Cesar Millan Says the Reason Your Older Dog Is Slowing Down Is Probably Not Age. Vets Are Not Happy About It.
A short video from the Dog Whisperer is being passed around by dog owners over 50. He says one everyday thing is wearing older dogs down years early. He does not say what it is until you watch.
If you have a dog over seven, you have probably heard some version of this from your vet: he is slowing down, he sleeps more, his back legs are stiff. It is just age.
Cesar Millan says that is usually wrong.
In a short video he made with veterinarian Dr. Marty Goldstein, Millan says there is one thing that almost every owner of an older dog does every day, with the best intentions, that is quietly wearing the dog down. He says it is the reason so many dogs are old at ten when their parents were still running at fourteen.
He does not say what it is on the page. He shows it in the video. It starts with a small test you can do at home with a spoon of honey, and it ends with the one thing Millan says to stop doing.
Why he made it
Millan’s reason is personal. Daddy, the pit bull who sat beside him on television for ten years, got cancer. One vet after another told him there was nothing left to do.
Then he met Dr. Goldstein, who Forbes once called “The Miracle Worker.” Goldstein looked at Daddy’s daily routine and pointed at one thing. Millan changed it. Daddy lived six more years and died at sixteen.
In the video Millan says the hardest part was realizing he had been doing it to Daddy himself, every day, thinking he was taking care of him.
WATCHCesar Millan and Dr. Marty Goldstein
Why some vets are annoyed
Clinics tell us owners are coming in after watching it and asking why nobody told them. Two veterinarians we spoke to called Millan’s claim overstated. A third watched the video with us, went quiet in the middle, and said she would rather not comment on that part.
I’d rather not comment on that part.
We asked readers over 55 with an older dog to watch it and tell us what they thought. Most of the replies said the same thing: the dog had been written off as old, and the video explained what was actually going on.
What owners told us
“My golden is thirteen. For two years I was told it was age. I watched this standing in my kitchen and I am not going to say what it is either. Just watch it.”
Carol B., Tucson, Ariz.
“I’m a retired nurse and I expected nonsense. It is not nonsense. I called my daughter and made her watch it with her lab.”
Marilyn K., Dayton, Ohio
“Two weeks later my eleven-year-old shepherd met me at the door for the first time since spring. Make of that what you will.”
Ron P., Spokane, Wash.
Should you watch it?
If your dog is over seven and not himself anymore, yes. It is five minutes, it is free, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Millan asks for one thing at the end: that you watch it before your dog’s next meal. We will leave it there.
WATCHThe full video