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Narrator: Do not attempt the techniques your about to see
without consulting a professional
When good dogs go bad, there's one man who's their best friend
Cesar Millan.
Cesar: No dog is too much for me to handle.
I rehabilitate dogs.
I train people.
I am the Dog Whisperer.
Narrator: Sometimes, it's tough to be a dog in a human world.
But there's one small corner of South Los Angeles where any dog
can come and simply return to the joy of being a dog,
no matter what's happened in its past.
AJ: In my next life, I want to come back as one of your dogs in
this center.
Cesar: Everybody who's everybody is here.
This is it. This is my Dog Psychology Center.
I am Cesar Millan and this is where it all happens.
You can call this a group therapy center for dogs
with problems.
The truth is: dogs are my teachers.
A long time ago, I learned that dogs can rehabilitate each other
much faster than humans could help them to change.
And that is because of the "power of the pack."
There is nothing more effective than a stable pack.
A dog depends on his pack for his stability and survival.
The power of a stable pack can influence the behavior of
unstable dog.
And it happens from the very first meeting.
Hey! Hey!
When you bring one unstable dog into a stable pack,
it's going to be a reaction.
So the pack just told me exactly where he is mentally.
So here he is calm submissive state now.
Punkin was a two year old Rhodesian ridgeback pit mix with
very few social skills with other dogs.
This was his first encounter with my pack.
Hey. Can't allow one second of tension,
we have Rhodesian ridgeback, we have pit bull over here.
When they get into that stage, the first reaction they,
they come at as a breed is to fight each other.
So we don't want them to get into that state of being breed.
We want them to stay in a dog mode.
Shh. Shh.
They have to see that I have control over him right away;
otherwise one of them is going to try to control him
immediately.
Punkin had a very strange obsession.
He was fixated on rocks!
Milly Sanders: He'll take a rock and he'll just chew on it,
He barks if you take the rock away, he barks like at you,
like kind of meanly he like barks at you,
and he's such a sweet dog.
Cause he's like protecting his territory.
It can be kind of scary.
We're afraid he's going to break his teeth or he's going to hurt
himself.
Cesar: After working with him for a few hours,
I could see he needed more help than I could give him alone.
Punkin definitely needed the power of the pack.
It will be very helpful for him to, to have a little vacation
away from you so he can totally go into a retreat, so to speak.
As much as you love him, you also have brought this
obsession Unconsciously.
By him not having you around, the source of the obsession is
not there.
Amanda Yates: Yeah, meanwhile, I'll go to yoga and calm myself.
Cesar: Yeah!
The whole point of him being here is for us to
study him if he goes into an excited mode and
goes to get a rock. This is really good right there.
If he doesn't go after the rock today,
the chances of him rehabilitating himself is big.
Today is the biggest day you can ever dream about,
especially trying to help him to stop being neurotic about
the rock.
So far he is, he is being playful with the pack,
which we knew.
There we go, this is great, this is good, excellent.
In fact, I just know that this poodle can actually match
the way he plays.
So, today is day number eight for Punkin.
I'm going to give you an update on how he's doing and how
great he's doing, by the way.
His rock obsession is really decreasing,
and you're going to see how the pack has influenced his behavior
You're about to experience a high level of energy,
you are not going to observe fights,
you are not going to observe dogs killing each other
for a ball.
And this is what Punkin has learned from our pack.
The pack has rules, boundaries, and limitations.
The pack is not obsessive to the ball.
When we begin playing the ball, fine.
And when we end, it's fine as well.
I've got to stay calm and assertive.
After I drain some of this energy,
I'm going to work with the rocks now in order for him to
understand the concept of rock, ball.
What is allowed, what is not allowed.
At least he's not moving towards the rock like he used to.
And as you see, everybody is surrendering to the experience
of being around the rock.
The rock means nothing to them.
Well for Punkin the rock had a meaning before.
You're experiencing a dog that doesn't really know what to do,
but because the pack stays here, he automatically comes back.
This is why the pack is so important for rehabilitation.
Because things that I can't do, the pack will do it for me.
At the end of two weeks, Punkin's owner, Amanda,
was amazed by his transformation.
Milly Sanders: That's amazing.
Amanda Yates: Yeah. That is amazing.
Look at that rock just sitting there and
he doesn't even notice it.
Milly Sanders: He's just waiting for the ball.
