Dog training technique
Millan's work focuses on handling a dog with what he calls "calm-assertive energy". He believes that dog owners should establish their role as calm-assertive pack leaders. According to Millan, dogs have three primary needs: exercise, discipline and affection, in that order. In other words, it is the owner's responsibility to fulfill the dog's energy level needs through challenging exercise; then to provide clearly communicated rules, boundaries and limitations; and finally, to provide affection.
According to Millan, a common pitfall for American dog owners is to give a great deal of affection with very little exercise and even less discipline. He encourages owners to understand the effect their own attitudes, internal emotions and physical postures have on a dog's behavior, counseling owners to hold strong posture (i.e., shoulders high and chest forward) and to project energy that is calm-assertive.
Millan's TV programs are centered on the rehabilitation of dogs while Millan concurrently educates the dog owners in his dog-handling philosophy. Conversations with owners typically revolve around his philosophy: that healthy, balanced dogs require strong "pack leadership" from their owners, while Millan demonstrates how owners can achieve and maintain a leadership role with their dogs.
In some cases, Millan takes dogs with severe behavioral problems to his Dog Psychology Center for an extended period of more intensive rehabilitation. The programs are not intended as a dog training guide, and each episode contains repeated warnings that viewers should not try the behavior modification techniques at home without the guidance of a professional.
While working with a dog, Millan often uses vocal marks, gestures, and body language to communicate with dogs rather than speech or the dog's name. Millan encourages owners to create their own unique sound that works for them. He believes that dogs sense, understand, and respond to a person's energy more easily than their speech.
Millan has said, "My goal in rehabilitating dogs and training people is to create balanced relationships between humans and canines." In 2009, The New York Times attributed Millan's success to his personal sense of balance, describing this as "a sort of über-balanced mien".
One of Millan's dogs, Daddy, was an American Pit Bull Terrier integral to Millan's work and his television series, The Dog Whisperer. Millan later selected another pit bull puppy, Junior, as Daddy's protégé — to apprentice, learn his temperament and prepare to assume Daddy's role after his death. Daddy's death came at age 16 in February 2010. After the death of Daddy, Junior assumed Daddy's role and helped Millan with rehabilitating dogs by using what Millan refers to as calm, assertive energy.
