Cesar Millan and energy
Part 1
In dog training, I use neither energy (Cesar Millan) nor treats. The reason why I don't use treats can be found on this account or on my website.
Cesar Millan defines energy as: Intention × Emotion. He further explains that "the ideal leadership energy is steady, quiet, confident, and compassionate."
So, mastering your emotions and achieving steadiness, quietness, and confidence — which is not an emotion but rather a cognitive state or behavior — are, according to him, essential.
So, if you are not a highly trained yogi, couldn't you still be a leader for your dog?
In life, even day to day, who can remain steady and quiet for even a couple of hours? In those moments of unsteadiness and restlessness, when your mind is turbulent, do you lose leadership — or is your leadership merely threatened?
My view is that what makes you a good leader is consistency, which also means predictability. And here is the core of my disagreement with Cesar Millan's opinion: I believe this consistency, regardless of your emotional state, is what makes you a good leader. Meaning that no matter if you are sad, depressed, excited, joyful, feeling confident or deeply unconfident, the rules you must apply to be a good leader won't change.
Predictability is also the ground on which reliance becomes possible. If we don't know how people, or things, will react, trust isn't possible. Trust is a feeling of security and assurance, and we cannot feel secure if things or people are unpredictable.
If the qualities described as "energy" were truly necessary to be a good leader, one would have to be Buddha to succeed.
Part 2
So, according to Cesar Millan, being "steady, quiet, confident…" — key parts of what he calls "energy" — is what one must have to be a good leader.
How does a dog gain access to leadership?
First, because he spots a flaw or a weakness in the leader and exploits it. Since the leader is no longer fit to lead — due to this new weakness — he must be replaced; that's nature's programming. The dog who becomes the new leader hasn't evolved to reach that status; he hasn't gained anything, he has simply seized an opportunity.
Second, the dog who becomes the leader has reached maturity — he becomes an adult, enters the adult hierarchy, and tries to get the social position he believes he can attain. And if he is stronger, in several ways, than the current leader, he will take that position, either right away or over time.
If we observe that this dog has certain qualities matching what Cesar Millan defines as "energy," that's what interests us here — because we can then say the dog has gained those qualities. In fact, they were mostly dormant and emerged as he grew up; I can say this with some confidence, because we can already sense these qualities in certain puppies. But are those developed qualities what made him or her the new leader — or are they only a means to it, not a requirement?
In other words, are these qualities intrinsic to a leader? If not, Cesar Millan's "energy" philosophy — which defines what a leader is — simply falls apart.
If "steady, quiet, confident…" are essential to being a leader, then unless we already have them, we couldn't be good leaders. Having the right "energy" implies we have to reach it, and the only way is to work on it.
Changing our character traits, our personality, is one of the hardest things in life — exactly why people spend decades in therapy, yoga, meditation, and so many other practices, with mixed success and painfully slow change. That would mean becoming a good leader takes years, with no guarantee of success.
I fundamentally disagree with this view. I believe those qualities are just a means to access what makes you a leader. They are only a means — one that can be bypassed or replaced — and therefore not essential, not intrinsic.
A means to what, exactly? To having control over everything that is vital: food, territory, reproduction, but also movement and physical contact. And it is having control over those five that makes you the leader.
You can perfectly control those five without being "steady, quiet, confident…" at all. In fact, if you are still applying those rules while being unsteady, restless, and unconfident, then — and only then — are you a great leader. If you don't control those five, but have the "energy" as defined by Cesar Millan, you won't be a leader. In fact, while having that "energy," you can still be at the bottom of the hierarchy…
You are a good leader because, no matter the changes — internal (emotions) or external (the outside world) — you control those five. You stay the course, no matter what.
I also claim that we can become a leader within 24 hours. If so, that proves we don't need to acquire that "energy," which is the very ground of Cesar Millan's training philosophy.
Proof?
Here are messages sent by owners, within 24 hours of applying those five — you can check the feedback for yourself on Instagram:
"I practically have a new dog!!!"
"The amount of calm that has taken over my house and my pack is literally incredible, and that calm is also very much in me 🙏"
"I am so so happy with our work and already looking forward to proceed Saturday. 🙂 The improvement is already so big in terms of behaviour that I can hardly believe it."
"She's become so much calmer, and honestly just a happier little soul."
"This fella is behaving SO GOOD since."
I didn't write this to spit on Cesar Millan, or to try to make a name for myself by objecting to his views. Cesar Millan is far more skillful at handling dogs than most professionals who criticize him. I wrote this to explain why I disagree with his notion of "energy," in the hope of giving other lights to owners in search of help.