Milly Sanders: To have both those things right there,
the ball and the rock and then, and then he would just go after
the ball is really great.
Cesar: Then he is going to mingle with the pack.
Narrator: More amazing transformations and some very
special members of Cesar's pack.
Next.
Cesar: Luigi has a lot of experience, so don't even
worry about it.
Cesar: All dogs have a pack structure hard wired into
their DNA.
They want to fit in and be part of a stable, balanced pack.
So what is this pack of dogs and where did they come from?
You know, fourteen years ago, my dreams changed from becoming
the best trainer in the world to rehabilitating dogs.
And for that, I needed a place where I could house many dogs,
especially dogs who were almost put down to sleep.
So when I first discovered this place, it was a mechanic shop.
And of course I decorated this place with many,
many trees and many, many flowers so that my pack can feel
as wild as they can be.
"Come on, Luigi".
In the back of my mind, it was always this place about
rehabilitation center.
And what it means to me is a swimming pool for dogs,
a massage area for dogs, an obstacle area for dogs,
many different areas where they can rest or jump.
Because in a natural habitat, this is the scenario.
Anything in this place is to create rehabilitation,
it's to accomplish balance.
My first pack was ten Rottweilers, that's why I was
called "a Mexican guy who can walk a pack of Rottweilers."
And later on rescue organizations found out about
the possibility of me rehabilitating their dogs
because no one was able to give an answer.
I was glad that I was the one with the answer.
So I founded the Dog Psychology Center of Los Angeles.
Very proud of it.
Half of the dogs here are rescued and are rehabilitated.
These guys would not be alive without the power of the pack.
The other half are visitors or clients.
Once a dog has been rehabilitated and lives by the
rules of the pack, then he is able to help other unstable dogs
to become stable.
Not long ago, this pack helped three special dogs get through a
terrible tragedy.
Hurricane Katrina left over one hundred thousand animals
wandering the devastated areas of the Gulf Coast.
Some of the rescued dogs were flown to Los Angeles.
So I offered to rehabilitate three of the most aggressive
cases at the Dog Psychology Center,
while we joined in the search for their owners.
Their first day went pretty well,
especially since none of them were spayed or neutered,
conditions which can trigger a fight.
Look how the pack is, is viewing them.
Pack is viewing them very well.
So, hold on ladies, stay right there.
I'm gonna, I think we gotta calm this guy down first.
You have to feel the energy.
You have to read the body language.
And you have to also know what the pack is telling you.
I have to create one unit right away.
Otherwise my pack can kill that pack.
See that tail right there?
He's in a dominant state right now.
He's not unsure about himself.
This guy's very sure about himself.
So we got to be very careful.
That's why, that's what I'm, instead of bringing the other
two, I chose him to be the first to be introduced to the pack,
so he can calm down.
See the tail is going down.
And the whole point of going down is because he's sensing
the pack is not about to harm him.
The pack is actually doing a very,
a very nice welcome wagon here. See it?
Calm, submissive pit bulls, Rottweilers, bloodhounds.
Every time we welcome a dog in need, I grow, and my pack grows.
I just get happy that I'm about to learn something.
I'm about to learn something new.
Like I always said, dogs are my teachers.
From the aggressive guy that we have earlier,
now we having a calm, submissive state Akita mix.
So the next guy that have to come in is that guy over there.
Just go in and drop the leash. Just go in and drop the leash.
Go, go, go, go, go, go. Go.
Drop the leash.
That's his name, by the way.
"I'm from New Orleans." That's what he's saying.
So can you see now? The anxiety, the excitement went away.
It's not magic. It's just the power of the pack.
Now, insecure dog is coming in. Yeah, go, go, go.
Go, go, go. Go, go, go.
There we go. Drop it.
Now let's see how insecure dog react to the approach,
which most of the time is insecure.
Stay away. That's right.
See, they curve themselves, they curve themselves.
The hair up, that's insecurity. We can't say, "It's okay."
We can't give cookies.
We can't give anything right now.
She have to go through it on her own,
and then once everything pass, you will see that
she recovers herself.
They move on.
Tail up, that's not good.
See, the only one who created commotion was him.
All because he walking with the tail up.
This is why it's important to neuter the dogs,
because they immediately go in to try to own the place.
See, very interested about what he's carrying around.
Nobody is mating yet, but the more they smell him,
the more they're going to get into that state of mind.
We're not really playing attention to the other guys.
