Most Popular Q&As

Will it be a problem using a friend of mine as my dogs helper for bite training, concerning being around my dog when we are not working? Thanks, Sean

I have recently began feeding raw. The forum on leerburg helped me get past a lot of my worries and helped me get started. I still wonder if I'm giving enough variety and if I'm balanced over time enough. I wanted to to this myself without the aid of a store bought food, but feel it would be best right now to do just that until I know more. I don't want to fail at this by giving store bought food, but I also don't want to malnourish my dog. Would you still consider Honest Kitchen to be good e...

Hi Ed, I adopted a 2 year old australian shepherd about 8 weeks ago. He is a 40 pound red merle named Casey. Casey belonged to an 18 year old girl until she had a baby and could no longer take care of Casey...I was told. >From there he went to a foster family and then to an aussie rescue foster family. It was from the aussie rescue family that I adopted him from. I also have a 2 year old german shepherd. I had a 12 year old shepherd that I had to have put to sleep. The hip displays...

Hi Cindy, can you tell me a time frame on how long it takes a puppy to be house trained? I have followed the recommendations of crate training. Our GSD puppy is 19 weeks old. He is not free fed. He is crate trained and is not allowed out of the crate without our watchful eye. I take him, via leash, to a designated area to potty and use the word 'go potty.' He will potty and then we are done. He is not allowed in the house until he has 'emptied' himself. Unfortunately, while he is in the h...

Mr. Frawley, I have read a lot of the articles on your website, but I have a question that I have not seen answered. I have a 14 week old GSD who has been a terrible biter. He appears to have a high drive and the biting has been horrible, but by keeping his leash in him and being able to pull him away from me and then redirect him to a toy, I have seen a reduction in his biting. However, he has his "moments" when he wants to chew on my shoes as I am trying to walk. My question is how do I ...

I adopted a 5 y/o male Rottweiler 3 months ago who occasionally nips other dogs, children, and even me. He is a neutral dog - submissive to me (pack leader) but neither submissive or overly dominant towards other dogs/people. The family I got him from had a 2-3 y/o little girl and he is obsessed with small children when I take him to the park, especially little girls. He gets excited and stays close and keeps a close watch on them. He did a very gentle nip to a little boy who was running and ...

Hi, I have an 8 year old neutered male doberman who I have had since a puppy. He has been a wonderful loving animal towards humans and most dogs. Several years ago he started dog aggressive behavior at the beach. He would start out with play and then become aggressive...grabbing the other dog by the neck and growling but never breaking skin. I stopped taking him to the beach 2 years ago but still socialize him with friends' dogs...which has been fine. I have dogs over to my home and vic...

Hi Cindy. I have a four year old GSD that has been on a prong collar for the past three years. It's a large link version and I feel it is properly sized for his neck. He's in the prong whenever we leave the house regardless of activity: training, walking, or for a run. I started using the collar early on since the dog is very, very hard. The problem I have is the collar has created a permanent fur divot in the right side of his neck. In the areas where the slip chain feeds through the c...

As I read your Q&A's I see that I am not the only person out here with a problem dog. But I just may be the only one here without a clue as to what to do. We have 3 dogs and a cat at our house. The first was the cat. Then I moved in with a Shi-tzu(8-9 years old) with a bad attitude. Yes she came from the pound and I make the excuse that she must have been mistreated before I got her. She will bite me at any given time! The only reason I took her in the first place was because this ...

Hello Cindy, We have a 1 1/2 year old Australian Shepherd who is aggressive when on leash with other dogs in a classroom situation and walking around our neighborhood. She does not show any aggression while on leash walking around at dog shows which deal with conformation and obedience. We have her in an agility class where all the dogs are crated and one dog works at a time on the course. When it is her turn she has recently taken off and runs over to where the other dogs are crated and b...

