Rescuing pets and owners

HE came, he charmed, and then he came back again for more.

Gregarious Mexican-born American dog trainer Cesar Millan and star of popular reality TV series, the Dog Whisperer, so captivated local audiences during his maiden visit here in 2012, that he returned for a one-night-only show at The Star theatre last week. The live show for 3,500 people was part of his Asian tour, which included stops in the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

On stage for about 21/2 hours, the 44-year-old Millan illustrated some of the tips commonly dished out in his television shows and books, such as understanding the "nose, ears, eyes" order that dogs use to perceive the world, and the importance of soothing one's dog into a calm-submissive state before commencing training.

But dog owners must first settle themselves and be in a calm-assertive state of mind, as dogs take the lead from the energy given off by their human owners, he says. Most of his work involves training and rehabilitating humans as much as their dogs, he adds, between re-enactments of how some of his American clients pamper and nuzzle their pooches. Referring to guide dogs for the visually handicapped, he joked, "dogs are making handicapped people normal, whereas some humans are making perfectly normal dogs handicapped".

Compared to his previous two shows held at The Grand Theater at Marina Bay Sands in June 2012, however, Millan's return performance seemed more preachy and seminar-like.

To a rather low-energy, post-work Friday night crowd, Millan illustrated his dog-training tips with charts and diagrams on Powerpoint slides that felt more like one should be taking down notes. In between the slides, a 2D digital depiction of the interior and exterior of a typical home was projected as a backdrop that, together with an Ikea couch and coffee table as the stage set, gave the production a rather low-budget air.

While his 2012 show seemed more structured and a-laugh-a-minute, Friday night's presentation circled around the same points at times, with several jokes rehashed from the last show. To his credit though, Millan's larger-than-life personification of the way cats and dogs react to each other when meeting for the first time, or his animated retelling of how a former client once adopted a Rottweiler from the pound because she thought it was cute, only to regret it much later, still elicits laughs - except they are quickly followed with a "hang on, haven't I heard this somewhere before" realisation.

Still, amid the banter, Millan should still get credit for driving home his message on social responsibility. In the more sombre second half of the show, he invited on stage a local mother and daughter team to share their story of how they adopted a mongrel found with maggots in its eye, and nurtured it to the cheerful adolescent dog that it is today.

Other highlights that got the audience guffawing include jibes at several of his high-profile clients, such as Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith and Barack Obama. Flashing a picture of President Obama being pulled forward by a dog on a leash, Millan joked: "You may be the president of the United States, but your dog doesn't know that. He doesn't care."

To more chuckles from the audience, he adds: "Dogs seek stable energy in their human leaders, but unlike them, we seem to seek unstable people as leaders. We elect them, and even re-elect them."

Likewise, Millan may well be entertaining for a first-time live audience, but he'll have to try harder to pull in our vote the next time around.