A supervisor came into the office of a fenced maintenance yard the size of a city block, where I was working as a contractor, and said, “We can escort you to your cars for lunch. There is a wild pregnant chow dog loose in the lot terrorizing everyone, that we have called the Animal Control to come and get.”

I thought, “Aww, gee, a chow, pregnant and wild? They will put her down for sure” and was impelled to go out, check on the dog facing the death sentence, as that was the policy of our animal control people for feral dogs.

When I got to the lot, I saw a male dog that was terrorized out of his mind.  There was no focus of eyes when he looked at you, just knee-jerk barking, snarling and running.  As an environmental safety and health risk manager of 35 years, my primary thought, “Could I safely help this dog without endangering my self, the workers of my client, or even this dog escaping into the street from this secure?”

I had been watching the new Dog Whisperer show with Cesar Milan.  Working with show and rescue dogs all my life, I thought I could try some of the techniques he had talked about without danger.

"Depression and aggression is often really frustration. Discharge the energy first; let the dog wear himself out".  Finally, the chow went between the storage shed and concrete wall, changing his energy from aggressive confrontation to fearful retreat. I followed the "Red-Zone" Rescue Steps Cesar had outlined.

 "Take control of the space.” I blocked his way out, sat down in the entry and claimed the space.

"No touch, no talk, no eye contact.”  I sat sideways blocking his exit, in 105 degree heat for two hours.

Finally, he came up to me. I ignored him.  He bumped me with his nose. He had shifted to calm-submissive, quiet, balanced energy.  Without looking, I reach my hand out to massage his shoulder, finally pulled him to me, and then carried him to the car to introduce him to the pack – Cesar’s way. 

Signal was the first dog of my pack to be trained in Cesar’s way from the first moments.  I have been astonished at how much easier it has been simply working with a dog using Cesar’s techniques than with my other dogs that were being “humanized” for over ten years, B.C. (before Cesar). 

Since that time, I have become inspired to facilitate a Dog Whisperer Fans and Friends email list on Yahoo and, so far, have rescued, rehabilitated, and placed four other dogs who were about to be put down from behavior problems which were supposedly un-resolvable but changed with the consistent application of Cesar’s rules, boundaries, and limitations.

Cesar’s philosophy and techniques not only helped us with our dogs but has also helped both my husband and I at work!  I had a client who had been going on emotional tyrants for years.  This time, when he reacted to the lateness of a project he had not reviewed until the last moment and complained about the consequences, rather then feeling attacked and helpless, I changed my approach.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I first let go of our past history and my emotional/ fearful reactions and then did an energy distraction technique I have seen Cesar do while walking dogs. Using a “shhh” wouldn’t work for this person or situation; instead, using the same energy the same way, I said his name and touched his arm. His energy stopped cold, and he LOOKED at me. I then moved forward on the project decisions. He simply followed along, calmly, part of the team (or pack) again.

My partner’s situation was quite different. As the leader of a major production team, his boss’s “red-zone” frustration was being expressed daily on the team.  We studied Cesar’s techniques for staying calm and balanced during highly aggressive dog episodes, as well as ways to interrupt and redirect the energy of anger and frustration into productive solutions effective in rebuilding the team. Using Cesar’s approach to positively shift the human/human relationship in the work environment, it resulted in his promotion into the most highly coveted division of the company. My partner became team leader for their most successful production team!

Thank you, Cesar, for the many ways your information and programs are saving dogs’ lives and improving animal AND human relationships!

Cynthia J. Anderson
Arizona, USA