BS: The Dog Whisperer

Subject: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 06:36 PM

More like, The Dog Translator.

Seen it?

CESAR MILLAN

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 06:42 PM

He's been around and we've discussed him for here on Mudcat a number of years. I don't have cable now, but I taped quite a few of his programs when I did. He's very good, and teaches people how to understand and be in charge of their dogs. More people need to watch him. Not all agree with him, that is to be expected, but I think he's great.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Bee
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 10:20 PM

Interesting dog trainer, gives lots of good advice from what I've seen. I, amateur that I am, don't always agree with good advice, and despite not crating my dog or doing a lot of other 'obedience training' type stuff, ended up, mostly by luck no doubt, with a wonderful obedient friendly harmless dog who was welcomed everywhere she went.

And here's a good place to say: tonight I got a call from a friend who is looking for a home for a two year old male Sheltie, friendly despite hard start, weighs fifteen pounds. Anyone interested that I can check up on, meaning Mudcatters, I guess, in a dog presently in Nova Scotia, let me know - tomorrow I start calling my network of friends to help find a good place for this pup.

Here's the sob story: Dog was given as a puppy to an elderly lady. She couldn't look after it. Son took it in, but kept it in an outdoor doghouse and kennel, or tied in the yard. Not well cared for at all. Now, my Nova Scotia friend and his brother, visiting from Alabama, had business at the house, saw the dog and heard the story. Both were distressed. Brother went back to Alabama, called a few nights later; couldn't sleep for worrying about the dog. Directed brother to get the dog and is sending money to have it vetted - he's got a vet app. tomorrow.

So now my friend, who already has two rescued dogs and a labour intensive business to run, has spent the past twenty-four hours bathing, de-matting and brushing, and starting house training. I can't take a dog at the moment, so I promised networking for a home and offered respite dog-sittin'!

Sorry to hi-jack your thread, Susan, but I figured you being a doggie lover would understand.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 11:11 PM

Fine with me.

SRS, links to previous threads?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 11:29 PM

The discussions are scattered around in other dog threads, not specifically named for Millan. When we spoke about dangerous breeds, etc. I found the first thread where I talked about my dogs in 2005. :) Laurel (open mike) brought up the Dog Whisperer in a puppy thread.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 06:17 AM

We have watched and used a number of Cesars ideas in training our pup,Lottie (now almost 9 months). A lot of it makes sense but maybe Lottie should watch it too 'cos she doesn't always do what the dogs on the telly do! That said the dog is very aware that she comes after all the people in the pecking order and is becoming a lovely family pet. Just wish we could stop her being so enthusiastic when greeting anyone who looks friendly!

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 10:54 AM

I'm a dog shouter. I have gotten the shout down to a mere ehh to get the dogs attention but it has taken 2 years. I have conscienciously used 2 of Ceasar's bits of advice combined with athe facts from a National Geographic special on the 4 types of dog behavior,

We have the walking down but no fancy tricks to speak of.

Walking the dog

Everyday or night, rain or shine, freeze or bake, I walk the dog down to the trail that winds along Rock Creek. We start at the front door where the dog customarily celebrates by barking and taking the leash in its mouth until we hit the sidewalk when instantly the discipline of walking in polite tandem begins.
We pass by the rambler house of the divorcee who still shows signs of post traumatic stress of an abusive husband and cross the street to old Bill Sutherland's house. He volunteers all of his time to advance every cause of the GOP. If.. it takes a small man to carry a big grudge, he is your man. Next door is the family with kids the same age as ours but must have heard a rumor that our family has leprosy and that I was a retired hitman, so there are no hellos, just a scramble to get out of view. Maybe they have an illegal income. Now past the mysterious Russian's house. Beyond him is the black family who may smile but never make diversity a verb and keep to themselves.

We turn right and pass two more houses. Bob the engineer who might never sell his house and take their RV cross country since deregulation stole the economy. Opposite Bob's house is Madeline and her partner who have the most happy yard right next to the park. She has kayaks on a rack, benches, hanging gardens from a second story porch, enormous decorative boulders, deer feeding stations with flowers and everything else that smiles like a heart warming Norman Rockwell painting.
At the dead end of Oriental Street we pass through the guard rails and descend the path beside a storm sewer stream that emerges from a six foot high tunnel with an iron grate that swings from the top when the roaring water gushes out.