The other guys are, are already submissive, but this guy,
he keep his tail up in the air, so that to me is a red flag.
I have to keep my eyes close to him until he lower that tail,
otherwise he going to make everybody put their tail up
into the air.
And I work really hard for them to keep the tail in the middle.
So one, one negative energy can make an incredible ripple
effect, where everybody who was calm,
submissive for months and for weeks,
they can go into that state of mind immediately in order for
them to survive.
See, see, so watch this. That's what I was telling you.
See that pit bull, he wants to mount it.
There we go, there we, hey, hey.
The Katrina dogs spent twelve days getting used to
their new life in the pack.
They all needed to be treated for heartworm,
but after making sure their health was stable,
we took them to be spayed and neutered.
Then we returned them to the pack for a different kind of
reception.
They're curious; they want to go back into the pack, typical.
They want to join back the family.
Obviously the family doesn't feel bad about them.
But one thing is going to be great for them is they're not
longer going to project the scent, which that could,
that could create a really bad fight.
So it's only one not feeling very good about what happened,
right?
She's unsure because everybody, she senses that everybody is
viewing her in a different matter.
So, it's normal, it's normal, they have to go through
the whole experience.
As long as you provide this, the, the control,
they're going to feel safe.
This is great, see this is the male,
one of the males that we have, feeling good,
feeling about himself, feeling great.
Everybody, you know, notice how they use their nose.
My hope from this rescuing is that people understand that,
Yes, it's okay to feel bad about what happened to their life,
but it's also important to move forward. To move on.
Each of the three Katrina dogs has a different ending to
its story.
The male-lab Dachsund mix, Scrappy,
was reunited with his original owner.
The female Rottweiler, Deedee, was adopted by a TV producer.
And this guy here is going to stay with us until we find the
right family.
I mean a family who is willing to do exercise, discipline,
and affection in order for him to stay balanced the rest of
his life.
Many of the rescued dogs in my pack find good homes through
adoption.
Remember Punkin's poodle friend who helped him learn to play?
That's Lafitte. He used to live in the pack, but now has a new,
adopted home with a photographer.
And this is the main man, Daddy.
He belongs to rapper Redman, but he stays with the pack when
Redman travels.
Daddy's been with me for the past eight years and he's been
balanced since he was four months old.
Isn't it Daddy? Paso!
He helps me on a lot of my cases,
especially my house calls. Daddy.
Shh. Hey.
Come on guys. Let's go. Daddy at the Lakers place.
One of my clients had been afraid of big dogs her
whole life.
Stay in the zone Maria.
Knowing that she's afraid of big dogs or just dogs period,
I asked Daddy to join us.
So Maria went pale on us, right in front of my eyes.
I thought I was talking to a ghost.
Stay right there Maria, you're the most powerful woman on earth
Hold it right there.
Maria Brown: The closer Daddy got to me,
the more I felt the fear come back inside and I just wanted to
have him hurry up and bite me and get it over with,
'cause I thought that's what was going to happen.
I'm afraid here.
Cesar: You're afraid? That's how you're going to get rid of it.
You gotta be in the middle.
So when we start walking, then eventually I'm going to pass
your dogs and you're gonna walk three dogs.
Maria: Today? Cesar: I walk in the now.
I work in the now, not in tomorrow.
Maria: Okay Cesar.
Juliena Bustamante: When I looked at my mom's face,
she was white.
Her eyes were huge and I was standing behind everybody trying
to tell her, it's okay, it's okay.
Cesar: Relax, go to the side. Very good, grab the leash.
Maria: Hello Daddy, you want to go for a little walk.
Cesar: Relax. Grab the leash, nicely.
Juliena Bustamante: To see my mom pick up the leash and walk
Daddy without a problem was just monumental.
Maria: This is awesome. Cesar: Yeah. How do you feel?
Maria: I feel pretty powerful right now.
Cesar: So what about the story about big dogs are mean and
all that stuff? Shh!
Maria: Well Daddy's a perfect dog so.
Cesar: That's right and there's a lot of perfect dogs out there.
Cesar: And some of those perfect dogs are also pit bulls.
Narrator: Coming up, a pack of pit bulls performs a miracle.
Cesar: I want you to hear that. Huh? No, no, no.
But I want you to hear that.
Cesar: The "Power of the Pack" is the power of dogs to help
rehabilitate one another.
