That is NOT a kick, that is a nudge with the foot or the knee. It is an extremely effective way of reminding your dog, for instance, that you have given him a command and he has ignored it. I use this when we are waiting to cross a road, and he has ignored my Sit command. I can maintain my upright, positive and calm posture, looking forward, but a GENTLE nudge of my knee on his shoulder reminds him to listen and obey. This is the same principle of squeezing a horse with your left leg when you want him to go to the right, and vice versa IMO. The horse responds by moving away from the pressure. Tai responds by obeying my command. If he doesn't, I will carry on invading his personal space with my knee until he jolly well obeys me!

I have only once seen CM actually kick a dog, and that was Shadow the wolf cross, when his foot nudge was distinctly much more than just a nudge. I hope that this was a mistake on CM's part, but as I do not know the man personally and as this is the only time I have ever seen him actually kick a dog, I shall give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a mistake.

You obviously have not watched enough of his programmes then, if you have only seen his use that technique once

That shows a complete lack of understanding as to why the dog is ignoring you in the first place and it is THAT that should be addressed not prodding/kicking/nudging, or whatever you want to call it, them to get their attention in the first place. If you haven't got your dogs attention then you need to ask yourself why!
Becky

couldn't agree more.

gnasher: how come when you watch dog obedience you hardly ever see the handler touch their dog? infact probably never. the dogs are looking the whole time at their handler for the next command. that wasn't achieved by kicking, painful collars or alpha rolls. it takes time and patience to train a dog correctly. it takes minutes to dominate one.

CM kick/nudge is nothing like the use off your leg on a horse...

One is a constant pressure on the horse.. one should have the leg wrapped round the horse at all times, the horse has been schooled fro this from the moment he is broken in.

The kick/nudge to a dog is totally alien to him, it is not something he has been accustomed to from the time he comes into contact with humans.


Now as you are experienced in horses, you will know a kick to the girth of a nervous horse by an over zealous rider, will do one thing only, freak it out!!!

Well bully for you Mrs Perfect ! I am not perfect, and I shamefacedly admit that I have struck a dog in anger more than once. I am not proud of the fact, especially as it doesn't work and even if it did through sheer fear, no-one should ever strike a dog with their hand or an implement. Unlike you, I am a flawed human being who is ready to admit my mistakes.

I have repeatedly said I do not like the illusion collar, I do not like the use of ANY device on a dog. I hardly ever even put Tai on a lead, I dislike intensely any mechanical form of control.

No, I did not see him string up the dogs you mention. I saw the dogs you mentioned fighting against the discipline of - for the first time in their lives probably - being made to do what they were told.

He does not alpha roll dogs, he pins them ... something that occurs naturally in the wild, and which if you observe a litter of puppies with their mother you will see occurring as a last resort when all warnings have been futile. Tai pins other dogs down when he is attacked which happens more often than I would like, and they ignore his warnings ... if pushed, and all other warnings have been ignored, he will pin them down by their throat, emitting horrendous snarls, then backs off, allows the now quietened attacker to get to his feet, and then goes through a ritual of mutual bonding as if to say "sorry mate, but you needed to learn some respect". The first time he did this was to my old boy Hal's son, Woody, and I honestly thought he was going to kill him. I was absolutely horrified, wondering what on earth I was going to tell Woody's owner. To my huge relief, there was not a mark on Woody, and they have remained the greatest of friends for the rest of Woody's stay with us.

Cesar mimics what occurs naturally in nature.

even if the kick is just a gentle tap if it is done to cause the dog to spin around then that is dangerous
especially for cm who has no relationship with the dog
the dogs adrenaline is v high, it whips round because it is thinking there is another attack from behind, if he is lucky the dog has enough time to notice its a human and the self control to stop itself biting, but there will be enough dogs who react first and bite, so this is a v dangerous thing to suggest people use
and of course many people pts any dog that bites a human, no matter why, so his method would cause dogs to be killed


yup i would love to 'train' him, not tell him the rules and have him randomly pinned down, pssted at, kicked (gently) and any other of his 'methods'

i am another one who would rather have a dog pts than have cm touch it
if everything else has tried and not worked and the problem not managable then cm's methods wouldnt work either and would just be cruel to the dog

Very good points... and as a comparison, I have been watching Victoria Stilwell on sky these last couple pf weeks..and I have to say , she has improved 100% in her aproach to dogs..

Never once have I seen her kick /nudge a dog to gain its attention...her techniques have much improved... she gains control by positive reinforcement ..and insists all her clients throw away all the negative tools they have...

I caught a newish episode of Dog Whisperer yesterday on Sky 3.

He was working with an Australian Shepherd who had developed a severe fear of children.

CM got two of his children and did exactly what I would have done. He had the dog on a loose lead. He got his children to walk to the dog calmly, not make eye contact with the dog and sit on the floor near the dog. All the time CM was holding the lead. There was no 'pssst', not tapping/nudging the dog.

When the dog moved forward to sniff the children, he said 'Good dog' in a calm way.

Once the dog was a bit more confident CM asked his children to start moving around. When the dog was confident with this, he got the owner to do some agility work with the dog (it was very good at agility). Part of this was getting the dog to jump over the children while the lay flat on the floor.

Eventually the dog was totally fine with children and is now enjoying going to all the agility shows when children are around.

Would anyone else have done it differently?

I have watched every one virtually on the episodes that are shown on freeview ... we don't have satellite, so I haven't seen any of the recent episodes that are shown on Sky I believe.

Some of the episodes I have watched many times over, I just choose to listen to what I am hearing and open my eyes and watch what I am seeing with an open mind. There are some things I do not like, as I have mentioned many many times before, but as a holistic package, I like the man, I like his methods (with a few exceptions) and I pretty much follow his guidelines. You know the type of dog I have, and they are not renowned for their obedience. Tai is the most obedient dog I have ever had the pleasure to own, and I get so many people exclaiming to me how calm and well behaved he is, especially when running free.

To achieve this level of obedience from a Husky/Mal cross is astonishing ... their prey drive is huge, and most husky and mal owners never let their dogs off the lead because they claim they will run away. Tai hardly ever goes on a lead, he has the joy of running free, and I have the joy of knowing he will come back to me as soon as I call him.

Gosh, I am so cruel