13 Major Dog Whisperer Controversies We Couldn't Ignore

In 2004, National Geographic Channel introduced "The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan," in which the titular dog trainer brought his expertise to the homes of harried dog-owners. Armed with tough-love solutions to tame seemingly untrainable dogs, Cesar Millan's show quickly became a TV hit.

The show's high ratings brought Millan an array of opportunities. He wrote books, embarked on speaking tours, and even created an animated TV show for kids, "Mutt & Stuff." As the years passed, "The Dog Whisperer" became so ubiquitous that Millan was synonymous with dog training, viewed as a renowned expert whose opinion carried weight.

Yet behind all that success and stardom, cracks began to emerge. Were Millan's dog-training techniques really effective, or — as some critics claimed — uninformed quackery that did more harm than good? Meanwhile, some awkward incidents (and more than a few lawsuits) left Millan's image tarnished, raising eyebrows and causing concern. While there are those who wonder what happened to Millan, read further for details on 13 major "Dog Whisperer" controversies we couldn't ignore.

In 2021, Cesar Millan was hit with a lawsuit from Lidia Matiss, whose mother worked for the "Dog Whisperer" star. According to TMZ, which had obtained the court documents, Matiss recalled visiting her mother in 2017, in a building that Millan owned. She encountered Millan's pet pit bull, Junior, and alleged the dog was freely roaming the building's hallways without being on a leash, and with no supervision. Suddenly, she claimed, the dog lunged at her, biting her several times on her legs. Her injuries were severe enough that she went to the ER for treatment. 

Furthermore, Matiss described herself as a star gymnast who was on track to compete in the Olympics, and was in the midst of being recruited by the University of Pennsylvania. Those dog bites, she claimed, left her in such severe pain that she could no longer compete. 

Millan responded by characterizing her lawsuit as a shakedown. "This incident occurred over four years ago," Millan's rep said in a statement to People. "Two weeks ago, Ms. Mattiss' counsel sent a letter demanding that Mr. Millan pay her $850,000 — or she would be going 'to the press.' Mr. Millan refused to respond to this threat, and this interview is the result." The suit was eventually settled out of court, shortly before the case was due to go to trial.

In the lawsuit that Lidia Matiss filed against Cesar Millan, she claimed his pit bull, Junior, had a previous history of violent behavior toward both humans and other dogs. To bolster that, noted TMZ, her suit also made a disturbing claim about Queen Latifah, who'd revealed the empowering real meaning of her stage name. The suit alleged that the actor-turned-rapper had brought her two dogs to Millan's training facility, where Junior attacked and killed one of them. Matiss alleged that Millan covered up the incident by having his staff lie to Queen Latifah by telling her the dog had died after being hit by a car.

In the statement that Millan's rep issued to People, he addressed the lawsuit's allegation about Junior mauling Queen Latifah's dog to death. That claim, the rep stated, was "a blatant lie." Queen Latifah has never confirmed nor denied the claims in the lawsuit, and didn't respond to a request for comment from Page Six. Meanwhile, a photo of herself and Millan that she posted on X remains on the platform as of this publication, which would seemingly cast doubt on the veracity of that particular allegation.

Whenever Cesar Millan describes his latest tips and tools for dog parents, one of these has been controversial: shock collars. That aspect of his training technique was dragged into the spotlight when Millan appeared on a U.K. talk show hosted by Alan Titchmarsh. Titchmarsh drew attention to "Dog Whisperer" episodes in which Millan is seen punching dogs, declaring he found physically punishing a dog to be "totally unacceptable," while also pointing to Millan's use of collars that delivered electric shocks to dogs. "This is pretty barbaric treatment," Titchmarsh insisted.

That interview immediately made Millan a toxic figure in Britain, and he was forced to publicly address the controversy. "I am not brutal or cruel to animals," he said in a statement issued to the Daily Mail, insisting that shock collars were only utilized when all other options had been exhausted. "I use many techniques to rehabilitate dogs," he stated. "In extreme cases — by which I mean cases where I'm the last resort before a dog is put down — these tools may be helpful."

While Cesar Millan has said he doesn't train dogs, but trains people, his techniques have been considered controversial by some. Among his critics is Mark Derr, a world-renowned canine expert whose numerous books include "Dog's Best Friend," and "How the Dog Became the Dog." In an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times, Derr pulled no punches in explaining why the techniques that Cesar Millan demonstrated on "The Dog Whisperer" were an assortment of "outdated" theories that had long since been disproven. 

"Essentially, National Geographic and Cesar Millan have cleverly repackaged and promoted a simplistic view of the dog's social structure and constructed around it a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to dog training," Derr wrote of Millan's contention that a dog needed to be dominated by its owner. As Derr explained, dogs are as individual as people, and respond just as differently to various training techniques. By ignoring this, Millan was a "one-man wrecking ball directed at 40 years of progress in understanding and shaping dog behavior ..." 

