Having trouble reading this email? Click here.
If you do not want to receive our twice weekly newsletter, click here to unsubscribe.

Ed’s new Mal puppy, Bart, learning to do leg bites on Ed.

Enter for a chance to win a $25 Leerburg Gift Certificate!

Do you have great stories about your dog? Now is the time to enter Leerburg's Story Contest.
Email your story to Cindy about
How Your Dog Changed Your Life
We will change the theme periodically. Click here for more information.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My dog has drastically changed my life!

Well, it all started when I was 10 years old. I decided I really wanted a dog for my birthday. I had never owned a dog in my life, and I was actually scared of most dogs. My mom didn't like dogs, but told me I could get a Yorkie because they are so small, so I started saving my money. I had $100, and the morning of my birthday, we saw "Yorkie mix" puppies for sale in the paper. We went to look at them, and there were only two boys left, one of which was the runt of the litter! He was getting picked on, so being the 10 year old I was, I instantly had to have him.

We brought him to the vet immediately, and my mom made me name him right then. I decided the right name for him would be Charlie.

Starting out the first few years of owning him, I didn't really know what to do at all! We would let him run all over the neighborhood, he growled at us all the time, he barked in his crate, and he attacked other dogs. I decided that I really wanted to learn how to take care of him better, but wasn't sure what to do.

We were at a dog boutique when we saw an ad for a dog show coming up! My sister and I begged my mom to bring us to it! She decided that she would take us, and a week later, we were at a pretty big dog show! There, I met the people from the Muskegon Lakeshore Obedience Training Club. We joined the club and started attending classes, and I began reading up on dogs a lot more! I memorized every breed I could, and everything about them.

I became very involved in training, and began to train Charlie to do competitive obedience. I was doing very well for having taught myself almost everything I knew how to do, and for having no adult help in the training of my dog!

I saw agility on television a while later, and my dad made me an agility course that week. We started training for that as well, and took lessons to help sharpen our skills.

I volunteered to help train all the dogs in the neighborhood! I would do anything just to get experience and learn. I even started grooming and dog sitting for free, so that I could learn those skills as well!

Conformation was the only thing I couldn't do with Charlie, being a mutt, but a lady from the club even let me show her GSP's in the show ring for her, and I showed them to their championships. I tried competing in UKC juniors with Charlie a few times, and always came out at the top of the competition. At one very big show, we were the only mutt in the ring, and I thought to myself "It will be a miracle if we win this." Well, we did! We beat 25 other juniors! I was so excited!

My sister and I continued going to dog shows on our own throughout our teen years. We would drive there and camp out in a tent, and call our parents and tell them we were doing okay. It was awesome having such lenient parents, and I feel like I learned so much without them always hovering over us.

I showed Charlie to his UCD and UAG1 titles (he got them both in his first three shows!), and then something bad happened. My parents got divorced. I could only see my dog every other week, and I could no longer do so many dog shows. I became very depressed and felt like all my hard work had been ripped away from me. I am very thankful I had my dog during this part of my life, otherwise I don't know what may have happened. He was my only friend, and he saved me from committing suicide a few times.

As I became a young adult, I started to get back into the dog stuff. I decided that I really wanted to be a dog trainer, and I had to pursue my goals in order to reach them.

I started reading dog training books again, and became more involved with shows, but not as much as I had been before. There was a long break where I was in college for other degrees, and again dropped my dog training interests.

It was not until now, 2 years later, that I am finally back on track. I'm now working at a dog training facility, pursuing becoming a dog trainer, and studying like a mad woman! I feel I owe it all to Charlie, who is happily retired from the show ring due to being a blind 11 year old dog today. If it weren't for him, and if it weren't for his bad behavior, I would have never gotten into dogs at all, and my passion would be somewhere else.

I'm glad it turned out this way. Dogs complete me. Charlie taught me so much, he is my best friend, and he was the only one to turn to in my darkest hours. I am so very thankful to have him in my life, I feel he really has changed my life into something very grand indeed.

-Karissa Tepp

Schutzhund and IPO – Why it’s driving
better obedience training in all dog sports

*At checkout, enter coupon code NOV2 into the comments section at checkout to receive savings. An email will be sent after you have placed your order specifying the new total. This special is valid for ONE DAY ONLY on Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 3rd from 12:01 A.M. to 11:59 P.M. Central Standard Time. Order must be placed, received, and be dated for November 2nd or 3rd. Orders placed before or after this date will NOT be given the price discount. No Exceptions!

Clearance Closeout
While Supplies Last

Featured Products!

Elk Antler Chew	Decal Magnets - 17 Styles -
FREE Featured eBook Dog Parks - Why they are a bad idea! By Ed Frawley

This Week's Featured
Question & Answers
Our newsletter will always contain several featured customer Q&As from that week.

Have a question for Ed & Cindy? Try the Leerburg Search Engine. This search engine was written specifically for Leerburg by our in house IT manager. Our search engine is specific to Leerburg and only searches leerburg.com and the Leerburg web forum.

