Cesar Millan's dog training philosophy and methods.

First off, I feel silly for my confusion regarding my role. DDO is a guilty pleasure of mine while at work, the quick tabbing in and out led me to read Round 1 as the Title Statement. Much thanks to my opponent and the readers for their patience with my misplaced but well-meaning requests for clarity. Rebuttal 1: Cesar & HollyContext: Con presents the 'red zone' case of Holly the Lab, her dog parents Kelly and Hyrum Lai had confided in three trainers [5] prior to Cesar's involvement. Holly exhibited outrageously aggressive resource guarding, this was particularly troubling due to the risk of their 18 month old son suffering attack. With resources guarding at this level it's quite feasible that the fourth trainer at the humane society (if one was even offered) would conclude like the latter three that Holly was a lost cause - resulting in her euthanization. Hackles & Discomfort:Con suggests that Holly's raised hackles were due to Cesar's 'intimidation' technique. However, at 2:20 of Con's linked video we see that Holly's owner (since she was a puppy) is very far from her, with non-threatening body language and yet still her hackles were raised. [1] The owner moves a broom handle around three feet from her and she lashes out viciously.Backing Off:Logic, and the Belmont Veterinary Centre indicate that when a dog is resource guarding "backing off will reward the dogs’ behavior making it more likely to do it again". [2] The logic is clear, if the dog growls and bites to defend it's food and the dog observes that this method is effective, the credibility of the behavior to the dog will be reinforced. Other sources also concede to this notion [3, 4]Proper Application of Positive PunishmentI would argue that a case with this degree of aggression has passed the point of calm and attentive behavior as is evident by the failure of three other trainers.[5] Cesar mentioned that he was attempting to 'snap' the brain out of the wound up and aggressive state so that calm submissive behavior could be acheived and then reward could follow.Confrontation 12:20-15:25Addressing the ProblemCon proclaims Cesar "did not actually address the problem" Con goes on to say; "In this situation, he's only communicated to the dog that growling and biting does not clearly communicate to Cesar what the dog wants." Which correct me if I'm wrong, is exactly what Cesar intended to communicate. Holly needs to understand that growling and biting are not proper communication methods.Consider 21:55, you can already see improvement on an violent behavior that had persisted and been reinforced over several years. [6]Also from 20:20 to 22:20 we see Cesar using Desensitization Therapy, the same therapy one of your sources condemned, while the ASPCA encourages it. [7] Most importantly, we've seen in the evidence linked by Con that it actually works. [6]We need to understand what is the touch, how should it be done and what function does it preform?What is it & Contexts: In the context of a dog that has an issue of barking, the touch will be just the simple contact of human and dog with minimal to no pressure applied. In the context of a vicious dog attack, clearly one must increase the speed of the touch to avoid being bitten, Cesar warns that this is never to be done in anger or with the intention of causing pain, it is simply a psychological wake up call.Why: When a dog is in a very anxious, high energy or excited state of mind, the touch is used to snap them out of that state of mind.Here is the 'touch' in a different context: In the following citation, we see Cesar using the touch to almost immediately produce results that seemed impossible for the owner [8] It is critical that we pause and observe the dog's body language, the dog did not respond with any fearful or anxious language. [9]Rebuttal 2: Semantics, the DominatrixSemantics play a significant role here, we need to understand how one another defines terms -Con concedes that dominance is an aspect in nature, whether wild dogs in a particular study in a particular context adhered to a specific idea of what a 'pack' might resemble does not refute this concession.Cesar establishes his very different perception of dominance and pack leaders in my previous Rebuttal 1 & 2. They do not resemble the definitions proposed by Con.Con states "Submission behavior and relaxed behavior are not the same" This is very true, Cesar makes it clear that to him submission is defined as relaxed attentiveness. Is it against human rights for a mother to tell her son to clean his room and for him to react in submission by saying 'yes, mother' without a tantrum.We need to be careful to avoid trends of semantic confusion and slippery slopes here.Rebuttal 3: Choosing a CollarFor argument's sake, I won't ask for a citation on the damage herm spring collar in question can cause in 'small dogs'.Con attributes the dog owners choice of a herm spring collar for the French Bulldog to Cesar. Cesar does not recommend herm spring collars. [10]Con states that the Bulldog "you see the dog growing increasingly uncomfortable and scared". As we established earlier, if Cesar were to release the dog at this point, it would understand that in order to get what it wants it needs to be anxious, restless and tug at it's owner. [2, 3, 4]As for what we see at 25 minutes I submit the above statement in conjuction with the citations.Ultimately, I would hope that the reader notes how both of these episodes show cased how the behavior was changed immediately. If you review their body language after the temper tantrums you will see they are quite all right, best of all they remain not euthanized.Rebuttal 4: DDO & Error 404The parenthesis in the link caused DDO to render it unusable, by manually merging them I was able to follow the links.The first link under your third argument was a survey of 53 dog owners who reported that dogs who favored 'physical punishment' techniques tended to preform less than dogs receiving rewards. I'd like to point out a couple problems here:1) You must prove that this is Cesar's technique resembles whatever it was these dog owners were doing. 2) 53 random dog owners is hardly going to produce reliable results. 3) Without some professional degree of training, the study subjects have far too varying ideas of 'physical punishment' and expressive body languages.The second link has all the same problems as the first one but a larger study group of 140, hardly enough to quantify an both species which are variables here (humans & dogs). Note that this second link consisted of surveys filled out in the waiting room of a referal behavior service office with no scientific follow up or involvement.Rebuttal 5: Let's DebateConcerning the remaining links:German Training Course: Your scrutiny of Mr. Millan is vicious, he can't even fail an obscure training course in a foreign country without being wholly condemned.Lawsuit Vs. Producer: The link provided tells the story of a suit that has not even been fully filed, even if it were filed and even if they won, it would be nothing about Cesar's techniques as an outlier cannot be used as a generalizing condemnation.The other links: Clearly the folks in the latter links are very upset and dislike Cesar and his techniques (or as I suspect are simply caught up on the semantics of terms like 'dominate'). However, they did not provide a single citation and I am not here to argue with themArgument 1: Rebuttal ReviewI'd like to present a few facts from my rebuttals as evidence that Cesar's techniques are indeed effective:1) Con's own source admits[13] that Cesar uses desensetization therapy, which is a provenly effective therapy method. [11, 12]2) I would submit Con's video links as well as the entire series to showcase the effectiveness of Cesar's methods. (this should be fair game since it was brought to our attention by Con to begin with).3) I would also point out the concept of standing your ground until favorable behavior is observed. [2, 3, 4]Conclusion:I have demonstrated Cesar's use of proven psychological therapy techniques, demonstrated how in many ways Milan is on the same page as even my opponent's citations and rebutted my opponents arguments. I hold that I have successfully defended and reinforced Cesar's techniques.Citations:1) https://youtu.be...2) http://www.belmontveterinarycentre.co.uk...3) http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com...4) http://www.pet360.com...5) https://youtu.be...6) https://youtu.be...7) http://www.aspca.org...8) https://youtu.be...9) http://www.aspca.org...10) http://www.cesarsway.com...11) Chamove, A.S. (2005). Spider Phobic Therapy Toy. The Behavior Analyst Today, 6(2), 109–25 BAO 12) CARNAGEY, N; ANDERSON, C; BUSHMAN, B (1 May 2007). "The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violencea34;". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (3): 489–496. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.05.003 13) http://companionanimalsolutions.com...