Most Popular Q&As

Mr. Frawley, I have a five-month-old Rottweiler, and I called last week to get your videos on basic dog training, and bite training. I am looking forward to advancing his training with these videos. However, I was wondering what affect neutering him will have on his protection skills. My vet said I should get it done at about eight months. Thank you, Matt

I wonder whether you could help me out I have a nine month old German Shepherd bitch but unusually for a German Shepherd she doesn't bark now. I've tried to get her to bark when I give her her food or before I sent her off for her ball but all she does is whine. I can't seem to get her to bark at all. Sometimes she does have the odd outburst of barking when she is playing with my mum's pup, but when that is is when I'm not about or when you go to the back door to praise her for barking sh...

Hi, I am using Preference for my 5 yr. old Dogo and my 8 yr. old Golden. I will be getting a Lab puppy about 8 weeks old. Should I use Preference and does it have the right ratio of calcium and phosphorus? Dogs can develop a bone disease when the calcium/ phosphorus ratio is disrupted. I always add beef meat and pork and sometimes chicken. I do cook the meat. Should I be adding calcium to the diet? I do give them yogurt add vitamin E and eggs a few times a week. They also get Acai & Goji ...

I just bought the prong and the basic obedience of you. I like it a lot and it has been a great help. BUT! My 14 month Rott is very dog aggressive. When we are out walking he walks a good SLOW, HEEL, COME, but if he is walking with me in a heel possession and a dog is on the other side of the street he just don't care if an almost rip his head of, doing it the right way. (Command, correction, praise.) He just turns around and barks at me and tries again. The collar fits perfect and I do c...

My husband and I have watched your video regarding establishing pack structure, and we have some questions. Let me preface this by apologising for the length of this email. John and I are somewhat new parents to a 9 month old male, altered Havanese, named Zippy. We got him when he was 4 months old, so we've now had him for 5 months - just enough time to spoil him and turn him into an undisciplined small doggy that everyone thinks is adorable. We, however, continue to see bad behavi...

I read your article on "Dealing with the Dominant Dog" about a year ago. At the time, I thought that perhaps you were a little heavy handed. I have since eaten my words...more than once. I had asked my mother to search the net for articles concerning GSDs. That was the one article that she decided that I needed. (Indicating her feelings about the breed, apparently). At the time, I filed the article in my "K-9" file after reading it. It did not apply to the(AKC) female GSD I had at the tim...

Thank you for your very candid answers to people's questions. It is refreshing to see someone with a concern for the safety of both the dog and the people in the dog's life. It is not often that I hear the honest answer of "put the dog to sleep." After reading some of the serious concerns of your writers, mine may seem a bit trivial. In November, my husband and I adopted a two year old , 130lb female English Mastiff from the Rescue League. In the previous home the dog was raised wi...

Hello. I am having a problem with a neighbor's dog. We moved to this new home 5 months ago and have no pets. Our children are 10, 3, almost 2, and 7 months. Our yard has a chain-link fence around it. Our neighbors, who are the only people we have met so far, have five dogs. One is a shep mix. For approximately six weeks the dog was allowed to roam the neighborhood. One of its owners was out of town for that period of time. The dog roamed with another neighbor?s dog... The dog, whose owner...

Cindy HI. My name is Donna and I have the Irish Setter, Lexee. Recently I purchased a few of your videos and the prong collar and a stim collar too. ( I already have a stim collar but you recommended one with more distance.) I have been using the prong collar and immediately Lexee stopped almost all the pulling. I have made very few pop corrections and they have all been in a mild manner. So far so good. My problem is that I think Lexee is mad at me and even though this will sound corny...

What is the difference between "stay" and "good" command? I know we use "good" to give duration as per the article on Marker Training.

I recently adopeted/rescued husky mix female dog from its owner in February of this year. She was I year old at the time. She is now 16 months and the one thing I havent been able to retrain this lady out of is her agressive attitude in open spaces with my 4 year old siberian husky. Everyone keeps telling me she is a puppy and thats how dogs figure out who is top dog, yet watching her pounce and attack from behind, chace and nip his hind quarters AND watching my 4 year olds reaction to th...

Hi, my dog is fearful around strangers and will become aggressive when they get too close. What training program would work best for him? I'm stuck between two types 1. Board and Train (4 weeks at facility with field trips and at home follow up session) 2. Hybrid (9 week home self-study, coaching at a facility, Group Classes). My concern for option 1 is that he he may not listen to me or will revert back to his over protective habits because I wasn't the one training him while he was away. M...

Cindy, I have been reviewing your Heeling toolbox, but have one concern. I have a small 10.5 pound Bichon. To me, dealing with a small dog is very different. Does your course address that? I am ready to compete with this exceptionally hard driving little descendant of JR except for the fact that her healing can somewhat weave in and out from me. She forges on the inside Figure 8 and left turns and stops, but is right on with all else. She also rat-ta-tatts with her little feet when we stop...

I have a 9 month old Hovawart female, spayed, we have been through basic puppy class. I want to know what class to pick for her. She is extremely smart, very food and toy oriented (tennis balls). I have just enrolled her in agility. I don't need the basic sit, wait, down course I would like something at the next level, I also want to do some tracking with her in the spring. Thanks for your advice.

I have a question about drinking water as it pertains to the groundwork/pack structure phase of training. I work nights 9pm - 7 am. When I get home at 7, I wait about 20 minutes and then feed my dog. Regarding water, should I keep water in the crate when the dog is in the crate? Or should I put a dish of water in the crate several times a day and then take the dog out to go pottie after they have drank? What would you do?

Cindy, I have a 5-month-old 2-1/2 lb male Yorkshire Terrier. I attended a local puppy kindergarten 8-week session for obedience training, and am planning on attending additional obedience training sessions with him. Everything with that is going fairly well, but after spending the last 2 months with my puppy, there are a few behaviors he refuses to listen to me concerning, namely barking and staying away from the cat food. I have been very consistent with him in teaching him "no" and even...

About two weeks ago, I made the switch over to the raw diet for my 3 dogs. The two older dogs I switched cold turkey but the young Malinois, I am switching gradually. I am giving them raw veggies & fruits, ground meat, fresh chicken with bones, some yogurt, some cottage cheese, occasional egg. Plus I bought the Honest Kitchen product you add meat to. They love me!!! I have never had this much excitement at meal time. My question is with regards to possible low blood sugar. My two older do...

I spent a lot of time training my 20 month old German Shepherd in AKC Novice obedience. I felt we where ready for the ring. Ugly 2 days, would not sit on the stops, did not heal close, left me on the about turns. It was like she was in another place. She did stand, long sits and downs. On the recall she which was one of her strongest-came sat off to the side and did not finish. I took her out this morning and she did great. I already ordered the DVD on jumps thinking we where ready too move o...

Completed the first two Michael Ellis DVDs and 11 month old dog is progressing great EXCEPT he has "sticky" outs. He understands to out but if it is a tug he will continue to teeth it. If its a ball after a retrieve he will come right to me and will out on command but then when ball hits ground will attack it. I have tried simply saying no for a period of time, have said no followed by continuous tension with the leash until he drops it but once it hits ground he is back on it. I have tried s...

Hi, our Border Collie is a 10-month-old male. We were doing well with him, reliable recall, etc. until the last month or two. Now off leash, while playing with other dogs he will not return. He is super interested in other dogs. Likes to play, but if the other dogs are not so interested, he will do some "herding" behaviors. Previously he did. Also, now while walking him he "loses it" if near a playground, seeing a rabbit etc. He really needs the off-leash to get his running and exercise in. ...