Cesar throws the lead at him, and steps away..

Given that only minutes ago, Amigo wanted to get himself a nice fluffy bunny tea, I can only conclude that Amigo has some damn fine reasons to shut down in the presence of Millan and fluffy bunnies. The reaction to the flank kick and the TSSST and the click are evidently conditioned, his face is so worried and he can't even remember the bunnies exist he is so focused on Cesar and what he might do next with his nasty little kicky feet and jabby fingers and collar corrections....

They go out in public, same deal, TSST yank, kick etc.


Dagmar and Daniele win, because apparently lovely calm Sevillio is not a pack leader, because he wouldn't give corrections.

Now, we get the 5 week catch up - yay, theres lovely Amigo lazing on the sofa. Nice.

But what about this dog aggression problem, which of course is really a frustration/lack of greeting manners and self control problem - surely Cesar has fixed this.....

No. Because Dagmar and Daniele are actually walking Amigo on a fucking prong collar.

Yes, you read that right - that fine skinned, long, skinny necked sighthound, who is known to lunge into his collar, who was walked on a hound collar and harness for saftey - is wearing a prong collar.

Fabtastic marvelous splendid job there Cesar - how long before these people rehome Amigo because hes become worse on the prong collar or redirected onto them? Who knows.

In the end shots I think I can see some sore spots on the underside of Amigos neck, but they could just as easily be spots on his coat, I really don't know but I did notice them.

All in all, another sucky show - I wish Sevillio had won, he was kind and calm.

Leader of the Pack Episode Review - Turbo

I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have left last weeks episode so late, it's meant this weeks has come around too quickly!

Anyway, here we are again back in sunny Spain and this time it is Turbo's turn for.. well, we all know.

Turbo is an italian rescue (I think, they weren't so clear on this). He is a black GSD mix, though advertised as a GSD, I suspect some collie and retriever blood too, more collie I'd say.

Turbo was rescued from a bad home where he was kept chained up.... and moved to a rescue where he was kept caged up. We are not told how long it is since he was rescued from his chain, but he now has 'cage aggression'.

We see a fairly long shot of Turbo fence fighting with a bull x type dog at the rescue - it appears to be mainly frustration and excitement and a total lack of self control to me, but he is snapping at the cage bars a bit.

We finally get a vaguely useful screen caption: " Don't approach dogs that are chained, tied or behind fences".

We see Cesar get Turbo out of the car with the rescues representative - he appears very unfamiliar with walking on a leash, particularly a thin slip high up his neck.

Cesars Evaluation:  Turbo is introduced, through a fence (he is in a small pen) to a dog Cesar says is a 'soft energy' dog - removing the woo-woo from this, what he brings out is a black galgo/greyhound type who appears a bit nervous and not particularly interested in approaching the front of the pen where Turbo is pacing about.

The black galgo tries to reverse away and looks more scared the nearer Cesar forces him to get - they swap him for a different dog, this time a Spitz type bitch who is I think called Leeda (thats how it sounds anyway).

She's a lot more confident, first thing she does once off the leash is pee some distance from the pen where  Turbo can see her, then she approaches the pen and sniffs the ground in front of it a lot. Turbo wee's up the side of the pen and calms down quite a lot, presumably having sussed that this is a confident bitch.

Cesar takes Leeda into the pen... at least thats what we are supposed to think but... he does a lot of TSST and leaning over and blocking, jabbing Turbo in the flank and pushing his forearms over Turbos head and neck in a similar way to the way dogs will put their heads over other dogs sometimes.

At this point it actually looks as though Leeda ISN'T in the pen with Turbo and I suspect that this was cut and edited - he has her on a slip lead as he enters but then hes holding her the other side of the gate. I think he drops her lead when he needs to use both hands to dominate Turbo and intimidate him and its quite a long scene where there is no sign of Leeda in the pen... then it cuts and then you see Leeda in the pen. Who knows what happened here really!

Turbo definitely reacts to the TSST and various jabs to the neck and flank as if conditioned anyway.

He takes both dogs and puts a backpack on Turbo. He does at this point state that a dog like Turbo does need a job to do, apparently carrying weight is a job (if its not clear here, I do agree dogs need a job and physical exercise, but actually mental exercise is much more beneficial and useful, Cesar really doesn't recognise mental exercise.)

We see Turbo and Leeda walk, Turbo is very unbalanced when he walks, unfamiliar and wary of the leash. The backpack is unbalanced and this looks quite uncomfortable for Turbo in addition to all the other stress going on.

