Most Popular Q&As

Hello, Love your web site? I have order many products and in the process of getting my 3 Akitas trained, eating better and exercising more. I love your web site and you have amazing helpful tips. One of my female Akitas, when anyone sneezes coughs of clears their throat, she cowers and tries to sit in your lap?? Even if I ignore her so I don't make it seems like a big deal. She has done this since she was a puppy, I have no idea why? I assume she is very sensitive to noise? But thunder ...

Hi, I talked poor Donna's ear off, and she suggested I contact you for assistance. I am sorry this is so long, but I encountered a totally unexpected problem with the e-collar and am wondering if I can fix this or if I should just return it. Background: Raja is a male Doberman. He'll be two next month. He's a great, great dog. I'd done all the groundwork with him but I clearly messed up somewhere because we have two big problems: high prey drive and some self-control i...

We bought a cocker spaniel around 12 weeks old. He will be five months next week. He is so smart and very easily house trained and learns new tricks/commands daily. He is very friendly when he meets new people and dogs. However, at home sometimes he is quite scary to me. Mason, our new dog, has some behaviors that make me nervous. If you go close to him when he is eating, he growls and if you get too close will show his teeth. If he is laying on the floor and you go to close to his toy, he wi...

Hi Ed, My female lab gave birth to 11 puppies starting early (4:30) Tuesday morning. Nine were born within a 4 hours window. The last two were born about 4 hours later. Sadly, the last two, a yellow and a black male, were the smallest. Yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, I noticed the yellow male was somewhat lethargic. Unlike all of the others, we could see his ribs. We immediately went and purchased commercial newborn pup formula and started giving it to him orally with a syringe. H...

Ed, You have been most helpful in the past. I read an article on your web site regarding 'tail chasing' where you indicated that the dog is just 'nuts'. We have a beautiful year old bitch Gretchen. She is walked miles every day, heels like second nature; has plenty of space to run; plays aggressively all the time with our male GS. She is not crated, and is rarely left alone. She just started pacing and chasing her tail in the last month. I am at home all day and she is ALWAYS ...

Hi Cindy, I've reached out in the past about my GSD puppy developing dog reactivity around 6 months. She is now 1 year, 4 months, and is doing great- she is no longer dog-reactive (unless charged by an off leash dog) and is fully e-collar trained and her obedience is extremely reliable. My question is about other off-leash dog encounters - almost every time I go out on trails we are approached by an off leash dog. I shout "NO" and use a walking stick/air spray, which has caused arguments with...

I have watched the course on how to establish pack structure and have a question regarding dog behavior during play. I am researching as much as I can on the subject of dog body language and signs that could prevent a dog fight. In the situation when a female and male that meet on a regular basis, have structured walks and play, is it possible that neither of them be dominant over another? The GSD female is 3 years old and the GSD male is 4 years old. They no longer play as much with each ...

How can I get my 11 week old pup to sleep longer. We take his water up an hour before bedtime and he still wakes up at 4AM?

I have a Bernese Mt dog. What is the best way to keep the snow from building up between her toes?

Hi. I have a 10 month old BOERBOEL. I feed him premium dog food but he looks skinny around the hip. I am thinking of the raw diet but, will this change his moods and get aggressive? I have a 3 year old boy that plays with him. If my boy falls and bleeds, will this attract the dog to his wound?

Cindy, I recently switched my 2 GSDs (a male, 3 years old & a female, 10 months) to a raw diet. It's been 3 weeks now. I have no issues w/poop, etc. Both love it. My 3 year old's teeth are already white again! And his coat is softer & shinier. I feel pretty confident in my meal prep, but I do have a question? Have you heard of dogs being allergic to chicken? I ask, because both are scratching like crazy, especially at night. Today I remembered that when I got the male, the breeder had him...

I have a 9 week old male pup from strong working lines. had him a week. Really super, level headed, drives that us working folk are looking for. One snag though. When playing with a towel, rag, old shirt, he has started humping it? after winning it. Is this a worry, what action should I take. So far I distract him and continue the game. I'm following Micheal Ellis systems on training. Would appreciate some sort of guide.Thanks

Hi Cindy, It's been a while since we spoke last, but I have a question about our new dog: but first some background. We have just recently adopted a rescue female miniature poodle that is 2 years old. We have had her for almost two weeks now and have been putting her through the ground work training as taught by Leerburg. She has accepted myself and my wife as the pack leaders (more so me than my wife but still minds my wife very well) and she is a very loving and quite obedient dog. We ha...

I was reading your page on Vaccinosis. This sounds like the answer behind my 7 year old GSD's death. On a friday he was brought into the vet for a leg injury, and we went ahead had his shots done. We were given anti-inflamitories, and sent on our way. Saturday & Sunday he became lethagic, and refused to eat. Monday morning he could barley walk and he'd dropped 5 lbs in 4 days. And he had a fever of 105. He never recovered. Saturday, July 23, 2011 he started vomiting blood, so we had him PTS. ...

Hi Cindy, Hope you are well. Our 11 month German shepherd has been doing great w/Schutzhund and practically every area of life. However, when we go to our family’s houses (my parents/my wife’s parents) he gets really whiney and excited, and kind of begs for petting from them. We don’t like this behavior, and want to discourage it. How can we work on this? We do not let anyone pet him except close family (i.e. parents/siblings), but are considering asking them to stop as well, and ig...

I have the Training the Retrieve with Michael Ellis video and am working with my dog on the "Take it" part of the training. My dog shows no interest in taking the PVC pipe. I tried to move to a wooden dowel, still no luck. I have tried about 5 sessions and still no interest, not even a little interest to try and reward for shaping the behavior. I decided to move on to the hold part of the training which is going well, but I am afraid if I go out of order it may mess up my progress in the e...

I have a 3 year old GSD male who failed his first OFA hip exam, mostly because of poor positioning in the xray. I know how to correct the positioning, but is walking (maybe with a weighted pack) good to help strengthen his hips (build muscle mass)? I don't have access to a pool or lake for swimming. Thanks.

I have a 3 and 1/2 year old Cocker Spaniel. He's been crate trained and up to couple weeks ago was fine about going into it at night. Now all of a sudden when told to go to "bed" at night he just lays there and growls at whomever tells him to go to bed. Sometimes he will go in, but then turns around and growls at them again. What's going on? How can I stop this behavior? I don't want him to start biting? I'm not sure how to handle him. In the past there have been times he's in the crate and w...

I have an almost 15 year old black lab who has started to misbehave terribly. The worse is the barking. He has some difficulty getting up (although he can do so quite readily when food is the object) and barks every 45mins to 1.5 hours AROUND THE CLOCK to be picked up. Due to his age, he is under the care of our vet for spinal stenosis. He currently takes both a prescription anti-inflammatory (Metacam) and herbal tabs for relief. When the barking started about 6 months ago, we put him out eve...

Hi Cindy, You have provided some excellent training tips to me regarding my new GSD pup who is a year old by now. However, she just started exhibiting some behaviors, notably loud whining and whimpering that ends up being high-pitched barks at virtually anything that moves especially bikers, approaching dogs, and joggers. She just came into her first heat over the weekend (there is blood dripping every where) and I have absolutely no experience with a dog in heat. Is this radical behavi...