Most Popular Q&As

Mr. Frawley, my name is Richard. I have a two year old rottweiler who is being considered for police work. Myself and my K-9 have been through a patrol course and a narcotics course. My K-9 Rocco has done rather well for a rottweiler, from what I hear. The problem I have is with off lead obedience. I can recall, have him sit and down voice and hand signals, and put him in a stay. He does these commands quite well, however when I try to get him to heel he shuts down. He'll just stay...

I am interested in determining if my 11 month old male GS dog can be instructed in personal/property protection. I have been reading about bite work, etc, and I feel that I may be too late. I play with him on a daily basis with a "pull toy" he has gone through several rope pull toys, and I am currently using some sort of synthetic pull toy. I am a police officer, and I spoke with a friend from another local agency that does K-9. He suggested that he would get me some burlap to play with the p...

Hi, I have two small standard female poodles. I live out in the country, and they run around unleashed, and a few weeks ago one of them got pancreatitis from eating deer carrion - I need a type of muzzle for them to keep them from eating potentially harmful things when they are out - what do you recommend? I was thinking about the wire basket muzzles. How would I go about measuring to make sure they are the right size? I look forward to your response and your thoughts on this. ...

Hello Cindy: My 1 year old Cavalier spaniel is constantly eating trash and dangerous objects while we are out on our walks. I have not had any success training the 'leave it' command. Would either a muzzle or training with an e-collar be a solution to this problem? I have not been able to find a muzzle to fit, and am not sure which kind to get. Could you tell me your recommendation? Thanks for your help. Jacqueline

Hello Ed, I have searched your site this evening trying to get help with training my shepard not to eat antifreeze. We have horrible neighbors that just poisoned another neighbors dog with it. Alex is just like one of our children. My husband has done some training under a man in Oklahoma City and purchased Maxwell Rude Von Raughlen a Rottweiler. ( I'm not sure the correct spelling). At any rate, when Max passed away we got Alex. He done some training with him but was unable to spe...

Hi Cindy: Thanks so much for all your wonderful work. I have taken to heart your advice about over vaccination after losing my beloved dog 2 years ago. I had to put her in a kennel (big mistake) for almost two weeks as we were leaving the country and had no one to watch her. At the time I was ignorant of all this and followed their rules about kennel cough, bordatella, parvo, etc. They required that all these be given before they would board her. Within a week after we brought her ...

We have a male GSD from German working lines (not Leerburg, unfortunately). He is almost 6 months old, already quite large, about 70 lbs, but thin! I don't plan to breed him, as his hips are "iffy." At what age should we consider having him neutered? We were considering working on protection training with him, but I'm not sure if this will be feasible. Will neutering him before age 1 year have a detrimental effect? Any advice you have would be appreciated greatly. Also, do you have...

Dear Leerburg Kennels: I have been searching the internet for information to help me with a tough decision. It was refreshing to find a site that was realistic and practical to those who submitted questions. Furthermore, I was very pleased that help was available from people so knowledgeable. I have a 2 1/2 year old female (spayed) golden retriever that my family got as a puppy after our 9 year old Sharpei died (the Sharpei was a perfect dog in many respects). The golden has...

I have a lovely female Dobie, heavy german Schutzhund breeding, who became very defensive at age 6 months. Before this she was socialized heavily and worked in puppy agility. It seemed that at 6 months her protective nature kicked in and she barked at everything and nothing so I started re-socializing her. The trips to children's homes, malls, and obedience and agility classes where she was touched, hugged, kissed and fed at every possible moment truly paid off because she is an extremely...

A question has arisen about crate training. We do have a cat, and intended to use the info in your article on introducing dogs to cats. Right now we always keep them in separate rooms if they are in the house. However, since our dog is a rescue, he's never had experience with crates at all. You have a lot of info about crate training for puppies, but we're unsure how to proceed. Our dog is already housebroken at 20 months. We were considering beginning to offer his regular food in the crate a...

