Famed mutt meister Cesar Millan was at #TCA24 Thursday as part of the Nat Geo festivities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Dog Whisperer television shows.
He brought puppies, of course, who romped in a penned in area of the Langham Huntington Hotel ballroom. Lunch was served and, yes, Cesar salad was on the menu, along with dog bone-shaped cookies.
The 54-year-old Mexican-American has just finished shooting 24 new episodes of his latest series, Better Human, Better Dog. I spoke with him at the session, and he told he he had been all across Canada on promotional visits, “even Saskatchewan!”
“I did a whole tour of 20 cities, long time ago,” he said. “My favourite was Montreal. I still remember — the floor vibrated.”
This was during a live show where he performed demonstrations with various dogs.
Millan says he came to America in search of dogs like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, iconic canines made famous in film and television.
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“I thought that every dog in America was just like that. And that’s when I realized the American dogs needed to work more.”
Millan came up with his exercise formula to provide clear rules and boundary limitations and when to give affections. That’s how he came up with his “better human, better dogs” mantra.
I told him about Hudson & Rex, the popular Canadian Citytv police series. It stars Deisel Von Burgimwald as Rex. The magnificent German Shepherd, trained by one of my most-listened-to brioux.tv podcast guests, Sherry Davis, is part of a proud line of canine performers.
Millan says puppies from the middle of a pack tend to make the best animal acting dogs.
They’re better at handling chaos, and there tends to be a lot of chaos on a TV set,” he said.
“It has nothing to do with breed,” he continued. “You don’t want it to be too strong. You don’t want the front of the pack because anything can trigger the bite, right? Because they were meant for protection services. They don’t play around, right?”
Avoid the back of the pack as well when casting a canine for a series, suggests Millan. “You can only have the middle of the pack because those are the most playful.”
Millan says the same goes for people, too, so middle children, get thee to acting schools! Cesar Millan’s Better Human, Better Dog returns for a fourth season April 12 on Nat Geo and will also stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
