Dog Whisperer

So I started to read this and said to myself "Ok is this reading seriously about the dog whisperer?" Well, it was and it was actually very interesting. Throughout the reading, Gladwell hits on the human interaction between dogs as well as other humans. Caesar has a way of understanding dogs and knows how to communicate with them. He knows how to place himself in the mind of the dog and know exactly what they are thinking, and how they interpret human gestures. I actually learned that dogs pay close attention to the way humans approach them. It actually makes a difference to a dog whether you are leaning slightly forward or slightly backward. One stance can be threatening and one can be harmless. The same also goes for human interactions. Gladwell moves to Eric who is an autistic child. Suzi Tortora, the author/dance-movement psychotherapist, has to deal with Eric in a different way than normal children. Because he cannot communicate well, she has to act like Caesar and approach him in a unique way. Instead of telling him to calm down and relax, she mimics his movements. She bends Eric's knees to the music that is playing so as to calm him through rhythm instead of his chaotic flailing. Both human-dog and human-human interactions involve an understanding of movement, posture, and psychology.
I think Gladwell is arguing that gestures have a lot to do with how we interact with others. When Lori reached to protect Bandit instead of her son, this was showing the dog that it was more important to protect him than her son. She should have been reaching out for Tyler instead of Bandit. Tyler didn't see this as an insult but Bandit saw it as a reinforcement to his control over Lori. If Lori went to protect Tyler, Bandit would have reacted differently to her action. The whole "exercise, discipline, and affection" thing. It's not really key to understanding the essay, I just think it's used frequently. Lynda Forman was missing the discipline aspect of the trio when dealing with Sugar. There had to be a happy medium within the three in order to get Sugar to behave. This also applied to Eric. Eric needed the combination of these three things in order to communicate effectively.

Overall reaction: Pretty good reading and it wasn't boring. I also thought it was funny when Caesar and his wife were in marriage counseling and had an "epiphany" that his wife was like the dogs he works with. "That's it! It's like the dogs. They need exercise, discipline, and affection." Oh yea I totally see how women are like dogs. It's so obvious to me now. Yea.....