Most Popular Q&As

Hi. We used to foster through our local shelter, and foster failed with the last puppy. Lucy, the new addition , is around 9 months old and spayed. She was brought into the shelter with her litter mates at 14wks, and all were very timid. We worked a lot on obedience and commands, building trust, not rushing her - luckily she's very treat motivated. Lucy gets plenty of exercise everyday - we own a gym, and I work from home, so it's usually play with toys, the other pups, or a long trail walk w...

Hi Cindy, I am letting my 6-month-old puppy play with another dog that I trust in the morning to burn off some energy before work. How will this affect our engagement? Is it setting the foundation that other dogs are more fun and will make recall and engagement in the presence of distractions later on more difficult? I want to make sure as he gets older we continue to progress to a solid recall and solid sit in the face of all distractions. Rescued this puppy about a month ago...

I have a 4-year-old male large 80-pound dog that I tried to use Pure positive (I know better now) trainers and behavior vet. He has a very high Prey drive and is selectively reactive to certain dogs and people. He was pushed by a intact Samoyed at age 1 yr (he was intact at the time) dog got into his space he attempted to warn the dog to back off and a fight ensued. He has since been highly reactive with select Dogs and some people. He also has an insane high prey drive and has taken both mys...

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 9 month old male GSD, he is from German show lines. He has a really nice temperament. But at this age he is fresh, he thinks its fun to jump on me. He rarely did this when he was 5 mos. old. I know he is just playing with me but its annoying. He's very gentle when he puts his feet on me, he jumps back then barks at me. I don't want him to think this is OK to do. I have tried the squirt bottle and the sports drink bottle with water it didn't work so I added a little bit of vinega...

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...

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...

Hi Cindy, We have a 16 month old male GSD, (we picked him up at 12 weeks old), he’s great at home a great demeanor, playful. When we take him for walks, he barks at people. Strangely, in a couple of situations, when they came close with open palm and a non-threatening demeanor, his bark changed to a whimper, almost as afraid. We have been crate training Max and working on establishing the pack hierarchy. Please note, when we arrived at the breeder and initially met him, he did not ba...

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...

Hi Cindy - I am a new student of Michael's videos for my puppy I pick up on Monday. He is a 10 week old German Shepherd. Should I buy him a Kuranda bed he will grow into or start small?

My 15 wk GSD is confused and I know I caused it. She takes the down as I am trying to use spatial pressure to push her into ‘back up’. I don’t name it til I love it, so I have successfully Named/marked ‘Down’ with her . It’s just the movement toward her that I think confuses her. What or where should I ‘Go back’ and focus on to truly distinguish this for Her.

Hi Cindy, I‘m about to get a male puppy in 2 weeks and the breeder told me now that the pup has a small umbilical hernia which is not congenital. Would you still consider getting the puppy or not?

I got a friend of mine the 6 inch training tab for her new Standard Poodle puppy. She’s never used one before. How would you describe how to use the tab and why/what it’s used for?

Good day Thank you for all the excellent training content. I have been training my pup since eight weeks old to do footstep tracking and he does it accurately and at a good pace. Not quite a tracking thru drive pace, but the dog is focused. I have been doing tracks in the country about 4-5 days per week. I was told that is too much tracking and should back off to 2 per week. However, my dog loves to track and I don’t think he’s being overworked physically by any means. ...

Hi Cindy, Which puppy harness is recommended in Leerburg's puppy training videos, and which size should be purchased for an 8 week old German Shepherd puppy?

Hi, I am looking for a video on how to teach a dog to fetch (retrieve an object, bring it back to me and drop it in my hand). I hope to be able to teach that dog to retrieve all kinds of objects, even a set of keys. Would you have that?? Thanks

I am interested in purchasing the Training the Retrieve with Michael Ellis DVD. Particularly to get my dog to be better at delivering to hand. I am not a fan of "force fetching" and a trainer recommended this web site to me. My question is: If I am not familiar with "marker" training, will I need to to buy 2 DVDs? Or is there another way to learn "marker" training without paying another 65 dollars? Also, how much time would I need to dedicate to marker training before I could start th...