Most Popular Q&As

Ed, Almost a year ago you provide some suggestions on me dealing with my leash reactive dog while on walks showing signs of whining/stress when seeing other dogs. I watched your "Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs" DVD, and could say that my dog is dominant and aggressive to some degree. Yet very trainable, and good at obedient skills. In your DVD, you have a session in which you provided strong corrections to a dog you are walking near a fence with other dogs (high distraction). T...

Cindy, I put in "sick not growing puppies bacteria" in my search engine and your webpage came up as #1 at the top of the list and after reading much of your page on saving small pups, etc. I believe you may be able to help me. I have been a dog breeder since 1969 and have, at one time or another, had almost every disease a dog or pup can get, except rabies. Anyway, I now have something I cannot figure out. I currently have French Bulldogs (4 of them) and have been breeding them for ...

Hi Cindy, I have been teaching competition obedience, rally, agility and puppy foundation classes for 17+ years using mostly positive training methods (reward based) training. Over the years, I have had to take a client's dog and show them something; like a collar correction or how to help the dog into the down position (just to name a few things I've had to show the owners). I have had much success with mostly all experiences showing clients how to handle their dog better but occasi...

I currently have a 5 month old female French Bulldog x Min Pin (French Pin). I am trying to decide whether or not to fix her, not fix her, or potentially breed her with another dog. I would love to breed her with another healthy male but do not know what breed I would be looking for or how to go about caring for her through pregnancy. Would you suggest I take her to a dog trainer and have them care for her through pregnancy? And what breed of dog would you suggest I breed her with. Thanks

Hi Mr. Frawley, A week ago I adopted a 2 - 2 1/2 year old female Great Pyrenees. It's been an interesting week but the fact that I was online search for more help yesterday says it's not been ideal. I came across your website when searching for information on dogs being aggressive -- to other dogs and to people. I ordered your DVD on demand for establishing pack structure with the family pet and began putting her in the crate last night and it's been an uncomfortable experience. Is this...

Dear Cindy (and Ed), First of all, thank you so much for all of the information you have provided on your web page. I can't wait to order more of your articles and books. I've read through a ton of articles and q&a's, but frankly our problem isn't to the extent of what others have written in with, but I guess I am more so concerned with prevention of future problems. We have a 3-year-old mini Australian shepherd female. We adopted her over a year ago because her first owner didn't want ...

We have been using the Tri-Tronics G3 Bark Limiter on our 1 year old female German Shepherd with great success. Last night, the collar appears to have malfunctioned, zapping her repeatedly at a 4 setting until we could get the collar off. It has been set at 1, and she was sitting calmly and quietly when it started. She is now extremely skittish and requires constant reassurance from us. Where do we go from here? I have contacted Tritronics about the issue, but I don't think I will be comforta...

I just found your website but already can't get enough. I have a 6 month old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog who is happy and active. She loves to go out for walks and we frequent our local dog park often. She is already well behaved except she barks at individuals with darker skin. She never shows aggression towards them but does make a point of barking at them until we walk away or they do. We live in a city and this is very difficult because many people stop and want to pet her but when they do...

Hello Cindy, A quick question for you. Between the Verve and Embark, which would you start puppies out on after weaning with the milk formula and hamburger? Or,....would you simply start them on the Embark with a little of the formula? The litter is now 3 weeks old. By the way, I tried your formula for the first time today because I felt that the litter should be gaining better that they are (it was a litter of 10, lost 1) most of them weigh in at 2.2lbs - 2.4lbs and a couple at 2.6. I...

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...

Cindy, What's the deal with having the dogs return on recall to "between the legs" facing forward? Is this a new fad or what? I realize in protection you don't want the dog to "front" and take it's attention off the decoy, but why not to heel position? Karen

Schutzhund over here in England is frowned upon by the establishment. My nearest club is about 1.25 hours away, but they are very friendly and welcoming folks. My question is this. How related are Schutzhund and personal protection? Will going through Schutzhund be of benefit to my dog as a protection dog or should I simply set down the path, at a suitable age of course, of protection training him? Although again over here finding good helpers will be difficult outside the Schutzhund establis...

I have been looking all over the internet and just found your site. WOW! You cover so much. I know it may be a while before you can answer me but if you can I would really appreciate it. We (myself, husband and 2 teenagers) just adopted a collie/shepherd 3-month-old puppy. He has been responding very well to the crate training and in just 2 weeks is "so far" housebroken. Our problem is that after a few days with us he has started this thing where he pees whenever my husband does anything ...

Cindy, We just got an 8.5 week male Malinois a week ago from a reputable breeder after months of reading and watching DVDs. We are specifically following instructions from the DVDs 'Pack Structure', 'Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months' and 'Raising your Working Puppy' (although we have many others). He is a happy, energetic pup that is responding well to most pack structure exercises (doors, gates, sitting for food, etc.). However we are having difficulty in reducing/ eliminati...

I have a one-year old German Shepard. He is well trained to sit, down, come, etc. I can work with him at a strange location on a 30 ft leash and he still obeys. The only problem I have with him is a come when he is off leash and he sees another dog that he wants to play with. At that point I lose control and he won't come. I have tried a throw chain to get closer to him, but he could care less about that. He is also quite dominant in his play so I can't allow him to play with a smaller do...

Hi Cindy, I am hoping you can help me. I have a now one year old Plot Hound that I rescued at 8 weeks. Without going into endless repetition, all I can say is that training her has required a lot of patience but with one exception is paying off. She has a strong prey drive but now is easily controlled with birds and squirrels. She responds well to commands, and shows absolutely no signs of aggression to people or dogs. The difficulty stems from her wanting to be with ...

My pup will play with her tug like crazy at home. When I take her to the training field or down the street she ignores it. What should I do?

I saw a Q/A that you had on fear biting and I was hoping that you could help me out with something... We adopted a female (2-3 years old) lab/boxer (or pit bull not sure) mix. She is a well tempered dog, very loving, plays well with other dogs (from what we can tell) and with cats. She has not exhibited aggressive behavior with the exception that she barks a little at strangers. The thing is that she is very timid. Numerous times she will roll on her back and freeze. We thou...

Dear Mr. Frawley: Today I killed my dog. Abby, our sweet, bicolor GSD, lived with us for six of her eight years. I adopted her from the Humane Society. The worker there later told me Abby had been seized during a raid at a dog fighting ring. They'd tried to use her as a guard dog. They also had bred her continuously and used her pups as bait. It took her two years to learn to wag her tail. She craved attention, and I was her person of choice. Our other GSD, Griffon, d...

Hi Ed and Cindy, I have a question I haven't seen addressed on your website (even though it may very well be there) concerning what to expect from my dog after beginning e-collar corrections. I have a 9 mo old yellow labrador that we purchased at 8 wks of age. He is a really great dog and very smart. I started training basic commands as soon as we got him and he really likes training sessions. He took one obedience class for distractions. (I wish I had spent that $200.00 on ...