Most Popular Q&As

Hi Cindy, I bought a bark collar from you about 4 weeks ago and I have been using it on my pit bull because he barks a lot when outside. Soon after I started using it he has slowed down with the barking but his aggression has seemed to increase and he seems scared when wearing the collar. I was wondering if I did something wrong and whether the collar might be increasing his aggression. He was use to wearing an e-collar before I bought the bark collar because I have been training h...

I got one of your prong collars for my mother's Springer Spaniel. This is a very hard dog that does not respond to ANY level of correction on a choke collar. She is now 7 months old - at 14 weeks when I first tried correcting her by shaking her by the back of the neck it had no effect. I have one major concern. This dog (bitch) is very dominant and the prong collar is very useful for correcting her since the normal choker had no effect. I have to snap the collar very hard to get a ...

My dog chases her tail round and round constantly. Her tail is one wet mess. Is there any way to stop her from doing this? I would appreciate any way to solve this problem.

You have a very informative site. Thank you for your open and honest opinions. I will implement some of your suggestions if I ever find myself a witness to another dogfight. I notice that you seemingly have little hesitation at telling people to kill their dogs when you have no other remedy for their situations. Have you any experience with natural medicine, i.e. herbs and homeopathic, in treating some of the symptoms and causes of those symptoms, such as fear? For the patient and consistent ...

I am wondering if you can help me on a training issue? I have a GSD out of Czech working lines and am not sure what the best form of correction for her is. I am told you can mishandle these bloodlines and cause the dog to become handler aggressive and later be taken to the ground by the dog. I do not want to mishandle her and cause her to be handler aggressive, or her to be scared of me or her to continue doing what she is doing. I want a dog to want to be with me, want to work for...

Hi Ed, We purchased your puppy & obedience tapes before we even got our dog. We have followed them very closely with very good results. Our dog is crate trained and loves his crate. About 4 months ago we have been leaving him out of the crate, and he has been perfect ....until today. He tore up some boxes and papers in the basement (that he knows he is not allowed to touch). I came home to a mess and corrected him harshly. Problem is I don't know if that was the right reaction and ...

After watching your puppy video, we are working to crate train our GSD who is now 15 weeks old. I work at home, and I keep the dog in the crate in my office as I work. I take him out a couple times a day to relieve, eat, and for a short walk. When my wife gets home, about 4pm, she takes him upstairs. She does not crate him (even when he gets pesty), because she feels that the dog is more attached to me and she feels that if she crates him, he will like her less. Do you believe this is tru...

Hi Cindy, Our puppy Lucy is 15 months old, she is a very smart dog we are of course still in the process of training her. One thing that really bugs us is she will start to bark and bark it seems for attention especially if we have guests over. She seems to be doing it for attention because we are just conversing with one another and she'll bark and sometimes jump on our leg, it seems to get our attention. How do we break her of this bad habit? We do say no bark to her in a firm vo...

Dear Sir: First, let me say that I appreciate your site very much. I have found it to be very helpful and informative. I also enjoy looking at your beautiful dogs! They are wonderful. I know you are terribly busy, but I hope you can help me with a puzzle. We adopted a lab mix puppy last year. He will be 2 years old in April. He is a great dog and very smart. He learned the general obedience commands easily and has several other tricks we taught him. However, he has t...

Dear Mr. Frawley, We have been watching your videos on training puppies and dominate dogs. we had a question for you about a male pure bred boxer that is about 13 months old. He has been owned in six different homes before we had brought him into our home and lifes about 2 months ago. We know for a fact that he was beaten as a puppy and it shows even when you try to pet him or even make any fast movements close to him. He will either flinch or move his head back. we know that in yo...

Hi Cindy, My dog is a 3-year old high energy border collie who is trained in obedience and has solid heels and loose leash walking and a bullet-proof stay. I now want to build an equally bullet-proof way to walk with me even under any distractions. My question is, should I 1) build on her loose leash walking, or 2) teach a contact heel, or 3) use a second command for loose leash, or 4) anything else? Since we live in a big city we use loose leash a lot, either on narrow sidewalks, ...

I have a long line which I've used with my (now 7 month old) puppy, which I clip onto the back of her harness. This weekend we took her to an off leash dog beach. The beach is very big and wide, so I was planning to avoid other dogs as much as possible and let her play in the water. However, there was an incident where an off leash dog ran to my dog and away again and my puppy spun around and ran after it, straight into the long line, getting the line wrapped after her leg and neck. I r...

Dear Cindy - I purchased a puppy in hopes of getting a companion who would also be a deterrent to intruders. I spent a whole lot of money on him and was able to watch both parents do protection work. My breeder assured me that he would be an excellent candidate for protection work but not sport since he’s a little sharp. (Though I don’t really want to do protection work, I just want a companion/deterrent dog.) My concern is that he isn’t very good at being a deterrent. Lol. It seems lik...

Hi Cindy - I have 2 German Shepherd dogs - a 20 month old recently neutered male that we got as a pup, and an 18 month old intact female we have had since September. Both get daily obedience training and play at home, and professional training (obedience and scent work). Plenty of exercise - between 3-6 miles of walking daily. Both are attentive, eager to please and have pleasant demeanors. Male is more boisterous. Dogs ride in back of our SUV in a 2 dog crate with a divider. The male l...

Hey Cindy, We adopted a Dutch shepherd/mix back in July. He's a little over a year old now, and as more of a medium dog, I'm guessing he's mostly done growing. I'm planning to train him as a running partner in the spring, and at this point, he's doing very well with basic commands and leash manners. The problem I'm running into is that he likes taking the thin parts of his soft toys and grinding them between his molars. Our German shepherd did this with rope toys when we first got her (she...

4 month old Boston terrier has no bite inhibition. Prong collar for correction? If so, what type? He weighs 7#.

Hi Cindy. I have an eight year old GSD who is housebroken and obedient. When I'm home he either goes tot he bathroom off-lead in my fenced in back yard along the fence-line, or on-lead when we're walking through the neighborhood. In the yard when I let him out he won't actually go in the yard and do anything until I walk out. The problem is when I travel, which is only once or twice a year, I have friends that were willing to watch him for me but every time they do he just goes to the bat...

I have a 5 yr old female German Shepherd that is still intact and has never been pregnant. Is there a danger to her health in not getting her fixed and is she too old to have a litter? Thank you

Hi, again. I'm hoping you can direct me to one of your courses to help me out. I have watched your basic and intermediate obedience videos and Relationship Games 1 plus parts of some others. My 15-month-old Parson Russell terrier is doing very well with all the food exercises. He is very good at "leave it / yuck" until he gets hold of a ball or frisbee or tug. I would love to eventually have him reliably retrieving, but while he will sprint after anything I throw, his next instinct is to dest...

Hello! I wanted to say first thank you for answering a previous question I had sent to you. We just picked up a 17 week old puppy today. Our puppy ended up lunging at our toddler three times and one was at the face. We’ve never encountered this before and don’t know what to do. We have a crate for their space and keeping him on a leash (which I’ve seen done on leerburg videos). Is there anything specific or tips you’ve found helpful that we can start right away? Plan is for our pup t...