Most Popular Q&As

Dear Mr. Frawley, I am writing as I have a growling problem with our five and a half month old pet Ridgeback. I know you have a lot of mail so I will brief as I can. I have followed your philosophy closely. I have 8weeks to 8mths, Basic Obedience and E-collar training and read much more from your website. He lives in a wire crate in our family room, most of the time and can go into the rest of the house with a person. I think he knows his order in the pack, he eats ...

Hi- We have a 5 year chocolate lab. We bought her from a breeder. About three years ago she started showing signs of aggression. I can't really pin point when it began. Anyway, we have had dog trainers, animal behaviorists, dog walkers (which we still have). She is food aggressive, has dog aggression and it aggressive towards my husband and me. It isn't ALL the time, but I am ready to get rid of her. I don't want to, I love her, but I am afraid of her. I just took her for a ...

I have a 7 mos old giant schnauzer female, my third giant -- so I'm familiar with the breed. My problem is that she has suddenly started barking and growling at people (who aren't accompanied by dogs). But it's unpredictable. In a large crowd, she accepts strangers and tolerates the attention. It's typically when only one person approaches, or passes by even at some distance, that she will bark or growl. Also, it is unpredictable: first she'll let three people pet her, and then suddenly ...

I have a female pit bull, spayed, I've had her since she was 5 weeks old, she was born at the shelter and I'm a failed foster! She is now 3 years, went to puppy classes, obedience, agility, she is a phenomenal dog and I could probably take her on to do anything I chose to do with her as she is just that smart and obedient. That is until it comes to her tennis balls. She is so ball driven, and uses that as her reward system instead of food. This dog has no food drive whatsoever. Only ball driv...

I have a small dog, who has become very aggressive. He has bitten several family members and recently, in the last 6 months, has ran after several family members with teeth showing and acting like a wild animal. I had a trainer come to my home to help us with him. The dog did go for him very aggressively and he leashed him and held him head up in a choking (hanging) manner and the dog was fighting until (to me) he passed out with lack of oxygen. At his time the dog did defecate and urinate on...

Hi Cindy! We rescued a dog about 6 months ago when she was 3 years old. We think she is a Lab/Shepherd/Pit mix? We have no knowledge of her past. She is a great dog, we have done the pack structure ground work process, as well as I am now training her through the Michael Ellis videos. She has been doing amazing and is very engaged with me and I feel we are creating a good bond. My concern is that when we go on walks through town on sidewalks, on a busy street or not, she is so stressed see...

I've watched the DVD on The Power of Playing Tug with Your Dog. I have a 5 month old dog and I use a tug to play with him. He sits, outs, and listens while playing. However, when I tug back and forth for a bit and then let him have the tug, he runs away with the tug, sits and tries to just chew on it. I tried putting a leash on him, and pulling him back, but Michael Ellis in the video was telling the new trainers not to do that. How do I get the dog to bring the tug back once I let him have i...

Sir I just recently acquired a great dane dalmatian mix. He is 9 months old and he weighs about 67 pounds. He is a very sweet dog, he likes kids and he adores me. I could do anything to my dog and he wouldn't even bat an eye lash. However, I picked him up from the pound and I believe that he either was abused by a male or he has never been around them. He wags his tail at every kid and female but he starts barking and acts like he wants to bite every guy that walks into the house o...

Hello, I know I write an awful lot but this has been the biggest problem I have ever dealt with. I have had other dogs (old and passed away now) and I have never run into this problem... My GSD pup (13 weeks old) has been peeing and pooping in his crate ALL THE TIME. He is in the crate when I leave my house, and I saw in one of your articles to crate train a dog you should place the dog in the crate a lot until he gets used to it. WELL, my pup will not stop peeing or pooping in his crate....

