Basic principles

I have been doing my "dog training according to the principles of Cesar Millan" for quite a while now and slowly I developed my own style. And yes, I am still following the basic principles of Cesar Millan, but with some changes.

As to me the basic principles are:

be the (pack) leader;
discipline first, then affection.

My main adaptation to the principles is that I don't experience exercise as a major requirement for dogs to listen. Yes, I do encounter issues with dogs when they have been locked up for a long time in a cage. Just two days ago I was trying to understand why two dogs were very restless. Where most dogs will sit pretty soon after I start handling them, these two kept standing up, which didn't make sense to me, as I was told they had been walked that morning. Only later in the session I understood that they had only made a short walk from their cage to the training location, after having been locked up in their cage for weeks. So then I suddenly understood what the issue was. But only shortly after, after we had taken them for a short walk, they were much easier to deal with and were able to just behave properly.

Also with my own dogs 'exercise' has never been an issue. Yes, they had plenty of space, but I hardly ever walked them, so they didn't really have exercise. Still, they were very behaved dogs.

Be the (pack) leader

The "be the pack leader" has become the major focus of my training sessions. And the emphasis in my teaching lies on the word "be", as one cannot pretend to be the (pack) leader, cannot fake to be a (pack) leader, cannot avoid being a (pack) leader, but can only be the (pack) leader. And being a dog owner, one cannot really avoid being the (pack) leader, simlilar to the fact that you cannot avoid being a house owner or the owner of a motorcycle or whatever. You are that, whether you like it or not. And yes, it comes with responsibilities.

Discipline first, then affection

The fact that dogs first need discipline was quite hard for me, and still is, when I really found out the basic principle of "discipline first".