Most Popular Q&As

Hi Ed, I have been reading your articles and been searching the discussion forum as well but I was unable to find the answer to a question I have about socialization. I have a GSD puppy arriving in a few weeks and have been watching your Basic Dog Obedience DVD. I have read your article on dog parks and am glad I did. I also read that you do not recommend having your dogs interact with any unfamiliar dogs along with very few people as well (Who Should Pet My Puppy?). Not knowing ve...

I have a one year old GSD. He has been obedience trained and is very obedient. My problem is that he is a little too friendly. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked outside or come out of a convenience store only to see groups of strangers by my fence or around my truck petting my dog. I do not want him to be "mean," but it would be nice if he would not make friends so easily. I know that protection training is the best answer, but I don't have several hundred dollars to spend. Do yo...

I have a three year old male doberman that is a fear biter. Not only that but he has always exhibited crazy behaviors. I love him to death but he is making life difficult. First of all he cries all the time and if he isn't he's barking. He hasn't been properly socialized. I thought that it meant that I didn't socialize him but from reading the different messages on your site I realize that the people we bought him from didn't socialize him. We have always had the crying prob...

I have a 10 month old GSD from a strong Czech and German working lines. She's doing quite well in her bite training. About two months ago my sons got some of those laser lights and started playing with the dog. The dog loved chasing the lights and would jump up and stomp on the light with both feet which everyone thought was funny. This went on for about two weeks and then I put a stop to it because the dog was becoming obsessed looking for the lights constantly. It's been at least two months...

Cindy, I'm sure you've heard this many times before....we have a Doberman who whine. A LOT. Barking isn't a huge problem (he does bark, but not to the point that it's an issue). I've seen the success decribed on the website regarding bark collars. Is there anything similar for whining? Something that would issue a correction for whining, but not for as bark? I see no reason to correct his barks, given that the problem is the whining. The dog does seem to have general SA issu...

I have a registered walker. She is currently in her first week of her second or third heat. I left her in a pen at my dad's when I left for a few days. Somehow his pit and lab mix got to her. I was wondering if my purebred (female) breeds with a non-purebred (male), will I ever be able to breed her with a purebred male and the puppies be purebred also?

Hello Leerburg Staff. My question is about what seems to be crate aggression. I have read many articles on your site and now I am trying to find one about crate aggression but have been unlucky. I can't be the first person with this issue, maybe I am looking under the wrong article headings. Anyway, I have bought a GS puppy and have not let the puppy interact physically with my other dogs, just through the crates. My 4 year old Lab tries to attack the puppy when she is in the crate if he goes...

I have a 5-yr. old Female she is half American half German. She has only had 3 litters in those 5 years. Her first litter was with a hunting dog when she got lose from her pen she had 7pups. Two years later I mated her with a full blooded German rottweiler. She gave me 6 but two died at birth. I kept one of her pups from last year, a male. This year she came in heat. I tried to seperate her from her son but I was to late & she gave me 9 pups this year. 5 of the pups are black & 4 are brown. I...

Hello! Just had a couple of tracking questions/comments. I recently purchased your Tracking Through Drive Level 1 tape and have started watching it and doing some of the basics (handler laid tracks)....and boy, have I already come under serious scrutiny over doing it differently then our trainer does it. I started doing the actual exercises today by having someone hold onto Remco while I ran away, calling him and teasing him as he went crazy. I went straight out then hid behind a t...

We have a year old Great Pyrenees bitch that I have been looking forward to breeding. She is incredibly obedient even to the subtlest commands when she is in your immediate care. However, we live in a hilly rural area and when she is allowed to be unrestrained she completely rebels against any command and runs all over tyrannically barking and disappearing into the hollows. She has somehow escaped every method of restraint no matter how I've chained her. We have yet to complete a farm fen...

Hello! I've gotten so much out of your site and the Basic Dog Obedience DVD. It has helped me so much with my 18 month old rescue Weimaraner. I also got a hold of "Don Sullivan's Perfect Dog" (theperfectdog.com) and while I appreciate the plastic 'kinder gentler' prong collar that comes with this, I found his training advice to be less helpful than what I learned from your DVDs. In particular was his emphasis on never using treats. Joe and I have been working on retrieving work and...

Hello Ed, I adopted 2 german shepherd sisters who were two years old from an animal shelter in 2004. They were so close, the shelter wanted them to stay together. It was a great idea. When I walked them, it was funny to watch how their bodies became one when smelling the ground, etc. Anyway, Tara, last night died suddenly. I wrapped her in a sheet. Angel, sat next to her practically on top of her and is very, very upset. They never had a fight and got along so wonderf...

Ed, I have a question about rewarding dogs on an actual search. I know some handlers who will give a the dog the toy when the dog alerts on a vehicle in a real search. The toy is given at the time of the alert before any drugs have been found. I personally do not do this. I am afraid of rewarding the dog for an alert that might not be right and reinforcing an improper behavior. Part of me says 'trust the dog' and the other part says 'don't reward what you don't know'. In tra...

Dear Ed: I have a huge problem (or it is to me anyway). I have a 3 1/2 year old neutered Chihuahua who is marking my whole house. I assume that marking is different then just peeing in the house. It's not like a puddle in the middle of the room but rather on the corners of everything. I searched your site for an answer and could not find anything on the subject. 3 family members have acquired puppies (and live separate and apart from us) but frequently visit and bring their puppies...

My husband and I have a 5 yr. old Rhodesian Ridgeback that we got at 6 weeks of age. He has been a wonderful pet and friend to us but we are now faced with a difficult decision. For 5 yrs. it has only been the three of us. Both my husband and I have loved and treated Maxwell (the dog) as our child, a person more so than a dog. The only training that Maxwell has received was puppy training, but he has always been very well behaved for my husband and myself, though he definitely has ...

I have a 9 week old black lab male. I've had him for about 17 days. He's being crate trained and has been doing great. I've had several people tell me he's far too young to take out for walks, and that I should wait until he's at least 12 weeks old. And even then, no more than 15 minutes at a time. Do you agree with this?

Dear Ed, I have a 18 mo. old GSD. I'm so attached to him It would just kill me to have to put him down. Before him I had a pair of Dalmatians that lived for 14 yrs. Before that I had a beagle who lived for 9 yrs. All of my dogs were very well behaved dogs. However I didn't do enough research on German-Shepherds before I bought one. The one that I have has been very hyper from the very start, We thought this was cute. He has always been a little crazy. But he is also the most loyal,...

I'm working on building drive and focus with 1 year old German Shepherd. She has trememdous intensity. When we work with the tug toys we are at the stage where she will wait (sit) until I give a release command to try and grab the tug, and she will also out-it when requested. She will also stay seated as I walk away, and come to get it only when released. As I ratchet up intensity (by darting the tug in front of her so she has to work really hard to grab it) there have been one or two times w...

Can you explain the different types of corrections used in dog training?

Hello Ed, I have started dog training and I am currently mentoring with someone with over 20 years in the business. Today I shadowed him whilst he did a 2nd home visit to a couple with a pitbull mix (PB mix) and a boxer mix, (Bmix) both females. The couple had recently moved in together. The man owns the pitbull mix who was seemed very friendly and wanted to play and the lady owns the bulldog mix who had started to attack the PB mix. The trainer had the lady play with the PB mix (not...