So far, throughout we have seen Turbo panting a lot, ears back, a lot of very edgy, stressy sort of behaviour.

Meet the Contenders... 

Dal Col family - Mum, Dad, Teenage Son, Teenage daughter Silvia and their two mid sized black retriever/lab/crossbreedy job bitches. It seems the family have come to support Silvia who is the dog trainer , they don't have much involvement otherwise.

Andrea and Rogero - students who are best friends and already have a dog together (really? can't we just say 'we are a couple' mm.) and want another one. They are I think 19 and have lived together 2 years and are at university.

Luca - single man in his 50s. Fab eyebrows.

I give you a prize if you figure out who wins from this brief introduction of the competing potential homes (and if you go back you'll see theres definitely a pattern!)

First Challenge - meet Turbo.

Luca goes first, he has to get Turbos trust and take him into Cesars pack (!! really... ok then..)

Turbo is lying down, open mouth, ears all flicky and LOTS of lip licking when Luca enters. Cesar asks him to evaluate Turbos body language and Luca says that his tail is not angry. Ok then (fair enough, it isn't. Turbo seems to be sat on his tail at this point though.)

Turbo rapidly decides Luca is safe to approach and does so, soliciting attention and physical contact, which he gets.

Cesar tells Luca off when he allows Turbo to jump up (I say 'jump', it wasn't a jump it was much more of a creep/sneak/snuggle than a jump!), NOT because dogs jumping up is rude and bad manners, no - because you should not give away affection for free, being invited into your personal space is a gift you give to the dog and you shouldn't give it immediately. Ie, don't be a cheap slut. Mmm.

The fact that Turbo got affectionate and comfortable with Luca immediately means that Turbo feels he is in charge. Ok then.


Next we see Turbo on a slip lead in front of a small pen (the swimming pool pen, there is a two-dog-wide track around a smallish concrete dog paddling pool, so theres not much space here at all) which contains some of Cesars pack - including Junior, two greyhound/galgo types and a small wirey terrier job.

Turbo is quite agitated, and we see him clearly solicit some reassurance and comfort from Luca - Cesar immediately disallows this and takes Turbo from Luca and gives him some corrections with the leash, his hands and his TSST sound.

Again, its damn obvious here this is not the first time that Turbo has been in such a situation, I would say he has met and been presented with the pack and TSST'ed, jabbed etc on many occasions previously.

Turbo is basically shoved in through the door in front of Luca and Cesar, and the pack proceed to mug him, chasing him round the pool.

At this point Cesar chuffles on about how Turbo SHOULD stand still and submit and allow the pack to sniff him and the fact he keeps moving is wrong.

Something kicks off between Turbo and Junior, I think Turbo was cornered and lashed out - Cesar shouts HEY and TSST at them and whatever it was it all stops.

Cesar lets them all out into the big paddock and things are much better here with some space, Turbo looks a lot happier.


Next we meet the Dal Col family, mainly Silvia. It is unfortunate that Silvia comes across more confident and older  than she really is, she is 15 I think - her spoken English is also not brilliant which doesn't help and she comes over a bit 'stiff'. I make this point because I think how Cesar treats her is fucking unforgivable. The cunt. No I won't apologise for that.

The clip of the family at home reveals that Silvia is a clicker trainer - the screen caption has to put clicker in inverted commas... ' Silvia uses a 'clicker' to train her dogs' and then ' 'Clicker Training' is a method that uses a noisemaker and a reward to reinforce behaviour'...

I thought perhaps I was being a bit picky here but .. no.

So we go back to Cesars big paddock and meet Silvia and Cesar asks her about clicker training, in the same way you might say to someone 'So, you wear an octopus on your head and dance nearly naked, with just a thong crafted from bacon, whilst singing show tunes, and then you dine on the flesh of freshly slaughtered Unicorn. Ok then. *backing away slowly*.

It is quite clear as Silvia demonstrates clicker training that Cesar is unimpressed, which is shitty to do to a kid.

She is now meant to take her two bitches in to meet Turbo - she very sensibly aproaches the pen slowly and allows her girls to take their time. They are not massively bothered by Turbo, though I think they are also hot and knackered.

Cesar helpfully tells us that our dogs will tell us about the energy and temperament of other dogs - which can be true, but he completely omits anything about how not all dogs are an accurate judge of others, our dogs may be telling us more about how THEY are feeling, etc etc.

