Cesar Millan: If Dogs Could Vote: Why We Could Learn a Valuable Lesson From Our Dogs About How to Choose a Great Pack Leader
How many millions of words do you think will be spoken and written this year by people trying to persuade you to vote for them? And how often will you hear promises that you already know in your heart will be forgotten as soon as the election is over and they have your vote?
It makes me wish that I could invite the candidates to my Dog Psychology Center and introduce them to my pack. Trust me, the dogs would quickly figure out who the natural Pack Leader is!
And one of the biggest advantages that the dogs have over human voters is that all those millions of words are just so much noise to them! The pack would make a tough audience for a town hall debate, because you can’t lie to a dog — their instinctive intelligence would see right through it!
Dogs — and, in fact, all animals that live in packs — will never follow an unstable leader. They know that balance and calm, assertive energy in a leader are essential to the survival of the entire pack. But humans will not only follow an unstable leader — sometimes we will even go to the polls and re-elect them for a second or third time! The difference is that instead of trusting our instincts, we actually listen to all those words.
Every modern president has had dogs at the White House. I can’t begin to imagine how tough that job is, but I know it would be impossible for me without the companionship of a dog. When you are under that kind of pressure, who wouldn’t want a friend as loyal and trustworthy as a dog? And the beauty is that the dog doesn’t care whether home is the White House or a park bench — she’ll love you just the same.
I’m always amused when I see a picture of a U.S. president, Republican or Democrat, with his dog. Here is the most powerful man in the world but the dog is calling the shots, pulling ahead on the leash and clearly taking control. It’s something I have observed firsthand over the years with clients who are powerful figures in the business world but can’t take the role of Pack Leader with their own dogs.