Another Defender of Cesar Millan -

This comes from my brother this morning.  I see that I may have given the critic publicity he did not deserve, and,  from now on, I will better scrutinize what I post.

from my brother Gary:

Cath,

I saw your blog postings regarding Cesar Millan and have a couple of comments of my own.  Of the guy who wrote the Op-Ed, whether he is really correct on this issue or not, I don't know.  But it seems to me that he may not even care.  In this day and age of critics being everywhere, you can often times get more publicity by openly lambasting something or someone else, credibly or not. 

We've watched the show several times and being a family of dog-lovers, enjoy it very much.  He's a kind man who clearly loves dogs and for anyone believing in reincarnation, you'd have to assume that this man was a dog in a former life.  But I have not seen him being mean to the dogs in any way or treating them with anything but respect.  But what he does do is demand respect in return and dogs, like children need boundaries and need someone, either a parent or a teacher, to respect.  Children grow up and out of that need and become self-sufficient but dogs never do and the people who have problems with their pets on the shows are the ones who are completely letting their dogs run their own households while also intimidating every other pet and/or child in the neighborhood.  And he comes in and very mildly, by tugging on their leash or making a "shhh" sound with his mouth, and regains control and the dogs seem infinitely happier almost immediately, not to mention how much the safety of the neighborhood has been increased in that he often is dealing with problem dogs like pit bulls.

In any case, I'm a bit prejudiced towards critics and I'm convinced they often have hidden agendas in doing so so openly.  This guy got some great publicity, not only from the NY Times op-ed, but it's also all over the internet now.

Also, I disagree with him completely when he says the "pack" thing is long gone.  We have three dogs and, clearly, they know Tanner is the leader of their pack and all he has to do is show his teeth at either of them and they roll over in immediate submission.  They all treat me with extra respect, as our dogs did with our dad, but they clearly know Tanner's the leader of their pack and they look to him constantly for leadership.

In any case, now I'm guilty of giving this critic too much time too, so, enough of him!  :)

Happy day!

Love, G