Most Popular Q&As

I have been reading your web site and everything else that I can find on aggressive dogs. Sassy just turned 2 and is a golden from very good show lines and also according to the breeder from good temperament lines. She has had some food aggression problems in the past that I have worked on with her since we had her. I thought we had it pretty much fixed. I took her to training at 10 weeks old because of this and we have enjoyed it and been in training ever since. She has passed her therap...

I'm pretty much at my wits end. I'm what I would consider an experienced dog person; my age, my life, etc. I have a foster Golden; 6 yr old, SF...she came to me with some serious issues. She is storm phobic, has "separation anxiety", etc. etc. A behaviorist nightmare. If left outside longer than she wishes, she will rip the siding off our house. The timing can be five minutes, or fifty...the trick is figuring out how long is too long...letting her in BEFORE the behavior starts. She h...

How do I get my high food drive GSD puppy to except food reward more gently?

Hello Cindy, I began feeding my dog raw food last April, in large part because of the wonderful information I found on the Leerburg website. The FAQ's are SO helpful and really convinced me it is the right way to feed my dog. So, thank you for all that information! I'm writing to you to ask if you think raw food could have some connection to recurrent giardia. My 17 month old American Bulldog has giardia for the 3rd time in 2 months. The vet prescribes Metronidazole and Panacur, which ...

I have an 11 month old husky puppy and am having an extremely hard time house breaking him. When we go for walks, he will not relieve himself until he gets to our backyard. Even when we take him out in our backyard a lot of times he won't do anything, but once we get into the house a couple minutes later he will pee in our walkway (one of two places that he will pee in the house). He knows he does wrong when it happens because he runs to his crate, no matter how many times we take him out thr...

Hi Ed, What is the difference between a dominant male alpha puppy and a high drive alpha male puppy? Thank You! Jerry

Hello, I got your email address from your website. My husband and I have a 4 year old yellow lab who recently started chewing again. We tried to keep her in a crate when she was a puppy, but when we would come home, the carpet was tore up, webbing and nose bleeding. Fairly painlessly she grew out of it for about 1.5 years. She then about 9 months ago started chewing the dining room furniture while we were away and the baseboards in the house. Bought a plastic crate so she couldn't...

Hi Cindy, Thank you so much for your very quick reply. No, the instructor does not allow prong collars in her class. She likes the gentle leader and feels she has had success with it. Her daughter is training her new dog in this class and she is using a gentle leader on him. I gather this is a personal preference issue among dog folks. But, I am more prone to your thinking. I think we will only have a problem if something excites Dante enough for him to lunge as he did yeste...

I have a 2 year old shih tzu who is can be unpredictably aggressive - she growls, shows teeth and then bites. she weights about 13 pounds. I was wondering whether a muzzle would be appropriate for her and, if so, which one should I use? Esther

I have a 7 month old GSD with loads of prey drive and is also displaying defense drive already. Training is going really well except for one area: Grip! I have inadvertently allowed him to have a chewy grip by throwing a ball for him as a reward during other types of training and allowing him to run back to me carrying the ball to commence a game of tug. During this run back to me he has been mouthing the ball, without me taking much notice and now that I want to do grip training I...

Can you tell us how to housebreak our puppy?

Dear Ed, I am a first time dog owner who recently purchased a toy poodle puppy at 8 weeks old. She is now 12 weeks. I got a toy breed because I live in an apartment and because this is my first dog. I chose a breed in which I thought would be easy to train and be a good house pet. Even from 8 weeks, I started doing basic training at home, and she very quickly learned to sit, down, stay, and come (although she really only comes consistently when she knows I have food). She seemed li...

Having probs: Maybe the egg yolks on rewarming the formula. Stuff is sticking in the nipples and both the pups and I are getting frustrated. The nipple gets clogged with the fast flow vent nipple. My son sees no reason for evaporated milk if you use the yogurt/water. HELP Can you just use the yogurt/milk and drop the egg for the next week? Some of the pups seem hungry. Some will take the bottle and others fight. New mom being a pain.10 GS pups at risk DOB 4/3 Judy

Hello, I have a five-month-old Shepherd pup. I'm having issues crate training my dog. When I have to go to work, I have my pup crated. So he is crated for four hours, then I come home and take him out and walk him for an hour, then he's crated for four hours, and then when I return home at the end of the day, he's then fed, walked, and played with. Originally my problem was with him escaping his crate and then tearing up my carpet. Some trial and error, a blanket under the crate, and ...

Mr. Frawley, I am hoping you can help us today! We adopted George from a local shelter 15 months ago, he is a German Shepherd mix, about 3 or 4 years old. From the beginning he has showed dominance towards me when he found food outside, going after me with a strong, viscous bark, but has always let me take away his food if I have given it to him. Since then my husband and I have given birth to a beautiful daughter who is now four months old. We have tried some training and met with...

We have a six months old cockapoo that we got when he was 10 weeks old. We crate trained him from the beginning. He cried for a couple of nights but then took to it just fine. When I take him out of the crate, I take him outside and he will pee on command. I take him inside and give him free time in a confined room such as a kitchen or family room or on a leash. He will then go in the house again even if it has only been 10 min since he was outside. 90% of the time he had an accident in th...

How do I tell if my bitch is preg? Have had her to the vet, he say's he does not think she is, but could be just to early too tell. They mated the 10th, 15th and 18th of April 2000. The male is only 6 months, so we were surprised to say the least the mating took place. The Vet also said that it is possible she could be carrying only 1 to 2 pups, that would not be so easy to detect. We have noticed sluggishness and seems to us her ribs are spreading. How can we tell, other than with time? I do...

Dear Ed, I am writing you because you understand police K-9s and I want to know if my fears are ungrounded. I have a 4-1/2-month-old bijon-peke and I live next door to a police officer with a German Shepherd police K-9. He has had the dog 3 years. I have seldom seen the dog because it has been trained not to bark and I don't know when it is out in their yard. However, since we got our first puppy, I've been in our backyard more often than before playing with the puppy and...

I am a deputy. We have two drug dogs already, (Chocolate Lab), (German Shepherd). I am an English Bulldog Nut..... Nut is the right word. I am going to purchase my own English Bulldog not the American Pit bull and would like to know if this breed would work well as a Narcotics Trained Dog or do you have information on what type of training this breed is best suited for when it comes to police work. If this breed is an asset to the Sheriffs Department can you tell me who to c...

I have a young dog that I have started in drive work. It is not ready for OUT training. How do I get the toy away?