by Cj Anderson

Created on: February 09, 2010   Last Updated: February 11, 2010

I am a college teacher for safety and health here in Phoenix, Az which also has the second largest animal control in the US at 57,000 dogs a year.

There is nothing wrong at all with Victoria’s methods, except the humans who will not take the time, energy and patience that it take to work with positive training techniques (and the costs mentioned).

Before I start, the important issue with non-success with Cesar’s way is the issue that Cesar's way involves a new application from many traditions, just as Bruce Lee did. This means one must learn new language and its correct application. For instance, if I use the word bike and you think I mean bicycle when I am talking about motorcycle, you could be hurt using the wrong techniques. This also happens when one misunderstands correct and safe application, in addition to over estimating one’s knowledge and underestimating the (motor) bike (or dog's) condition.

Many also do not understand the difference of training vs behavior modification.

One other element is when people focus on this term ~ “alpha roll” instead of what the action is designed to do, ~ interrupt and distract from level 9-10 aggression energy against a human, animal or condition. So MUCH of this is simply undischarged energy, that when released through productive venues such as walks (including the higher pace achieved by biking, skating or treadmilling) AND dogs with job applications (agility, frisbee, herding, carting…) opens the door for good dog behavior modification to occur at the kind of speeds we see on Cesar’s show.

I only help rescues with problem dog situations of dogs about to be euthanized, short term fostering or multi-state transport. To this point, from my efforts alone, there have been around 45 dogs who now are in forever homes (many of them on my youtube site). I also put together a yahoo email list (currently over 3100 members) that has had over 25,000 other members come in, solve problems and move on from that frequently high volume list and who knows how many others have simply accessed the public archives for further insights and solution applications over the last 6 years the show has been on.

Now, Cesar’s way is moving into rescues where dogs who were abandoned for their problem behaviors, finally have a chance of being correctly rehabilitated for the long term, rather then the ongoing solution chosen of euthanizing.

Further, the more that people use Cesar’s problem dog solutions as you outlined above, the fewer dogs will be, are being abandoned for their problems. I know, because I have helped many owners change their AND their dogs behavior enough to decide to keep their dogs instead.

Again, there is nothing wrong with Victoria’s solutions, I have simply found Cesar’s way to be easier, faster, more long term (and certainly less expensive – g).

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