While Derr acknowledged that Millan's techniques could prove successful in some cases, he also noted that "it flies in the face of what professional animal behaviorists — either trained and certified veterinarians or ethologists — have learned about normal and abnormal behavior in dogs." He also dismissed Millan's sexist contention that dogs respond better to being trained by men than women as "laughable." In response to Derr, Millan told the Times Union, "I respectfully disagree."

In 2006, TV producer Flody Suarez enrolled his dog, a Labrador retriever named Gator, in Cesar Millan's Dog Psychology Center. To say it didn't go well was an understatement; Suarez — whose credits included the sitcom "8 Simple Rules," which had been rocked by tragedy — sued Millan, claiming the dog had been seriously injured while undergoing training.

As the Associated Press reported, the lawsuit claimed that Gator had been choked with a collar and made to run on a treadmill, which Suarez discovered when he received a call — just a few hours after dropping off his pet — that the dog had experienced a medical emergency and had been taken to a veterinarian. According to Suarez, when he arrived at the vet's office Gator was "bleeding from his mouth and nose, in an oxygen tent gasping for breath and with severe bruising to his back inner thighs." Suarez claimed he's spent $25,000 on vet bills, and sought in excess of that in his suit. 

In a subsequent interview with the New York Times, Millan refused to comment on Suarez's legal action. A spokesman for the National Geographic Channel, however, issued a statement pointing out that the dog's injuries were entirely unrelated to production of "The Dog Whisperer," and that Millan was not present at the training facility at the time the dog was allegedly injured.

The same week in 2006 that Cesar Millan was sued by Flody Suarez, he was hit with another lawsuit, this one seeking $5 million in damages. That suit — filed by Millan's former publicist, Makeda Smith, and her partner, Foster Corder, sought damages from Millan and some other defendants (including National Geographic Channel) over claims that they'd come up with the concept and title of "The Dog Whisperer." According to the suit, they did so before Millan went rogue and pitched their ideas to National Geographic as if they were his own. That lawsuit alleged that Millan had breached his contract, committed copyright infringement, and breached a confidential relationship, with Smith claiming to have invented the "Dog Whisperer" moniker. 

Naturally, Millan disputed those claims. "This is when I learned about Hollywood, and the legal way to be dishonest," Millan observed years later, when he appeared on the "Really Famous with Karen Meyer Robinson" podcast. Ultimately, Millan retained the copyright to "The Dog Whisperer" — but at a cost. "The rights, I got to get them back," he added. "But the money, no."

Another lawsuit arrived on Cesar Millan's doorstep in 2015, when a critical care nurse in Florida sued Millan over claims she'd been attacked by a pit bull that had been trained at his Dog Psychology Center. As the Los Angeles Times reported, her injuries were allegedly severe, including "disfiguring open wounds, deep muscle and tendon lacerations," along with fractured bones, and losing both feeling and function in one of her hands. 

In her suit, the woman claimed the dog that mauled her had been released too early from Millan's training facility, and was supposed to undergo an additional 18 months' worth of training before being returned into a public setting. "When the dog's owner fell behind on monthly payments to keep it housed at the Dog Psychology Center, the center prematurely released the known vicious and dangerous pit bull back into the public domain and entrusted it to someone with no training or experience in the handling of vicious and dangerous dogs," the lawsuit declared. 

The Dog Psychology Center responded by issuing a statement. Jen Woodard, director of the facility, insisted that Millan had not personally trained the dog, and had not had any contact with the animal whatsoever.

By 2016, Cesar Millan had moved on from "The Dog Whisperer" to a new show, "Cesar 911." The format of the series wasn't all that different from that of his earlier effort, featuring Millan working with dogs that were causing havoc in their communities.

One episode stirred up controversy, when Millan used a live pig to train a dog with a history of attacking pigs — and which appeared to bite the pig's ear during the episode. Viewers were outraged at what they perceived to be a clear-cut case of cruelty to animals, and took to social media, while some even issued formal complaints to Los Angeles-area law enforcement. As NBC Los Angeles reported, Sheriff's deputies and investigators from L.A. Country Animal Control visited Millan's Dog Psychology Center, but were informed that Millan himself was out of town. A spokesperson for Nat Geo Wild, however, insisted that precautions had been taken for the training session, telling TheWrap that it had been held in an environment designed to promote safety, adding: "The clip caused some concern for viewers who did not see or understand the full context of the encounter."

After an investigation had been carried out, it was determined that no charges would be filed against Millan. "We appreciate Animal Control's comprehensive, independent, and fair investigation, which Cesar Millan actively cooperated with throughout," stated Millan's attorney, Brian Klein, as reported by Global News.

