Dog’s best friend

The "Dog Whisperer" reassures owners as he rehabilitates their canines

Generations of children are familiar with "Lassie," but Cesar Millan, who grew up in Mexico, was particularly affected by reruns of the beloved TV series about the heroic collie and her human sidekick, Jeff.

Cesar Millan "Dog Whisperer" seminar: 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday Place: Hawai'i Convention Center Liliu Theatre Tickets: $95 Call: 275-3011 or visit events@brightlightmarketing.com Note: Pets are not allowed. On TV Catching "The Dog Whisperer" requires waking up very early. Reruns will air at 4 a.m. tomorrow through Friday and 5 a.m. Sunday on the National Geographic Channel. After that the show airs sporadically, always early. Second-season shows will air at 8 p.m. Fridays, premiering Jan. 6 in a new hour-long format.

Millan spent his Mazatlan summers chasing rabbits and frogs on his grandfather's ranch in Ixpalino, and was drawn to shows such as "Lassie" and "Rin Tin Tin" because he wanted to emulate the trainers.

"It started when I was 13," said Millan, 36, via phone from his home in Englewood, Calif., where he works as a dog rehabilitator. "I wanted to be the best dog trainer in the world."

Millan, who made Los Angeles his home 14 years ago, is not alone. There are more than 60 million dog owners in America; Millan is one of them, having opened his home to seven dogs.

But just because dogs have been deemed man's best friend doesn't mean we understand them. Millan said dogs are often unstable or unbalanced as a result of too much coddling and too little discipline.

"Dogs are pack animals just like us, but they are not little people with fur," he said, and treating dogs as humans is damaging. "Dogs are insecure and frustrated. I help send them back to normal."

Millan's childhood accent has been smoothed away after 15 years in the United States, plus language lessons paid for by actress Jada Pinkett Smith after he helped her and her husband, Will Smith, train their dogs to patrol their property.

"They heard about me through word of mouth. The dogs are my business card. They had heard I did a great job with a Rottweiler belonging to a friend of Jada's," Milan said.

"People just started sending me their dogs," Millan said of his early career. "I became known as 'the Mexican guy in South Central' who has a way with dogs."

Millan is now the force behind "The Dog Whisperer," the National Geographic Channel TV show that disciplines dog owners as well as their dogs, and he will give a seminar Saturday at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

Whether it is a jumpy Chinese Crested tail-wagger named Flirt or a Maltese poodle mix named Josh who skitters away from groomers, Millan reassures the animal while offering firm advice to its owner. His calm, sophisticated manner is a hit with both dogs and their people.

Cracking a smile only when he has successfully completed a goal, Millan has done everything from marching into a pool with a water-shy, quick-to-bite dog, to helping another deal with its fear of a popping toaster.

"Americans are intellectual and spiritual," said Millan, "but in Third World countries, people are instinctive. It's about survival. People in Third World countries don't hug or kiss their dogs or throw birthday parties for their pets. Dogs don't need affection to follow you. Dogs come to you. Followers come to leaders, not the other way around."

Arleene Skillman, a veterinarian with VCA University Animal Hospital in Manoa, agrees. "Behavior is often a big problem with dogs. The biggest thing I am seeing is animals rule. People should rule."

Millan has turned his personal mission of working with canines into another successful take on the American Dream. Not only has he built a reputation as a premier dog psychologist, he has also opened a Dog Psychology Center in L.A., a former warehouse that now shelters abandoned and abused animals, and offers training sessions for pooches with behavioral problems.

Millan's comfort with animals is a gift he says he got from his father and grandfather. His dream of rehabilitating aggressive dogs was covered in a Los Angeles Times article and carried in other newspapers, leading to his renown today.

"I started from the bottom up; now I have a TV show. I'm a big believer in having a wish and following it through."

Ronald Stebbins, a dog trainer with the Obedience Training Club of Hawaii and an adoptions counselor with the Hawaiian Humane Society, has watched every episode of Millan's show. "The principals are not all that new -- they can be boiled down to three basics: exercise, train and treat, in that order-- but the way he applies them is."

He applauds Millan's training tactics, although he was skeptical at first. "When I originally saw the commercials for the show, I thought 'OK, here's another canine whisperer show.' There were dog whisperer books last year, a horse whisperer show, and they were just not that thrilling," he said. "A lot of them gave the whys and wherefores of the problems -- but Cesar actually alleviates the problem."

The first season, which showed Millan in "Supernanny" fashion, working with harried dog owners in 35 households, closed with a 350 percent audience increase over the prior series in that time slot.

Since then, Millan has appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "The Late Show with David Letterman," and he also worked with daytime's most famous hostess, Oprah Winfrey, and her dog Sophie. "(Winfrey) was a leader in her world, but she was a follower to her dog," he said.

The desire to please our pets causes many humans to ignore aggression. Instead of addressing the hostility, "we give the pets more affection," he said.

"Now dogs control family -- kids and dogs control the family. Kids and dogs both like stability," he said, comparing his tactics to two other pop TV disciplinarians, "Supernanny" and Dr. Phil.

Millan said two common problems in distressed dogs, aggression and anxiety, come with warning signs that humans overlook or ignore.

"I can read dogs; I'm not a psychic," Millan asserted. "There is insecurity, anxiety and tension -- a yellow zone -- before there is aggression, which is a red zone. Aggression is the result of an unstable mind.

"The dogs cannot take it anymore. The frustration, panic builds up and there's a lack of release for energy. ... When symptoms are ignored, the traits are brought out to the extreme.

"There's no such thing as a bad dog. Pit bulls are not bad. Personalities are created by humans; dogs are not born that way."

Sometimes the answer is as simple as giving an animal more exercise. At other times it's wise for owners to seek retraining.

"My way is not the only way," Milan said. "It's worked for 80 percent of people (on the show). The ones that don't, it's because they don't follow through or keep focused."

And do Millan's dogs always listen to him?

"Now I'm insulted," he said, bemused. "Of course they do."