If you can't find the answer to your question by using our search engine,
you can email Cindy here at Leerburg at cindyr@leerburg.com
If you have your spam filter on, make sure you set it to receive our replies!!!

Question: I have a female that is vicious and fearful, but I want to breed her because she’s really beautiful and my male is gorgeous. She also won’t let my male mount her, so I will probably need to do artificial insemination. I probably know your answer but do you think I should breed her?

I have a big and beautiful Brindle English Mastiff. She is a bit vicious for the most part. (Because of fear until she becomes familiar with someone then it's like they do not exist or they are TOTALLY welcome to her house or yard.)

She also will not let my male Mastiff mount or "TIE." She teases and he is definitely interested but she snaps right before the "TIE." Anyways, I was thinking of artificial insemination, however, is she going to be a terrible mother? I know.... No one will know until then.But from experience,what do you think? I already know she will be needing caged during visitors choosing their pup.She was like that when company came to see my other Mastiffs puppies.

Thank you.(I am sure I already know the answer,but I would love for her to have puppies. I guess since she is so beautiful and my male is so gorgeous, I didn't want their good looks to go to waste.

Signed,
Krause

P.S. My St. Bernard and Mastiff are both in Heat and my male is no longer interested in mastiff but now the St. and my St. is consistently  next to the mastiff female wanting to smell and lick her almost like she is the male. I am definitely spaying the St. about 2 months after her cycle!

So either the St. Can tell the Mastiff is now ovulating and the male was just confused the last couple days when he was bothering her. (I seen you said male must have @ least 4-5 successful ties before he is experienced but I just don't see the female mastiff letting the male "TIE" ever! So it looks like insemination or spaying her?? She may be too young still. She is almost 2 and 1/2 or just a bitch!

Answer:

Even if you weren’t having the issues with getting this female bred, just based on your description of her temperament I wouldn’t breed her.  Fearful dogs produce fearful puppies, and if you want to be a responsible breeder then you should be honest about what you have and not allow weak genetics to be passed on.  The Mastiff is not supposed to be a nervous or fearful dog.  Good looks aren’t a reason to breed. 

I worked with a Mastiff breeder in years past, and her dogs had wonderful temperaments.  They were stable and clear headed dogs, not fearful or aggressive. 

Sorry if it’s not what you wanted to hear, but the world of purebred dogs is in trouble because people don’t breed dogs for the right reasons.  In my opinion, the only reason to breed is to create dogs that will contribute a positive influence on their particular breed in temperament, character and physical structure.

Cindy

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on Breeding.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question: I have a question about training my working puppy to bark.  What command should I use?  I want to train him for protection work.

Cindy, My husband and I are working with our GSD who is still just a young puppy on things like beginning bite work, basic obedience etc... We intend to work with a professional in the future on protection work.  However, right now I have one question as I am not new to training but new to protection work.  We are using English words for come, down, sit, and stay.  We plan to use german commands for bite, watch/guard, etc... My question then is that I am not sure if the speak command is later incorporated into when the dogs bark at a helper/suspect or if "barking" and "watching" are two totally different things.  Basically I want to start getting him to bark now and need to know if we will later use that same command to "shape" the behavior of barking at another person. If this is so than I guess we should be using a german word for that as well.  I hope I am writing this so that you understand my concern.  I just don't want to teach him with the word speak and later when we get help/direction on where to go next... I don't want to be told that we have to either use the word speak now when getting him to guard OR have to change the word on the dog who is ready to learn the right way now. If this is confusing give me a call.  I am just laying the foundational work now and doing what I know and can do for this puppy.  I feel we are doing a great job as novice's but need some advice.  Thank you for your time.  You website and products are wonderful.  Carly

Answer:

You can use whatever word you like to teach your puppy to “speak” because barking/guarding in protection work is completely different than learning to bark as an obedience command. 

Sometimes in the early stages of bite training, if the dog is really focused on the prey he won’t want to bark in which case the handler can “help” the dog by saying speak or bark or whatever the dog’s word is.  This may help the dog connect the dots faster but getting the dog to bark in protection work is usually left to the helper/decoy and is brought out through defense much later in the dog’s training. 

Even if you want to use another bark command later it’s no big deal to add another word to your dog’s vocabulary.

I hope this helps.

Cindy

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on Bottle Feeding.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question: My 5 month old puppy poops in her crate and I ground her by canceling her walks and I don't feed her breakfast or lunch. I know she understands that I don't like it when she does this. How do I teach her and how do I correct her?

Dear Cindy,

My Dogo (born May 2009) has a poop problem. I've tried many things but nothing seems to work.

1. After eating between 6-7 in the afternoon, I take her to walk for about half a mile and after that I let her play in the backyard for about 1.5 hours. At that time, her crate is quite big, 1.2m x 1.2 m. In the morning, about 5:45, she pooped in her crate.

