Cesar Millan: From Illegal Immigrant to American Dream

American dream season. We've known each other for what like, I was nine twenty years old when I met Caesar. This is what happened, and I came to America. I wanted to be the best in the world. I came to Jada and I said I need to have a TV show or a radio and she said, well, for that, you have to speak English. The next day, a friend of her came to to my place in South Central and said, I'm your new English teacher. So because of Jada,

I speak English. Wow, mm hmmm, that's very special. That's yeah. Yeah, a dog friendly house, yes it is. Then you got cats. I know what, three cats, eight dogs. We've got three cats. Snakes, got three snakes got two. Well you remember saying the husky because you had his sister. Yeah, he's the happy, go lucky one. And then you gave me home my birthday. Yeah. The new one that you have, Steak Clover is part

of our pack. And this is the Chinese guy. Yes, show you my rescue from China when we were shooting the Karate Kid with Jaden and he wasn't this friendly when he arrived. No, no, he was a little India not trusting. Yes, he's coming, he's done. This is really good. This is very very about it, very proud of your package. I have a super duper special guest today, not only because he is the internationally renowned dog whisperer Caesar Milan, but because he happens to be one of my oldest,

closest friends. Thank you. My English is better. How did you guys meet? I used to date a guy who's dog he used to work with Kenji. Kenji was the first first road wilder. Yeah. They introduced me to the rest of the road willer owners. Yeah. And those roadwilers owners was Jada Pink Smith. Okay, so the roddy is you know, is the roddis introduced me to Jada. Then the right is introduced me to Will, who is not such a such an animal lover, which is interesting because

you have all these animals in the house. But well typically it's not. Yeah, he's too much an animal. Never took the glass. Yeah you still haven't take a lesson. Yeah, you know, he likes He's like, look if it makes you happy to have all these animals, cool, But he likes he likes Fang. He looks at Fang from the window and goes, oh, he's so pretty. That's about it. You know. I had four male rot wallers, and he

taught me how to manage those dogs. At that particular point of time and where I was in my life, I wanted those dogs for protection. And I was a young woman by herself a lot and I need I wanted that that made me feel safe. I didn't want to get a gun. And you know, so I had rocks. Yeah about that went with me. Yeah, like the phitting me of the American dream to me because you came here, jumped, jumped the border, couldn't speak and could speak English. I

didn't know anybody. What made you want to come to Americans? Well, when I was thirteen years old, I told my mom, mom, you think it could be the best doctor in the world. After watching Last n Rintin Tea, people watch a lot of animal shows. Those were my animal shows. I wanted to be a vet but because I come from my low income family, it wasn't possible for them to send me to a vet school. Right a thirteen years old, I told my mom, Mom, you think it could be

the best uctory in the world. And she said, you can do whatever you want. Because when I was ten, I told her that I wanted to be a drug dealer because because when I'm from that's also those are role models. There you go, okay, that's my role models. Okay. And so I saw how respected they were, and that day my mom slapped me in the face that if you want to kill me, that's what you become. I don't want to kill you. I just want to, you know, make money so you know you can live. I believe

it after mom, So I didn't know. I didn't know that those guys were about you know, I was ten, so you know, three years later, I'm looking at the dogs that I grew up with. They didn't have commands. So I wanted that. I wanted to have those Hollywood dogs. Those dogs were trained, so I really wanted to be a dog trainer. You're born with the desire. You want to sing, you want to you want to do this, You're born with it. Nobody tells you to do it right.

So where is last thing? Rinting thing lives? United States? You know this mainland or Hollywood. So when I was twenty one years old and December, I went to my mom again, Mom, I'm leaving, So where are you going to Morris Christmas? I'm going to America? But tomorrow's Christmas, I know, but I have to go right now. So something that you feel that you have to listen to it and you have to act on that day. So my dad save a hundred dollars, he gave it to me,

put my my sock, and that's all I had. That's all I had. You know. I took a bus, took like two days to get there. And once you get to the border, what you see is people wanted to take advantage of you. So that's when you learn about the streets. But that's another level of streets. No, that's another They can sell you, they can kill you for organs, they can I mean, yeah, that is more likely than jumping it. So it's not a piece of cake. Okay, I'm respectful about it. I know I broke a boundary

and a rule, but it was for a dream. So to a point that many times I let the border patrol catch me because Americans feed you, so when they catch you, they feed you. Mexican police don't feed you because many times I didn't eat because I wanted to save my hundred bucks. When I finally across the border, a guy came to me. Skinny guy, dirty as hell and smoking a joint. Can I say that, yes you can. So this guy came, so all the three things my

mom's saying not to listen to. Okay, if a guy is dirty, but that is skinny, because in Mexico, if you're too skinny, there's something wrong with you, right as a culture that you want to see you fat. And of course if you smoke, we at that time, and then the guys it's crazy, you know, So all the three things, but inside of me I felt trust mm hm wow. Interesting. And the guy said to me, I charge you a hundred dollars. So he said, he you charge you a hundred dollars, that's right, you want to

