Home > Work > Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
1 " There is no such thing as a problem breed. However, there is no shortage of 'problem owners'.... "
― Cesar Millan , Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
2 " You cannot "love" a dog out of her bad behavior, just as you can't "love" a criminal into stopping his crimes. "
3 " Wolves are disciplined not only when they hunt but also when they travel, when they play, and when they eat. Nature doesn't view discipline as a negative thing. Discipline is DNA. Discipline is survival. "
4 " If you give only 80 percent leadership, your dog will give you 80 percent following. And the other 20 percent of the time he will run the show. If you give your dog any opportunity for him to lead you, he will take it. "
5 " But just because a person goes to Harvard doesn't mean he's balanced when he graduates, and just because a dog knows how to obey doesn't mean he's balanced, either. "
6 " It’s been published elsewhere, and I am not ashamed to say it: I came to the United States illegally. I now have my residence card, have paid a large fine for crossing illegally, and am applying for full citizenship status. There’s no country I’d rather live in than the United States. I truly believe it is the greatest country in the world. I feel blessed to be living and raising my kids here. However, for the poor and working class of Mexico, there is no other way to come to America except illegally. It’s impossible. The Mexican government is about who you know and how much money you have. You have to pay enormous amounts to officials in order to get a legal visa. My family had no way to get their hands on that kind of money. So, with just one hundred dollars in my pocket, I set out for Tijuana to figure out how to get across the border. "
7 " But unlike human children, dogs don’t dream about or obsess over past experiences the way we do. They live in the moment. Kane wasn’t spending his days worrying about shiny floors, and he naturally reacted to protect himself when the original accident happened. But since his owner intensified the traumatic experience with her overly excited, emotional energy, then nurtured that fear by giving him affection every time he got near a shiny floor, Kane now saw shiny floors as a very big deal indeed. Whenever an animal isn’t allowed to move through its fear, that fear can become a phobia. What Kane needed was a calm-assertive pack leader to recondition him and show him that "
8 " When humans adopt dogs and bring them into our lives and homes, most of the time we have the dogs best interests at heart. We try to give them what it is we think they need. The problem is that we are making assumptions based not on what canines need but on what humans need. By humanizing dogs, we damage them psychologically. "
9 " First of all, if your dog is jumping on you, that’s an act of dominance. Don’t allow it. "
10 " Another piece of advice is not to make a big deal out of coming and going. If you share excited energy when you come and go, it only feeds an anxious mind. "
11 " Many owners think they can substitute taking a dog out to play fetch for giving him regular walks. That doesn’t work. Yes, it’s exercise, but not the kind of primal activity that migrating with a pack leader provides. I like to compare it to taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s versus taking them to piano lessons. Chuck E. Cheese’s will have them bouncing off the walls. That’s excitement. Piano lessons will be a psychological challenge. That’s calm submission. Playing catch is excitement; a walk is calm "
12 " Remember, dogs sense when we are happy, and especially when we are happy with them. "
13 " What we’re doing is projecting excited, emotional energy, which is the furthest from calm-assertive energy that we can get. To a dog, emotional energy is weak and often negative energy. So from the get-go, we’re telling the dog that we don’t exactly have it all together. "
14 " It’s a natural thing for a human to feel sympathy for another animal who’s in distress, but dogs don’t need our sympathy. They need our leadership. "
15 " being around animals, I am always reminded that the only real moment in life is now. "
16 " Unlike humans, who have the power (or curse) of denial to keep them in an abusive situation, animals will always move toward balance. Automatically, the brain says, “Hey, finally I get a rest.” They are relieved to be out of that state of constant tension. "
17 " The key, I told Chris, was in correcting Pepper before her mind got caught up in its excited, aggressive state. "
18 " leader is a leader around the clock. No matter how tired you are, no matter whether you want to concentrate on a ball game or your magazine, you still send her the same calm-assertive leadership energy. "
19 " In choosing a dog to share your life, you have an incredible opportunity to form a powerful bond with a member of another species. "
20 " If anyone ever says to you that people in the United States don’t have kindness in their hearts anymore, don’t believe them. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for the unselfish help and trust of so many people who reached out to me. In this country, those two beautiful ladies in San Diego were the very first, but they wouldn’t be the last. "
