Most Popular Q&As

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...

I have an 11 month old GSD that hasn?t been socialized much. He is a rescue; I got him at about 4 months old and have had him out in public, but he needs obedience training. He is non-reactive to other dogs, cats, children etc. I want to try and train him to be a service dog (I suffer from PTSD) as he appears to have a very good temperament. I purchased the Michael Ellis self study Training with Food. He is too old for the puppy video you have and was wondering is it too late to train him for...

I have a one year old Belgian Malinois that I want to work with for protection training and bite work. I am fairly new to dog training and would like to know which courses and/or DVDs I should watch, and in what order should I take them to develop a good protection dog. Thank you!

We rescued a Black lab about 2 or 3 years old, when we rescued her she was brought in with another female dog. We have introduced her to other dogs and she is very aggressive, always growling, showing her teeth, and this one time went after the dog. She is very dominate and other dogs are scared to death around her. We are not sure of her past or know what has happened, but we need to find out a way to snap this behavior fast. Is there anything you can recommend? we need her to be able to be ...

I learned the "European methods" of working dog training in my early years, and now reading the articles and seeing the videos of your methods of dog training, I need help in how to fix the bond damage caused by them. I had learned from trainers I observed to use the leash end as a whip. If the dog doesn't respond to a command, you issue a "correction" lash to their behind and then repeat the command. I respected these trainers and they had great dogs, and even though I didn't like this metho...

This is mentioned in the tug DVD with Michael Ellis. There is a trainer, Rhonda, I believe, that has a 7 month old female that will not play with her with the tug but engages when she slips on the puppy sleeve... Ed mentions that Rhonda was able to correct this with some hard work.... but it's never revealed what that actually was... I have the same problem that I created out of ignorance (this is my first dog) and I'd like to work on correcting it. Thx

I have an eleven month old German Shepherd female that chews everything imaginable in our yard and now has an obstruction. What kind of muzzle can I get to stop her from chewing?

Hi Cindy, I am interested to hear how you are balancing treats with food keeping Stella's desired weight in mind. I find I am having a very difficult time keeping my Cavalier's weight down. I train with her so I have to balance her meals with training treats. She is down to bare minimum with her kibble (grain free) supplemented with training treats throughout the day and I still have issues with her weight. She is quite the active dog and gets her share of exercise in each day. For tra...

We have a part german shepred part wolf dog. She has started chasing cars or runs right toward them like she is going to hit them and then stops inches from them. She acts like she enjoys doing this. We have tried getting after her, that does not work. Any ideas how to handle this? We have had dogs all our life and never had this happen. Thank You for your time and help. Janell

I have heard that you should NEVER feed your dog chicken bones! One of the foundations of your feeding program is chicken! Aren?t you afraid your dogs will choke or the bones will splinter?

Can you explain a 3-3 line-breeding on Grief?

First let me tell you what an inspiration your website has been to me, a new breeder of Australian Labradoodles. I am trying to decide if xraying my bitch at 45 days is safe. If not is there another way to tell if the puppies are there and everything is ok for delivery. Thank you and thank you for your years of experience you share with your site. Cathi

My fiance and I have a dog that is wearing on our patience as he is incredibly destructive and does not deal well with being kenneled. He has actually broken out of two steel kennels. The ones with the thin bars of metal. Now we keep him and our other dog in a room in the basement, and as you can see from the attached photo, he is slowly destroying it, day by day. That is an older picture and since then the damage he has done has tripled. I've heard so many things about muzzles and my main...

Ed, Our great puppy, Xanda vom Leerburg (born January 16, 2000; call name "Rebound"), is progressing beautifully. She is almost five months old and has settled in as a full-fledged member of the family (which includes my wife, three children, our male yellow lab and me). I would like your thoughts on a particularly disturbing and dangerous habit that she has exhibited. During our walks in the neighborhood, she literally lunges at moving cars. In response, I shorten way up on...

We have a police dog in our small town. My question is: Every time the police car drives around the corner of the intersection or is waiting for the red light to change the police dog is barking furiously at cars or people around him. Also we walk our two little dogs. One day the police car was parked across the street from where we were walking and the police dog started barking aggressively. Is this proper behavior in any of the cases? Just curious, Kathy

Hello, I have a question about my German Shepherd. He is limping and can't put much weight on his left front foot. This happened before about 2 months ago and we took him to the vet. The vet said he had growing pains which caused his joints to hurt. He gave me some antibiotics just in case, so it won?t get infected, and some pain reliever. A week later it was gone. Now he his limping again, there doesn't seem anything to be physically wrong with his leg that I can see. I squeezed his paws...

I have a 5 yr old Old English Sheepdog. We purchased this pup from a private breeder who I now feel, gave little regard to temperament. From the very beginning, he has been a "nervous" dog. When Barnaby was 6 months old I took him to a local basic obedience class. During a session of 'meet your neighbor,' where the dogs were allowed to sniff each other, he lunged and pinned the other dog to the floor. I soon realized that all dogs were considered the "enemy" to him and avoided cont...

Hi, My name is Lena. I have been reading your site about dog aggression. I have a 1 year old large munsterlander, who shows way too many signs of aggression. When he was six months, he nipped our friends young son. He was alright, but it greatly concerned us. Ever since then, we have been trying to destroy those signs of aggression, but it has been difficult. He is a baby to everyone in our family. He has never shown aggression to any of us. We can steal his food, mess around with ...