Silvia attempts to take her girls in but Cesar suddenly decides shes doing it wrong - I cannot see what his problem was here at all personally, I thought Silvia was doing fine. He goes in first and does a lot of TSST and neck jabbing so that Turbo will back up and let him in. Turbo is now ears back and stressy panting.

Cesar tells us that we must claim space and dominate Turbo to demonstrate that we love him.


When he then lets Silvia take her girls in, all the dogs ignore one another, probably because its a small space, they are hot and Turbo is worried about moving in case he gets TSSTED and prodded again.

Cesar tells Silvia she can let them all out and she does so, her girls come running out...... and Turbo is terrified to cross the gateway, even with no one stood there, as a direct result of Cesars bullying in my opinion. He hovers at the gate way, wanting to come out, pacing, before finally making a break for it.

He plays with the girls a bit, rather rough jumpy games but the longer coated girl can handle him.

Finally, it is Rogero and Andreas turn, with their black lab boy, Black.

They introduce Black through the fence and Turbo and Black go nuts at one another, snarling, snapping, at one point Turbo is biting at the fence trying to get to him.

Cesar takes Blacks leash, turns it into a slip leash high up Blacks neck and starts correcting him - at one point one of the boys tries to reassure Black that it is ok and Cesar tells him off for it, this is shortly after Cesar gives Black a correction that makes him make a choking sound! They should not give him affection, it is nurturing his behaviour.

I think that what we don't see, is the boys telling Cesar that Black does have some dog to dog issues, it is mentioned but only briefly and I think it is more serious than anyone actually says on the show.

When one boy takes Black into the run with Turbo, Turbo just avoids - the boy keeps Black slightly behind him on a short leash. The second boy goes in with Black though and he allows him to pull in front and go nose to nose with Turbo, which Cesar is far too slow to stop and so one or other of them snaps and I think Black gets his front legs bitten, there is certainly a yelp as if he has been bitten.

Cesar immediately takes over and walks Turbo down, staring at him menacingly, standing over him, pushing him into the far corner with Black on a short leash behind him - Cesar tells us he is 'erasing the memory of what happened before'... WOW what a skill! A superpower almost!

He makes whichever of the two boys who messed up first time repeat this with Black and that ends the challenge. There is no off lead in the big pen with Black and Turbo.

Somewhat predictably, Rogero and Andreas are out.

Final Challenge:

Luca and Cesar take Turbo and Junior out hiking, both dogs wearing backpacks. This isn't really much of a challenge to be honest. Cesar demonstrates how to use a long line correctly, in response to Luca asking if Turbo can go off leash yet.

Cesar's opinion is that Luca is too soft and doesn't have great leadership skills really, but the dog does clearly like Luca.

There is some waffle about why making them wear backpacks is good, both Luca and Junior look knackered in the boiling sunshine.

At one point, Cesar ties Turbo by a thin slip leash, to Junior, which neither dog looks over the moon about, and suggests this is a good way to teach dogs to walk off leash, using a dog who already knows a recall. It is a method I have seen - traditionally hounds are coupled young hound to old hand, but they use collars with swivel chain fitments, not a thin slip leash.

Next is Silvia.

She explains the clicker training nicely, her challenge appears to be to demonstrate this to Cesar and this is where I think he was really unfair.

He asks her to demonstrate some agility off leash in the huge paddock - bear in mind the people only get a couple of days here and it is VERY hot, her dogs are middle aged and black. She is visibly nervous and of course, when she lets her agility dog off leash, her dog doesn't want to play. She can clearly sense that her mum is uptight and nervous, shes in an unfamiliar environment and shes far too hot, so she heads for some shade and ignores Silvias cues.

In my opinion, Cesar set Silvia up for failure here in a MASSIVE way. He leaves her calling her dog for ages, watching her get wound up and stressed (bear in mind, this is a kid!) - a fair person would have amended the task slightly but in my opinion, Cesar wanted to show up positive training and make out that its not effective.

There was some mention of staying calm, but absolutely NO mention of making sure that what you are asking is fair from the dogs point of view. She does get her dog to jump over a jump in the end, but it is very clear that this dog is hot and tired and worried.

