Cesar recognizes that you have to get the dogs' attention, and I've never seen him be cruel to animals on his program. I haven't watched it for quite a while now, but when my first dog, a pitbull, arrived as a stray, I looked into his training and found that the walk and being in control of the food were what it took to have a well-behaved dog. She loved people and other dogs, was never dangerous, so she didn't fit the scenario he went through with some dogs.