Man’s best friend on Facebook

CESAR MILLAN is a dog person.

You notice this by the way he lunges at you with a dog’s snarl in the middle of the interview, suddenly, surprisingly, emphasising his point.

When he is asked on the Madrid stop of a recent European tour to take pictures with two dogs, one adopted from a local shelter and clearly unnerved at all this unusual attention, he immediately springs into action.

Cesar moves the two canines into place with the innate confidence and complete serenity which his millions of fans in 109 countries around the world are entirely familiar with. As the cameras flash, Cesar gently strokes the one-eyed shelter dog to keep her calm.

“They never sit together quietly like that,” the dog’s owner whispers incredulously my way, clearly charmed by the man posing with her dogs.

And yet, despite this seemingly magical success, which also includes the sale of three million books, and the hugely popular TV series The Dog Whisperer, Cesar never officially learnt what has decisively become his trade: the dog whispering profession.

“The world is not only about people who go to school, it’s also for people who know how to understand opportunities,” he told me, talking about leaving Mexico for the uncertain adventure that awaited him as he left home to go North at the age of 21. “That’s something the USA is really good at — everyone goes there for opportunities. I went there because I wanted to learn how to train dogs. But then I realised that the key was not so much in training dogs but in training people.”

So besides being an extraordinarily gifted dog person, he is clearly also a people person. Sitting across from me, Cesar transmits an entirely positive energy, one augmented not only by his well-established celebrity status, but also — mainly I would say, by a genuine connection with other people.

“What I do is to reconnect people back to that instinctual way that I grew up with. I grew up and never saw a leash on a dog’s neck, or harnesses, or flexy leashes. That’s not my experience coming from a farm. So once you enter into a modern society, and you see they do everything against the nature of a dog, as a businessman I said, ‘well, I better train people’.”

It was inevitable, then, that the two spheres — human and animal — would soon be merged in the Mexican’s mind. This summer the businessman Cesar has seen a new opportunity: to connect the social spheres of dog and owner. In what will be a Facebook-like social networking platform for canines, owners can register their dogs and create a whole array of interaction. It is an idea that could soon bring forth the following, rather unusual questions on dog walk encounters: is yours on the web yet? And: can they become friends?

“We were in a meeting, and I had this thing about creating a centre where people come, talk about their dogs, help each other, create pack walks — a centre related to anything about your dog. That’s when I said, ‘can we get a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg’?” Cesar recounts of the initial idea.

What started as a seemingly far-fetched idea soon turned into a serious business proposal, with the timely input of Facebook founder Zuckerberg. After the initial contact was established, the Facebook team actively worked on the development of Cesar’s new idea.

“The funny part was, Mark Zuckerberg just got a dog. So it was meant to be; he needed some help — that was his first dog ever with his girlfriend. We gave him some pointers, he gave us some pointers. Facebook is still helping us to build our site. It’s funny how it happened.”

A quick question about the likely launch date is solved by Millan with a look at his manager. “We’ll launch it this summer,” he says, “just keep an eye out on Cesarsway.com.”

“I think it sounds like a fantastic idea, and I would definitely sign up my own dogs once the website is launched,” says animal psychologist Antje Engelhardt.

“It is of course important for dogs to interact socially, just as it is for human beings. In this way they learn to maintain their social behaviour skills and can become more balanced animals.

“Of course this is only the case if they enjoy meeting other dogs, but in my experience most dogs do so. My sloughi, for example, is a type of dog which needs a lot of exercise, and it would be great to find similar dogs with related exercise needs through this new website.”

Experts find that an initial “testing” phase takes place between dogs meeting for the first time, but that the desire to play is the main one. Except, of course, if you have a problematic dog.

It is precisely these problematic dogs which Cesar has made it his mission to re-socialise, whenever possible, in his world-famous television show.

“When I was 13, I said I wanted to be the best dog trainer in the world,” Cesar says. The dog person Cesar has done just that. How? By being a people person. Now his latest project looks like it will perfectly unite these two Cesars.