Hello, We started our puppy out in a crate that was just big enough for her to lay down, stand up and turn around in and of course she out grew it so we purchased a wire crate with a divider so that we can adjust it as she grows. We did not have to many problems with her in the last crate and when we got the new crate today we took her bedding and her toys and transferred them into the new crate. The problem that were having is that shes been crying all day long! Were not paying attention ...

Cindy, I follow leerburg web site all the time I have even bought some of your dvds love them you and Ed have given me a lot of useful stuff I train dogs and do some rehab. but this one has gotten me pulling my hair out what little I have left any way. with that said I have four weims three of them are rescues no matter how much exercise I give them a couple of them eat there beds and blankets they do it when I am not home I would love to buy them real nice ones but there is no ...

Hi Cindy! I have a 5-year female German Shepherd that is territorial barking in our small backyard that I can?t seem to control. We no longer allow her access to the backyard when we are gone during the day because we can?t allow her to be a nuisance to the neighbors. When we do let her into the backyard to ?do her business,? she races out the petdoor and barks loudly with her hackles up the entire time she?s outside. She also barks along the fence. Is this an instance where you?d...

My three and a half year old German Shepherd spayed bitch has a problem with charging other dogs. She is fairly well trained and comes to call immediately if I call her as soon as I see another dog. But if I am not quick enough she completely focuses on the dog and charges, if the other dog does nothing she will do nothing when she gets there. If the other dog starts to run or is an excitable bouncy type of dog she has to stop it and will chase it and grab it to pull it down and then she ...

I have a question I was unable to find already answered in the FAQs. I work at a skilled nursing facility with approximately 50 residents. The facility has a beautiful (slightly overweight) golden retriever that is very calm, gentle and even tempered. She loves to be the object of your attention and returns affection appropriately and never becomes over excited. In a word, this dog is perfect. The dog was lying in the sun rays on my office floor snoozing, when one particular reside...

Hi, I was reading your article on-line about aggressive dog behavior and was hoping you could give me some advice regarding my dog. She is a 3-year-old Chinese Shar Pei Mix, who is most likely inbred. As a puppy she growled at strangers and has never really liked being pet. She was definitely a hand licker and still doesn't like her paws being touched. I took her to obedience training and socialized her at the local dog park where she gets along great with other dogs, but never...

Our brother-in-law does Schutzhund training with his 2 year old GSD. The dog lives in the home with the family which has 6 and 8 year old children. The dog and the other family dog live in the house, sleep with the mother and father and plays normally with the children and the other dog. When we visit we are asked not to pet the GSD. The dog wants to be pet by us and repeatedly comes for attention only to be growled at by the owner because when she is pet by us she pees. His opinion is that w...

Ok, this might sound bad, but I'm going to become Homeless this year and I'm a Girl. So I, want to get a dog to protect me. So I want it to be aggressive toward people. I know its a liablity and dangerous but I don't have $$ for protection training. Is there certain thing or things I can do to making him this way. And is there a test I can do on him to see if he can be aggressive? I'm think of getting a German Shepherd or American Pitbull Terrier. 6-10 months old. Also I would be very car...

My dog, which is now 4 years old, is a lab mix whom we adopted from a shelter. Since she was a puppy (Mattie) she has exhibited signs of weak nerves. We always attributed her aggression toward people as acts based out of fear or lack of trust. She has also exhibited problems wanting to dominate relationships with other dogs and, in doing so, displayed signs of aggression. As far as we were concerned, we had raised and trained our dog very well. She follows all commands with the occ...

Cindy Help! OK - I have Izzy in her crate pretty much all the time like it says to do. (in the groundwork article). She's never had an accident or anything. I'm sure to take her out to go to the bathroom and I take her out for a long walk everyday too. As per what Ed says about 'social isolation' I don't talk to her, I ignore her and everything. I'm trying to be as aloof as possible! Here's my problem. She won't quit barking! AHH! It's making me crazy! What do I do! So far I have not even ...