One New York Times Best-Selling Author Helps Another as Cesar Millan Comes to the Rescue of Author John Grogan and His Family

It seemed like any other day for a chicken named Liberace. He stepped out of the coop, looking left, looking right, but then suddenly the poor bird was attacked, and killed. The surprising culprit? A 2-year-old Labrador retriever named Gracie…

“You look differently at your dog after they′ve eaten another pet,” says Jenny Grogan of Gracie.

Her husband, John Grogan, New York Times best-selling author of Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World′s Worst Dog, reflects, “I wrote the book about Marley. he was a handful, very energetic… but Gracie, she′ll lock in on any small animal and go after it.”

Recognizing that he′s got a more serious situation on his hands than an overly rambunctious and playful dog, Grogan calls on a fellow New York Times best-seller who knows how to handle difficult canine cases - National Geographic Channel′s Dog Whisperer and author of “Cesar’s Way,” Cesar Millan. The authors meet when Dog Whisperer: Bella & Big Boy, and Gracie premieres Friday, January 5, 2007, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

As Cesar points out to the Grogans, Gracie, being a purebred Labrador, can be gentle and friendly to humans, but she is also by nature a purebred retriever and hunter, and when those instincts go unfulfilled, she lets her aggression out in other ways … and that′s what led to the demise of Liberace.

Through a series of exercises, Cesar trains Gracie to stay away from the scene of the crime - the chicken coop - and to adopt a calm, submissive energy when she is around chickens. In one oddly productive session, Cesar holds a chicken but stays relatively close to Gracie. Gracie wants to get closer, sniff and attack. The bird is nervous in Cesar′s arms - in fact, she even lays an egg in Cesar’s hand! Gracie achieves a calm, submissive state shortly afterward, and the Grogans are left in awe of Cesar′s capabilities, even with poultry.

With the additional help of a local obedience trainer who specializes in harnessing retrievers′ natural instinct for hunting, the Grogans can now envision a happier home life and not worry about their dog - or their chickens.

I ran across this scan of Grogan with Gracie. It was for a one page article in People magazine - not sure when then article ran.

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