Most Popular Q&As

I have a question, I have a 11 month old pyr/berner mix and generally she's an all around great dog. She has had training since 10 weeks, finished 2 sessions, and knows all her basic commands. She views my husband as the Pack Leader and he just needs to point and ask her to do something and she does it. Not with me. I try to do all the same things he does, but she will only listen when she "feels" like it. I know she can do it because she only needs to hear his feet walking to the room and sh...

Hi there, We have adopted a beautiful dog, who likes to bite other people. In order to protect them and himself (from being destroyed) while we are trying to alter his behavior we are going to try a muzzle. I'm not sure of the which one to get and ask for your assistance. Also, before proceeding any further, do you post to Australia? Muzzle size: nose length from top (just below eyes) to end is 4", and circum (fairly snug) is 11". We have tried a plastic muzzle which was not the righ...

I am very interested in your new leash for prong/dominant dog collars. Great idea! However, Please clarify: When you previously have discussed the proper fitting of the dominant dog collar, you have stated it should be worn high on the dog's neck just below the jaw. In the video for the new leash, you show the dominate dog collar being worn well down the dog's neck. Is it safe to assume this is for illustration purposes and that both collars should be worn as you have always recommended? Plea...

I was wondering how you get all these dogs. My GSD is an American Bred. From what I have read you do not particularly like that breed but Tonka is beautiful; he's not quite two, he still has about eight months to go, anyway I paid $150.00 for him and would like to breed him, but I can't seem to find the right female for him. Tonka is a very smart dog, it doesn't take him long to pick up on things. It's very hard to keep him focused because he's always looking for a new adventure. Some people ...

Hi. My family is having a problem with two of our dogs being aggressive. My mother and father have four dogs in total. One is a female we've rescued from a shelter. We have an older male dog who is very gentle, then we have two younger males (they're about two years old). Recently the two younger males have become very aggressive. They've attacked the older male dog about three times, nothing too serious but it was enough that we took Drake (the older one) to my sister's for a little wh...

Hello Mr. Frawley, I recently discovered your list of articles on the internet and have enjoyed reading several of them. The article about 'Dog Parks' caught my eye as I am a frequent user of a public dog park here where I live in Florida. I have two Dobermans, a 3 year old American-bred male from show and obedience lines and a 10 month old bitch I imported from Holland at the age of 10 weeks. My male has an excellent mind for a non-working Dobe. He has good confidence, is p...

I am writing to seek your opinion about whether, in your experience, a properly trained and handled personal protection dog can be an effective deterrent against an aggressive stalker. First, let me say that I don't want to impose on your professional time. I would be happy to pay you for a formal consultation over the phone. I am contacting you because you have consistently been suggested as a knowledgeable resource by trainers and law enforcement officers in my area. Also, I have...

Our puppy is very, very mouthy. It grabs my kids, my arms, my pants. What should I do to stop this?

I have an 11 months Border Collie and was introduced to your site by my dog's breeder. I've watched your DVD "Basic Obedience" and found it to be extremely useful and have practised the three phases approach to dog training as you've recommended. Though my dog has been through Obedience classes, but they all lack the "correction phase." Therefore the results have always been inconsistent. With correction built into the training program, I have seen a vast improvement in his consist...

Hi Cindy, I'm wondering if you could answer a question for me regarding socialization. When I take my 11 week old Malinois puppy out into new areas, should I be working on keeping her engaged with me 100% of the time and then putting her back in the car? Or should I allow her to explore a little with short periods of engagement work in between? She is still very easily distracted and I am struggling to find a good balance between exposing her to lots of new scents, sights and sound...

Hello, I have a two year old Belgian Malinois that I'm currently in the process of training. My only problem is that I literally can't keep him unsupervised without him getting into trouble. My yard is fenced in and I have to make sure there is nothing he can destroy when he goes outside. A table, chairs, etc. Because of this, I have to keep him in a crate when I'm not home or even when I leave the house just for a few minutes which makes me feel like a bad pet owner. So far, nothi...

Good Morning Cindy, My question is this: How do I deal with people who put there hands on/ want to pat my Shepherds? When I walk them (separately), and stop to talk to someone, many times a person will reach out to put their hands on the dog. Despite my telling them to leave the dog alone and putting the dog in a down position, this still happens. Example: I stop to talk to my neighbor, put the dog in a down position, and her husband comes over and puts his hands in the Shepherds face. He ...

As short as possible, I have a male dog,I also have his sister, both fixed at 9 mos. When they were about a year, I brought another male puppy to our home. The males were inseparable! When the new one turned a year, they began fighting, costing more than $10,000 in vet bills in less then 2 years. Over the next couple years, they still had fights, but not as bad. We knew the signs and separated them before hand. Now, all of sudden, they are at it again, BADLY! 3X in less than 2 weeks! The odde...

I am having tons of fun training our Vizsla with your Marker training video. He responds very well to it. I am concerned though about the "end-game." Will he be as responsive if we're out and about, and I don't happen to have a treat with me, and his hunger drive is low? I am wondering if we're building in an expectation for him, to always have food, which is logistically difficult. Thanks for your opinion.

First I would like to commend you and thank you for sharing your great knowledge and experience in in such a easily accessible medium. We have tried local training classes only to leave feeling frustrated with the lack of structure and the inability to engage with our pup during the lesson. One question we have had as we have going through the Basic Dog Obedience course is whether we should use "Yes" or the clicker to mark. I know the answer to this depends somewhat on the dog, but I am wo...

Hi, I have found your website very informative. I ended up using a prong collar as a result, and so far I'm happy with the results. However, I did have one question. I have a large (3mm) collar for my german shepherd mix. Basically I took off enough prong-links that the collar fits around the jaw and below the ears, as it's supposed to. However, there's still just enough play that it slips down during walking/training. The problem is that if I take away any more prong-links, the collar...

I want to train my new puppy in Schutzhund (would rather to Mondio but can't find any help locally). I have started with bite work on my own and the basic obedience. Last Saturday, we went to a Schutzhund club for evaluation and instructions. I was told I should not be doing any obedience training whatsoever, just work on tugging and getting him to hold the bite. I was told to just let him be a puppy and let him be with no corrections, letting him be the boss of the house, and let him think h...

My puppy is a boxer mix. He is about 4 months old and is very playful and friendly with everyone. The problem is excitement/submissive urination. He will run up to someone with his tail wagging, but when they pet him he pees. I have raised 2 dogs now by a Koehler method with positive reinforcement. They were great dogs and eventually did not need to be on a leash to continuously heel and immediately sit when I stopped walking. Neither of those dogs had a urination problem though. He is ...

Hi guys, What can you advise me to use for tick control that is safe and effective. I used to spray a chemical on my lawn until I lost a 6 year old GSD to cancer. I tried a topical but my female GSD had a severe reaction to it. It didn't bother my male GSD. After giving it a lot of thought I felt it isn't safe to put a poison on the dogs. I started using a spray I believe I purchased from your kennel called organic neem spray with pretty good success. This year after all the spring rain w...

Hi, We got our German Shepherd puppy 2 weeks ago while my girlfriend was on break from school vacation. He has learned to go to the bathroom outside, but has an occasional accident. The question I have is that he will be left in the crate from 8 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday. Should he have access to water while we are not home during this period of time? We have heard several different opinions, but it seems a little cruel to leave him without water for that period of time. Obviousl...