Most Popular Q&As

Our male 10 months old GSD was standing up on our couch barking loud and hard out the window at a white plastic bag which was floating around in the wind. I tried to stop him and pull him down from the couch put he turned on me as if fighting with another dog and just touched me a few times with his teeth but did not bite hard but it was a bit of frenzied attack, he would not come down on command. So I tried to pull him down, and this was a bit of a shock to me because, I thought I had establ...

I have a German Shepherd (not from you), he is 14 weeks old. After 9 weeks both of his ears stood up, not straight up, they actually leaned towards the middle quite a bit. However, a few days ago his left ear just went down and has not gone back up. Does this mean that he has a broke or lame ear now? This has me really worried since both ears were up, but now one won't stand. Is this normal, or did he hurt it some way? Will it ever go back up or not? Thanks for your help, and answers. ...

Hi Ed, I have purchased your dominant dog collar, e-collar, and dominant dog videos and was wanting to know what would be the best e-collar for my great dane of one year. He has a bad habit of lunging at other dogs on our walk. I have fixed the problem mostly by spraying him with compressed air if he doesn't obey the 'leave it' command', but I think an e-collar might be a better solution with other uses also. I have attached some pictures of him and my other dog over ...

Cindy, We have a 4 month old German Shepherd puppy. Over the last 3-4 weeks she has been chasing her tail and barking. We purchased her at 10 weeks old and for the first couple of weeks she didn't demonstrate this behavior. We crate her when we leave the house and during the night, but she is out of the crate and on leash when we are home. We try to exercise her by walking her 2-3 miles per day, but that doesn't always happen. We have been correcting her by voice commands "NO" and ...

I am an obedience instructor for my training club and I have a question about training collars for large breed, protective dogs. I currently have a 120 lb Cane Corso in my class and I'm unsure what type training collar I should use. The dog seems very mellow, but it was only the first class. I have experience with prongs and use them quite often with success. Since this breed of dog is known for aggression and because of the size and power, I really need help. Currently, the owner is using a ...

Hi, Can you point me to any articles or eBooks, or give me some advice on how to handle a young female in heat. This is her third heat and we've handled it so far, but we just got turned on to your videos and methods and philosophies and we would like to learn how to handle this right. We have chosen not to have her spayed, as we plan on getting one litter out of her, probably this time next year, when she'll be two and a half years old. Thank you for your time, and thank you for the gr...

We have a rescued SCWT who, after a year of walking with the same group, is still agressive toward the others. I'm wondering if I try her with a muzzle, will that help her interact and realize that they will not harm her? Any thoughts or advice would be welcomed.

I have a 3 year old black lab mix (who does AKC obedience and rally) and an 8 month old GSD. Is a dog ever too young to start Michael's training program, for example the power of food and tug. I have both of them. Is my black lab to old to start it? And what should I do differently?

I have a 13 1/2 week old puppy that I feed a raw meat and bone diet to. For the last few days I would give her a raw, meaty shank bone to chew on while she?s in the expen. Just today I noticed two of her small front teeth missing and one is loose. It seems too early for her to be teething (but maybe not). Is it a bad idea to give her beef bones with baby teeth? And is there any potential problem with her teeth missing early? Thank you.

My husband and I have a 14 week old black lab named Marla. She has been with us for 6 weeks. She shows real signs of separation anxiety and appears to be a clingy puppy. She doesn't like to be left alone and when she is out of her crate she follows me and my husband everywhere we go. During the day we put her in her crate while we work, which has been reduced in size so that she just fits and can just stand and move to lay down. Every single day she urinates and defecates in her crate, w...

Thank you Ed and Cindy for all the information on the Leerburg website. I just purchased 3 DVDs - puppy, basic obedience, and pack structure and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. I have a 4 month GSD hard puppy. He has strong prey drive and is learning quickly with markers and food (at home, no to low distractions). At weekly obedience school (outdoor, at least 50 other dogs around, super high distraction), he is very unruly. I've used a standard choke chain, a snug prong...

First let me say thank you for putting together such an amazing web site. I also purchased your video on dog aggression and have learned a tremendous amount. I have two Dobermans, male and female littermates, now 8 months old. They have had few nasty fights, but through tips from your video and training and working with them separately, we have made amazing progress. I am still stuck on one issue... Ruger, the male, is the sweetest boy. However, he awakens from a dead sleep snarlin...

I have a pretty well-trained Belgian Malinois. He does explosive detection and tracking very well. He is also very obedient. He has no aggression toward dogs, territory, toys, people, etc. But for some reason when my dog has any sort of pain whatsoever, he becomes highly aggressive only toward me. I have been reading and have been familiarized with a lot of your training methods at Leerburg since I left K-9 handler school. But even in your literature or the schools, I can’t find anything th...

I have a 15 pound terrier mix (probably Cairn/Lassa) who is really hard to train, especially to come when called. I've tried treats, toys (he likes tugs), long lines, etc. Even the Chihuahua is more consistent at coming when called. What kind of toy would hold his interest longer than a rope tug? It lasts about 3 minutes.

We have just purchased an Educator 400TS remote trainer from you. We have a 10 month old Belgian Malinois. We are using the 3/4" points. Are those the best size or do we need to get the extra long ones? We have just begun to test the collar on the dog. Thanks for your input.

I have a 13 week puppy, mom was a golden doodle, dad was husky. He sleeps in a crate all night and has been better about being able to hold it from 10pm-7am, sometimes will bark between 2-4 to poop. I put him in his crate a couple of times a day just so he knows it's not a bad place to be. From the beginning we taught him to ring the bell to go out. Sometimes, like tonight he will ring the bell, I take him out, he goes poop. Sometimes he will poop or pee right in front of me, I yell "No! not ...

Hi Cindy, I purchased an Educator ET-500 collar based on your Youtube video, on Black Friday. Shortly after making the purchase, I saw on Educator's website, that the ET-500 is for small to medium dogs. This wasn't mentioned on the video, and on the training gear page it only says 15 lbs and up. I thought maybe this was a question for a trainer who may use the product. My male 9 month old GSD is a lean 80 lbs or so, and my question is whether or not this collar is appropriate for him. I lo...

Hello Ed and Cindy, In your experience, how effective is pepper spray in breaking up a dog fight? Occasionally (say once a year) my 2 rescue boxers will fight with each other. My alpha female goes after my (much larger and younger) male. The male then has to defend himself as the female will repeatedly go after him, and he has hurt the female before. We eventually are able to break them up, but I know how foolish it is to try to break up a dog fight, especially if you are by yourself. ...

I ran across your article online about your thoughts on marker training. I was taught to train by only correcting bad behaviors in the early 90s. Yankin and crankin. It has worked well for me in obedience training my dogs over the years. Your article however has caused me to rethink my approach. I have 2 german shephard puppy?litter mates male and female. I got them at 4 months. They are now 6 months.?I walk them and train them every day. As a side note, I train and walk them separately. They...

Hello, I'm hoping you can give me some advice about my 18 month old male nurtured border collie Sherlock. Every evening we go up the park and play with a group of dogs they all get on well. In the past two weeks, we have had some new puppies up the park and Sherlock has gone for them and pinned them down and growled and bit their cheek. He was making a lot of noise but didn't seem to hurt the poor puppy or draw blood. I 'm worried that he will scare the poor puppies. He'd be playing fine ...