by Greet Abbink-Burgers

Created on: February 10, 2010   Last Updated: February 12, 2010

Unfortunately I have never seen Victoria Stilwell. I am from the Netherlands and the Dog Whisperer shows were only shown the first season. I had to buy the DVD's to see all three seasons. I think Cesar is a very natural guy in handling dogs. The way he imitates dog behaviour would almost let us think he was a dog in a former life ... When Cesar is handling the worst cases something that I notice directly is his calm assertiveness. While watching the show you just feel the tension in your own body go away, I can not describe it in a better way.

We have a lot of dogs because we have a sheep farm. Most dogs are working dogs, like Border Collies and Shepherds but some small dogs are in the house too. We also own a Chihuahua, a Jack Russell and a mix Pomeranian. So we have dogs in many different sizes, characters and energy levels. I used to walk these dogs one at the time or per 2 or 3, depending on how they would interact with each other. Since I have learned Cesar's Way I can walk up to 8 dogs together. This "pack walk" system that Cesar has is just great! I had seen Cesar walk or Rollerblade with many dogs and I wanted to be able to walk like that too. I needed to get calm assertive because I was often tense assertive. While walking my dogs I think in my mind "walk like Cesar" and then I get much more calmer and it works. I have great pack walks with my dogs now and the dogs all accept each other on the walks, they work with each other instead of against each other! It is a wonderful way to introduce a new member in the pack and to rehabilitate dogs that show aggression or fear.

There are many more things that I have learned from Cesar, so many terms that he uses and that stay in your mind, like "no touch, no talk, no eye contact", "exercise, discipline and then affection, in that order", "nose, eyes, ears", "dogs live in the moment", "stay calm and assertive", "its not the tool you use but the energy behind it", "wearing a dog backpack always calms a dog down, it's like Prozac without the side effects", "If the dog is tired, he won't bite, he won't bark, he won't dig, he won't destroy the house", "rules, boundaries and limitations", "share affection at the right time", etc. etc.

For me Cesar is the best dog person ever, he knows dogs, he feels dogs, he thinks as a dog and he also has a natural way to teach people.

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