Nov 25, 2012

"Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan" on National Geographic Channel


As I wrote in the previous entry " How to Score 915Points on a TOEIC Test", I'm really tired of Japanese TV programs, because they are almost all cheap variety shows and dramas. Recently I like to watch documentary programs on National Geographic channel and Discovery Channel. One of my favorite programs is "Dog Whisper withCesar Millan" on National Geographic Channel.

This program is about dog training. Cesar Millan is an outstanding dog trainer, and he visits ordinary families that have dog problems.

Leo Tolstoy wrote in "Anna Karenina", "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In this program, I found that all the dog problems are quite alike. The causes of the dogs' problems are not the dogs themselves but their owners, the human beings.

Dogs live in their own communities. It doesn't mean that they just live together, but that they constitute orders. When they are kept by human beings, they think of them as part of their communities. If the orders of the families, which dogs belong to, are unstable, the dogs also are unstable. This is the main cause of the dogs' problems.

In this program, Cesar Millan actually doesn't train dogs but owners. He told them that they should have authority and confidence. Cesar Millan has full of authority and confidence, so dogs respect him and calm down. The reasons why the owners don't have authority and confidence are almost the problems of their families, for example twisted relationships between wives and husbands. As Tolstoy wrote, each family problem is in its own way. So at first Cesar Millan begins to counsel the families that he visits to solve dog problems.

In my company I am a boss of a group of ten people. I don't want to be a tyrant at all, and want to manage my group in a democratic manner. Personally the members of my group and I are very friendly. (At least I want to believe that we are friendly.) But at the same time, as a boss, I should have authority and confidence in order to manage my group effectively.

Dogs become stable, when their owners show them clear rules and policies with authority and confidence. It also gives dogs confidence and makes them happy. In a similar way, it is quite important for the tops of the organizations to show their policies clearly.

Sometimes Cesar Millan looks like a philosopher.

2 comments:

  1. Japan is such a great place. How come the television and the politicians are so horrendously mind-numbingly bone-marrow-crushingly awful?

    It's quite tricky, isn't it?, for a manager to be approachable enough to motivate, yet distant enough to discipline. Pity we can't chuck employees outside, as we do with dogs, when we're fed-up with them! ;)

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    1. Of course it's quite tricky, but a boss, who is too friendly, might be annoying (ウザい), I guess.

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