But every pack needs a calm, assertive pack leader.
And in this pack, I am the pack leader.
And with the help of these guys, I teach calm, assertive
leadership skills to humans who can't control their dogs.
In fact, most people don't even know the right way to meet a dog
for the first time.
Mary: When I first walked in with Roxy and Tiger,
it was this funny gut feeling, I was like scared, oh my god,
these dogs are gonna get attacked and we are too.
Cesar: Don't think about it, you're not allowed to think.
Come in, come in, come in, keep coming, keep coming, come on.
In the meantime, you can't touch dog or give eye contact.
Now start relaxing a little bit more.
You're introducing yourself, guys.
What you're observing is thirty-seven dogs and most of
them are pit bulls and no one is attacking each other.
Teresa: It's a little over whelming at first.
When you come in and you have all these dogs that could
probably kill you and you're walking in and
they're very mellow.
Cesar: That is just a sign of insecurity,
so we can't nurture insecurity.
Jeanie Buss: It took everything in my power not to pick her up
and, and protect her.
Cesar: This is a pack of small dogs that you don't have to
worry about, you know, an attack or they're all the same size,
so how bad can that be?
It's no different from like when kids are insecure and the
parents want the kids to mingle.
If they are showing insecurity, it's best for the parents not to
go and hug and kiss and say, you know, "You want to leave now?"
Meet Popeye. Like many of the pit bulls I work with,
bred for illegal fighting and lost his eye.
He's been with me for the past five years.
But recently, he became the ambassador for his breed when
I worked with Sparky, and his owner AJ who had panic disorder
and was terrified of pit bulls.
Cesar: I have a pack of pit bulls who can change
anybody's mind.
And this is guys who were dog aggressive.
And the funny part is Popeye, picked on her right away and
started calming her down.
Popeye! Over here. He's fine.
It was a pit bull that went and welcomed her into my place.
What is going through your mind right now?
AJ: This is surreal in a way.
Yes, but I know from what, from talking to you that even if
I am frightened, to act that way would be the worst thing that
I could do in this situation.
Cesar: Yeah, so even if you don't know what you're doing,
don't tell them you don't know what you're doing.
Because they don't know it until you tell them.
AJ: Like, like, like never let them see you sweat.
Cesar: When somebody mentions to me the worst-case scenario
of their life, that tells me this is what they need to do,
this is where they need to be.
AJ: Come on doggies!
Cesar: Not with the excitement, just psychologically.
Excitement is not good. They're already excited.
You want to be the source of calm, assertiveness.
I confront that fear.
I know that the only way fear goes away form your being is
when you actually live that scenario.
Cesar: Come on, come down. I invited AJ to face her fears,
by joining me and the Pits for a private party.
I want you to hear that. Huh?
No, no, but I want you to hear that.
Shh!...
They just putting up a show for you.
This is a love that can hurt you.
If you don't stop this excitement, once he calms down,
you can love him as much as you want.
See every time I invite somebody to be touched,
they have to be calm, submissive.
All right, now, now this thing is not good.
There we go. Okay?
That's the state; see it, that's a nice comfortable state.
AJ: Well, when I get better I can help other people with
panic disorder come out of their bubble.
Cesar: So she's going to be your dog whisperer today.
Two weeks later, I challenged AJ to use her new calm,
assertive energy by introducing her husband Charles to the pack.
AJ: Chest out, stand up straight no eye contact, no touching.
If the dog is in your way, you keep walking because you need to
own the space; you need to claim the space.
If they get a little out of hand, this is how you do them.
It's like the dog biting the dog and you. Shhh.
Cesar: That's right.
Charles: When I saw, when I saw AJ puff herself up,
grab Sparky and just walk through the pack,
it was just amazing because I didn't think I would ever see
something like that.
AJ: If I do what Cesar says all the time,
if I'm able to do that, I not only won't have panic attacks,
but I won't need a service dog in the first place.
Which is sort of interesting.
Cesar: Oh, look at him!
AJ: Wait, that's a photo. I made that!
Cesar: Oh look at him. AJ: That's Popeye.
Cesar: The pit bull touched somebody's heart.
You know, in the art of rehabilitating dogs,
sometimes it takes more than one dog to help me.
In this case, this is Coco.
Coco's my son's Chihuahua who used to be aggressive with dogs
and humans.
This is Luigi who belongs to Will Smith and Jada Pinkett.
