Cesar's Rules : What She Read Review



Amazon link.  Or Indiebound link.

I always learn plenty from Cesar, and this book offered not only his particular advice on helping one's canine companions integrate happily with their human families, but also explored a variety of methodologies for 'training' one's dog. Two thumbs up for providing the sort of background info. that I thrive on, and for making the frequent distinction between teaching a dog "commands" or tricks and helping a dog to become a calm, confident, easy-going, and rewarding companion. Trust me, these are two different, although not mutually exclusive, things.

With this book, Cesar helped me to clarify what I really needed from and wanted for my newly adopted five-year-old dog, CJ, and encouraged me to focus on what's really important: not so much the commands she knows, but how she integrates into our day to day life so that all of us are fulfilled by our relationships, and how we human pack leaders can clearly and consistently establish our leadership and trustworthiness, so that she will follow our lead in new or challenging situations. He also reminded me of the power of finding balanced, confident doggy pals for play-dates so that she can learn confidence and social skills in the most natural and effective way possible: from her canine peers.

My Action:  Simple and extremely rewarding, yet certainly time-consuming.  I'm working with 'The Ceej', day in, day out, to keep introducing her to new environments and situations, and I'm seeking the companionship of as many fabulous dog/human combos as I can to join us on walks and hikes and hanging out in busy places with new (and for previously not-so-socialized CJ, fairly scary) distractions.  Luckily, there are plenty of extraordinary people with wonderful dogs where I live and my friends-with-dogs tend to enjoy 'double dates' as much as we do, so it's an absolute pleasure to take action in response to this book!

 

If you favor Cesar's Dog Whisperer television show, you will likely enjoy and learn from this book. If you don't agree with some of his methods, you might actually come to respect him a bit more by reading this book, because he clearly acknowledges the potential efficacy of other types of approaches.

 

MFB, with CJ and Cesar,

L



CJ: Our spritely new pal.  Growing more
confident by the day, and no slouch on
bringing the cute, either.