Who hasn’t watched a show of “The Dog whisperer” and sincerely asked himself “How is Cesar doing all that stuff with dogs ?” It looks so easy for him ! While it seems he is constantly working on trying to change the dog’s behaviour and to rehabilitate the animal, what he primarily does is reeducating the human parents showing how they can alter their state of being and become calm and balanced !
Cesar Millan explains :
Because humans are intellectual beings, we communicate mostly with words. This makes it easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that dogs also communicate with spoken language.
Energy is what we get when our intentions meet our emotions. ‘Energy is how any being presents itself to the world. Think of it as your personality, disposition, temperament, or whatever word makes sense to you.’ For humans, energy is what we get when our intentions meet our emotions. Cesar expresses it as a formula:
Intention × Emotion = Energy
Intention is defined as “Determination to do a specified thing or act in a specified manner; to be motivated in thoughts or acts; anything intended or planned.”
Emotions are the states of mind that color our interactions, and they can be physical (like shaking in fear), behavioral (like approaching or avoiding certain things), or subjective (biases based on personal experiences and perceptions).
Dogs are acutely aware of both our emotion and intention, which is why it can be so difficult to fool a dog. You’ve probably experienced this firsthand whenever your dog seems to magically know that it’s time for a bath or to go to the vet no matter how positive or cheerful you try to be in luring her to you. The emotions are happy, but the intention completely alters your energy.
When we are calm and assertive, our emotions are balanced and our intent is clear. Dogs understand this. On the other hand, negative emotions and lack of firm intent presents weak energy and confuses our dogs.
Dogs will avoid unbalanced energy, and many human emotions are unbalanced: anger, anxiety, fear, and hopelessness, for example. You can have the best of intentions, but combine them with unbalanced emotion, and the result is energy that will make your dog run away from you.
But if you remain balanced — calm and assertive — then this will allow your dog to trust you, and when your dog trusts you, she will also trust your intentions. This is what leadership is all about.
“As humans, we experience time differently than dogs do. We’re constantly aware not only of the present, but of past and future. For many of us, that’s where feelings like shame, guilt or regret (past) and fear or anxiety (future) arise.”
Dogs, on the other paw, live only in the present ‘ in the moment. Living in the moment means dogs are only concerned with what’s happening to them right now, not what happened to them last week or what’s going to happen next Tuesday. It’s a very simple, instinctual way to live and it’s part of what keeps dogs connected to Nature.
We can vividly see this in dogs that have lost a limb, hearing or sight. They don’t lament or mourn the absent abilities or wonder where they went. They deal with the abilities they have right now and move on with life.
Cesar’s tips for human parents :
To achieve balance in our relationship with our dogs, we need to learn how to live more in the moment ourselves. For humans, there are a number of ways to do this.
Many find meditation and similar mindful practices very helpful, as they can quiet the past and future that distract us from the present. Physical exercise ‘ walking our dogs, jogging, yoga, dancing, whatever — can help too, because it brings us more in touch with our bodies and instincts. And one of the best ways to learn to live in the moment is to immerse ourselves to Nature, whether it’s a beach, park, or hiking trail. Leaving the busy and complicated human world for an hour or two can help us recapture the awareness of the moment.
“Dogs live in the moment. They don’t regret the past or worry about the future. If we can learn to appreciate and focus on what’s happening in the here and now, we’ll experience a richness of living that other members of the animal kingdom enjoy..”‘
Please visit www.cesarsway.com for more information !
Phuro! Be inspired!
Phuro! 
Eén gedachte over “Dog whisperer or human whisperer ?”