Cesar Millan's Secrets Revealed on Red Bank Stage

Cesar Millan, known to most as “The Dog Whisperer,” stepped on stage at the Count Basie Theatre on Friday night to thunderous applause and whistles from the near sold out crowd. He greeted the crowd with a warm smile and positive energy. His trusty companion, Junior, a grey and white pit bull who epitomizes a “balanced dog,” was at his side. 

The crowd let out a chorus of “ahhs” in response to Junior, who playfully wandered around the stage, watching Cesar’s every move. In response to the crowd’s fawning over Junior, Cesar showed his sense of humor and laughed as he said, “He’s cute, I know.”

Millan began the night by telling the crowd that his number one goal is to “teach a dog how to be a dog,” something he feels has been lost due to our over affectionate American culture. Millan discussed his background of growing up in Mexico to illustrate the difference in dog-human relations according to culture. 

“In Mexico,” he laughed. “Everyone walks their dog off of a leash, but when I used this method in America, everyone was shocked.”

This led him to question why Americans don’t have a good, trusting relationship with their dogs.

The answer, he says, is that Americans have a hard time focusing on fulfilling the needs of their dogs, and instead usually focus on their own needs and wants. This, he says in a joking manner, has a tendency to lead to chubby dogs with psychological problems. In order to correct these problems, Millan says it is necessary to change deep rooted behaviors of people. This line of thinking line is what helped him come up with his trademark line “I train dogs and rehabilitate people.”

Millan tried to enlighten the audience to the mind of a dog by explaining that a dog relates to a human based on energy, not by personality. To illustrate this he joked about how dogs relate to each other.

“A Rottweiler,” he said. “Would never say to a Basset Hound, ‘hey man, what’s up with those ears!?’”

Millan went on to explain that a dog does not see race, and doesn’t follow fame or success. A dog does, however, know every detail of the emotions a person is feeling. Millan says this is the number one reason why it is important to project “calm- assertive energy” when around a dog.

“Animals don’t follow unstable pack leaders,” he said. “Only humans do that.”

To further illustrate his point, Millan described a recent case he worked on for none other than the super powerful Ms. Oprah Winfrey. Oprah was concerned that her dog, Sophie, was going to hurt someone. This fear, Millan says, was felt and exploited by Sophie. 

Millan explained how Sophie’s disobedience to one of the most powerful women in the world clearly proved his point that animals don’t relate to personality.

“It’s not who we are in the human world that matters,” Millan said, “It’s who we are in the animal world that dogs relate to.”

In order to be the best “pack leader,” Millan says it’s important to be mindful of the energy we are projecting, not the words we are saying.

“Remember, it’s not what you are saying; it’s what you are being,” Millan instructed the audience.  “The biggest misconception is that I whisper to dogs. They wouldn’t understand the words anyway.”

“What I do,” Millan continued, “is listen.”