Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan (born August 27, 1969) is a Mexican self-taught professional dog trainer widely known for his television series The Dog Whisperer, now in its sixth season and broadcast in more than eighty countries worldwide.
Prior to The Dog Whisperer series, Millan had focused on rehabilitating especially aggressive dogs and had founded the Dog Psychology Center in South Los Angeles (2002–2008) — under construction in a new Los Angeles location as of late 2009.
Cesar Millan always makes a distinction between dog behaviorists (himself) and dog trainers. Whatever label you choose to use, the fact is that dogs respond to classical and operant conditioning.
Simply put, classical conditioning is responsible for involuntary responses, e.g. a dog salivating when dinner is served, while operant conditioning is responsible for voluntary responses, e.g. a dog sitting for a treat.
Behavior modification and dog training are both based on classical and operant conditioning techniques. Operant conditioning techniques can further be divided into reward techniques and aversive techniques.
Cesar Millan uses mostly aversive techniques, which some consider to be overly harsh or cruel. However, some of Cesar Millan’s most effective dog training techniques turn out to be reward based; even though he does not present them as such.
