Television is a house of cards. Imagine it: the simplest structure is at the top – that's the polished 30-60 minute episode that the networks send to you every week. Reinforcing that finished episode from beneath are widening and ever more elaborate structures. Final approval processes, the editing room, the shooting day, and pre-production make up the buttresses and supports that each episode relies on. It's delicate work in which details matter and make all the difference between successful TV and a game of 52 Card Pickup. So, we count ourselves fortunate at Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan to have a pair of fastidious workhorses like the Nicks to help us make sure that our painstakingly constructed houses don't collapse and tumble down around our noses, eyes, and ears.

Before there was Cesar's way, there was the Woodhouse way.  Popular British television personality and dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse was born in Ireland in 1910.  It’s probably safe to say that she became a dog lover when the canine bug bit her at just two years of age – literally.

To celebrate this season of nostalgia, we sat down with Cesar to ask him about two of his most important human pack members, and how they’ve helped him to work with his pack at the Dog Psychology Center.

Haute couture in America owes a great debt to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Hollywood starlets, dog breeders, and anyone else who enjoys the madness of toy Pomeranians, give homage: the dog you tote around in your little pink handbag has royal ancestry.

Dogs and mankind enjoy a special partnership. Few other animals in the history of civilization have woven themselves so tightly in our everyday lives. For thousands and thousands of years, dogs have been our friends, our sentries, our beasts of burden, our police force, emergency medical and fire technicians, hunters, shepherds, and even our therapists.

Recently, Ilusion Millan worked with the project k9 Connection, a program that works with at-risk 12- to 18-year-old kids. Through the training of homeless shelter dogs in basic obedience, the group empowers the teenagers to apply the lessons they teach those dogs to their own lives.  She is also developing a week-long school curriculum to teach children about pet care and animal cruelty.

The saying goes that behind every great man is a great woman. This is certainly the case with Cesar and his wife Ilusion. While Cesar is out in the field working with dogs and their owners, Ilusion is in the office making it possible for him to share his message with more and more people every day.

Cesar Millan's success with unbalanced dogs on Dog Whisperer can sometimes seem too good to be true. In some cases, when a dog's energy and behavior begin to improve the moment he steps on the scene, fans will write in to say that they can scarcely believe their own eyes. So, to get at the truth behind Cesar's remarkable talent, we asked our own eyes - professional cameraman Chris Komives.

Most of us can still remember what we wanted to grow up to be when we were very young. We dreamt of becoming pilots, firemen, movie stars, doctors, lawyers, or the President of the United States. Cesar Millan himself imagined one day becoming the finest dog trainer in the world. When Courtney Oliver was 7, her dream was to become a veterinary assistant. And just two weeks after her tenth birthday, she made that dream a reality.

A television show wouldn't get very far without its team of producers paving the way, and Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan owes an especially important debt to its unique production partnership. To get all the details, we caught up with Sheila Emery and Kay Sumner of Emery/Sumner Productions for an exclusive interview.