Dog training and child rearing

So, the NY Times published yet another story idolizing Cesar Milan; big deal, it's not the first and most likely won't be the last time, right?  On this occassion,  it's about applying dog training techniques to raising children.  Well, there's nothing new about that either.  I've been saying it for years and I'm not the first or the only!  But because the training techniques being applied are so off base, I just had to speak up.

Many training techniques work across species.  Certainly by focusing on the positive and setting the student up for success, lessons will be enjoyed and learned more easily.  And certainly we should interrupt and redirect inappropriate behavior and boundaries should be communicated clearly and consistently...works across species, doesn't have to be a dog.  In my experience, it's particularly effective on husbands.  Rewarding good choices and communicating clearly are important skills to develop and model whether for kids, employees or for dogs.

But when you apply training techniques that are based on myth and cult celebrity status, just what are you trying to teach your children or anyone else for that matter?  My mother used his dictator methods, as have many parents over the years.  Milan appears calm and collected while abusing, choking, flooding and terrorizing dogs  and that's hailed as a "Whisperer".     So during those times when being beaten by a stone cold lunatic of a mother, I was really being whispered to eh?   As long as you don't let anyone see you loose your cool, as long as you appear calm and assertive, you can do all kinds of atrocities and be lauded as the Alpha in your pack.  Have we lost our ever loving minds?

Focusing on helping  people who are willing to think and who want relationships rather than dictatorships makes me feel good. Thinking about Dictator Milan makes me feel bad...bad for the dogs, bad for their people and bad for the society who would mindlessly embrace such methods.  I'm going back to feeling good now so let's leave these crazy Alphaeytes where they belong...in the past!  I feel better now!  I feel better than James Brown!