Most Popular Q&As
October 7, 2014
We are using the Educator 3/4" contact points for our Malinois. Are these the correct size?
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.
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
January 22, 2013
My 13 week old puppy rings a bell to go outside but sometimes he goes to the bathroom in the house. I don't understand why sometimes he rings the bell but not always. When should I expect him to be housebroken?
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 ...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
December 17, 2012
I purchased the Educator ET500 & now I wonder if it's appropriate for my dog. He's an 80 pound German Shepherd.
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...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
June 1, 2011
In your experience, how effective is pepper spray in breaking up a dog fight?
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.
...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 2, 2011
I want to start marker training, which DVDs should I get? And what can I be doing until I get them?
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...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 29, 2013
In the past two weeks, we have had some new puppies up the park and my dog has gone for them and pinned them down and growled and bit their cheek. What should I do?
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 ...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
March 28, 2012
I currently have 6 dogs and I'm bringing in a Mal pup. Any advice on helping introduce him correctly to the pack?
I have 6 dogs as we speak. 4 pugs, PPD Doberman, and a 14 year old GSD(extremely submissive to all dogs especially my pugs). All of them get long great. I am avid about kenneling them, ex-pens, there is structure in my home, and outside my home with these dogs. We have no issues with dog fights, etc. Everyone knows there place in the pack, knows I AM THE PACK LEADER, and things go pretty well. This being said, I have worked and trained with Heath Farthing of VFK9 for years. I have purchased a...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
October 5, 2011
My one dog keeps attacking the other when he gets close to his food, toy, treat and even me. Is this a dominance issue? Is he dominant over me to the other dog?
I have a four year old Mastiff and a one year old Great Dane. I got both as puppies. The problem that I have now is that the Great Dane will attack my Mastiff if he comes to close to his food, toy, treat. The Great Dane even attacked the Mastiff when he tried to come over to me. There was no advance warning like growling. I always let the Great Dane know that his behavior was bad, and also let the Mastiff know that he was ok and doing nothing wrong. Most times when these attacks happen, withi...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 23, 2011
We had our 6 month old female pit bull wear a diaper when she was in season so our male would not breed her. This morning he got the diaper off and bred her. What should we do?
Please help...
Me and my fiancee have a 2 year old male American Staffordshire Terrier (70 lbs.) and a 6 month old female Pit Bull (45 lbs.). She started her first heat cycle about 16 days ago. We want them to mate, but because she is not fully grown, we wanted to wait. We had bought something that's similar to a diaper so that he could not mate with her. Just this morning, he had gotten around the diaper and mated with our female Pit Bull.
Now my question is, am I looking at some serio...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 13, 2011
What do you think of halti's?
Ed:
First thank you for your great web site and training tapes. I have purchased your basic obedience tape and will be purchasing other tapes in the near future. The advice on the tape has helped greatly with the training of my Kangal. (I own several other breeds - 3 kuvasz, 1 landseer newf (old) (water rescue trained) and one very young sweet golden retriever, who will be using your training method on agility etc. of course on a very light level 1 correction - unlike my Kangal (al...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 10, 2011
When I do feed the honest kitchen with meat, should I only feed meat that has no bones at first or start with chicken wings with little bones?
If I'm switching my puppy from kibble to Honest Kitchen should I do it gradually or it won't make a difference. I plan to feed him honest kitchen with raw meat. When I do feed the honest kitchen with meat should I only feed meat that has no bones at first or start with chicken wings with little bones until they get used to eating raw? Thanks in advance.
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 5, 2011
My vet says I should still give the dog heartworm meds by mouth and use the flea control oil. Is this harmful and should I be doing this?
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 ...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
May 3, 2011
My 3 year old dog has developed allergy type problems with his ears and skin. My vet recommended a fish and potato diet. This is not working. What else can I do?
