Most Popular Q&As

I have 2 year old high drive female GSD. Her favorite toy is a ball on a rope. I used this to train her and also for many hours of tug. She will do anything for that ball. The problem is she will not out the ball without a struggle when we play/train. When we walk back into the house she will drop it immediately at the door on command. I have tried freezing up, but she just pulls and pulls. She will out a tug or a sleeve, but not the ball. I'm assuming I need to start over somewhere with the ...

My Schutzhund 3 male is 5 years and will not out in trials. In training we work with electric collars but the dog is trial wise and will not out in a competition. What can we do?

My question is if you mate a black German Shepard ( female ) and a white German Shepard both AKC would there be any negative results? Also Some shows do not allow white shephard's and why?.... In my order to you I also wanted to know if you could give me some advice on how to prepare my 8 week shepard for police/patrol duty as I am in LEO school now and in three years I would like to be a K9 Deputy. Our Department does not have K9s as of now, however as our county grows maybe in three yea...

I have a question regarding a client that has a 5 year old un-neutered American bred GSD that is a fear biter. This dog only goes after females, usually young and they are always showing fear towards the dog. This dog has bit several times, only breaking the skin. This dog has had "protection training" from a very questionable trainer in the area...very defensive oriented, from the old school. The Jack Healy method out of US K9 Academy. This dog is nothing but a poorly trained guar...

Dear Cindy, I have a 5 year old female GSD who has always been fearful aggressive, terrified of every one (except my mom and me), noises, and objects. If she can't run away from some one then she will bite them. When someone is in the house she will either hide in bedroom or hide behind me. I've had a 12 and 10.5 year old before her and now a 9 month old who never had this problem. I'm very experienced in training dogs, non-professionally, but do not know how to fix her to make her...

Hi Cindy, Do you advise that pet owners go through the Marker Training DVD before E-Collar training? Is marker training a "prerequisite" for e-collar training or are they completely different? I have one of the dogtra models that a trainer advised me to purchase, but after reading Ed's article on e-collars, I realized she was teaching me to use the "escape training" method... so I quit going to her and want to follow the Leerburg DVDs. I purchased the e-collar training dvd yesterda...

I've signed up for your message board, but as it takes a few days I wondered if you could get me started in the right direction. Our European bred Shepherd will be five months old on the 14th. We got her at 3-1/2 months. We are doing well socializing her with people, but when she sees another dog, she strains and lunges with all of her strength to get over to them while barking VERY loudly and aggressively. Our trainer (who uses many of your techniques similar to your puppy ...

Hi Cindy, My name is Annette. I recently got a 8 week old ( now 14 weeks ) Doberman pup. I plan on doing schutzhund with her. I am brand new to schutzhund. I became interested in the sport after watching a few trials and seeing a couple videos of her mother doing protection work. The breeder had the pups evacuated before she sent them to their new homes, to make sure the right pup would be going to the right homes, as some new owners wanted ob and two of us wanted working pu...

I have a cocker poo that we love dearly (weights 28 lbs) that eats paper and clothes. We have tried everything-behavior training, lemon juice, etc. If you leave something down for a second he is off and running. I use a walker so it is difficult to get to him. He is also bad when he goes with his dog walker trying to grab paper in the street etc. I even had a nutritional study done but he was fine. I am terrified that he will get ill. Recently a friend left her denim jacket on the couch for a...

I hope you can help me with my new German Shepherd puppy. When we got him he was 7.5 weeks and a he's a very aggressive chewer and biter. I've had a german shepherd before and do not allow puppies to bite and chew on anything but their own chew toys. I have never let him bite me or chew on me because he is "cute and little." We constantly were correcting him and telling him "no." One night my husband and I were playing with him rolling a ball around while he chased it. He went to the door...

Where do I start. Maxx is a Black Cocker Spaniel that I rescued when he was 6 months (now he is 23 months). I rescued him from being put down. Maxx is very aggressive and I don't know what to do. It seems like he doesn't want to be around anyone by me. He is very selfish and doesn't even want anyone or another dog to touch him. Examples: When I put Maxx out to go to the bathroom (he is very Obsessive Compulsive) he always goes to the bathroom in the same place in the yard which is a good ...

Hi Cindy, I have a 4 1/2 year old GSD that I got as a 2 1/2 year old. She absolutely goes nuts over the vacuum cleaner. thought she was afraid of it until I read on the site that her behavior is likely due to prey drive. That makes sense because she has a very strong prey drive as evidenced in play and her interest in chasing squirrels (which she doesn't get to do because she isn't off leash anyplace we might encounter them). Do you have any suggestions on how to train her to know the vacu...

Hi Cindy, Any time my dog gets approached by an off leash dog during our walks, he wants to run away. Whether it's a small poodle or a large dog, my 1.5 year old male German Shepherd with no training always wants to run away from off leash dogs. How can I teach him to hold his ground? It's so embarrassing, and I don't want to hit other dogs.

Hi Cindy, About a year ago we adopted a 1 year old Plott/Sheppard mix. We decided at the time to raw feed and bought an assortment of books. Since we raise our own poultry, chicken was the natural choice for protein. We would grind the chicken along with the bones, and add some carrot or other vegetable, a touch of molasses and a little vinegar. After 2 or 3 months (it was March) on the diet we noticed Zoe shedding a lot. Since she was new to us we weren't sure if the shedding was natural ...

Hi Cindy, I have many of your videos including "playing tug." My 3 1/2 month pup and I are playing tug. This has went along pretty good at first, but now he wants to lay down as we play. To counter this I move the tug toward him and up as to not push the tug back into his mouth. The forward pressure gets him back on his feet, but when I start pulling away from him he will lay back down and try to hold onto the tug. Is this a problem at this stage and if so what should I do. Thank you

Hello, Can I use the pager/vibrate feature on your ecollars as a clicker? Thank you in advance.

I have a 4 year old dog (Buster) who has always showed aggression over food, mainly anyone besides myself and my husband who enters the kitchen when I am in there. I have no problem taking away his food or holding his bowl when he is eating. Last week my friend came over to visit and her girls stayed overnight. I was in the kitchen when one of the girls who is eleven came in, I immediately knew by the look on his face he was going to growl so I said NO!!!! He then jumped at her and...

I’m sending my 3 yr old GSD to training at a training facility next week for three weeks. I am told that they use e collars and prong collars which I have no problem w/. Just wondering since I have not tried a harness and I see you have quite an array. Maybe this question is premature but do you have a suggestion from your line of products? He’s super athletic and very strong and goes nuts when he sees another dog on walks. I feel much safer walking w/ him than by myself but to what end? ;)

I have just found your webpage and have been reading a lot of the articles and I find it very interesting. My problem is, I got 2 female pups about 6 weeks apart. They are now 10 and 11 months old. Before I got the dogs, I asked my vet for advice about getting 2 dogs and what age would be best to get them. She told me to get them as pups and let them grow up together. They are both crossbreeds and I got them from a rescue center. They were both getting on great. When the first one had her...

Hi Cindy, I would like to purchase some of your training videos for my young GSD. He is quite a handful. I am concerned because I am fearful I may have set him back in training because my trainer here has had me be pretty stern with corrections, even in the beggining phases when he was a puppy. Neither do we train with treats. I notice now that he is older, he no longer wants to "come" and is starting to run from me. Have I RUINED OUR RELATIONSHIP with my training? If I purchase s...