Cesar Millan has been whispering to dogs for years and now brings his live show to Chicago. Windy City Times dropped into his penthouse suite to interview him Nunn on One.
Windy City Times: Hola, Cesar. Look at the rooftop view from your hotel balcony.
Cesar Millan: Every once and a while go out there to pee. I am housebroken! [ Both laugh. ]
WCT: I am sure everywhere you go people want you to help their dog.
CESAR MILLAN: "Can you talk to my dog?" They hand me a cell phone sometimes. "Can I show you a picture of my dog?" I am not a dog psychic.
WCT: I read your bio and you are from Sinaloa, Mexico. I went there on a trip one time. The border patrol looked at me and said, "There are no white people in Sinaloa!"
CESAR MILLAN: There is not, and if there are white people they look different. We call them "Guerritos."
WCT: I drove to Mazatlan, Mexico, afterwards, which is where you grew up, correct?
CESAR MILLAN: Yes, my adolescence.
WCT: This was where you decided to be the "best dog trainer in the world."
CESAR MILLAN: When I was 13. I was on my way to a judo competition, when my mom would take me. I turned around and asked her and she said, "Yes, mi amor."
WCT: Did you always have a love for dogs?
CESAR MILLAN: I think with most kids that want to be around dogs want be a vet. When I started watching Lassie and Rin Tin Tin reruns I said, "Those American people are amazing. They have the Levis and the best trained dogs!" It really motivated me.
WCT: Animals are treated very differently in Mexico. Dogs are around the families but do not pet them every two seconds.
CESAR MILLAN: You know how the ranchos are in Mexico. The dogs there are not in the social public environment. That's why they behave completely different. America brings them into an intimate space without reminding them to be respectful in a social environment.
The dog immediately takes over. If this pillow is a dog, America brings the dog and puts it on top of them. Dogs interpret that as dominance. The dog takes over and this is how the show was born.
WCT: America gets to learn a lot from your show.
CESAR MILLAN: My goal is to help people understand that they can have it all. You can have the primal part of it, the instinctual, love and spiritual part. Most of my clients focus on their dog as a son or daughter, which is an emotional point of view.
WCT: Many of my friends from here have issues with how dogs are treated in Mexico.
CESAR MILLAN: Well, they are skinny but they don't have psychological problems. Dogs in America are nice and chubby but they have psychological problems. It is just prospective on what is bad and good. Who has a more natural normal life? To the Mexican dog the whole world is a dog park. The American dog has to go find the dog park.
WCT: Tell our readers what your live show is like.
CESAR MILLAN: It is a live event. They get the feeling of what energy is all about. It is the difference between being at a concert versus watching it on TV. George Michael sent us concert tickets and my wife was able to go and I couldn't. After watching it on television, she said, "It's not the same, Honey!" It's the live experience. I explain step by step what the psychology is of the dog. With the philosophy I bring humor into the conversation. People are learning and laughing their head off at the same time.
WCT: So people can have fun while they are learning.
CESAR MILLAN: One way that I have learned for people to keep their mind open is to keep them laughing. There is an intermission so people can use the bathroom, then they come back and we do hands on of what we just talked about. We bring in an aggressive dog and a fearful dog from the area. If it is a Rottweiler or a Chihuahua, don't focus on the breed. Focus on the state of mind and how the human feels. People tend to focus on a Rottweiler if it is around a Maltese, even if the Rottweiler is well behaved.
WCT: Because the Rottweiler is the bigger dog.
CESAR MILLAN: They are studying the situation and are just responding to a visual conversation. It is very important to recognize how you influence things around you by the way you behave.
WCT: Do you think some types of dogs more difficult to train than others?
CESAR MILLAN: No, it's people that are difficult to train. It is more difficult to rehabilitate a dog that has no self-esteem than a dog that wants to come after you because he wants to be with you. If a dog wants to bite then I just channel that energy into something more positive. I don't think aggression is the problem more the outcome of the problem.
WCT: What do you do with a dog that barks all the time?
CESAR MILLAN: I walk them. Excessive barking comes from two main sources. One the dog does not get enough physical challenge. The other is the human encourages excitement. The human consciously or unconsciously keeps the dog excited. One to express itself it is to bark. When you are in Mexico you don't see dogs excessively barking. That only happens to dogs that live in the modern world.
WCT: How many dogs do you own?
CESAR MILLAN: Well, the pack changes. We try to keep a minimum of thirty dogs. It is important to me to have a large pack because when a new one comes in, I can influence it quicker, the bigger the pack, the faster the rehabilitation.
WCT: There is going to be a season six for the Dog Whisperer?
CESAR MILLAN: Yes, we are shooting season six. This season we actually went to Australia. The show is in eighty-three different countries. The whole goal of becoming the best dog trainer in the world is here.
WCT: I heard you have a whole empire now.
CESAR MILLAN: I don't—my wife does! [ Both laugh. ] I just live in it. It's a woman's world, in America at least.
WCT: You have an online training course at www.sessionswithcesar.com .
CESAR MILLAN: There are many ways that I want to help people. There is a society in the online world. The book, the seminars, the show are other ways and all related. A live event has a different feeling.
Illinois gets a chance to feel it when the Pack Power Tour is at the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River, Rosemont, Dec. 4. Visit CesarMillanInc.com/tour for more information.
