by Tomas Hourican

Created on: January 27, 2009

I can't remember a time in my life when there were not animals around me. We always had cats and dogs and later in life I'd the pleasure of rescuing wild animals and birds and suchlike. As a child people from miles away would bring ravens with broken wings or fox cubs they'd knocked down in their car to my front door. I grew up in a rural location and having no other children to play with spent hours with nobody else's company but my own, and the environment around me. Everything provoked curiosity in me, and nothing more than nature and the other living things running or flying or swimming around. I grew up with what I can only refer to now as an instinct when it came to animals. Neighbours and folk further afield were not unaccustomed to seeing me walking a badger or being followed by a magpie through the fields.

I've always had a way with animals that I believed to be the norm but as I grew up I realised that my attitude was a minority position. I could appreciate the few TV programs that were on in those days that concerned themselves with dog behaviour, most notably an English lady called Barbara Woodhouse who I'm sure is not unknown to Victoria Stilwell. She, I believed, provided the means for people from city's and towns to allow their animals to 'fit in', a far cry from we in the country who 'fitted in' with our animals. So I thought then, and have only changed my attitude slightly, if at all.

Years later satellite TV gave us access to a myriad of different channels and programs devoted to the natural world and every type of pet. This is where I first encountered Cesar Millan and 'his' technique. My partner called me into the living room demanding that I watch and I reluctantly sat down. Before me for the first time ever I saw a well presented representation of the natural interaction and relationship between man and dog. The symbiosis that is inherent in the human canine model is as 'red in tooth and claw' as any other interaction in the wild and this guy Millan knew it too. Though not as many as Cesar, I too have a pack, of some 15 dogs, mostly rescued, who look to me as the alpha and expect at all times that I'll know what to do. On one of his recent programs, Cesar said "I'm the A, they are all B's". Once the pack know that you're the boss and that you take that position responsibly and confidently, then they are happier, healthier and self aware.

Victoria Stilwell is an amazing lady and I respect her tremendously. She too has spent years with animal behaviourists and has a passion for animal welfare which is admirable. In single dog situations and with people who for one reason or another can not project their dominace, then her techniques are invaluable, but in my opinion second to those of Cesar.

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