Most Popular Q&As

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?

Came across your website while searching for help with regards to my 3 year old GSD. He's a well-bred, German line GSD, very high drive. He's very good with people but not so much with other dogs (only certain ones it seems). I deal with this by avoiding other dogs. However, my big problem, that I don't know how to handle, is his interaction with my 6 and 8 year old grandchildren. They live out of state, so we only see them a few times a year. He has NEVER shown any signs of biting or growlin...

Hi Ed & Cindy, I'm currently dog-walking a 65 pound, 5.5 month old neutered Mastiff/Labrador from a local shelter. He's been in residence a month. He's currently wearing a wire muzzle when walking or playing in the yard. He has bitten people 5 times - 3 times on the same person when she's been removing his muzzle. He had no prior (known) behavioral concerns after living his first rescue months with a woman and her young child along with some other animals. The other dogs at the shelte...

Hello Mr. Frawley, You & your website has been of tremendous value to me and the razing of our raw-fed boxers. We thank you very much for the wealth of information that you so openly share with the public!> I have run into a situation that makes me question that I am diffently doing something wrong?.the last 2 litter we have had we have had to bottle feed due to the mothers having NO milk come down!!! 1 litter was born in fall 2010 and the other was born summer 2011, born to diffe...

I want to breed my female. Is it okay to feed a raw diet to pregnant dogs?

Hello! First off, I know you are a very busy person so I will try my best to make my question short! Sorry in advance if I ramble on? My husband and I own an east german shepherd (20 months old) with very high drive. She comes from working DDR lines and we are working toward the CD title, then hopefully onto schutzhund. We use a trainer who was a former K9 trainer & handler and is familiar with the breed. We are making good progress with the training and have been told by nu...

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...

Hello, I have a question in regards to my 1-year old Aussie (maggie). Her name is Maggie. Can we help her? I will try to keep this brief but help you understand her behavior the same. Maggie was brought into our home at 12-weeks, she was/is very shy. We went through obedience classes with flying colors, although the social end didn't go so well. Maggie would show her teeth at the other dogs and sometimes growl, she would flip over on her back when people try touching her and...

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 ...

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...