Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
by Cesar Millan, Melissa Jo Peltier
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Book Reviews of Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems
Book Review: Cesar's Way
Summary: 2 Stars
This book was not quite what I had expected. I was looking for a more in depth book on training. This just hit on a few items. If you want to know more on Cesar this is the book, but not for some one who wants to do your own training.Book Review: I you LOVE the tv show, you might just like this book.
Summary: 2 Stars
First off, let me say that I do like Cesar Millan and enjoy his TV show. I recently adopted a dog from the shelter, and for a good week, Nat'l Geo took over our TV. So to understand and train our dog, I looked to this book for a more expansive, practical "Guide" (as the title proclaims). However, I was disappointed to find little here that's useful.
As some reviewers complained, the first biography section is, while a feel-good story, neither riveting, well-written nor instructive.
The second section goes into his "pack leader" philosophy, but if you've seen the show even once, you've heard most of this before. What's here is more apology than anything, giving the reasons and research behind the way he treats the dogs he works with.
In the third section, he talks about serious issues like aggression and obsession, and though he describes them well, his ultimate advice is to seek help from someone else.
If you're looking for lots more Cesar than the one-hour show provides, then this is your book. If you're looking for a "guide" to interpreting your dog's behavior, addressing its needs and training it, look elsewhere. (My recommendation? Check out Victoria Stilwell).
Book Review: Surprisingly Weak Book Filled with Gaping Holes and Inadequate Explanations
Summary: 2 Stars
For a man who comes across as a strong, tough trainer this is a surprisingly weak book. It's a combination of his life stories and anecdotes about dogs he has encountered. Throughout there is a pseudo-spiritual New Age philosophy that tries to connect dog behavior with the human spirit. But none of it is ever very successful in communicating the stories adequately.
Millan also skips over details of his life and his training techniques. If you're looking to find out more about how he came to America you won't find it here--he says "something" told him to leave home on a December 23, wait a couple weeks before crossing the border illegally, then live a month "on the streets" before finding a job in San Diego. But it's filled with contradictions--he claims he gave all his money to the guy to take him over the border yet suddenly he has a few dollars in his pocket and he never explains how he lives for a month with no money. He claims he knew no English yet he "managed to put the words together" in English to ask some women for a job. He is taken in by two women and works for them (he never says for how long) but he claims he can't remember their names! Then over a couple of pages he summarizes the next 5 or 6 years of his life--jumping from foreign-speaking hick to dog-trainer to the stars without any sense of how he accomplished it.
Namely, his stories lack credibility because he doesn't give you enough detail and contradicts himself. And there's something fishy about how he fails to go into details--are these stories not true or is he just hiding something?
Then there's the writing style of the book. He obviously didn't "write" it (he just learned English a decade ago!) and enlisted a co-author. It is too properly written for a man who claims to not know English well!
Some of the dog stories are okay--but again he doesn't give enough detail to really explain what he did to change the dogs. He just keeps going back to the "pack leader" mentality and he claims to have some mental connection with the animals. He never gives much detail about his training technique--just claims to have miracle after miracle happen because of who he is. At times it's all a little hard to swallow.
It's only for people who already admire him and are interested in reading minimal stories about the types of things he does on TV. But be prepared to see that the point of this book isn't how to deal with troubled dogs--it's how bad owners are at handling dogs. He uses much of the book to condemn dog owners, often rightfully so, for pampering pets and not enforcing enough discipline.
Book Review: It works!
Summary: 5 Stars
His methods have worked very well for our pit bull terrier where positive reward training has failed. In response to those who wrote reviews on his outdated wolf psychology and his harsh tactics, I believe you don't actually know his methods. He never physically harms the dogs and is quite gentle and uses his experience with ferral dog psychology. I would recommend this book to those who want their dogs to truly obey rather than have a pocket full of treats their entire life or hurting their dogs, both methods that in my opinion are sure to fail in the end. Book Review: Book Review
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is a good informative book but won't necessarily teach Fido to sit or anything like that. To me it's more about getting inside a dogs head and understanding the canine phyche which I think is worth the read. It is an easy read and all in all a good book.