Agree with all of the above.

There is no such thing - see one of smokeybears' post

Cesar Millan's methods work (for him, at least)

I'm sure many people will agree with you that they work, for him, for the duration of the TV show. Do they work for the dog though? For the owners, longterm? That's what I have issues with.

Cesar is an angel compared to the likes of Brad Pattinson as far as I am concerned. That man repulses me.

That one I'll whole heartedly agree with! Cesar is Gabriel compared to that muppet Pattison.... (and I am NO Cesar fan)

There is such a thing as a bad dog.

1.The Culture Clash book is average, having bad ideas and good ideas in equal measure.

2.Their is no reason to get annoyed if someone starts quoting dominance, cesar milan, or jan fennell at you. You can have a great conversation. In fact, sometimes you dont even need to pick the person up on those referances to get your own message across.

3.Insulting people on forums just because they defend cesar milan, jan fennell, dominance theory, e collars, etc, is equally as bad and damaging to animal welfare as those people that are defending those ideas. Even though one may pronounce they are "thinking of the animal", they arent, they are putting the animal in danger by alienating the owner.

4.Reading all the books by CM/JF etc is always advised. You cannot be fully informed or learned unless you have studied ALL the ideas; meaning you can only partially reflect why these ideas if you are bad if you have not read the books. Just going by what people tell you on the internet, and thge repeating it, is of no use.

5.Operant conditioning is NOT the be all and end all of how dogs learn and think.

6.Their is nothing wrong with anthropormorphism. The only people that throw up that phrase in an arguement are dog trainers/behaviourists/ethologists/biologists/etc trying to outsmart each other. The use of that word is of no relevance to the average owner if and when you are coaching or advising them.

7.The maxim one should not talk to their dogs in between or either side of giving specific commands is just one of those oft repeated dog training ideas that doesnt really hold much water - it does not necessarily confuse your dog, it is a motivator.

8.Whilst their is nothing wrong with having a degree to be a behaviourist, you dont necessarily need one to be a good, well informed, and learned behaviourist. Some degree based behaviourists, just like any other type of dog trainer or 'behaviourist', can be terrible, and/or a risk to dogs.

There's nothing wrong with creative grooming - dogs have no sense of self so they don't get embarrassed if you dye them pink.

purely positive is not always the best way

you CAN mix commercial and raw food

Not ALL dogs NEED to go off lead

adding food to your dog's kibble will not cause him any harm or trouble

there's nothing wrong with kennelling your dog

Not every problem can be fixed. Nor are all problems necessarily the fault of the dogs owner.

(I don't think that's unpopular thinking on here but it seems to be in real life unfortunately )