Koirakuiskaaja Cesar Millan pois TV:stä

Osoitteessa http://www.4pawsu.com/cesarfans.htm muuten vastataan Millanin puollustajien esittämiin kysymyksiin ja toteamuksiin, kuten "oletko ikinä katsonut ohjelmaa?","Olet vain kateellinen","Haluatko että ongelmakoirat lopetetaan?", "Entä sitten, vaikka hänellä ei ole virallista koulutusta?" jne.

Muutama esimerkki:
BUT IT WORKS/IT WORKED ON MY DOG(S)

I have not seen much in the way of changed behavior on the show. I do, however, see dogs with suppressed behaviors; dogs walking on very tight leashes, dogs that are stiff and immobile after being rolled onto their sides by force, dogs that are in almost every case restrained or shut down in some form or another. If the dog is unable to perform without being restrained by a tight leash or otherwise, the behavior has not been changed, it has been suppressed.

If the show's methods helped you and your dog and have not created additional behavior problems, then I can understand why it would be difficult to see the harm. However, in comparison to the limited number of dogs the average owner will own in their lifetime, professional trainers and behaviorists who speak out against these methods see thousands of dogs that develop significant behavior problems as a direct result of punitive methods.

One must also define "work." What I frequently hear is something along these lines:

"It worked on my dog. Every time he does [enter behavior], I just give him a correction and tell him "Tsssht" and he stops."

"Every time he barks" indicates that the dog is still repeating the behavior. The idea behind behavior modification is not that the dog simply stops the behavior momentarily, but that the behavior changes so that the dog's reaction in that environment is different, like looking at you instead of barking. Suppression of a behavior is not changing the behavior, itself. If the owner has to continually repeat the "correction" the behavior isn't changing.

Do aversive methods work? By the laws of operant conditioning, positive punishment and negative reinforcement do work. However, what the average viewer sees on the show is not changed behavior, with a few exceptions. What the average viewer sees on the show is suppressed behavior. Just because the dog is not barking, lunging or growling does not mean that it is rehabilitated.

POSITIVE METHODS/COOKIES DON'T WORK ON "RED ZONE" DOGS

This common myth stems from a lack of understanding of stress in dogs. When a dog is in a situation where the sympathetic nervous system is engaged (fight or flight), the digestive system shuts down to divert all energy to the muscles for survival. This is what is known as the animal being over-threshold. So, if one tries to feed a dog treats while they are over-threshold, the dog will not eat. This means that the owner or trainer has moved too quickly into an environment in which the dog is already reacting and unable to learn.

Experienced professionals understand the importance of keeping a dog under-threshold, which involves exposing the dog to the person, dog or object that triggers the problem behavior. This allows trainers to use positive methods to change the dog's association in that scenario.

To use positive methods effectively to change behavior, one needs a basic understanding of how dogs learn. If they lack that understanding, they won't be successful. However, when one is unsuccessful with positive methods, there is no change in behavior, for better or for worse. When one is unsuccessful with punishment-based methods, there can be an escalation in the problem behavior which can be difficult for the dog owner to overcome.

Pointtina CM:n kriitikoilla on usein tämä:
"Ignoring over a century of research about animal behavior and learning only furthers the ignorance of dog owners, the leading cause of behavior problems in dogs." (Suomeksi suunnilleen: Yli vuosisadan aikana tehtyjen tutkimusten eläinten käytöksestä ja oppimisesta huomiottajättäminen vain edistää koiranomistajien tietämättömyyttä, joka on johtava syy koirien käytösongelmiin.)