Brutus, our 2 ? year old male mixed breed dog (he weighs about 30 lbs and looks somewhat like a coonhound) is quickly becoming a problem with his growling and snapping. He is neutered. If he is in bed or resting and someone comes up to pet him he may growl or snap. He has growled at me while I was sleeping with him for moving and or petting him. He is growling at my husband frequently for petting him while he is resting. Last night my husband walked into the bedroom where Brutus was sleep...

Cindy, First let me say I have enjoyed the Leerburg DVDs I have watched and I have learned a lot from them. My problem is something that has just started occurring. I have a 2.5 year old GSD and just this morning when I went to feed him he growled and barked once. He was in his crate and he hadn't eaten since the morning before. He has never shown any signs of aggression over food or anything else. I have been established as pack leader but it felt different this morning. I want to m...

I have a year old German Shepherd, and seems to be aggressive towards little kids. I have had him since he was 7 months old. There are no children in the house, just 3 adults. He has not been professionally trained, just basic trained.. like "No," "sit," "shake" etc....He has never showed any aggression towards adults, just kids. He will bark and try to bite kids. I hate locking him in a room while little kids are around. I think it might be the voices of the kids, that he doesn't like. He is...

Hi, I just wanted to let you know I read almost all of your site. I was trying like mad to find out what to do after our dog nipped our neighbor. Our dog was a 2 1/2 year old cattle dog. She was a humane society dog and took to us right away. We extensively researched the breed before adopting and were prepared for all possible problems. I'm a decent runner and jogged the dog about 12-15 miles a week. We have a fenced yard and did a stint of organized training. She has never been g...

I have a 13 year old lab called Flossy who is deaf and suffers from separation anxiety at night. She paces the floor and scratches at my bedroom door until I can't stand it any longer and I let her in. I have adopted a 2 year old lab/cockerspanial as companion to Flossy hopeing that this would fix the problem, but unfortunately it hasn't. Please can you help as I am getting very little sleep and it is effecting my health.

I need help with Protection Training! I have briefly reviewed your web site and downloaded your podcasts but I was hoping you could suggest some training or DVD so my new GS will Bark at the door, strangers etc. My previous GS was fabulous and performed all these functions perfectly with little training from myself. Unfortunately he passed away from Cancer this past summer and I am trying to train a new GS. The GS I have now I adopted so I do not know what happened in...

We've enjoyed your Puppy video as well as Basic Obedience 302...and still need a little help with "Come." We live on 5 acres and our 10 month old male GSD is very responsive and obedient while on the leash, whether it's the 6 foot or 20 foot line. But once we take him off the lead and go inside and then outside later to call him in or call him to stop barking, etc., he ignores me. The property is too big to have him drag a line around in case we need to call him, so we let him off once we go ...

Can I purchase an additional strap for my Educator collar so I can switch the receiver between collars to use on a 40 lb. dog or a 100 lb. dog?

Hello, I found your article on how to break up dog fights very very useful. I recently started working in a dog boarding and daycare facility. Some days there are as many as 125 dogs in the yards.?There are multiple yards and we do our best to divide based on temperament but yesterday was my first dog fight. I have lots of experience with big animals (steers, sheep, etc) but none with such sharp teeth. I ended up with a relatively minor bite, two teeth puncture wounds but no tearing. I use...

Hi Cindy, You have always been so helpful in the past. I attribute my dogs wonderful behavior to your DVDs and informative website. I purchased a Dogtra 280 ecollar and have used it training my dog (boxer-chow mix) with recalls since he was 1 year old. He responds well to the collar and marker training and is extremely well behaved. After my dog turned a year old he developed a shyness toward people (mainly men). He warms up after being ignored and approaches on his own terms and eventual...

Hi Cindy, Hope you are well. Just wanted to run 2 questions by you and Michael. 1. Deep Bark - in prey drive? I train Sch and would like to do as much as possible with my young dog in prey drive only. He has fantastic drives and a lovely friendly temper and I would like to keep it that way and continue training in prey drive only. This is why I like Michael's system so much. My only concern is the barking at the blind - at high level competitions it is desired that the dog shows what pe...