Cesar Millan may have dodged a bullet when he avoided criminal charges over the "Dog Whisperer" episode utilizing a pig to train a dog that had previously killed two pigs, but public outrage remained. That was evident in a Change.org petition that called for National Geographic Channel to yank "The Dog Whisperer" off the air due to his using the pig as bait. That petition garnered more than 14,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, that episode spawned another petition, calling for Millan to be banned from television entirely. A 2019 petition from the U.K. urged British television to stop airing "The Dog Whisperer, contending that Millan's "out-dated, unscientific, cruel and damaging methods [are] then portrayed and used by the public; leading to masses of mentally and behaviourally damaged dogs..." A similar petition was aimed at Canadian television broadcasters, urging Millan be banned from that country's airwaves.

Another petition urged the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to ditch plans to host an exhibit devoted to Millan and his training techniques. "The scientific behavior and modern dog training communities believe this will negatively impact the welfare of dogs in the Dallas Ft. Worth area and beyond by suggesting to the public that his forceful and sometimes abusive techniques should be used by pet owners," that petition declared.

While "The Dog Whisperer" became a major hit for National Geographic Channel, making Cesar Millan arguably America's most recognizable dog trainer, the backlash that continually bubbled under the surface occasionally rose up. That was the case in 2006, when the American Humane Association (then known by its previous name, American Humane) sent a letter to National Geographic Channel complaining about Millan's harsh dog-training methods.

"As a forerunner in the movement towards humane dog training, we find the excessively rough handling of animals on the show and inhumane training methods to be potentially harmful for the animals and the people on the show," wrote American Humane's Bill Torgerson in the letter, requesting the network stop airing the series immediately, blasting the show for promoting the idea that using violence on animals is a tolerable practice.

That letter attracted the attention of comedian, "Law & Order: SVU" star, and dog lover Richard Belzer, who retired from the show in 2013 and tragically died in 2023. Belzer quoted that letter in an op-ed he wrote for HuffPost, pointing out that "The Dog Whisperer" had received an Emmy nomination, and urged Emmy voters to do the right thing by giving their vote to any other show in that category. "Dog owners and dog lovers would be disturbingly misled if Mr. Millan and his program are honored in such a high-profile way," Belzer wrote.

Not every dog-owner twith a negative experience at Cesar Millan's training facility took him to court. One, Ligia Morris, instead chose to write about what happened. In her essay, appearing in The Crossover Trainer, Morris described her dogs immediately becoming hostile toward other dogs after being trained at Millan's Dog Psychology Center — a huge difference from the friendliness they'd expressed to strange dogs previously. 

Even bigger changes took place when she decided to board one of her pets at the center for two weeks while away. When she returned, she was perturbed to see her dog wearing an electric shock collar — and became concerned when the animal began exhibiting an anxiety disorder that didn't exist before.

While Morris was eventually able to manage her dog's behavior through positive reinforcement, its anxiety never entirely vanished. "The long term effects of [Cesar Millan's] influence [including his use of an electric collar] on my dog have been devastating to him," she wrote.

Cesar Millan was hit with yet another lawsuit in 2014. This one came from Adriana Barnes, who'd previously been employed by Millan at his Dog Psychology Center. In her suit, she alleged that Millan had fostered a dangerous work environment.

As TMZ reported, Barnes alleged she routinely worked long 12-hour shifts, without being allowed any breaks to eat or even use the restroom. Most of her co-workers were devoid of experience, who'd often let the animals in the facility run free. This, she claimed, led her to be bitten repeatedly by dogs — and was once even "trampled by a llama."

Barnes was suing for wrongful termination, claiming Millan fired her after she'd come to him with her complaints. Furthermore, she alleged that the distress she experienced from that abrupt termination led her to take so much anti-anxiety medication that she overdosed, and was placed on life support for three days before eventually recovering.

In 2010, Cesar Millan experienced a huge loss when his beloved pit bull, Daddy, died at 16 years of age. Devastated, he was hit with another gut punch when his wife, Ilusión, filed for divorce after 16 years of marriage. "I felt defeated, a big sense of guilt and failure. ... I was at the lowest level I had ever been emotionally and psychologically," he wrote on his website, as reported by USA Today.

"I just made a decision. I took a whole bunch of pills," Millan revealed when appearing on "Rock Center with Brian Williams." As Millan recalled, he felt that he deserved the misery he was in, and blamed himself. "It's like, 'Okay, I'm a failure. The reason why this has happened is because of me," he said. His attempt at taking his own life was unsuccessful. He was found unconscious, and taken to a hospital. 

In a subsequent interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Millan admitted he'd come to view his botched suicide attempt as a wake-up call that ultimately led him to live a happier and more fulfilled life. "I'm happy I went to rock bottom and now I know the symptoms," Millan said. "You hear this sentence, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' That became real for me."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.