This always confuses me. I don't see his methods as force at ALL. Not remotely. Can you explain what you mean. He uses energy,attitude, and distraction, not force. He seldom even touches the dogs, and when he does it is just a slight touch. I understand that it is not a reward training, but I don't see the only methods as reward and force, or positive and negative.

He does use a positive/reward method, IMO, but the reward is peace and affection, not cookies.

When I think of "force" training, I think of those trainers of the past who would encourage people to throw the dogs to the ground, hold the neck tight, and have a stare down, or the rolled up newspaper, etc. Not sounds and body language.

there are better breeds for families and children, i dont think this is one of >>them.

I think it depends, really, on how things are handled with the Basenji and the children and of course, the individual dogs. Maybe a little on how dominance is established with the dog.
We have six children and they all have friends, and my friends have babies and young children. Our Basenji has proven to be a good dog with kids of all ages.

So, please, if you want a Basenji and have or plan to have kids, study up on the breed and how to work with them. You can have a happy family that includes a well-behaved Basenji member!

His methods work for my dogs as well…not just the B's.
The "poke" is really just a touch, as is the "kick". I NEVER strike my dogs
in any way.

One of my sisters has been training horses and dogs for .... well, geez, as long as I can remember {she's about 12 yrs older than I}... and has always used positive training. She's the one who turned me on to Cesar.

As for him not thinking dogs need affection, I disagree. He believes they need affection at the appropriate times, but he is very affectionate with his dogs, and encourages affection toward those he trains once they are in a calm state of mind.

But, as has been said, this really is a case of agree to disagree. And that's okay,too.

You know, I watched that show for the first time this weekend after hearing about it here, and now I really don't get it.

There was a small, aggressive dog that wanted to attack every dog it saw at parks, etc. The solution was to take the dog to a park, and walk it rapidly toward another dog and then turn quickly w/out a sound to the dog, and begin to walk back in the opposite direction. The result was that the little dog was jerked around and dragged – while it was still trying to turn to get to the other dog -- along behind the walker. First the instructor did it a few times, then the owner.

How is that NOT rough training? How is that NOT tugging or pulling?

I guess we all see in these methods what we expect to see. As I've said before when it's been said that Cesar Milan "pokes" or "kicks" the dogs that these are just gentle touches -- there's not hard poke, just a touch the neck; no kick, just a touch w/the foot -- which are methods I use w/my own dogs.
I certainly saw punishment and pulling w/the lady from "It's me or the dog", but apparently others view that differently as well.

Again, this really is an "agree to disagree" moment because I really do not understand....

@Quercus:

You can justify it all you want. A HUGE body of trainers and animal professionals disagree with CM's methods (particularly for aggressive and fearful dogs). A large number of TV watchers and pet owners feel he has the right idea….Again, I prefer to do no harm when training my dogs, or my clients...IOW, I don't want to make problems that I will have to fix later...

This is the only part of what was written that I take offense with.

It implies – at least to me -- that only "pet owners" will approve of Milan's methods, while experienced "trainers" will not. It feels like there's a label of ignorance placed on those who approve of his methods. Obviously people who just "own" pets as opposed to "training" just don't have a clue.

Well, there is also huge body of trainers and animal professionals who approve of Cesar's methods and who have been using them successfully since long before he came on the TV scene. As I have said before, it was my sister a very experienced and successful horse/dog trainer since the 1970's, who first turned my attention to the TV show. And again, neither she, nor I have ever or will ever "do harm" to any of the animals we work with.

I can agree to disagree all day w/no hard feelings. Different strokes for different folks, etc.
Whether or not you agree w/his methods is one thing. But Thinly-veiled Insults of those who disagree is entirely another.

Just a quick update – Keoki did NOT adjust well, and after several weeks of me having to sit up next to his crate to prevent him SCREAMING in the night [we did try having him sleep in our room on a bed, no crate, but he just kept pacing and going from my husband to me, sticking his nose in our faces], and his having absolute PANIC attacks every time we had to leave him home alone we cracked . . .
and brought home Teazer Khani's Sorceress at Kabar, otherwise known as "Fiona".
Keoki was not happy at first and we had several really iffy weeks, but they've settled down nicely and while she does annoy him a lot when he's trying to nap and she wants to play {He's 6 1/2 yrs old, she's 1 1/2 yrs old – he likes to nap more than play, lol}, they do play together A LOT.
He's sleeping peacefully at night, and crating quietly when we go out.
Life is normal again :-).