2. After that I tried to put her in crate with the door opened. For a few days she didn't poop in the crate. This means she does that in the backyard. But this did not take long, about a week after, she does that again the crate even though the door is opened.

3. After that I bought a smaller dog crate made with fiber which can be used for traveling. She can only stand up and lay down in there. 4 days she slept in there without doing it. I was happy to see that, I thought my problem was over. But this morning, at 5:45 (it is always the time when I wake up and take my dogs out of their crates) she pooped in that small crate.

I was so angry so I cancelled the morning walk with her. I also ground her by not giving her food in the morning and noon.

I need some suggestions.

1. Is this normal? I mean is there a dog with those characteristics? She has lived with me for about 1.5 months. It didn't take long for my other dogs (GSD and golden retriever) to understand this house matter.

2. What can I do to teach her? And how is the correction on this? Because she knows it, I know she knows it that I don't like it when she did it.

Thanks and regards,
Damsi

Answer:

You need to teach her when and where you want her to go to the bathroom. Canceling walks, not feeding the dog and getting upset doesn't teach the dog anything. She doesn't understand what you expect.

We have a section on the website about house training.

You need to treat her like a little puppy and keep her in a crate and only take her out on a leash and catch her doing the RIGHT thing so you can praise her. You don't correct her for making a mistake because the mistake is YOURS for not teaching her. She doesn't know what you are upset about. Some dogs take longer to learn this than others, she doesn't KNOW why you are upset.

I'd recommend Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months and our house training eBook.

For more questions on this topic, see our Q&A on House Training.

 

*If you have a training question – write Cindy here at Leerburg at cindyr@leerburg.com

*If you have your spam filter on, make sure you set it to receive our replies!!!

*Our newsletter is a big success and we would like to send out a huge THANKS to our wonderful customers! Since beginning this newsletter our volume of email has greatly increased and you may have a longer than usual wait for a reply to your question.  We will answer; it just may take us a bit longer than you are accustomed to. In order to speed up this process, please condense your questions to a paragraph or two. This will make it MUCH easier for us to answer in a timely fashion. Your questions are important to us and we always appreciate receiving them. If you have a medical issue or emergency, please consult with a health care professional right away. We can’t diagnose or treat sick dogs via email. Also, try using the search function on our site - it now searches the site AND the web board. Thank you. Ed & Cindy

Testimonials

Hey Ed,

I'm always asking you questions about this, that and the other, but I don't think I've ever taken the time to thank you and Cindy for
all the help that you've given me over the years. So maybe this picture and story will be enough to let you both know how much sharing your knowledge helps people like me every day. The picture that I sent is a picture of my Chihuahua, Bucatini. She is the only survivor of a litter of puppies that we had 8 months ago. They were born seven days too early and she was the only one who had the will and the fight to live. We ended up bottle feeding her not because the Mom wouldn't, but because she was so little that she couldn't latch on well enough. She did get the colostrom. but after that we used your formula. She went down to 2-1/4 ounces before she started gaining weight, and she's still small, but she's healthy as a horse. You'd think that the story would end
there, but it doesn't. After years of wanting to switch to the raw diet that you recommend, but being afraid, I finally made the jump. I had one dog who is 12 and of course Buca who wouldn't eat like she should for being so small. We'll because of them I finally got up the guts to try it. Now all my dogs can hardly wait to eat, Buca now weighs a whopping 3 pounds 12 ounces. My Lab, who is 12 had a high liver count, her count is now down, but we did find out that she has adrenal gland cancer, but since we put her on your diet she is now back to going for short walks and she now begs like no ones business. So thank you for the info that you put out there for us, and thank you for the midnight emails you've sent me over the years when I was worried. I am indebted to you as are Stormy and Buca. Not to mention my other dogs who totally love their raw meat and veggies.

Sincerely with all my heart and thanks,
Bonnie

Leerburg's Affiliate Program
Check out the NEW Leerburg Affiliate Program.
Learn how to become a Leerburg Affiliate!

Upcoming Michael Ellis Seminar
Check out the pictures from the recent Michael Ellis Seminar
and the upcoming seminar dates!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANNOUNCING
The Michael Ellis School for Dog Training

More details on courses, course content and dates available on the website.

http://michaelellisschool.com

SPORT CLINIC

This course is the classic competitive sport seminar that Michael has been giving for nearly ten years.  While there will be some lecture, this course focuses on hands on problem solving and the development of training plans for competitive protection sport trainers (IPO and ringsports).  The clinics cover both obedience and protection each day. These clinics are for trainers actively competing, or planning to compete in the protection sports. Handlers must have attended at least one of our seminars or taken our Obedience Intensive 1. 

Cost $250 | November 6th, 7th, 8th, 2009

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to you by Leerburg® Enterprises, Inc.
If you do not want to receive our semi weekly newsletter, click here to unsubscribe.
We will promptly update your contact preferences.
Copyright Leerburg® Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. US Copyright Link.
By accessing any information within Leerburg.com,
you agree to abide by the Leerburg.com Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.