He stays with the pack when they travel.
Coco and Luigi have joined me for some memorable cases.
See that's what they supposed to do.
He is finally learning how to meet a dog,
the way normal dogs meet dogs.
So it can be 100 dogs, 300 elephants, 500 camels
and you have to be able to ask Leo not to get into it yet.
And as you see the influence that they have over your dog is
a very calming experience.
But Luigi can be very convincing on his own.
He has faced the wrath of an aggressive Staffordshire bull
terrier.
Heather: Hey. Shh. Come on, come on, come on.
Cesar: Alright, it's my turn now.
Shh.
There you go. Forward.
Shh.
Hold on, stay right there. Shh. You saw it?
If you study my body language, I'm not looking at the floor,
I'm not looking at the dog, I'm looking forward.
Heather: So you're looking forward,
so you can't tell that she's.
Cesar: But you can feel. Heather: You can feel.
Cesar: Yeah, you can feel. So that's when you become in tuned
to that animal in you, that you sense energy,
that you feel behavior that you trust your instincts.
So, may I bring another dog?
Toni: Yeah. Oh my God.
Cesar: Luigi has also dealt with the tantrums of a pampered
Pomeranian.
Toni: I'm scared that she'll get hurt with the little tiny dogs
at work that are like two pounds,
I can't imagine these feelings when...
Cesar: So regardless, her behavior is, just, it's alright.
Just don't touch, relax.
Luigi has a lot of experience, so don't even worry about,
don't even project any energy, don't think about it.
See right now this is the advantage of having a dog with
social skills and bringing a dog that doesn't have great social
skills yet. Right?
So Luigi is right now providing avoidance.
I knew Prada was not really being aggressive.
She was just bluffing.
So Luigi didn't feel intimidated by the approach.
And Luigi did exactly what he needed to do. Ignore.
It makes a dog go into a different state of mind cause
nobody is paying attention to that state of mind.
So Prada went from a fight mode to submissive mode.
So Prada now is studying Luigi.
Luigi is doing the right thing, ignore the girl.
Luigi got a lot of good skills.
Zach: It's like high school.
Cesar: That's right. So Prada's like, "I'm the cute one."
"Oh, not right now."
Right, so this is what happens when you don't over-react.
Narrator: Can Cesar and the pack, actually save a marriage?
Cesar: You know my pack here at the center?
They have helped me to rehabilitate and help a lot of
dogs and a lot of dog owners to better their relationships.
But Preston and Daddy have actually helped me to save a
marriage!
Patricia Robbins and Tyler Shepodd had set a date for their
wedding, but Tyler couldn't get along with Patricia's aggressive
pit bull mix, Wendell.
The couple hit a wall, cancelled their wedding, and called me in.
Tyler Shepodd: I've had a couple of instances where Wendell
snapped at me once.
Another time he sort of had me cornered in the kitchen.
Patricia Robbins: At that point Tyler said I don't want
the dog at all.
Tyler Shepodd: I just can't put my neighbors or myself at risk
by having Wendell living here.
Patricia: Oh no! Oh God!
Cesar: I brought Preston and Daddy along to help me.
First, to calm Wendell and teach him how to greet other dogs
properly.
But more important, to calm Patricia, Wendell's owner,
and help get rid of her fearful energy.
Patricia: Oh no! Oh God!
It's okay, it's okay.
Cesar: Focus on him. He is coming to calm you down.
Patricia: It's nice, it's nice, it's nice.
Cesar: And now we see that he is calming down you know,
slowly see the whole shaking is part of it.
As bad as this might look.
This is healthy for them because he's releasing this toxic energy
Patricia: Wow, wow, wow.
Cesar: And this is just lack of social behavior.
You know he has a friend, which is great.
But he doesn't have the experience of smelling
other dogs.
Patricia: No, I won't let him.
Cesar: So what is the reality right now?
Patricia: It, there's a possibility.
Cesar: Possibility. Next, I had all the dogs in my pack
help teach Tyler to stay calm and assertive.
Cesar: So the rules are very simple.
You are going to be among animal.
No touch, no talk, no eye contact.
So you can go back into high school time where the popular
people ignore everybody.
Tyler: Okay.
Cesar: So everybody wants to be with them.
You're going to create that vibe.
Tyler: Okay.
Cesar: Do not keep moving if you're nervous,
fearful or tense, 'cause they will bite.
