Cesar Millan Ambassadors Greet and I with Cesar...Sadie too!

"The only way to travel" - Cesar, crew and dogs "Team Millan"!

Sadie and Bob head onto the coach leading the way............... "Come on humans time to go to the next show town"!

Aflie shows us how to relax as we chat with Cesar................... "Sofa style rock-star ..no.. dog-star sofa style"!

These are some of my favourite pictures from the UK Tour, here in the top one are the "European Ambassadors" with Cesar - Greet from the Netherlands and I along with Sadie "JRT posing"!

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Greet came along to the first 4 live shows, she was a tremendous help back-stage as well as a great photographer - the photos that follow are all with thanks to Greet. Many times Greet helped me with the pack, preparing dressing room dog areas with crates and water bowls, looking after 2 of my dogs if 1 was on stage with me. Greet was a star, always happy to help out including taking care of the dog owners who came along to take part in shows and so much more....we sure missed Greet when she returned home...but I don't think she missed being outside in our cold weather!

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Greet also stayed with me before the tour and helped me with the pack, she was an instant hit with all my pack and we very much enjoyed sharing our home and walks with Greet. Greet helped me get the dogs ready for the tour which included bath time, we both got a little wet but the dogs looked good!

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The second photo shows you how we travelled around the UK...in the coach...not just "any coach" rather a luxury coach with blacked out windows! Luxury meaning it had sofas, tables, TVs, kitchen areas and even beds upstairs! These photos were taken at the Cardiff hotel, which gets Alfie's vote for best location as the walks just outside the hotel were heathland and sea...English Setter Perfection! Mind you they needed a good brush before they went on stage as all 3 dogs had had huge fun in and out of the water!

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As you can see from the last 2 photos here, Sadie and Bob knew when it was time to go into their "home from home"...."doggie time to go travel" and then Alfie showing all how relaxed he was on the coach..."Alfie sofa style" just like at home hey Alfie?!!

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On tour we had shirts and a jacket provided to us as Crew, labelled up as "Cesar Live Tour Crew" this became what I called my "uniform" for 3 weeks and readily recognisable so maintaining a positive view important...just as well the dogs behaved so well in the 5star hotels! This also helped with keeping up with the washing while on the road - as all the same colour so could all be washed together! They make for great souvenirs too :-)

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Greet and I had a lovely time with Cesar talking all about dogs, packs and human-dog interaction during the drive from Cardiff to London. I learned from Cesar much more about energy - one key to communicating with our dogs and how one dog's energy can impact another, sometimes negatively. This is something which is needed to be understood when running a pack of dogs and readily explained why some very-high energy dogs I have had here before did not work-out living in my home - as my pack are middle energy, as am I, so such additions unbalanced my pack dynamics upsetting the family balance....and we are a home we do not have any kennels so....lesson learned! "Cesar Insight" - even in a kennel environment it is best to mix energy types to maintain balance e.g. not all the high energy dogs in one kennel else they bounce off each-other, which again helps explain why my pack work well in one home as they are a mix of energies...except high! We talked too of how important it is to match a dog's energy with that of the human, in my opinion not something that is considered enough when choosing a new dog to join humans as a member of the family.

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My dogs show how quickly dogs can adjust to a new routine ...with my 3 dogs here who adjusted from "Home life" to "Tour life" ...from sleeping in hotels to travelling around the country, from new walks to show time....my pack moved on into the routine within a couple of days and then taking a little longer than my dogs... so did I! But...did all 3 dogs adjust well to being on tour?...find out more in the next post!

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Alfie "The Star dog"

Alfie My "Wonder Dog"!

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When the UK Cesar Millan Tour began I had with me 2 of my dogs, Bob and Sadie, Bob my JRT mix Border Collie, Sadie my tiny JRT so they are both small in size. At the dress rehersal the day before the first show at O2, the crew asked if I had another dog who was more medium in size to help with some of the balanced dog demonstrations on stage...so enter Alfie one of my English Setters, a last minute dash down to London from Norfolk..driven by Simon Alfie arrived at O2 just in time for the show!

Here is Alfie on stage demonstrating the "meet and greet", accompanying him as his own personal dog handler I stand to his side while Cesar introduces a member of the audience on how to meet a dog for the first time. ""Way to go" Alfie you were the first dog on stage, great job sniffing the person then relaxing! As you can see from the photo...my smaller dogs would have been hidden from the audience by the techy equipment box on stage :-) we needed "Alfie size"!

Meantime Sadie and Bob waited calmly back stage for their turn. Bob, who became known as "Bob The Dog", showed the audience how to walk around following his Pack Leader...me, going through doors then relaxing by my feet as I sat on the sofa...perfect Bob! Sadie on the other hand...showed the audience how not to be walked...pulling Cesar ....out in front she came to me, great demo Sadie! The pack also played the role of balanced dogs pack walking in a park while a hyper dog and owner learned from Cesar how to lead their dog calmly walking past my pack and I.

Back to Alfie, at nearly 10 years old he is retired from working as a balanced stooge dog for me, yet he happily and readily came out of retirement for Cesar. Alfie very much enjoyed the lovely hotels we stayed in, the extra walks and of course the breakfast leftovers of which there was always plenty...I always ordered a room service full English breakfast!

Mind you looking at Alfie in this photo he could have been a show dog..if he wasn't a "working bred English Setter" as this means he is actually smaller than the average show bred Setter, when we meet other Setters out on walks Alfie is always dwarfed by them. Worth remembering is that Alfie only came to us at 4yrs old, with many problem behaviours himself, look at how well he recovered balance through pack leadership - so much so he was even able to run off-leash while still following my lead and direction around Regents Park in London...what a great boy!

The crew loved Alfie, they had not met such a chilled out dog before as in every environment he was "soooo relaxed"! The crew were superb, setting up for the shows ahead of us at every venue they were true stars. Alfie managed to do 6 shows - half the tour schedule before returning home to a very relaxing holiday - pack life here at the beach!

The "meet and greet" demo I renamed as "to sniff or not to sniff" - sometimes Alfie would sniff the person...sometimes he would not...he would just sit near them totaly relaxed, so relaxed that at his last show in Nottingham he lay down falling asleep! The rest of the tour would have been too much travelling for Alfie as heading from Nottingham we set-off for Newcastle, Scotland, Ireland and back via Liverpool to end at Sheffield. "Home Time Alfie" replaced the saying I had just before the shows began of "Show Time Doggies" - what happens if I say that now...find out in later posts coming soon!

The first show was electric, the huge audience very welcoming to Cesar and the show very well received. I was delighted with the way my dogs behaved, they have never been in a show before not even a dog show! Yet on stage they were not distracted by the audience, the sound or the lights etc, they simply followed my lead... they were "totally awesome stars", gotta love this "mini pack" of mine and I loved having them with me on tour.

Next...more behind the scenes photos, stories and how the pack got on during the tour, as well as some of my learnings and expereinces I will share with you gained from working for Cesar.

UK - News on Dog Whisperer Tour!

Hello all - and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

This is a year in which we here in the UK are to be honoured by Cesar Millan's Live Tour!

If your dog has everyday behavioural issue and you would like him/her to appear on stage with Cesar then please visit http://www.cesarmillanlive.co.uk/ to find the closest show to you and complete the on-line application form.

PackPower to all in 2010! With Love and peace from Suzie and the "RatPack".