Most Popular Q&As

Hi Cindy, I have purchased a pure working GSD male who is now 15 months old. I am in the process of setting up my own kennels. I have been planning to get a bitch and have my own litter and use my male as stud dog. Of course if all his tests, scans would be perfect. He has been bred very well, has very good temperament, strong drive and has an excellent blood line. I wanted to get the bitch when my male is at least 3 years old to enable me to focus on his training progress, we were told th...

Hi Cindy, First I want thank you the hard work you, Ed and the rest of your team all the long hours you must put in to make this world a better place for dogs and their handlers. I was lost trying to do training with the new fad of trainers using halties and other training methods that were not working. I had a young mal and she was a handful. I stumbled on your site and was saved from daily frustration. Between you and Michael Ellis, I now have a wonderful SAR wilderness dog. My ...

Ed, I have read tons of your articles and will watch the DVDs, but I need to know right away if I need to treat my 3 dogs like they are each a new dog to the pack in order to fix my pack issues. I read the groundwork articles, but you seem to specifically talk about when you get a new dog and I need to fix problems with the three I already have. I couldn't find any articles about how to begin fixing the mess I am already in. I have a 12 yo neutered Lab/Pit Bull, a 6 yo spayed Pit Bull, and...

Hi, you have a FANTASTIC website! I suspect the answers to my questions are available on your website. However, I haven't been able to locate them yet, but if you could point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful. I have a 3 1/2yr old female GSD (DDR bloodlines). As a pup she was very self-confident, over the past 2 years I feel her self-confidence has gone. I know it's my fault... 2 years ago I had to sell my house, since then we have lived in a little apartment which is part of...

Hi. I have a 6 year old lab, never had problems going in the car, loves car rides. Today we got in the car and I was talking him to the duck pond for a walk on a nice day. On the way we saw one of his dog friends so we stopped to see him. Well, as I was getting him back in the car after he saw his friend I accidentaly closed the door on his tail. One I saw what he was yelping about I opened the door and got him out to see if he was ok, and he was. He was acting happy, but wouldn't get bac...

What is your opinion of using a TOY at the end of a track to motivate a dog in tracking training?

Mr. Frawley, I know this is going to be hard for you to answer without you seeing what is going on but I am going to try to explain clearly. Cyric my 10 month old is doing something very strange in his bite work. Just before he takes his bite on the chase he will hackle up just in the crop area in front of his tail. Now he doesn't show anything else that would suggest that he is afraid or intimidated as a matter of fact he commits very well and bites full and hard. I was won...

Hey my name is Frank. I am a k9 police officer in New York State. I have a german shepard who is almost 3 years old. We have been on the road for about 1 year. I have been searching for a remedy with my k9 on a problem I have and have tried asking my k9 trainer but have had negative results. My only problem with my k9 is in my personal car and patrol car. I can not get him to be quiet during the ride. He constantly whines and cries in the car while we are driving. Once the car stop...

I have a 7 month old, female, Doberman puppy. We purchased her at 5 months from a breeder, so she has been in our home for approx. 2 mnths. She is smart and seems to train fairly easily as far as basic commands. My problem is getting her to focus for any length of time because she is extremely active and has a very high prey drive. Maybe i'm expecting too much too soon...? I've just recently (in the last few days) begun to keep her leashed and at my side at all times when she is in...

Hi Cindy, Looking at all your videos and wondering do any tell an owner at what age can a german shepherd puppy do stairs? Also how much running inside the house can they do? Our puppy is 12 weeks old and loves to chase the red laser light with our cat. Great exercise but don't want to over do it. Thank you for your thoughts, Judy

Hello, I have a 10 month old female Akita that I acquired from my daughter when the puppy was 4-5 months old. My daughter owns the parents and they are both finished AKC champions with champion bloodlines. She sold all of her puppies on a spay/neuter contract, but couldn't sell the one I have now, partly because it's a long hair which is "undesirable" for the breed. The puppy went to one other foster home while my daughter tried finding a good home for it, but that lady had no idea...

Hi Cindy, I have two dogs - west highland terrier and pit-bull-coon hound mix (88 pounds). I use the gentle leader and pretty much it works and one time he got loose I think because my husband didn't attach it right, fortunately it had a second mini leash that connected to his collar and I held on to it. Because of that I always have this fear now and it makes walks torture. The little dog Snowflake, gets Bear more excited by her behavior. He does occasionally try to lunge at the c...

My goal overall is to have a well-rounded dog, as most people. I have seen sport dogs that have obtained titles, and wanted to know realistically, if you have a good sport dog do you not have a "protection dog" as well? I always thought that a protection dog was a dog that basically stays with you or in your vehicle to keep the "bad guys " away. The way I have seen some protection dogs trained here, I would not trust them to come off a leash. I have seen Schutzhund dogs, and Ring dogs bet...

Dear Ed, I received your Basic Obedience tape a couple of days ago and was eager to start training. I had already been to my local obedience classes, so she knows sit and down, but performs only when I have a treat in my hand. She is very soft, so I used an extremely gentle leash correction and she became scared. She froze and put her ears down. I praised her greatly, but when I stopped she tried to run. I stopped and tried again after a few hours with similar results. I ado...

Ed, Quick question. I have a 9 mo GSD Male about 80 lbs. He has been great, very good with our 1 year old and very out going, has not shown signs of bad nerves, etc. Recently though he has been getting a bit possessive of his kennel I think. He has snapped at my wife twice when she has tried to reach in and pet him in his kennel and he gas growled at me twice (never snapped) and yesterday he barked and snapped at my sister when she tried to pet him when he was in his kennel. He has...

Hello, First I would like to say your site has helped me so much. Also your DVDs are great. I have my little 5 pound yorkie on Embark. She seems to be itching a bit less than she was on kibble. This and her general health was my reason for changing her diet. I feed her embark alone, no supplements. My main question is that she is having three BM's a day, She had less than that on kibble. I thought it would be less than on kibble. Is this normal or is this not the right Honest Kitch...

I had my 6 month old German Shepherd spayed a month ago and she died on the table, before they made an incision. We believe it was the vets fault (we are having them investigated), but my question is when should a female shepherd be spayed? I got another pup from the same breeders and I am terrified. I have switched vets, but they also recommend spaying at 6 months like the other vet. They say it helps prevent some kind of cancer. I want to do what's safe for the pup. I am not going to tr...

Hi, I am contacting you as a last resort before we have our German Shepard, Thor, put to sleep. We purchased Thor at a pet store for $300.00. Thor is 17 months old and a male. Thor's birth date is 9/9/02. We bought Thor at 3 weeks old 11/5/02. We moved from California to Florida December 2003. In California we lived on a fenced acre and Thor was able to run freely at all times and had numerous sheltered areas such as the carport and front and back porch. Thor often laid on t...

Hi Mr. Frawley, I have been watching your DVDs and making some good progress with my fun-loving big labrador (he's 18 months almost). He is now quite good on walks when other dogs are leashed, he is able to control himself well in stores like Pet Smart, etc. But I also love letting him run free on the trails. We have some beautiful trails around here where all the dogs are off leash and the people are friendly, dog-loving types. Everyone gets to know each other, and the dogs kee...

We have had a serious incident where one of our dogs has gotten into a fight and killed the older dog. We had a 14 year old female mixed breed (Bichon) that at one time was the dominant dog. We also have had a Lab for 7 years. We just (4 months ago) brought a new rescued puppy into our house(Lab/Chow mix). The two older dogs have gotten in small fights before and the Lab has been more dominant over her lately. Yesterday, we had an incident when all three dogs were looking out of ou...