The forest is different from one day to the next. Sometimes four foot tall buzzards might be perched on nearby roofs and always the deer sharing every detail of their family while trying not to be too fearful of the dog.

The trail serpentines around Oak and Sycamore. The aroma in spring is like breathing candy air but usually the scent of methane wafts from the human sewer built 14 feet beneath the park's asphalt path. In winter the gas is so strong I have worried about any open flame.

A Rubik's cube is said to have 42 quadrillion different possible faces. The dog walk has many more. In the spring the tiny frogs start peeping when it gets above 60 degrees at 5 PM. As it gets warmer the chorus grows louder and more intense as mating day arrives. On that glorious day they sing in major thirds and build to augmented fourths that sounds like their version of Beethoven's ninth. I sometimes imagine what this place looked like 530 million years ago and of the asteroid that hit Chesapeake bay leaving all the great white boulders of shocked quartz today. What did it sound like, how did it smell? What creatures hunted this land? What would they think of me?

There is the screech owl at the edge of night in autumn and the black snake sunning in summer, the beaver busiest in spring and the fox passing through in winter. Every walk of course includes the dog sniffing historic canine urination, carrion and poo.

At night in the deep fog we walked down the path with the guidance of my small LED flashlight. The beam slices through the fog to reveal a black dog leash that disappears somewhere near an invisible black dog. Then a burst of green lighted dog eyes in the mist warn me that I am almost falling off the path. The dog can see 100 times better in the dark than I, and I have pretty good night vision.

By day I sometimes close my eyes as the sun's staccato bursts of brilliance syncopates the rhythm of the tallest leaves of trees. We even heard a baby cry in the woods only to discovery a fawn had just been born. Last week a runner was about ten paces in front of a blind bicyclist who smiled as he peddled along the path 10 feet above the drop off into the creek.

On weekends the bikes, dog walkers and stroller pushers could justify good business for a hot dog stand but most of the time there are but one or two encounters with other humans.
Those encounters are pleasant with the very old or very young but otherwise can be a territorial dispute with 30 year old males. Many people have earphones on, as do I when I am listening to interesting stories on NPR. Science afriday is the best.

Allen walks his elderly Labrador and makes mention of anything that smacks of godless liberalism.   He even criticized my listening to BBC until I reminded him they were part of the mother of all coalitions of pre emptive Bush wars. He said I sounded like a "LIBERAL" I told him "their is o such thing!".

I said, "Perhaps the northern founding fathers were liberals but the coinage of the words Commie, traitor, trouble maker, and now today "Liberal" has been completely forced on people by robber barons, rip off artists and megalomaniacs.

When Mine owners abused miners to death, the workers and wives organized, only to have Bosses hire Pinkerton Guards who shot them dead. Some of those abused miners wore red bandanas and were later called red necks.

When farmers lost farms and prices for their crops they organized and marched on the Capitol steps and were shot dead.

When Martin Luther King...you get the idea.

Whoever is getting the short end of the stick through no cause of their own, except for needing work, they get red baited, gooned, spied on or killed.

What ever we are being called, you can bet the name callers have a financial reason for making us their enemy.

If ya keep half the people distracted at church and the other half bein spit on and lied about, you stand a pretty good chance of exploiting the whole lot.

I don't hold to that kind of bullying, stealing and killing.
It takes more than guns to kill a man, sometimes they try to kill with names."

I tease him unmercifully about his Limbaughism to the point he once slogged through a swamp to avoid passing me walking the dog (do you blame him?). That is about as far as the war penetrates the forest but global warming effects every plant and animal here, moving scheduled hatching and fruiting as much as three weeks ahead or behind.

The dog is wonderfully happy and relieved exploring the path by the creek everyday except for the day it flooded and we walked through 20 inches of water that overflowed as much as 30 yards from the stream. On the way I am gently pulled by the leash and as time goes on, I go slower as the dog goes faster.

