“I want you to experience me from a cell point-of-view,” says Cesar Millan, holding his arms out and rubbing his forearm up and down to indicate his molecules.
What I feel is that he’s a terrier without a leash. A compact man, fit and muscular, he has salt-and-pepper hair, intense brown eyes and a mien that suggests a wagging tail. Nothing is holding back his enthusiasm.
The famous dog behaviourist is running headlong with his popularity, happily greeting his critics, some of whom have called his training techniques abusive. Mr. Millan’s approach is to help owners establish their role as “calm-assertive” pack leaders, whom dogs will easily follow. But that “alpha” leadership can necessitate using a choke chain and other restraining techniques if a dog is overly aggressive. “You do something great on the planet and somebody’s going to say, ‘He’s not so great because I’m not him right now.’ ” Mr. Millan shrugs and produces a small laugh. “But you know, you just have to love people. You love people unconditionally. That’s the beautiful thing to learn from a dog.”
No bark, no bite. He wants to invite his critics into his territory so different techniques, such as positive reinforcement, can be shared. “I think the dog people should get together and agree to disagree.” He smiles broadly. Everything about him is learned from well-behaved dogs, he suggests. “A dog is not an intellectual species or a rational intelligence,” he says. “He’s an instinctual intelligence. So I always say I’m a big student of dogs … I’m an instinctual human being.”
That instinct has brought his considerable success since he crossed the U.S. border illegally from Mexico with no money 20 years ago at the age of 21. Starting out by walking, grooming and training dogs – and driving limousines to make extra money – he became friends with Jada Pinkett Smith, who helped him by paying for an English tutor for a year. Later, he founded the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles and went on to help many celebrities with their dogs, including Oprah Winfrey, Nicolas Cage, Vin Diesel and Scarlett Johansson.
His TV show, Dog Whisperer, now airs in 105 countries and made its sixth-season debut on National Geographic Channel on Sunday. He writes books. His fifth, Cesar’s Rules, will hit bookstores soon. He is working with Yale University to develop a curriculum for school children that focuses on compassion, emotional intelligence and social skills “so kids will grow up and become pack leaders in the animal world as well as the human world.” At the end of October, he brings his show, Cesar Millan Live, to Canada for the first time, after successful tours across the United States, Australia and England.
He may be showing people how to handle their dogs, but his interest is not so much what humans can teach canines, but the reverse. He believes that dogs are guides to emotional balance, love, effective prayer and good parenting. Oh, and a better economy as well as global harmony.
His devotion to his message about the wisdom of dogs contributed to his estrangement from his wife of 16 years, Ilusion, the mother of his two boys, aged 16 and 11. He announced their decision to divorce at the start of the summer.
“You put a lot of effort in the outside world and you want to help other people. That could be one of the reasons. I’m not going to say that’s the reason [for the divorce]. But that’s the sacrifice. I hope my kids understand one day, the effort I put into changing the lifestyle of human beings with dogs was for world peace.”
World peace through dogs?
