Book Summaries
Bestselling author Cesar Millan takes his principles of dog psychology a step further, showing you how to develop the calm-assertive energy of a successful pack leader and use it to improve your dog’s life–and your own.
Filled with practical tips and techniques as well as real-life success stories from his clients (including the Grogan family, owners of Marley from Marley & Me) and his popular television show Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan, Cesar helps you understand and read your dog’s energy as well as your own so that you can move beyond just correcting behavioral issues and take your connection with your dog to the next level.
The principles of calm-assertive energy will help you become a better pack leader in every area of your life, improving your relationships with friends, family, and coworkers.
In addition, Cesar addresses several important issues for the first time, including what you need to know about the major dog behavior tools available and the difference between “personality” and “instability.” Ultimately, what emerges from Be the Pack Leader are both happier dogs and happier, more centered owners.
The most helpful favorable review
Another success for Cesar and more wisdom for the rest of us.
Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier have done it again. In Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog...and Your Life, the dog whisperer and the writer have put their talents together once more to provide dog lovers and owners with a valuable resource. This resource helps us build and maintain a harmonious relationship with a balanced animal and, perhaps, even with each other. In that vein, Cesar speaks to four aspects of human nature that need to be in balance: intellect, emotion, spirituality, and instinct, and how we have lost touch with number four. Developing a balanced relationship with our dog(s) helps us to regain the instinctual side of ourselves buried so deeply within.
In his acknowledgements, Cesar also speaks to the ability of women to impart a calm-assertive influence on the world's inhabitants. That was nice to read. In his introduction, Cesar states that he has continued to learn from dogs and people and has taken to heart the criticisms of his first book. As a result, this book includes easily remembered practical tips for working with dogs and a step-by-step reference (at the end) for specific situations, in addition to more of Cesar's innate wisdom when it comes to dogs and their behavior. (I especially liked the Rudyard Kipling quote near the beginning of the book. Be sure to read it.)
Part I deals with balancing our dogs and Part II deals with balancing ourselves. Cesar presents case studies of the relationship between various dogs and their humans, including that of the Grogan family (bestseller: Marley and Me). Then there's the Tycoon and his seriously out-of-balance dogs, Willy and Kid; and Bob Kettle, a pro who helps domesticated dogs get back in touch with their natural instincts when it comes to snakes...in other words, to stay away from them; and the book's author, Melissa Jo Peltier, makes an appearance as an example of how one's nervous energy can set dogs into a frenzy. As a skilled writer, she was able to describe, in her own words, how she experienced the situation in which she found herself.
There is much to be learned from Cesar's books and his television show, The Dog Whisperer. Those who have been lucky enough to see him in person have an additional dimension in which to experience and appreciate his talents. In the two years I've known of him, several friends and family members have put his methods to work with great success. He has become one of my heroes.
The most helpful critical review
More nonsense from a groomer and the writer for The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence
As a professional trainer and one who works with behavior problems day in and day out, I come across a number of clients who are fans of the book and show. Not one of them has been able to create positive change in their dogs' behavior.
Look to books by Patricia McConnell, Nicole Wilde and Jean Donaldson (to name a few) for proven information about dog behavior.
It might make for good tv, but it is unnecessary to frighten and force a dog to get results...yes, even with aggressive dogs.
