Spreading the Good Word

I work at the library, and often, though perhaps not as frequently as you might thing, I have opportunity to talk with other dog owners. Today I had a particularly fulfilling conversation.

A woman came to the desk, looking slightly lost. She said "I've tried to look this up in the catalog, but maybe I'm spelling his name wrong? It's a dog trainer. Cesar something..."

As you might imagine, from reading my blog, I flinched a bit. But, I looked him up, and explained that the name wasn't spelled like "Julius Caesar". I gave her a piece of paper with the call number, took a breath, and said "That's where you'll find his books, but may I make a few suggestions? I find his methods to be more coercive than strictly necessary, especially depending on the breed you're interested in. I have a Doberman, and they're just so smart, that kind of thing isn't necessary, and might backfire."

Cesar is not King

As you may  have noticed, I'm something of a book nerd.

As you also may have noticed, I prefer non-coercive dog training. I do not like slip leads, I do not like physical corrections. I do not like them, Sam I am, and I don't feel that most dogs learn well through them.

So, I see people recommending Mr. Millan's books. I see his ads. I see them retweeting videos from his web site. I see them talking about episodes from his show. And really, I'm sad that he gets that much time from people; that much face time, air time, text time, whatever. I'm kind of sad that I'm addressing it here.