Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan

When I become interested in something, I often seek out information like crazy. When I first started running more than just casually, I checked out books from the library obsessively, subscribed to Runner’s World magazine, bought a Women’s Guide to Running and read it cover to cover, went online and sought out training plans from multiple sources. That’s just how I am (and I think it might be a family characteristic based on the number of skiing and cycling books at my parents’ house).

So when I started thinking seriously about getting a dog, my reaction was to spend hours doing my research. I whipped out my mad Google skills to learn about adopting, breed characteristics, costs, training. I visited the local library and browsed through the shelf of dog books. And I went to Borders with the intent of beginning my own reference collection. I got two books. One was a largish book with about everything I could possibly want to know about getting and keeping dogs, the kind of book I wouldn’t necessarily sit down and read from beginning to end, but could pick up and skim a section at a time as necessary.

The second was Cesar’s Way, which I got partly because I wanted a book I could just sit down and read from beginning to end, and partly because Cesar Millan (the “dog whisperer”) had come up in discussion the day before and I was curious—I had heard about him, but didn’t know much, and when I skimmed the book standing there in the pets aisle, I was intrigued.

So I took the book home with me, and in two days flat I had devoured the book, cover to cover, and it changed my life. Well, okay, not my life, but it did completely change the way I think about dogs. One of Millan’s basic premises is that we (Americans especially) have a tendency to think of our dogs as humans instead of dogs, and so we don’t understand our dogs’ behavior, especially their problem behavior. But when you start to understand how a dog sees the world, and particularly their pack mentality, then you can have a much healthier, happier dog, and a much better relationship with your dog. I can’t really do his argument justice in a short book review on my blog, but this book more than anything else I read has influenced how I am thinking about the dog I might or might not get in the near future—and has alleviated some of my worries about problems that might develop.

The book itself is very readable. It's partly a book about Cesar Millan himself, how he came to be doing what he is doing. It's also a book about dog psychology, what dogs do, why they do it. It's a book about Millan's experiences working with dogs. And it's a book about how to work with your own dog. It's certainly not a step-by-step manual for training your dog, because the focus of the book is not just what to do but also why. But that's what makes the book feel so practical. If you know what to do (and the book does address that) you can handle certain situations, like the first time you bring a dog home with you, or taking your dog on a walk. But if you know why, then you can feel confident in all situations.

This book not just helpful, but incredibly eye-opening. I wish I could write this review having had the chance to put what I learned to use (maybe soon I will), but even so, I honestly think every dog owner, or potential dog owner, should read this book.