cross the border, I charge you a hundred dollars. That's all I had. That's a that's a sign technique, that's a sign. Oh he knew the road. You have to know that. You don't have to know the path. Yeah, they have to know the path. Yeah, you have to know when the border patrol changes, all of that stuff. So he knew. So finally we crossed. We got to the gas station. The guy said, I'm gonna get you a taxi and the taxi is gonna take it to San Diego. So I don't have any more money. This

is I'm giving you everything. The guy paid the taxi driver. Wow. Yeah, the guy paid the taxi driver at twenty dollars, so he only he only made eighty dollars. That to me was like, okay, I'm supposed to be here. Well, how did you even get there? To kill myself? Yeah? What was going on that took you to that? So I arrived in l A and took a Greyhound and I arrive at nighttime and then I walked in the middle of the night through skid Road and downtown l A.

The next day. By that time, I knew the Yellow Pages existed, so That's when I started calling kennels. I wanted to you know, I wanted to work in a kennel. Yeah, so I already knew. Okay, so what do I gotta do? Card watched No, you know, washing dishes? No, I get it, But that's not the profession I came to America for. So I knew I have to start for the bottom, and cleaning kennels is not a problem. Those are the jobs the immigrants we get. We don't get the middle

of the pack jobs. We don't get the top of the pack jack, we get the back of the pack. See the thing about you, You've always had this certainty. Like I just remember, even back in the day, you were just so certain to be like I want to teach people how to be with their animals. I need a TV show. And I was like, wow, Like you are so certain about what you saw in your vision. Look, I come from a low income family. That you have faith, you have passion, you have instincts. That's why you survive.

You know what I mean. Proberty makes you strong. You could say that again. You know what I mean? So you master poverty. The only thing you have to know is how to make money. America is the line of opportunities, you know for sure, but it's also the line of quality of opportunities, and that's what you gotta look for. How did you get from the kennel to your spot

and self? So the first I became a dog walker in Englewood and so the only thing I didn't know it was illegal to walk dogs of flesh in America. I had no idea. I knew I was illegal, but I didn't know it was illegal to walk dogs of flesh in America. So I was walking forty toy dogs off leash, yes, in neighborhoods. So it would take me two hours to go from Englandwood to South Central, and you will always catch me at the same time. Wow. Yeah. So I started going to people's homes and said, man,

I'm kind of walk your dog. I do it for free. I want to make sure your dogs stop barking, and I know how can I do it. I'm gonna exercise him. I'm gonna take you for the longest walk off his life, and I'm gonna bring it back, and I'm gonna tell you what I did for free. And I think that's the other place that we connect. We kind of that inner drive and that hard like we have. We have the same code. Now, how did you get to the

TV show? The l A Times heard about me right right, and they followed me to a consultation and then at the end she said, so you seem to have a great thing going on, you know, and what would you like to do? What is your next goal? And I say, no hesitation, I would like to have my own TV show. So the newspaper came on a Sunday Monday was a line of producers trying to find out what the show was all about. Wow. Wow, Yeah, I started my whole thing in Englandwood, in the hood. Yeah, you know, it

was just a dream. You got to meet people like yourself. I speak English because of you. How would you describe your friendship? The first work comes out of my mouth if you ask me, Jada gratitude. That's just we don't have to see each other all the time, you know what I mean. It's like if I call him, he shows up. If he calls me, I show up. And when we need each other, we're there, you know what I'm saying. And so but we always connected, you know,

I feel connected. He's my own g because we've known each other forever. Yeah, and I think that's the other place that we connect. I'm offering you honestly and give me honestly. I'm offering you integrity. I'm offering you loyalty and give me like like we understand that exchange. Yeah, like no question, that's yeah, because I find that with dogs. Yeah, okay, so I can have millions of dogs and I will find the same thing honestly in loyalty. But it's also

good to find it in your own kind. Yeah, when you can't. Animals are here to remind us about simplicity, about honesty, about integity, about loyalty. They're not just for affection only. Dogs have to have a purpose in life. You have to. It doesn't mind, I know. But he's like bits doesn't have a purpose. What purpose does play? Explore? But you mean something different when you say foul, because this follows me everywhere I go. But I feel like that's an I feel like that's anxiety, Like he just

doesn't want me out of his sight or something. Well, there is there is one thing called separation anxiety. Uh. Many dogs become obsessive, but yeah, I think he's obsessive. So when the dog feels that the human doesn't relax or anything like that. The dog feels the need to overprotect the human. Your philosophy really is then to change me. I mean that's that's your work is to change me in order to help the dog, right am? I right on that, because the dog becomes the energy do you

project and the activities you do. Yeah, so you're you're the I'm the key. You're the key. So if the human doesn't practice healthy energy and healthy habits, how can the dog practice it? Right? I think I'm so healthy? How did that happen? Even in that particular difficult state, Caesar, when you felt like you wanted to take your life? What was that one thing that you were just like, okay, yeah, tell us a little bit about your family that you