Cesar also asks to see Silvias family handling the dogs - this again is unfair, it is Silvia who wants the dog and her existing two dogs are clearly well trained, well mannered and well looked after. Her family obviously support her in what shes doing, so the fact that all three of them are a bit rubbish at handling the dogs is not particularly relevant - they clearly DO listen to Silvia on how to do things, they just don't practice it often as they are Silvias dogs.

In the end, Luca wins. Luca seems like a nice guy, and in the 3 weeks later shot, Turbo is getting lots of affection (er possibly too much but he seems to be tolerating having his face hugged a lot quite well), lots of off lead exercise - there isn't a slip leash or a TSST or a jab in sight and he does look like a happy dog.



It has become pretty clear to me that you can pick out who will win each episode just by figuring out what Cesars prejudices are.

This episode, there was no way the two boys would win. This is not the normal set up, this is not the 'ideal family' in Cesars mind thus, they won't win.

Now, I don't disagree that they were not suitable to own Turbo - very clearly Black and Turbo would have fought, but I am positive that Cesar knew that before they started filming.

Silvia was never going to win as a positive trainer, and also as a girl who knew more than anyone else in the family and was the 'leader' of her family...

In previous episodes he has gone off people because their family unit doesn't fit his ideal, because the woman has been the bossy one...

His reasons for Silvia not winning this episode were that Turbo being added to the existing 'pack' would upset the dynamic... but these two bitches handled Turbo fine and he was much calmer with them than anyone else. Cesar also talked a lot about how Turbo needed other dogs to teach him boundaries and how to be a dog. He has rehomed dogs to homes with other dogs - Jet in the first episode went to live with four or five other dogs - would that not upset the group dynamic??

Maybe it is me being super picky, but I have correctly identified the winner before the end of the first challenge in every episode so far!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Fear - how to safely and kindly, fix fear problems!

So, the last few reviews of Cesar Milan's Leader of the Pack have involved fearful dogs, and some dangerous techniques coupled with misleading and false snippets of advice, either in the voice over or screen captions.

I'll take a look at some of those statements and go through why those are wrong and what you should really do.

"Never praise or reward a dog who is behaving fearfully, nervously or is displaying anxiety".

The idea behind this statement, is that you could then reward the dog for this behaviour, which would increase the frequency of the behaviour.

But, fear is an emotion - you can't increase the frequency of displays of fearful behaviour, by giving positive reinforcements, because those behaviours are caused by the underlying emotion. That isn't how it works.

You COULD reinforce fear by adding more scary things - if a dog is frightened of a person and then that person shouts or hits or kicks the dog - that would increase the dogs fear of people.

That is pretty obvious - but this ones less so. If your dog is really scared, and then YOU behave all anxious and tense and edgy you transmit that in your body language and in your voice, then even if your words are 'there there its ok doggy' you could still be reinforcing the fear, because you are adding MORE fear.

Your dog sees you as a secure person to be around, they take some confidence from you, so in the above example, if YOU are acting fearfully, the dog will find that upsetting and this will increase his own anxiety.

It isn't because you attempt to comfort him though, it wouldn't matter what you said or even if you said nothing - its your body language and behaviour he is picking up on.

There are of course times when you would not want to approach a dog to give them a reward or physically touch them to praise them - thats when YOU are the object of their fear. In a situation like that, regardless of your intentions, approaching a fearful dog is dangerous and liable to get you bitten - even if the dog doesn't bite you, you have probably increased his fear, not decreased it by pushing him too far.

"Cesar deliberately confront's [the dogs] fears to build trust"

This is not just wrong, this is dangerous. The idea is to carry on doing something the dog finds frightening until the dog realises it is wrong, and the situation is actually not frightening.

That isn't what actually happens though - what happens is, IF the person involved does not get seriously bitten, the dog realises there is no point objecting or trying to get away, so he shuts down. He exhibits a state called 'learned helplessness' which is when an animal has learned that nothing they can do will stop the scary thing happening, so they stop trying.

It does not mean they are no longer frightened, and it does not mean they are relaxed or happy with what is going on - they have just stopped trying to stop it or avoid it.

When this happens with dogs, they effectively learn to fear the person who did this, more than whatever it was they were initially scared of. When  you then get a new person to introduce the scary thing, they are likely to react and most likely to react much more violently than before.

In dog terms, the most common example is that a parent or some adult, causes a dog to shut down over some issue, lets say its being brushed.

They then believe because the dog is now not objecting, that the dog is ok to be brushed, and they won't find out differently until someone new tries it. So when their 5 year old picks up the brush one day, the dog errupts, he has NOT learned to fear the CHILD more than the brush, so he reacts and the end result is highly likely to be a badly bitten and frightened child and a euthanised dog.


