A Cesar Millan Seminar - My Thoughts
We had the opportunity to go to a Cesar Millan seminar this past weekend. I thought I would write about it since we could not find any information about what they are like before we attended.
A little background on Cesar Millan if you don’t know anything about him. He has a show on the National Geographic Channel called The Dog Whisperer. The show focuses on people with dogs that have all kinds of issues. These are not sit, stay, lay down issues…these are …dog aggressiveness..people aggressivness…dogs that are afraid of shiny floors..you name it. The show follows Cesar as he helps “rehabilitate” the dogs and “train” people as he says. He just came out with a book called Cesar’s Way. You read what others think about Cesar’s Book. Buy Cesar Millan’s Book or Read Reviews from Others.
On to the seminar! It was at a high school theater that held about 650 people. Every last seat was taken. It started about 10:30 in the morning. It ended at about 3:15 pm. It was broken into two parts. One morning session, a break for lunch, followed by an afternoon session. We enjoy watching the show and we have bought his book as well.There was a short Q&A session at the end of the seminar. This consisted of questions that audience members wrote down during the lunch break.
There are no dogs allowed at the seminar and he does not have dogs on stage during the seminar. It consists of him talking along with slides and video clips from his show. We had seen many of the clips that are presented during the seminar as we watch him pretty regularly on T.V.The best part about watching him live is that he is an incredibly funny guy. You see glimpses of this on T.V, but it really comes out on stage. You could mistake quite a bit of the seminar for a comedy show if you didn’t know who he was. He has some uncanny ability to act like a dog.
He also makes fun of some common issues that many dog owners find themselves in. For example, owners who can’t say the word “walk” in their house for fear of the frenzy their dog will go into. He then goes through all the rituals dog owners have developed to combat this issue.Most of the seminar is devoted to high level concepts. If you have read his book, you will be familiar with all of these themes. Calm assertive energy, being the pack leader, pack dynamics, redirecting of energy. He also focuses on the energy level of dogs and the four types of reactions that dogs have. Another key point that he stresses is making sure you are treating a dog as a dog and not as a human. Cesar has two themes that he drives home regularly during the seminar as well as on his show. Dogs need rules, bounderies and limitations. Dogs need exercise, dicipline and affection in that order.
If you are looking for some great insights that are not covered in his book, you may not find it in the seminar. Also, while he does use video clips to cover certain situations, he does not focus on specific situations. By this I mean, he does not do step by step solutions for any given issue. What he does do is dig a little deeper into the concepts he has already covered.
At our seminar, his wife, Illusion, was there and was the “director” of the seminar. She sometimes prodded Cesar to keep moving through the material to keep things running on time. She was also out front during the intermission helping with consessions. She also came on stage on several occasions.
At the end of our seminar, some members were selected to meet him personally by random drawing. Since we were not that lucky, I can’t tell you what that part was like. He does sell signed books, cds, dvds, and t shirts before and after the seminar. It is my understanding that those that host the seminar have some control over the format. For example, taking a lunch break or no lunch break. Giving the opportunity for some to meet after the seminar or not.
To wrap this up, we really enjoyed it. It was fun to see him in person as you get the sense he is just like he seems on T.V. He will have you laughing as he goes through it. If you have not read his book, then you will get a good grasp of his ideas and philosophy. I should also point out that some people are critical of his techniques. Some are very critical. I suppose this can happen with just about anything in the dog world. Just take the “raw food diet” as an example. You are free to form your own opinon and the point of this post is not to convince you one way or another. It’s just a run down of my experience.