Dangerous dog training

There was an interview with Cesar Millan, the founder of the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles (what a joke), in The New York Times magazine yesterday. It really incensed me as 1) he was introduced as a "dog-behavior expert" and 2) he answered virtually every question with crap about how dogs are pack animals and to train them, you have to be the pack leader. Although I have never seen his TV programs, I had heard scary things about him when I was down in Tylertown. He obviously doesn't know the first thing about dog behavior if he is spouting that ludicrous myth about dogs being pack animals. As I learned by reading the works of Ray Coppinger and other ethologists for my "Cognitive Dog" class at Harvard--although dogs evolved from wolves, they are not wolves and do not exhibit wolf social behavior. Even, today, the dogs of the world who are living with minimal human interaction (and certainly no human interaction during the puppies' critical period of social development) do not form packs.

I was pleased to read today on The Bark Blog that Millan is being sued for his rough treatment of a dog at his training facility. I am sad that the dog was hurt, but maybe this will make public how dangerous Millan's techniques are. According to the post on The Bark Blog, this month's issue of The Bark also has a review of Millan's new book that "dispels the myth that Millan's training techniques are safe or effective." I'm going to buy the issue tomorrow.

Photo: walking Annie (or, at least, her body) on the nature trail in Tylertown.

Update on Monday, May 15, 2006 at 12:34AM by Joyatri

After the post in The Bark Blog mentioned above received a number of mindnumbling stupid comments from people unclear on the concept of a blog, it published a second post offering a rational discussion gainst Millan's dominance theory-based training.