'Whisperer': We love our dogs too much

WALTHAM -- Just what goes on inside the mind of a dog?

Hundreds of people paid $150 and more to hear the Dog Whisperer answer that question last weekend at Bentley College.

Richard and Julie Ventriglia left their home in East Providence, R.I., at 5 a.m. in pouring rain just to get good seats.

''She's a Cesar Millan fanatic," Richard Ventriglia said as his wife blushed. ''She's got all his shows taped."

Millan's television show on the National Geographic Channel (''The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan") has developed a broad national following. An immigrant who crossed the border into the United States illegally more than a decade ago, Millan thinks Americans can learn a lot from dogs and Third World life.

''Everybody wants common sense," Millan said in an interview from his Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles. ''The show is offering us a sense of primal connection we have lost through civilization."

His book ''Cesar's Way" is the No. 2 advice book on the New York Times best-seller list. He has been the subject of a profile in The New Yorker magazine, and his character has been parodied on ''South Park."

The show concentrates on his efforts to rehabilitate dogs and their owners. The list of problems he's tackled is long: dogs that attack and kill, dogs that grow too protective or get scared and jealous. Many are chewers and shredders.

Millan said Americans know how to make money -- how to acquire a pair of Prada shoes -- but are mostly clueless about what fullfills a dog. ''America doesn't participate in the instinctual world," he said. ''My clients are Harvard graduates."

Dogs aren't all that complicated, Millan said. To be happy, they basically need a good job, and good food, and a pat on the head. He said Americans tend to overdo on the affection and under do on the exercise.

He uses his trademark shushing sound and body language to get a dog's attention. He said that dogs like to know who is boss; they like rewards, but more so if they earn them.

Millan said he has known he wanted to be a dog trainer since he was 13, living on his grandfather's farm in Mexico. He was in his early 20s when he told his grandmother he planned to leave for America later the same night. With $100 and no knowledge of English, he snuck across the border to San Diego. His family tried to stop him, but he told them he had to try, he said.

''It's a feeling you must listen to. Not everybody follows intuition."

Millan worked sweeping floors and washed cars -- ''all the traditional stuff we do when we come in," he said. He learned English and helped people and their dogs whenever he could, developing a reputation.

Millan then married an American and now has legal status. He doesn't view the controversy over illegal immigration in political terms. People are animals, he said, doing what they must to survive.

''We've got to migrate to eat," he said. ''It's part of the natural world. For whatever reason, people are saying this is not allowed now."

Millan, 36, also has views on what the Third World can teach Americans.

''In Third World countries, grown-ups control children and dogs," he said. ''In America, you have ''Supernanny" and ''Nanny 911" and ''The Dog Whisperer."

He paused and smiled. ''So who controls America? Children and dogs," he said.

It was a message that brought Millan laughter and thunderous applause at his Waltham seminar. About 500 people attended the sold-out event to see Millan speak and field questions. The event raised some $16,000 for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, according to the sponsor, pet store chain Especially for Pets.

''He's confident, but he's not aggressive," said Elizabeth Lewis, a Rottweiler owner from Marshfield. ''He has a very calming presence and acts like such a leader."

Catherine Straymer of Hamilton said she agrees that people often humanize animals.

''It's very true, in the dog world, animals have their place," she said. ''There are a lot of people out there who would do anything for their dog but not necessarily the neighbor down the street."

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at 508-820-4236 or mwoolhouse@globe.com.