With Jazz I used to hide the bicarb in blobs of peanut butter and stick it to the roof of her mouth. It's stickier than cream cheese and very nearly impossible to spit out or dig a pill out of.
Just a thought.

Jazz was also on PPA, which completely solved her incontinence issues for the last two years.

Whoa ~~ it's been a full week since this last happened: It is 6:45 AM and Keoki is still sleeping after a peaceful night! He's been in bed since about 11:30 last night. Hoping it's the new trend!

Thanks Everyone.
Keoki has not been handling the loss of Jazzy very well. He does okay, though he's not playful right now and hasn't baroo'd since her death and it used to be a frequent occurrence with him. Nights are VERY difficult as he is up crying most of the night. He is currently on anti-anxiety meds and we're getting 3 -4 hours of solid sleep each night, followed by another 3 - 4 hours of VERY restless napping.
We had him crated Sunday while we went to church and he went into his old destructive mode – my bad, I forgot to move everything away from the crate and had a few things on top of the metal crate. We came home to completely destroyed bedding, papers torn beyond recognition, my camera case chewed up , a camera cable chewed up. The bottom of his crate wasn't even under the crate any more.
Poor guy. Working with the vet to try to get him through this difficult adjustment. We are almost back to square one where we were when he first arrived. :-(.
We are hoping that a week or two on the meds will help ease him into his new life situation.

I know I haven't posted for a long…a very long... time, but for those who remember us ~~ I am very sad to day to have to say that my sweet Jazzy was put down today :-(. She had had Fanconi for the last five years and had actually been doing well, so her vet and I were both surprised when she suddenly began exhibiting symptoms of anything being amiss on Tuesday. I was planning to take her in and have her checked because she had vomited a couple of times and had no real appetite {refused dog food, ate popcorn, but not with her usual enthusiasm}....
but this morning she was semi-comatose. Took her in first thing and all of her blood work was off the charts -- forgive me for not remember numbers at this time {except BUN was >130}....
Had a long talk with the vet and made the decision. I am still coming to grips with how quickly this happened. Jazz would have been 8 yrs old on January 12.

We still have Keoki, who suffers from pretty extreme separation anxiety, so the next several nights -- maybe weeks or months with him? -- will be interesting.

He's looking for a kennel {ad vert is for "dog den"} , not a new home . . . Or am I reading that post incorrectly?

Wish I could help. BOTH of my Basenjis have pretty intense aggression toward other dogs.
Even walks in the neighborhood on lease get interesting sometimes.

Funny thing is, when they were showing, they never exhibited any aggression toward other Basenjis.
It was crazy. My Jazz would be snarking at every other dog on the way to the Basenji ring, and perfectly fine
in the ring of Basenjis.

Our female Basenji was great with kids for the first year of two. Now she is great with OUR kids and with those few who she deems part of her pack – the kids she has known well since she was a puppy.
Generally speaking, however, she does not like kids and doesn't really seem to like when adults visit. {She does have Fanconi, and often just doesn't feel spectacular. I imagine it's for them as it is for us -- family is one thing, but when you aren't feeling 100%, you really don't want a bunch of strangers over.}
We crate her when we have guests that she doesn't know well -- for their sake, and for her comfort. Our crate is next to the dining/living area, so she is not isolated --she can see and be seen -- but she seems to prefer to know that she'll be left alone/not bothered by guests. When people who are relative strangers to her come over, we just tell her, 'go to bed', and she runs right in, waits for her bite of chicken, and goes to sleep.

If they have kids who don't listen to our "let the dog sleep" warnings, I put up a baby gate to further block their access to her.....though I will also tell the parents that they need to watch supervise their child or I will :-)......

I'm picky now about my dog foods because I can afford to be, but honestly when I was a kid we fed them strictly table scraps – my folks never EVER bought dog food; we'd scrape plates and pots into a pan and the dogs ate it, loved it, and lived long and healthy lives on it. I never even remember taking our dogs to the vet.
When dh and I were starting out, we bought what many here call "crap", and our dogs always lived healthy long lives.
I'm just sayin' . . . . .

While I do not generally strike my dogs – the occasional pop on the bottom does happen -- I also think it's important to differentiate between giving a dog a slap or spank and "beating".......
do these people BEAT their dogs, or do they strike them in a tempered manner? There is a huge difference in the effect and the result.