A Way with Dogs, or a Way with Words ?

« A Way with Dogs, or a Way with Words? Cesar Millan, also known as National Geographic’s Dog Whisperer, is one of the most famous dog trainers in the world today.

Despite his commercial success, many other trainers and behaviorists criticize Millan for his use of outdated dominance training methods.

Most positive method trainers do not even believe that true dominance exists in the social hierarchy of domestic dogs, and moreover, they believe that training based on this theory is harsh and sometimes cruel. If this is the case, why then does Millan have so many loyal followers and how has he so easily deceived them? One may devote Cesar Millan’s success to his charisma or his way with dogs; however, his manipulation of the English language cannot be ignored. George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” is aptly named as it addresses exactly what the title suggests.

Orwell believes that our use of the English language is losing its conciseness and is becoming sloppy and lazy.

We are introduced to common manipulations used in writing: dying metaphors, verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, and meaningless words.

Orwell explains how and why these manipulations are used, particularly in political writing, and suggests ways to avoid them.

(Orwell 80-93) One would think it strange to compare Cesar Millan to a politician; however, the two share many commonalities.

Much like your local politician, Millan is an extremely charismatic man, which allows him to communicate to the world with confidence and ease.

Secondly, Millan is a master of deception, manipulating the English language to his advantage, to detract from the cruelty and inappropriateness of his training methods. A euphemism is the act of substituting a harsh term with one that is milder, in order to soften it (Wordnik).

Millan commonly uses euphemisms to conceal his methods.

Rather than use the word punish, Millan prefers to use the words discipline and correction, although he is aware that a lot of his methods are actually positive punishment.

Millan commonly uses a specific technique to. »