Selecting a New Dog With the Help of Your Dog
October 13, 2009 by Paris and John
Filed under Adopting a dog, Shelters, Tips
Many dog lovers want to add another dog to their family. In his new book (How to Raise the Perfect Dog) and companion episode on the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan discusses selecting and raising four puppies. In last week’s interview with Millan, DogTipper asked more about how he–and his dog Daddy–selected his new pit bull, Junior:
When I got Junior, I knew that Daddy was already 13 years old at that time and as you know, he’s at the senior stage. A friend of mine came and told me—”You know what? I have some puppies, and I know Daddy’s going to die.” That’s how he said it. Not die soon. And so of course, it hurts.
Daddy is neutered so he can’t have puppies, and not that I want him to have puppies, but at the same time I know what he can do for somebody. One thing that he can do is he can become the foster dad and pass his wisdom to the new generation, and he did an amazing job. I mean, Junior has become an amazing canine citizen. He is helping in the show. He is helping me exactly what Daddy was doing and of course you know, as a matter of more time for him to become just as wise as Daddy is, the foundation is there.
What I did is I brought Daddy in that place, at my friend’s house, and I went inside with the mother and the puppies and—okay there’s high-level energy. I don’t want that for Daddy. He is low-level energy. He’s not going to have fun with that. It doesn’t mean … energy, so I did my evaluation and I brought the little dog outside. When I brought the high-level energy, Daddy growled at him and when I brought the low-level energy, Daddy totally ignored him, but when I brought Junior, Daddy came to him, smelled him, and as soon as they finished with the ritual smelling, Daddy turned around and went to the car, and Junior started following him. So, that to me is when we are I agreement. This is the dog that we are going to take, and we did. We just took the dog right there, and that’s the one I chose. That just let me know that we [would be]… partners for a long time and I know him and he knows me.
Although Millan’s new pit bull Junior came from a friend, we wondered what if he were adopting from a shelter? Would he take Daddy along to help make the selection?
Always, because [Daddy] is going to be with him. He is going to be raising him more than I am going to be raising him because he’s going to teach him dog psychology more than I am going to teach him dog psychology. I’m just going to teach him what the humans don’t like about dogs, and what humans like about dogs. You know what I mean? But, in reality, the one who is going to nurture his dogness is Daddy.
Photo courtesy Cesar Millan, Inc.
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