I'm going to turn this post over to Parental Unit, since she's the one who was lucky enough to see Cesar Millan's live tour last night (the only canine there was Cesar's dog, Junior, and I hear that he wowed the audience just like Cesar!)
Now, most of you know that I've been a huge fan of the Dog Whisperer for many years now, and I think he's a real game changer-he taught me and millions of others to think in a totally different way about our relationship with our dogs. Although I've benefited from this knowledge, the real winner is Bocci and the other dogs I come into contact with-I've learned to respect dogs (yes, I still call Bocci my furry best friend), for the glorious species that they are, not as an extension of me or like a human companion. So, I do my best to fulfill his needs first-and that starts with lots of exercise, every day-but that's the easy part. For me, it's difficult to consistently set the "rules, boundaries and limitations", i.e., discipline, that I know will benefit him. As Cesar said during the show, "discipline is not punishment", it's more like leadership-and you're in charge of giving your dog the direction and fulfillment he or she craves.
Now let's get to the show!
Here I am arriving at the Palace Theater in downtown Columbus...What? No red carpet?
In an earlier post, we mentioned that a reporter described the audience as roaring with laughter during most of Cesar's show in Providence, Rhode Island, and we couldn't quite figure out why-we knew from his show and interviews that the guy has a good sense of humor, but keeping the audience in stitches for two hours?
Well, I can assure you that there wasn't a dry eye in the house in Columbus either-the audience, including me, howled (you'll pardon the pun) pretty much straight through the program. Who knew that Cesar could expertly do different "voices', both human and dog, and act out all the parts in his stories-from the hyper-excited gal spotting a beautiful Golden Retriever on a walk, to Cesar's first clients, who thought shrieking and hiding their dog in the bathroom were the appropriate response when a visitor (in this case, Cesar) knocked on their door?
But these wildly funny stories told us about ourselves and our sometimes unsteady emotional states, and how we transfer this imbalance to our pets-then claim that it's the dog who is having problems or misbehaving.
Note: We don't have photographs taken during the actual program because, well,
we were not supposed to take pictures during the show, and I wanted to respect that rule (although many in the audience were snapping away.) The downside is that we didn't get a photo of Junior, who was joyful throughout. Cesar pretty much let him do what he wanted, with the stage as his boundary. He made his way on several occasions to one of the theater staff standing right against the stage to give his face a good lick, and then gave himself a hearty roll on his back that had the audience cooing in unison.
So here's a picture of the empty stage taken before the show...glad they don't send me on the road, eh?
Although I've watched nearly every episode of Cesar's TV show, read his books, and have read and seen numerous interviews with him, I still learned a lot from this show-somehow the stories he told helped to deepen what I already knew, and gave me renewed energy to put that knowledge into practice. And I think seeing Junior and Cesar interact for those two hours sealed the deal-what a gorgeous relationship-so clearly based on mutual trust, respect and love. Don't we all want that kind of bond with our dogs?
At the end of the program, the audience spontaneously gave Cesar and Junior a well-deserved standing ovation-and they were still laughing!
Here are a few (not very good) photos of Cesar and fans taken at the "meet and greet" after the show.
Cesar with his arms around two fans, and his lovely assistant, Allegra, off to the side.
The woman nearest Cesar on his right in this photo is the mother of one of his employees-her son designs his website and edits the video content for the site. According to his mom, he loves his job!
And last but not least is yours truly and Cesar!
