I hadn't really watched his show before, and was appalled when I finally sat down and watched it. His training methods are abusive, horribly out of date, not supported by science, create an adversarial relationship between owners and their dogs, and make dogs fearful and aggressive. Alpha rolls and choke chains were archaic even 20 years ago. I've seen clips where he kicked a dog (then laughed about it), and even used a shock collar on one of them. This guy has set dog training back decades to the old punishment/dominance model that got thrown out because it's crap and doesn't work. He's really just taken other peoples' bad ideas and presented them as his own to people who don't know any better. About the only thing he gets right is that dogs need plenty of exercise. He doesn't even really understand dog body language, despite labeling himself "the dog whisperer." Dogs are not submitting when you put them in an alpha roll. They're shutting down. There's a big difference. A dog that shuts down is full of fear and resentment, and is likely to lash out at you later. Dogs are like any other animal. They learn best through positive reinforcement. You don't need to kick the shit out of them, or engage in some kind of macho dominance struggle where you "act alpha" to get them to behave properly. Dominance theory doesn't even apply to modern domesticated dogs. When your dog does something you don't like, it's not trying to dominate you. It probably just doesn't understand what you want. If any of you guys have dogs and are thinking about training them, don't watch this douche's show. His methods are a great way to get yourself bitten.
Lol, What? We went to his stage show here (which is done with dogs and people from the country itself). And I don't think you actually know what happens. He is not kicking a dog. He prods it with his foot to snap the dog out of the excited (or which state) it is in. It is the same thing dogs do "in the wild". In the wild there is an Alpha male. The other dogs listen to that particular dog. Yes, that's how it works. Also the "sound" and the pinch is just how it works in nature too. Only the pinch get's substituted for the sound in the end. Sorry, to say, but after reading your post, I had to laugh. Dogs need a leader. Problem is, most people aren't being leaders to their dogs. It is not domesticated, it is just plain wrong. Why are Chihuahuahs mostly biters? Because people treat them like humans, which they are not. A dog needs to be a dog. That's all.
@ Arunia Except that feral dogs don't live in packs. They're solitary scavengers that occasionally form loose relationships with other dogs. There's no such thing as an "alpha dog." And the idea of "dominance theory" came from flawed studies done in the 1940s on captive wolves. Wild wolves don't fight for dominance. The packs are basically just families that cooperate, consisting of a breeding pair and their pups. When the pups are old enough, they leave to mate and form their own packs. The dominance struggles in the captive wolves in those studies were a result of having a bunch of wolves from different packs thrown into a stressful situation together. You can't generalize what those studies found to dogs or even wolves in the wild. Cesar Millan is a dog groomer. He doesn't understand the science behind dog training, and most of his ideas are outdated and wrong. Dogs, like any other animal, learn best through operant conditioning. If you have to kick a dog to make it behave, you're doing something wrong.
I've never seen a dog in the wild (not that there are many that aren't coyotes or wolves nowadays but...) that didn't live in a pack. Perhaps some don't hunt in packs (actually I think most do... the others just don't show up until your injured :x) perhaps, but afaik I'd think all of em live in packs. Only a few species (humans, some large birds, whales...) live on their own. I guess whales technically live in a pod... :/