Hi Ed,
Since you have had many dogs, I am in a way hoping you have seen this before. My GSD started to lose some of his fur around the edges of the ears, following with the skin thickening and cracking and becoming quite painful. I took him to the vets and he had his ears flushed, had a skin scrape done all coming back negative for bacteria, yeast or mange. She suggested he might have a food allergy so we started the elimination diet and he is on fish and potatoes. He's been on thi...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
April 29, 2011
If I want my narcotics dog to indicate on gun powder in addition to drugs, do I teach a different indication for guns than drugs?
Ed,
Is it advisable to train an aggressive alert on narcs and a passive alert on gun power? How do I handle the idea of searching school lockers knowing there may be gun power etc. When I train on narcs I give a narc command and do not accept any other hit. How should I introduce guns and gun powder, etc.?
Thanks,
Mark
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
April 12, 2011
Our dog has attacked three people. When the instructor in the obedience class tried to force him into a DOWN position last night he attacked her too. What should we do?
I have a two year old mix -German shepard - terrier (we think) he was rescued from a garage at the age of about 3 months. We was somewhat malnourished, but was very friendly. My problem with this dog is aggression. He has attacked three times. First was by a friend who took his treasured stick from him. The friend was told not to take anything from this dog. Second was another friend who took a piece of pizza from the dog. He also was told not to. I have been working with a training school th...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
April 12, 2011
My female GSD thinks it's her job to protect me, she places herself between me and other people. I no longer take her for walks because of this. What to do?
We adopted a 4 yr old GSD female about 1 1/2 yr ago. (She is def. an Alpha female). We immediately enrolled her in a beginners and then intermediate obedience class. My son (28) started taking her to a local Schutzhund club weekly. She does well, but the comment was always "she's a rescue"- as an excuse for the possibility she would not do well. Now they exclaim "And she's a rescue" because she does well. (I purchased a GSD puppy for my son).
The problem is with me... She is the lo...
88% (7 out of 8)
respondents found this answer helpful
February 29, 2012
My dog bites at my hand & feet and jumps a lot. How can I get rid of these behaviors?
Hello,
I got a beautiful english lab at 7 weeks old. Now she is 7 months old. She is very smart, but dominant. Since she was a pup she keeps biting my hands, feet and jumps a lot.
The biting has gotten worse. If my husband and I are watching television, she will growl and try to nip at us. We correct her but she then jumps back and growls and tries again to bite. Different levels of growling and running around our condo like crazy dog until she wears herself out.
We have put a lea...
87% (71 out of 82)
respondents found this answer helpful
June 1, 2011
Would a bark collar help with my dog's whining?
Hi,
I have bought a number of products from you recently and was very happy with my e collar, etc. Now I need an advice on another issue- whining. My 8 months Doberman female has long whining sessions, that sometimes are difficult to ignore. We try to ignore her everytime when she is whining, but sometimes it is really hard especially when you are trying to work or talk on the phone, etc. She finds it hard to be left alone behind closed doors, I heard it is one of Dobermans' features, but ...
87% (62 out of 71)
respondents found this answer helpful
October 2, 2014
I want to use a prong collar on my dog but I'm worried I'll never be able to switch him back to a flat buckle collar after I use it. Is it possible to easily make this transition?
Hi there,
I want to use a prong collar on my dog but I am worried I will never be able to switch him off of it. I see it all the time, owners slap on a prong collar (even fitting it correctly) but the dog spends its whole life time using the prong collar because it won't walk appropriately on a flat buckle.
I, personally, would be more satisfied with my dog's training if he did not require the use of one his whole life. So is it possible to easily transition? How would you switch to a f...
87% (52 out of 60)
respondents found this answer helpful
January 31, 2013
Our 2 year old dog takes items and won't give them back. He brings the item near us and then we can't move because if we do he will become aggressive. Is there anything you can suggest that may help us?
We have a Shorthaired German Pointer, he is 2 years old and we are having a problem when the dog takes something that doesn't belong to him. He generally comes near us or close to us with the object he would have taken and we won't be able to move from there because he tends to get aggressive. We think it could be because he thinks we are going to take the object back from him. Even with other things that he takes, he refuses to give them back. Is there anything you can suggest to help us dea...
87% (41 out of 47)
respondents found this answer helpful