It IS true that to desensitize a dog to something they are scared of, they will HAVE to be exposed to that thing, but HOW we go about that is very different from the way Cesar suggests.

"Exposing a dog repeatedly to the object he fears can teach him that there is no threat"

As above, this depends on HOW you go about that exposure. Cesar uses flooding, which is continued, confrontational and deeply stressful exposure that results in the dog shutting down. The dog doesn't learn that the object is not a threat, he learns that the person is a bigger threat!

So how do we deal with fear then?

The trick to dealing with fear is understanding stress, and 'safe thresholds'.

Stress is quick to build up, and slow to dissipate - so don't expect to be able to build steady progress day by day. Instead aim for a two steps forwards, one step back approach where you are continually assessing the stress involved and backing off the pressure to let your dog truly relax and unwind.

Your dogs safe threshold is the distance at which he can see something he recognises as scary, but doesn't feel the need to react yet.

These thresholds change as you progress, but to begin with you want the dog to feel as safe as possible.

Lets say your dog is terrified of horses. If he is 10 ft from a horse he barks and lunges and if you try to pull him back on the leash he turns and bites the leash and your leg. He doesn't listen to you and you could wave a roast chicken under his nose, he wouldn't notice.

That is because at 10ft, this dog is massively over threshold, he cannot cope at this distance, he is so far gone it isn't that he doesn't want to listen to you, its that he physically CANNOT listen to you. Nor can he perceive that roast chicken as a reward.

At 30ft away your dog stares at the horse, he doesn't bark or lunge but he still can't listen to you. You can pull him back on the leash and he won't turn and bite it or bite your leg, but he is still ignoring the roast chicken.
At this point, he is still over threshold but not to the point where it is causing a severe reaction. This distance is too close for you to teach him anything good though.

At 45ft away, your dog can see the horse, but he can listen to you a little. He is flicking his attention between you and the horse and he can take a small piece of chicken and eat it. He isn't capable of complying with cues such as sit or down, but if you say his name he will look at you briefly.
This distance is the very edge of his safe threshold, he isn't ready to work at this distance just yet but he might be soon.

At 55ft away, he can still see the horse, but now he can listen to you if you ask him to sit, he is very keen on the chicken and his attention is much more on you and the reward, with occasional glances in the direction of the horse that tell you he is aware of its presence, but he is not too bothered as long as it gets no nearer.

THIS is the distance where you would start to desensitize and counter condition - THIS is the level of exposure that is safe and you can work with.

So you ensure that you never get nearer than this during this stage of training.
You make sure that the horse isn't going to get any nearer (control of the environment - if you don't have it, just avoid the situation, turn around and walk away!).

Now you can mark and reward his looks at the horse, that's all you need do. Horse = pieces of yummy chicken.

What you are looking for now is, over a number of sessions (and not every day please, let those stress levels drop between sessions), his attitude changes, his body relaxes, he can give you his attention for longer periods of time. When he initially sees the horse he should look happier, ask you where the yummies are etc.

When you reliably have that result, ideally in a number of locations, over the course of a few weeks, THEN you can consider reducing the distance slightly.

If you find you get a reaction, or he is obviously uncomfortable, increase the distance  - it is key here that you work at the DOGS pace, not any pace you decided you should achieve this at. HE decides when he is comfortable with this scary thing, not you.

By working like this, you can eventually change the dogs emotional reaction to the sight of something he previously considered scary. It works because you classically condition him to associate the sight of something, with a tasty reward (you could also use high value toys here if your dog likes those better).

Depending on the trigger, you may have to work through several other stages - for example, horses move - he could be ok with a horse stood still, or a horse in a stable, but still find a horse moving or a horse being ridden a scary thing. So desensitize those things in the same way.

If your dog is fearful of being brushed, you might start out with rewarding him for seeing a brush on the floor on the other side of the room, and gradually work your way up via brush in your hand, brush touching his chest, right the way to brush touching the most sensitive part of his body.



No part of behaviour modification or training should involve a dog being scared or being bullied into using his teeth to protect himself. A good behaviourist or trainer can read a dogs behaviour and has absolutely NO need to push them any further.

I can see that a dog is food aggressive within 10 seconds of that dog being given a bowl of food - why would I need to push that dog into actually biting, what more would I learn??