Go, walk, just go, ice breaker.
Pretend like they're not here whatsoever.
Look they're following you, see that, they're out among you,
not jumping on you.
So you're surrounded by thirty-seven dogs,
but no one is bothering you.
Tyler: No, not at all.
Cesar: So that means your energy is really good right now, right.
Wendell senses that you don't trust him.
And because of that he can't trust you back.
Tyler: So, no nervousness, no fear and no just letting him.
Almost ignoring him in a way.
Cesar: Exactly. Tyler: Okay.
Cesar: Okay. So let's go and help your girl now.
So how you feeling about the whole marriage so far.
Tyler: Well if we can get over this hurdle,
we'll be in good shape.
Cesar: Finally, I had to convince Patricia to let go of
Wendell.
You're doing some wonderful things.
Patricia: Wonderful things. I don't even know where he is.
Cesar: Keep talking about it. Patricia: Hello doggies.
Cesar: No, not that conversation.
Patricia: No, not that conversation, okay.
Cesar: The high school girl, ignore everybody.
Patricia: Ignore everybody.
Cesar: You're the most beautiful one and everybody wants to be
with you.
So you don't really have to talk to anybody.
Patricia: It was the opposite for me. Everybody ignored me.
Cesar: I know for me too. I can totally relate.
I was not the popular guy.
Patricia: Yeah, and I was thinking about that this morning
Cesar: I want to be like those guys. Look at that.
He's, he's almost here alright.
He's doing really good by himself.
Patricia: Look at him. Cesar: That's right.
He's being a dog; he's being a dog right now.
Patricia: I've taken, taken that away.
Cesar: Huh?
Patricia: I took that away from him for 6 years.
Cesar: Yeah but see that's how dogs live in the moment.
Six years without him being social. He doesn't care.
Patricia Robbins: He looked very happy out there.
And I was thinking that he was going to be scared and running
around and shaking and not listening to me,
but I see that it doesn't have to be like that.
Cesar: I am happy to report that the wedding is back on and
Mr. Wendell is a much happier dog. Right Mr. Wendell?
Gloria Blatti: Now I hope you're in the mood for these,
Stormy because if you're not, I know you won't eat them.
Cesar: Like Patricia, Gloria Blatti babied her dog, Storm.
The result?
He couldn't even eat like a regular dog!
Gloria Blatti: My mother said, I can't believe he's not
eating a hamburger.
What dog won't eat a hamburger?
I said, Mine. My dog doesn't eat it.
Dylan Crowley: It really does make mostly everyone in
the house angry whenever he doesn't eat that food,
'cause all of us would eat it if it even came close to the table.
Gloria: The joke in the family is that we cook better for
Storm than anybody else.
Do you want a turkey burger?
Cesar: Storm was one dog who definitely needed
the power of the pack.
Shhh. Hey!
Now they're gonna slow him down and let him know how to come in.
He doesn't have good social skills as you see.
He's just walking in and that can get him in trouble.
The first step for him to learn to be a dog, to know,
to recognize rules, boundaries, and
limitations among his own kind.
In his house, he was setting the rules, boundaries,
and limitations.
Everybody was just following whatever he wanted.
If you think about a dog, you know that a dog will eat a
tortilla, hot dog, a hamburger.
It doesn't matter what the food is from, dog will eat anything.
Hey, Sssh.
Everybody else jump over this thing except him.
That's how much knowledge he has about the world.
You know this guy just sleep behind walls 24 hours a day.
He doesn't get to be around obstacles. There you go.
He's about to destroy my whole environment right now.
I knew Stormy would need one-on-one attention,
but he'd also need to learn how to participate in our regular
mealtime routine.
The equation that I practice I use to fulfill dogs is exercise,
discipline, affection.
Food to me is part of affection.
The food also we have to give to the pack when the mind is calm,
submissive.
Which means they have to be in a very patient state of mind for
them to receive this food.
At the same time when I'm preparing the food,
I am happy doing it.
So I am sharing my love, preparing the food for my boys
who work already with me and I now am going to satisfy
the appetite.
I like to use my hands, just because I feel more close to
them.
You know my scent is delivered in the food.
So they get to smell me in the meal too.
You know, I want to be very intimate with them,
and I want to be part of every single everything that they can
actually do.
I really want to be everything they have.
Because to me that's pretty much everything I have.
My family and my dogs are everything to me.
