On parenting blogs, Web sites and Twitter, the guilty admissions are all the same: the training techniques of Cesar Millan, aka “The Dog Whisperer,” work on kids too. Millan has published four books; his show runs on a perpetual reel on the National Geographic channel. “As I watched him work with an extremely aggressive pit bull,” admits a woman called TheMentorMom on Minti.com, “I saw that some of his techniques and philosophies applied to teaching children.”
While a push on the neck or a loud “Sshht!” could cause raised eyebrows at the toddler group, the notion that dogs and children share a need for calm, assertive “pack leaders” and that both need exercise, discipline and love seems reasonable. No wonder such theories are challenging the trend for indulgent “helicopter” parenting.
“Today’s parents have less time for their children, so when they do see them the last thing they want is confrontation,” says psychologist Aric Sigman, author of The Spoilt Generation. “But parents are finally realizing that the tail is wagging the dog. Authority is a good thing.”
Parenting coach Judy Reith used the Dog Whisperer’s techniques on her terrier, Ollie. Now she applies them “every day” to her three daughters (aged 18, 15 and 10). As with her dog, she says, “I sometimes have to assume an air of quiet confidence with my children, even if I don’t feel it inside. Parents just want to be their [kids’] friends because they hardly see them. But it’s no good being their friend. You need to be unpopular sometimes and lay down the law.”
Sigman points to universals in “behavior modification techniques” across the animal and human world: a bear cuffing her cub, an elephant in effect “shouting” at a straying calf. Even in adolescence, he says, “Teens still want you to be the pack leader, if only to rebel against you.”
But other experts are more skeptical. “Using Dog Whisperer techniques on kids infantilizes kids and adults,” says Frank Furedi, author of Wasted: Why Education Isn’t Educating. “Quick-fix techniques like this distract from the important task of creating a relationship with a child.”
Surely, though, a quick fix is better than chaos? So I try the technique at home. When my out-of-control Labrador snatches a sausage from the table, I tell him “Ssshh” then, in a calm, firm tone: “Go to your bed.” He looks at me, quietly defiant. I scream it, and he obeys. My three children Isabella, 10, Sam, eight, and Ted, five, meanwhile, seem surprised when I explain with calm authority that TV time is over. They don’t whine for long when I snap it off. However, my eldest finds the idea that she has anything in common with the dog a bit offensive. “Dogs can’t learn on their own so they need more help,” she says. “But kids need to be a bit naughty sometimes. If parents just take control all the time then we’ll become too sensible too early in life. And sensible people are no fun.”
March 24 to March 30 When Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) needed a name for his new cooking oil shop in 1958, he first thought of honoring his previous employer, Heng Tai Fung (恆泰豐). The owner, Wang Yi-fu (王伊夫), had taken care of him over the previous 10 years, shortly after the native of Shanxi Province arrived in Taiwan in 1948 as a penniless 21 year old. His oil supplier was called Din Mei (鼎美), so he simply combined the names. Over the next decade, Yang and his wife Lai Pen-mei (賴盆妹) built up a booming business delivering oil to shops and
Indigenous Truku doctor Yuci (Bokeh Kosang), who resents his father for forcing him to learn their traditional way of life, clashes head to head in this film with his younger brother Siring (Umin Boya), who just wants to live off the land like his ancestors did. Hunter Brothers (獵人兄弟) opens with Yuci as the man of the hour as the village celebrates him getting into medical school, but then his father (Nolay Piho) wakes the brothers up in the middle of the night to go hunting. Siring is eager, but Yuci isn’t. Their mother (Ibix Buyang) begs her husband to let
The Taipei Times last week reported that the Control Yuan said it had been “left with no choice” but to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the central government budget, which left it without a budget. Lost in the outrage over the cuts to defense and to the Constitutional Court were the cuts to the Control Yuan, whose operating budget was slashed by 96 percent. It is unable even to pay its utility bills, and in the press conference it convened on the issue, said that its department directors were paying out of pocket for gasoline
For the past century, Changhua has existed in Taichung’s shadow. These days, Changhua City has a population of 223,000, compared to well over two million for the urban core of Taichung. For most of the 1684-1895 period, when Taiwan belonged to the Qing Empire, the position was reversed. Changhua County covered much of what’s now Taichung and even part of modern-day Miaoli County. This prominence is why the county seat has one of Taiwan’s most impressive Confucius temples (founded in 1726) and appeals strongly to history enthusiasts. This article looks at a trio of shrines in Changhua City that few sightseers visit.
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