Some people have been traveling for hundreds of thousands of miles and have seen many things, while I've just been walking the dog watching the seasons change. The dog walk keeps changing and except for the neighbors and their homes . The path has more faces than a Rubik's cube. I imagine the people have many different faces deep down, but somehow they manage to show only one unchanging face reserved for defending themselves against another person who reaches out expecting nothing in return. The path doesn't worry. The dog walk doesn't care. It is not afraid.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 10:59 AM

The dog did on two occasions decide that the path was not to be taken at night. On those two nights, I followed her lead and turned around.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:10 AM

Thanks for the interesting essay, Donuel.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:11 AM

I want Cesar's skates. I found them online (he gives a link), but they're expensive!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:18 AM

I love how they fly down the street--I think it would be a better approach that riding a bike with a dog on a leash. My two dogs would adore the wind in their ears and to pull me down the street!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: open mike
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:34 AM

thanks for letting us walk along with you donuel..
i enjoyed your descriptive message there.

when my dog was alive, i got more exercize
until the neighbors with their guard dogs
moved in. they do not chain them or fence
them and they intimidate all those who
pass by.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:48 AM

SRS, I also like how the larger wheel looks to be able to handle pebbles, sidewalk cracks, etc., better than the smaller-wheeled inline skates.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 02:00 PM

I have a neighbor who carries a cattle prod on his walks, after a couple of severe dog attacks over the years. "Dogs don't like electricity," he said. I alternate between rocks in my pocket or a stick, if I've seen large strays in the area.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 03:07 PM

Sticks and stones?

Why not try a cannister of cayenne/curry/salt

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 03:09 PM

Then filet and bake at 350 for 1 hour per pound.

dog is one of the sweeter flavored meats and not gamey at all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Bee
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 04:17 PM

SRS, a stick and a pocket full of stones is my choice. If a country junkyard dog is barrelling at me with snout wrinkled (has happened several times over the years), rocks are first defense. I have lousy aim, so the stick is for closer quarters. Usually yelling angrily and brandishing the stick is all that's necessary. Beyond that, things just get unspeakable, so I won't go there in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 09:01 PM

Strangling with the leash works as a last resort.

There were some mangy (literally) dogs out there a few weeks ago. Really really ugly things. Apparently one had been caught and immediately put down, and the tests showed that it wasn't a contagious form. Apparently, though, the pups got it from the bitch. Anyway, Those dogs were timid unless cornered. But I've had others charge me. It's terrifying, the prospect of a dog attack on the end of your leash.

I'd be afraid I'd hit my own dogs with the pepper spray. Or get hit myself by blow-back. The stick is visible and more threatening to a dog approaching us.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 09:46 PM

I prefer Ted Kerasote and Edgar Sawtelle's approach to dogs.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 11:49 PM

Ted's approach works if you have a lot of space and aren't in an urban setting. I let my dogs have a sniffing walk and try not to pull them away from what interests them (until they try to eat it). But his laissez faire approach sounds more do-able for country dogs.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 04:08 PM

We too, live in a town and, without a drive, walking the dog involves going round the block a few times. We now use a gentle leader which we find really good at calming Lottie and she seems happy enough wearing it. Sometimes we pop her in the car and take her to the woods and then we can let her off the lead to sniff and roam only calling her to heel if anyone comes along which is not too often.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 05:39 PM

I have a friend who is a letter carrier. She always has some dry dog food in her pocket to offer to loose dogs.

Once I was walking to church when a large aggressive dog shot out a screen door and across the street right at me. I had no doubt this dog meant to attacj me. When she was about three feet away, I said in the sweetest, most affectionate voice I could, 'Hi, doggie.' (dragging it out in a coo, the way we speaks to upset babies) The dog didn't bite me, simply settled for slamming herself against my legs. Then she shot back home.

I learned later that she had a litter of puppies. I have no idea why she saw me a threat. I had been carrying a bright red bag, and maybe that bag was the problem.

I'm not saying that rocks etc, are wrong. (I have no sympathy for people who let dogs run loose.) It's just that other things might work too.

Subject: RE: BS: The Dog Whisperer
From: Bee
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 06:48 PM

Oh, I always try talking to the dog first, and nineteen times out of twenty, that works. But I've had a several very unpleasant experiences in the past, so I want to be prepared. It's one of the risks of living in the country here, I think - more people let their dogs run loose, and the dogs are less likely to see someone they don't know walking on the road, so when they do, they may become teritorial and/or aggressive.

Other things that sometimes work are ignoring the dog, if it hasn't actually come too close, and looking away from it, and continuing on your way, ideally on the opposite side of the road from the dog's teritory. That way, you aren't challenging the dog. There are a couple 'mean' dogs I've had to walk past regularly on my way to a job I had a couple years ago, and this strategy worked out.