Most Popular Q&As

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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 ...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

Hi Cindy, I have a high energy 6 year old female GS. She?s gone through basic obedience but seems to have a growing issue with barking. My house backs up to a park and she often hears other dogs etc, which spurs the barking. I have heard the best way to control barking is to teach the dog ?when to bark? thus I would assume this works in reverse? If this is the case, can you give me some direction on how to control her barking when told?

I purchased a cocker spaniel for my three children this past Christmas. I read many articles about socializing, selecting the right dog, and training. I typed in family pet on the Internet and found cocker spaniel. I had many conversations with the breeder and asked all the recommended questions. He was black and tan with white markings. Everyone who saw him wanted to pet him and told us how beautiful he was. My children have been asking for a dog for a long time (10 year-old and twin 9 year-...

Hi, We just rescued a dog and are trying to crate train her and are in your "foundation phase" of training (in a crate or on lead at all times). The first few times she went into the crate no problems. Now, even treats can't get her inside. She doesn't seem to have a strong den instinct. I started giving her all her food and treats in the crate, but she won't go in when she realizes that I am going to crate her. My question is, how do I get her in the crate? I don't want to physically push...

Hi, I feel terrible even writing this email, but I would like your advice on this. 2 weeks ago my fiance and I purchased a rescued 3 month old GSD mix. We were 3 weeks out from our wedding and about to close on a new fixer upper home w/ only floorboards in place. We thought this would be the ideal situation while puppy training. Well, the close on the house got delayed, so we are now 2 adults, 2 cats and an untrained puppy in my 600 sq/ft carpeted condo. The puppy naturally is having ac...

I have a papillon that continues to yelp every time I correct him with a prong collar, he still takes treats from me afterwards... Frankly it is embarrassing to have him yelp, but he doesn't seem that upset by it. Rebecca

Hi Cindy, I just switched my dogs to Honest Kitchen. I was searching around the internet to find more information about the diet, what to add, etc and came across the video on your website. It was a good video I just have one question what proof do you have that you no longer need to vaccinate your pets for diseases? Do you have a vet that can back that up? It up sets me b/c being in the veterinary profession, telling people they don't have to vaccinate b/c of diet is miss leading!...