I love the show. At first I thought "oh, great, this guy is going to be some wimp who tells people they aren't treating their dogs enough like people." Actually, it's the other way around. Just about every episode ends the same, and I think it's a symbol of what is wrong with the parent/child dynamic in this country. If there are 2 things that today's children lack more than anything it's exercise and discipline. Since people treat their dogs like children, then that is also what their dogs lack. Every episode ends with Cesar Milan telling the owners that the dog needs exercise and discipline. He has to train people how to do this on many ocassions since many people are unfamiliar with either concept. They were raised by lax parents who didn't push them, or they are lax parents who don't push their children and it just seems all so unnatural to them. Milan pulls no punches. He tells like it is. I saw him tell the male owner of a female dog that the reason his pet is so aggressive is because he is not the man of his house and lets the women (wife and daughter) be the dominant ones.
Ultimately, it wouldn't be so bad if people treated their dogs like they do their children IF they knew how to treat their children.
I think a lot of it is based on respect as well, whether it's pets or kids. Several of my friends have kids who don't respect them and from what I see it seems it's because the parent has never set boundaries (or in the doggie world been the dominant alpha), or if they did the parent didn't consistently stick to them. When this happens the kids (animals) now know that they are the ones ultimately in control.