My 10 month old dobie needs a prong collar to walk nice on a leash. Nothing else works. My problem is I was putting it too loose and he now has bumps on the front of his neck down low where the collar should not be. After finding tour website and reading how to fit a prong collar I removed a link and set it up behind his ears over his and now it just seems too tight. The skin looks pinched and he gulps at times. Would a collar with smaller links fit better? This is my fifth doberman and I nev...

What kind of battery do the Educator ecollars use for the receiver and what kind for the transmitter? Are the batteries owner replaceable? Are they rechargeable for both the transmitter and the receiver? Are the batteries proprietory or can I buy them anywhere?

I have a 5 month old dutch shepherd. He is the second ds I have owned. He sleeps in his crate and does not get fed from the table. He is wonderful on a leash when we go for walks. I am working with him to come when called and releasing toys with food reward. The only problem I have is there are times that he becomes aggressive and bites at me. An example is when I am watering plants and he grabs and attacks the water hose. if I take the hose from him, he bites my hand. I was trying th...

We've had our new puppy for a week and she is being crate trained; spends all her time either in her airline crate (at night), in the wire crate in our living room when we're watching TV, or in an ex-pen (that's been closed up a bit since I don't have enough room in my office to fully open it). My office is carpeted and not very comfortable (cheap carpet) so I have a fleece blanket set up in the bottom of the ex-pen with the blanket past the edges of the ex-pen to help keep it in place. So...

Ed! In looking - mainly by fluke - in the 'questions/comments' in the sar section - just under Patti Thompson's pic of Deja working Fresh Kills.....a person talks about their 10 month old training in air scent. You replied that "10 months is way, way, way too young......". Uh - since when? I've been training air scent for almost 20 years now and always start them off extremely young - including my dog from Leerburg lines - and all have been exceptional air scenting dogs. I'm talking 4 mont...

Hello, We have a male Golden Retriever who is turning one year old next week.? He was neutered at 7 months of age and we have had him since he was 8 weeks old. With the help of your videos on Establishing a Pack Structure and Dealing with Dominant dogs we have for the most part an obedient dog who stays and comes on command. Walks well with us and responds to verbal correction when he wants to wander toward other dogs or to sniff around. Unfortunately he has tendency to get very agg...

Hi Cindy, We have a 4-month-old Caucasian Shepherd puppy and he displays uncontrollable dog aggression to unfamiliar dogs. I have read that this breed of dog is very independent and does not have the best recall. Having owned a protection-trained Malinois and a German Shepherd, I am amazed at how intense this puppy can be. He lives with an 8-year-old male German Shepard and a 10-year-old female Border Collie. They all get along although his "puppy play" can be rough. We socialize him at...

Hi Cindy! How are you? My questions are: 1) I heard you don't vaccinate your puppies and dogs at all at Leerburg. Is that true? 2) Is it ALL vaccines or do you give SOME vaccine/s? I think we have some REQUIRED vaccines here at Houston,Tx 3) Do you reccomend the heartworm PILL that is recommended monthly by vets or not? I just bought a lot of videos from you guys because I am purchasing a working GSD, and will be buying more in the future. Have a great day! Thanks a lot, Mark

Cindy, I've made great strides with my dog, thanks to your advice. She displays only brief, calm interest or indifference towards the chicken coop and defers to the cats in the home if they growl, hiss, or run away - no chasing, fixating, etc. Thank you! A new issue has cropped up: yesterday she began to guard high value treats from me (bison or beef bones), growling if I approach, and even snapping to deter me. These treats are new, but 1 week ago I could approach or pet her when she wa...

Welcome home, Jeff! I can't believe how much he sounds like Ed. Loved the video of you and Rush biking. My large dog has a high prey drive, but he does great biking. Just in case, I use a Walky Dog attachment so he can't pull me over. But as much as my dog loves running with the bike, I come close to quitting every day. We live in the city, and I've lost count of how many times unleashed dogs have come after us. I hear this from other bikers and joggers all the time. It's always a diffe...