Cesar Millan Previews Season 7 of 'Dog Whisperer' on Nat Geo, and Talks About 'Cesar's Rules,' His Latest Book

After happily showing off his baby English Bulldog, Rockefeller, Cesar Millan, host of the National Geographic Channel show Dog Whisperer, explained to Imus the most important thing to do with a new puppy.

“Obviously they’re pretty cute, and what people are going to do is carry them all over the place,” Cesar said. “It breeds discomfort when a person holds them like a baby.”

A dog should instead be held by the skin around its neck, the same manner in which its mother would hold it. “You hold the muscle,” Cesar said, and demonstrated on Rockefeller. “This is something people don’t do. Dog lovers don’t do that, they just hold the dog like a baby.”

In that position, the dog is on top of the human, making the dog think it is dominant, a problem recently experienced by comedian Howie Mandel, who appears in the first episode of Dog Whisperer’s seventh season, tomorrow night at 8pm.

Mandel’s Chihuahua, Lola, had big problems with his wife Terry, and would go crazy anytime Mandel went near her. “His wife didn’t know how to react to the situation, so that’s a way of contributing to the situation,” Cesar, whose new book is called Cesar’s Rules, said. “If you just stand still, or freak out about the situation and freeze, it’s almost like encouraging the dog.”

The situation was so bad that Mandel couldn’t even kiss Terry goodbye before going to work. “Lola was the pack leader,” Cesar said.

His solution was to train the hyper Mandel to calm down, because Lola’s aggressiveness would intensify whenever Mandel started bouncing off the walls, which was often.

Treating dogs like humans, Cesar said, does little to help the dog. “We need to train the human to relate to the dog in a more natural way,” he added.

As for what dogs think about when humans do things to them or expect things from them, Cesar said, “I don’t think they’re thinking, so much as they’re reacting. There is no knowledge behind instincts. It’s all reactions.”

Which might explain why Wyatt Imus’s dog Lucinda chased him down a hallway at a rescue shelter in Santa Fe, New Mexico four years ago, choosing him instead of the other way around.

“You son is the pack leader,” Cesar said. “The dog follows your son because he’s got the right scent and the right energy.”

Traits he obviously inherited from his mother.

-Julie Kanfer