Most Popular Q&As

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, Our un-neutered 2-year old female GSD is extremely aggressive toward other dogs. Thankfully she is not aggressive towards humans at all. It has gotten to the point that we can't allow the kids to walk her for fear of dragging them to attach another neighborhood dog, and yesterday she yanked the leash out of my wife's hand and attacked a dog. In my best estimation, the aggression stems from an abortive attempt to do Schutzhund training with her. Our training director, a ...

I have a problem I hope you can help me with. I have a 7-year old female GSD and a 14 week old male GSD. About 4 weeks ago my 7-year old attacked the pup over a rawhide and broke his jaw. I normally don?t give my animals rawhide, but the pup has a biting/mouthing problem and this helped. (He was taken away from the mother at 3 weeks of age by the breeder with a bad injury and left at an emergency vet. That is where I adopted him). My female showed no signs of bite inhibitors during this i...

Our two-year-old German Short Haired Pointer has begun to get aggressive. We brought him home from the breeder at 8 weeks. He has been a wonderful gentle loving dog to me my wife and 10 and 13-year-old sons. At 6 months we put him on an electric invisible fence, which has worked perfectly. He has been a wonderful family pet. If we had any problems it was his ?over-friendliness? - jumping on and licking all guests. A few months ago we noticed he was barking at joggers running by the...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I have an older (humane society dog, do not know his exact age) cross-breed, he is at least eight years old. He is part Husky and possibly GSD. I also have a two year old GS female. I go for walks often, I try to go early in the morning so I do not run across other loose dogs. Mine are ALWAYS on a lead. My dogs have been attacked several times by other dogs running loose. My male (he is neutered) is an Alpha male (or least I thing he is), he was dog aggressive unt...

Hello, I have 2 young basset hound/golden retriever mix dogs, which are brother and sister from the same litter (They will be 2 March 20, 2002), and they have begun fighting with each other. This has been going on for about a week. One is male (BG); one is female (Penny). They have a large lot in which to run. I bought each one a chew toy (a green one and a blue one of identical shape & size) and it seems that the fighting started after that. The male is shorter, looking like a basset houn...

Hello I have just found your web-site and am very thankful. My day began with a fight between two of our three dogs and foolishly and incorrectly I tried to separate them (not knowing anything about it until ten minutes ago) and I now have two nasty punctures in my hand for my stupidity. I am very upset and would be so grateful for your help as we are planning to put one of our dogs to sleep tomorrow and maybe you would feel it is not necessary. The dog we are most concerned...

I have a one year old New Guinea Singing Dog, and I'm having problems getting her to go from using her puppy pads to going outside. I have tried to move the pads outside but she still doesn't go on them. The longest, continuous training time that I have tried to house break her was a week. I just need to know if I need more patience, or is there a certain technique I should use. She very domesticated for her breed, she picked up using the pad in about 2 days when she was 8 weeks old. So I ...

I ran across your website and have learned a TON. We have a situation w/ an English Bulldog puppy maybe you could help me out with. Here's the situation: Our bitch had just one puppy. The first two days he fed very energetically. He would stay on the same nipple for up to twenty minutes and was a great little eater. We were thrilled, but a little concerned because after two days he stilled weighed the same as he did at birth (6.5 oz). In the past our puppies started gaining almost immediat...

Hi Ed, Quick question. I have a 18 week pup GSD from Germany and he is always chasing and biting his tail and I'm not sure if this is play or something else going on. I have even switched his food to Fromm Nutritional 4 star food, having read once that this could indicate an animal protein deficiency. I don't know how grain based this food really is, but I'm hoping it's better than the Royal Canine he was on which he was getting yeast in the ear on. What are your thoughts on this? ...

Hi Cindy, First off, thanks for all the great information on your web site and videos. I bought both Basic Obedience and Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 Months and found them very helpful. Looking for some advice about by Doberman puppy. She's 16 weeks old and starting to show "stranger anxiety." If she is in our fenced-in yard off leash, and someone walks by the house, or she spots one of our neighbors, her hair stands up and she barks like mad. Even though she is a puppy, she ...

Dear Cindy, It's been a really long time since I have written for your advice, but I find myself needing your help once again. I'm not sure why I never asked for your help before, but I guess better late than never. I have a border collie female who is about 5 years old. We've had her since she was a 7 weeks old. Any how she barks incessantly on and off all day long. We've tried the bark collars, which I really dislike. I've tried exercise, spray bottles and shaker cans. She only d...

I have a 15-month-old male (not neutered yet) English Springer spaniel. This dog has been a sweet lovable member of our family since he was 8 weeks old. He gets a lot of exercise, love and kisses and attention and discipline. The last 3 days or so, we notice his intense need to get at the many squirrels in our yard, so much so that he has dug under the yard and escaped chasing the Squirrels down the street. He has done this several times in the last days or so. He doesn't seem interested ...

Hi, I hope you can answer this question for me. A little background about the situation.... I have a 4 and half year old pit/boxer/shepard neutared male (his name is Spencer). In the last month I left my abusive husband and have moved in with my parents (he never hurt Spencer). My parents have two chihuahuas. My dog and the chichis have met before and have gotten along fine, my dog and the chichis have never been left alone together. Also, my dog has been around cats and I ha...

My pitt bull is 6 years old, we got him right before my daughter was born, he was raised along side her. He has been an amazing family dog, never ever has shown signs of aggression towards us in any way. But for everyone else, he hates everyone, he wants to kill. and I mean KILL. We can't even take him for walks anymore because now he wants to kill everyone/dog we see and also cars??.... Its painful walking this terror on a lead. What do you do with a red zoned dog? We can't have him around a...

We have two dogs that have had issues for a long time. I understand the dominance issues from your article but at this point training won't cure. Our 4lb poodle female was killed by our 15lb peekapoo female. What do I now do about the dog that is living and what kind of future issues do I need to be worried about? It was a distinct relationship that these two dogs had but the peekapoo has nipped at people. I understand the dog that died may very well have caused the problem but do I nee...

Hi Cindy, I love your training principles, eBooks, podcasts and videos. I have encountered a couple of contradictions in the material. Mostly with meeting people and playing with toys. Are the rules less strict for non-working, non-agressive dogs? I'm trying to develop a training plan for a medium family dog (30-40 lbs) and I just want to make sure I'm doing a good job without overdoing it. Thanks Cindy, Matt

First, I have read your advice for hours and I have purchased a number of your DVDs and equipment. Your site is beyond impressive. In doing all my research on working dogs/pup selection, I felt like I found a solid breeder that had a certain pair whose litter would have the potential I desired. The litter was born in October and I've been investing and preparing for my pup's arrival. Unfortunately, I was just informed by the breeder that the litter as a whole developed a case of diarrhe...

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...