Alright, so I've prepared a few plates and of course Stanley is
always ready to be fed first.
Stanley, Stanley. Very well. So we invite Stanley.
We have, hey. Mandy. Sit down.
Sit down, Mandy. Very good.
Nice and good. Sit down, sit.
There we go. Good girl.
We get the food, now we have Benjamin.
You need to sit down. That's right. Wonderful.
Now, this is an exercise for dogs to eat close to each other.
It's a challenge. Right?
One thing is they have to finish their meal and
then go somewhere else.
They can't go and see if somebody else still have
some leftovers.
That would be a very, very bad fight.
So we have to supervise their eating habits.
When I have food in my hand, I don't create excitement because
that can create a horrendous fight.
We just keep it quiet.
They're going to eat, I am going to provide the food.
But they have to be quiet.
They have to be calm before we put the food on the floor.
So, just a recommendation if you're going to feed your dog,
do not create an excited moment during feeding time.
They're already excited
smelling the food. And then we wait until they finish.
Some of the pack finish, supervise.
Remove of some of the guys who are giving eye contact.
We don't want them to give each others eye contact.
See this is good enough for them to be eating next to each other.
Yeah, we don't waste any food here.
This is a mental workout for me.
I have to make sure they don't get too close to the food.
Everybody wants a piece of food.
Hey, move. Yeah, see, they can create it.
He doesn't mind if they look at his food from two,
three feet away.
It's when they get really close to the food.
This is not a game, this is actually a very
serious activity.
It's like feeding crocodiles. It's no different.
And this is the beauty when you walk with dogs.
You know, when they're hungry they will eat anything.
You put cans in here, they'll eat it.
But we don't put cans in there.
We put dry food, canned food, and a lot of love in there.
That's why they finish it.
Look, we don't even have to wash the plates, right guys?
After three weeks of Storm being with us, doing exercise,
discipline, affection, and of course our strict ritual of
feeding time, Storm finally had some table manners.
Now the way he have to get the food is catching the food,
which before, they have no skills to catch anything.
Ha-ha, super skills! Focusing, concentration.
Got it, in the basket. Right?
At the same time he's learning now manners,
'cause normally they will kill each other for food,
especially for this kind of food.
This is real chicken.
This is no dry food, this is real chicken.
So it brings more of the primal side of them.
So as you see, everybody's calm submissive.
He's learning to be calm submissive, patient.
But see focusing. Concentration.
Not the same guy we saw two weeks ago.
Missed that one.
The biggest change that Stormy has done,
he's finally a normal dog.
A normal dog is always willing to take a piece of food.
A normal dog is willing to be challenged.
That's normal. They like that stuff.
They will do anything for food. It doesn't have to come to them.
They come to food.
So that is what we brought with Storm, the ability to be him.
There you go, you got it!
The pack is so powerful, because some dogs never interact with
their own kind.
So they don't know how to be dogs.
These dogs need social skills, and more importantly,
they need a calm assertive pack leader.
Take Chip, a Min Pin who hated everybody, human or animal.
His owners, Lisa and Tom Pack, brought him to the Center to
help him to learn some canine manners.
Hey! Shh! Move. Shh!
Because he doesn't have the social skills, it...
Hey! Shh! Shhh! Relax. Shh!
So he gets the maximum consequence because he bit
somebody.
Now a dog can get near and he's not lunging as much as he was
earlier.
Extremely insecure, and aggressive.
So he goes from insecurity to total aggression.
Lisa: We saw him trying to jump up on you, yes.
Cesar: Yes, yes, yes. As you see, they mean no harm.
Even though he attack, nobody attack him back.
Lisa: No.
Cesar: Chip spent fifteen days at the Dog Psychology Center in
a program I call boot camp.
My wife, Ilusion, helped me teach him better social skills.
Ilusion: He needed a lot of rules because he had no manners.
He had no idea what it was to sit in a certain position at a
certain place for a certain time.
Drop the leash. There you go. Just walk away.
Let him deal on his own. That's better. There we go.
He's coming back to you. Take the leash off.
Then he's gonna mingle with the pack.
See? Much more comfortable. Much more relaxed.
He's becoming a normal dog.
See it, he's moving around the pack,
he's not tense around the pack.
He's in it. He's in the pack.
You know, when before he just didn't want nothing to do with
any dog in his life.
Actually this is the dog that helped Chip to break the ice.
