Most Popular Q&As

I take my 8-month dog to a professional trainer. He is very rough on her, (flanking her), to get her to show aggression. Is this OK for the dog?

We live in a small town and I can't find anyone to train us, mostly my husband and I. Laney (1 year old part chow part Shepherd) has many annoying habits: constant licking or jumping up on us. She can never just sit or lay by us while we watch TV or talk. She also play bites my husband, but never me because I have been firmer in the past with her. Last, she is too smart for us, we can never get her to come or leave the room, go to bed, go outside... When we try she always lays down, rolls on ...

We have an 11 week old puppy. He appears to be very dominant. We think we are having problems establishing our pack structure with him- we have watched all your videos but can't seem to find a solution. We are crate training him and he seems to have picked up on housebreaking pretty quickly. The problem is that he has a mind of his own. One of the problems is when he is biting something. We will tell him to stop- and he will stop. But then he will wait a few seconds and try t...

I have an 8 month old rottie. He is a good dog, however, I have some problems making him give me something (anything) he has stolen from me. He just looks up at me and curls his upper lip. I don't think he wants to bite or harm me, he is usually a very gentle dog. I can put my fingers in his food bowl, and even put my hands in his mouth, however, when he takes something he will not give it back. What do I do?

If you have time I would appreciate your opinion on the following. This was about 15 years ago. Our son, Derek, was nine. We had a GSD I had trained in basic AKC obedience. I would have trusted her with the boy anywhere, anytime. When people came to the house she would stand between them and the rest of the house for about 30 seconds. When she walked away it was OK for the people to come into the house. If anyone tried to walk past her before she moved away the dog would act very u...

Hi there... Love your website and everything you do and also as a customer please keep it up... I have a problem with my 11 months German shepherd, he is embarrassing me by humping on my leg or jump and hump on me or even sometimes with other family members especially while we are out for a walk in the beach or other places. Please let me know the correct direction on how to deal with it :(

I have an 8 week old puppy & have been crating her since day 1. Although it's only been 4 days. She still gets pretty frantic after putting her into the crate. She sreams, howls & barks exsesivly. It can last from 1 solid hour to 3 hours off & on. We ignore her while in crate. I have tried placing the crate both in site of us (day time) & out of site (night time) with no change. I do put an everlasting toy/treat along with another chew in the crate with her. Also at night I place a blanket ov...

I have a basic question for you, and your response will be so much appreciated. My parents have a White German Shepherd named Zeus. Since Zeus was 9 weeks old, I have been a part of his life, visiting my parents 3-4 times a week and interacting with Zeus. Zeus is 6 years old as of this past May. When he was a puppy, I regularly picked him up, but he never wanted to stay in my arms for long, and would squirm and act restless. I'd end up putting him down sooner than I wanted. Other tha...

I have an 11 year old altered female Sheltie. I've had her since she was a puppy. Over the last two years, she has become increasingly yappy. Even more so since we adopted an altered 4 year old female German Shepherd. The Sheltie is the alpha of the two. Sheltie pretty much announces every move the shepherd makes, as well as most movements my husband and I make. Should we considered a training collar, or is there something else we should try? Patience is wearing extremely thin. Thank you.

I have two questions. I have trained and field trailed bird dogs since being a young boy. I now would like to get into Schutzhund. I am concerned because I have kids and did not know if this makes a dog mean to where it would bite or if they just do it on command as part of the game. The second question is that I have an eight week old shepherd. I just finished watching the ME video of training with food. Can you tell me which videos I need to do next and do I need the tug video if I...

Dear Mr. Frawley, Please forgive me for taking up your precious time but I think that I'm in over my head and don't know which road to go down with my Mason who is trained to be a Home & Personal Protection Dog. I purchased this dog from a company located in Petersburg, Michigan thru the internet solely on the owners word that the dog came out of a very good breeding, trained in humane obedience and protection program for 6-8 months, and properly socialized since birth. ...

Hi. When I order your Nosework Scent Kit and I run out of the pre-prepared swabs, how do I prepare new ones? I've heard to put a drop of the scent directly on each swab or put a drop on a cotton ball and put the cotton ball and new swabs in a container for 24 hours. Which method do you think is best? Thanks.

Hi Cindy, I have a doberman raised on Leerburg. So my dog and I are well trained on the Leerburg method as of 1 year. We are new and doing great. We were walking on a forest trail yesterday when our leashed dog was attacked by a dog whose owner was irresponsible and completely without any control. The dog was on a harness which was useless. My husband and I had to kick the dog repeatedly in the head to get him off. He was sinking his teeth in our dog's back and side, while our dog was ...

Thanks for a great informative site! With that said I have the DVDs on The Power of Playing Tug with Your Dog and The Power of Training Your Dog with Food. I have a 6 month old GSD I am training for Schutzhund. When I tug back and forth for a bit and then let him have the tug, he runs away with the tug and is possesive of it. I tried putting a leash on him, and giving him small pops back to me, but Michael Ellis, in the video, was telling the trainers not to do that. How do I get the dog...

I have a Doberman puppy that came from a litter of 6. He was born by C-section, as mom was having problems getting the first puppy out on her own. All the pups were pretty uniform in size for the most part at birth. This one particular male has not grown much at all in comparison to the rest. At 4 weeks of age the others' average weight was 10 to 11 pounds and this little guy only weighed 4 pounds! I took him to our vet and had a full blood panel done and nothing looked abnormal, not even...

Hello, I am trying to determine wether I should breed a healthy German Shepherd female we own. We have bred German Shepherds for 20 years but only have a litter every few years. We have an excellent female we have raised since a puppy from excellent German working lineage. Time has gotten away from us and by the time she will be whelping her puppies she will be 7+ years old. She is third generation from our breeding program and if not breed we will loose that lineage. She has never before...

Hello, I found your website while searching for a holistic vet. I adopted a Chihuahua Yorkie mix, but he is a biter. We started crate training him, but inconsistently. He had trouble getting house broken, and we discovered he had a bladder stone. Next came surgery, then the diagnosis of liver shunt. We searched for nutrition answers and found your site. We spoil the dog now, because we expect him to have a short life span, but he does have aggressive tendencies. My concern- after reading t...

Dear Ed and Cindy, I have a problem occurring between my 8 MO. GSD, and my 1 YO. Siberian Husky. This problem only occurs when I'm at the off leash dog park with them. The problem is when my husky starts getting ahead of my GSD, my GSD will chase her down and sack her. By the time my GSD catches up to the husky, they are traveling pretty fast. This is not a mutual, back and forth game that they play. It seems as if my GSD is preying, or maybe she just wants to be in control. Either way, I...

My 8 month old male Standard Poodle has recently challenged me by biting twice. We adopted him from a family that neglected him during the first 16 weeks of his life leaving him unsocialized and with some behavior issues. When we brought him home at 4 months, he had severe seperation anxiety if left alone and will bark excessively non stop and still does. We try to take him on walks and to dog parks as much as possible, he gets along with other dogs great but he is still very shy towards stra...

My dog obsessively marks outside when we go for walks. I?ve been able to minimize the behavior with focused leash training. However, when I take him for a walk somewhere new, he will do anything he can to mark even to the point of loose stools. He does not mark inside. Any suggestions?