built once you got here. The ex wife, she was not an animal person, you know, so, Whisper, you're not an animal person. But I didn't know we got pregnant. I get it. We were not compatible right away. You don't take it as a lesson. You take it as a as a curse, you know what I mean? You're taking as a you know what I mean? Like, why

why this happened to me? Often you take it upon yourself as you did something wrong, you know, and that's when you know that I wanted to commit suicide, even in that particular difficult state, Caesar, when you really did, when you felt like you wanted to take your life, what pulled you through that? Like? What was the thing? What was that one thing that you were just like, okay, well, how did you even get there to kill myself? Yeah? What what was going on that that took you to

that deil? The feeling of failure, I'm not good enough. You're talking to yourself, you know, You're nobody's putting you in that hole. You're pretty much digging that hole and and doing that to yourself. So was it failure in your personal life? Nobody loves you, Your pack doesn't love you. It's my pack just left. Yeah, okay, so it's not it's it feels like your houses on fire and nothing you can do and I have to do a live tour that will not bring me back into two months later.

You understand that the way it was deliver that was a tough time for me too, because I felt I felt really helpless, you know at that time, just not known exactly how to help you know, but you did. Yeah, I guess you know. Yes, It's like I never went away because I always had that anchor with Jada, you know what I mean, Like I always make a call. Yeah, you know, it's just something inside of me that make a call as soon as I make a call, and

then she anchored me back, you know. But it's something needed to happen to me in order for me to to practice what I teach. Yeah, and that that's a good point because I do believe that all the trials that have occurred, I just see how after that and when you come through that, how everything just expands and explodes and mind in regards to your relationship with the dogs and how connecting humans to dogs deepens and the

whole thing. What did you find for yourself in that position of that depression that could get you out into a place of like, no, I am going to live, I am going to be Okay. I didn't love myself, you know, even though all that accomplishment and all the things that I have done, as you get to a point where I was already in my way and I

love it myself. God, you see what I'm saying. So that needed to be like the slap in the face to awaken me to start loving myself again because I went into a place where I wasn't doing things for you for me. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like when I came to America to gain back how I came to America, I did because I love myself and I believe in myself. Can we bring in our fish balls? This is ourish bowl right here where we pick questions. So do I pick it or you pick it? That's

up to you. You want me to pick it for you, you want to pick it, Okay, you pick it? Caesar, Are female dogs easier to train the male dogs? I don't think it's a gender, you know, uh, definitely, party training will be the only thing will be easier with a girl dog. The girl dog. Yeah, there's that way with humans too, by the way, easier. It's like in the human world and a woman become an engineer. Of course, of course has nothing to do with the gender. What

is your motivation? Right? So what motivate dogs to do things is food, toys and you. So you just have to find what motivates the dog's okay there. It is a lot of times we would says are females better than males. It's preference because in the end the dog world, the females are going to be smaller, the males are going to be bigger. So in the animal world the males are the best looking ones. So if your preference is bigger, more, more, fur, better, code and things like that,

and then you gonna mail for that. Yeah, prettier huh yeah, the peacock for example, and the ducks and the dogs for example. You know that only happens in the animal world and the human world. We're the ugly ones who we get it. We get it. This one is what is the most common mistake a pet owner can make. The most common mistake a pet owner can make is not understanding what the needs of a dog's are. So

first is the needs, and then is the training. So with humans, though, the need for us typically is to love the animals, so we tend to love the animal first, and maybe too much so a lot of times. For example, like the most typicult it is right now as people are postponding to have children, right, so the dog becomes the empty space fil field, right, So that's more for

the human than it is for the dog. That's so what happens when a human does that, the human is going to treat the dog as a human child when a dog is a puppy. So a lot of times people, oh, he's a puppy, and the dog is three years old, so they still treating him a puppy. So mentally the dog is confused. Right, It's like a mama's boy, you know what I mean. Nobody wants to marry a mama's boy. Yes, that is real. But Caesar, I love you, you know, you know, you know, my gratitude for you is is

for the next millions of life. Thank you for letting me come into your family. You know, from the first day I feel part of the family. You know, absolutely trust it. And that's a big deal. Yes, that's a big deal. So I just know that I'm very grateful for everything you have done and you have done for my family. Never actually told you that you have blessed my family, that you would not believe if you did it, just because that's who you are. Thank you, Caesar. Give

me some it's amazing. You guys are making me tier up on our next red table talk at those two bottles of wine and was going for the third bottle and it was like, now, hold up, I might have a problem here. And I was raining pills like skittles and I was in a coma for three days. My mother struggled with addiction to heroin. It took me six years to get one year clean. And I just said, let go all right. To join the Red Table Talk family and become a part of the conversation. Follow us

at facebook dot com slash red table Talk. Thanks for listening to this episode of Red Table Talk podcast produced by Facebook Watch, Westbrook Audio, and I Heart Radio.