(yes, i look disgusting, and yes, he's allowed on the couch now, but he sleeps on me like that!! how could i say no??)
Anyways, for those of you who are like I used to be, and don't have a dog, or like dogs but are just not crazy crazy about them, you can skip this... because I'll admit, I've turned into a crazy dog lady.
So my dad got me this book:
And I read it in 2 days. Oh.my.goodness. Talk about an EDUCATION. If there were ever to be Cesar Millan flavored kool-aid, I would be chugging it. I will admit, I ate every syllable of this book right up. And learned so, so much. I know there are professionals out there that don't agree with him, but after reading this, that seems a bit dificil. The bottom line is we all love our dogs, and want them to be happy. And this book helps you to do that.
"Cesar's Way" isn't what you would call a "dog training" book. It doesn't give you any specific steps, per se, but instead focuses on broad concepts and generally changing American dog-owning thought. To me, it was all completely logical, but pretty much the opposite (sorta) of how I and most dog owners view our dogs and the relationship we have with them. It starts out with Cesar Millan's own personal history, which is an absolutely amazing story. (Did you know that one of biggest reasons he became so well known and successful was due to Jada Pinkett Smith?) It then moves on to describe his day to day life as the owner of the Dog Psychology Center in L.A., with tons of anecdotes about the rescued dogs he has rehabilitated. The last half of the book tackles common dog problems (agression, fear, phobias, fixations - i.e. going nuts over squirrels and people on walks) and how they are pretty much human created. Dogs live in the moment, and aren't obsessing/dreaming/flipping out about negative past experiences like humans do. So these problems we attribute to their "personalities" really aren't so. We encourage them, and we can also change them.
Ok, it's really obvious that this book had a huge effect on me. I can't stop talking or thinking about it. And I can attest to the fact that Shamus is literally a different dog on our "cesar calm-assertive" walks now. He walks right next to me, doesn't chase squirrels, leaves, or people.
READ this book! Anyone who has a dog or wants to get a dog, it's a perspective that I don't think many of us have, but should. Es magnifico. $8.99 at Costco.
No comments:
Post a Comment