This is Bella, and Bella is a very friendly pit bull.
She always helps me with the little dogs.
Somehow she is like a pre-school teacher.
She was the one who started it with making him more comfortable
around bigger dogs.
But as you can see now he is doing absolutely great.
Come on Chip. Come on. There we go. There we go.
Now we can give affection.
Now we can celebrate the way Miniature Pinschers celebrate
which is a lot of ***-de-***-de-***.
Jumping thing.
Which now he's comfortable, now he's a dog.
He's not an issue now. Come on Chip.
That's right. That's my boy. That's my boy Chip.
Narrator: Next.
A rescued Rottweiler proves to be a daunting challenge for
Cesar.
Cesar: To rehabilitate a strong pack,
or a pack of unstable dogs, it requires a strong pack leader,
a balanced pack leader, a patient pack leader,
and a pack leader who is not willing to give up.
I made my reputation by working with the most feared,
powerful breeds: pit bulls, Shepherds, Rottweilers.
Sometimes, their aggression problems can be extra
challenging.
Nicki was a three year old Rottweiler who had been
abandoned and abused.
Kathleen Daniels saved him, but couldn't control his dangerous
dog aggression.
Kathleen: I think you have to be responsible with these dogs and
not let them hurt another dog.
I mean I would be devastated inside if I thought that
I put him in jeopardy or another dog in jeopardy.
Cesar: I brought them both to meet the pack.
He has no experience.
He has experience being behind windows, behind fences,
behind doors.
See the mind knows what to do when another dog is behind
the other side.
Shh! Hey! Daddy!
Nicki showed me a side of him that I wasn't able to see
in his home.
They were not trying to make enemies with him,
they were trying to actually smell him, to you know,
create friendship with him.
And Nicki did not know how to be friend.
He can't get up until he is total submissive like him.
That was fence fighting. We don't allow fence fighting.
Nicki really wanted to kill another dog, just because,
they didn't do anything to him.
I kept Nicki isolated from the other dogs in the beginning only
letting him play with the pack when I was there to supervise.
It was hard for him at first. There we go, now he's tired.
And that's another social skill, laying down around other dog is
like us sitting down on a bench, and just enjoying the park,
enjoying the beach, and that's what he's doing.
Ha ha ha. It's like a parade.
Nicki had been very aggressive to white German Shepherds in
the past, so this guy Lobo, was his worst nightmare.
So now, we have to make sure Nicki learn to walk with white
German Shepherds so he learn to like them and to have a
different experience with them.
As long as you have one balanced dog and one unstable one,
it's best not to run away from the problem to face the problem.
Hey! No! Hey! Shh! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Unfortunately that's the only way we really gonna make sure
things are gonna happen the way they are supposed to happen.
Accidents are going to happen.
No! As you can see his ear is totally fine.
See there's no blood coming out on my hand.
If he never bites a dog, we can never stop him from doing it.
Unfortunately, that's gonna happen.
So, that's why we have to have good experience and that's why
we the human being have to make sure we are calm, assertive,
no matter what.
After two weeks, it was time for Nicki to come home.
But Nicki and I had a surprise for Kathleen.
For the first time in his life, Nicki actually had friends that
were dogs.
Kathleen: Oh my God.
Cesar: He brought some friends home without your authorization.
Don: Wow! Kathleen: I was blown away.
That was the biggest surprise.
He had all these dogs with him, but they were in his environment
and he was, you know, was allowing them to be here.
I'm witnessing a miracle. I just can't believe it.
Don: Oh my God.
Cesar: That's his favorite friend. Over there.
Don: If this had been just a couple weeks back,
it would have been like a war zone.
Cesar: Look at his friends, just all over the house.
Once he calms down like the rest of the pack,
then you share your love.
Don: I can't believe how much you've changed him.
He's like, bringing a different dog back to us.
Cesar: Fourteen days.
That's the beauty of animal, they move on.
As my friend Oliver would tell you, if he could,
dogs live in the moment, every moment.
No matter what a dog has done in the past,
I believe 99% of the time, he is capable of becoming balanced.
Of course with the right pack leader and the right pack.
A lot of these great guys in my pack would not be here with us
today if we had given up on them.
Now everyday, they are helping other dogs with problems like
the ones they used to have.
From me and the gang here at the Dog Psychology Center,
remember the power of the pack and
always stay calm and assertive!