Most Popular Q&As

I am rehabbing a 10 month old Mal. She is doing great but after we go for a serious romp in the forest and she returns to her kennel, she pees and poos in it. We are out many times per day so she has plenty of opportunity to potty in the right spot but she seems to think the kennel is THE spot. How do I undo this?

We just started putting our our 8 1/2 week GSD in the ex pen under supervision with toys and Kong to work on. Both times he eliminated (pee and poop one of the times) right on front of us and without asking to get out. We had taken him out to potty right before. Also we made the ex pen smaller by folding some of the slats, hoping to avoid this. Is it making him anxious, or is he too young or too small to expect potty success? Not sure why he would go in a fairly small place when he had just b...

Hi Cindy. I hope this question makes sense. I am looking for a little guidance on how to use what I've learned in Michael Ellis's e-collar course. I think I understand his process of introducing it: verbal command, followed by stim + leash pressure, escape upon compliance. However, I haven't really used leash pressure to teach any of the behaviors ME suggests using leash + e-collar for: foot targets, down, back. We taught those with luring and shaping only. I do use a prong and leash pressure...

I recently installed a doggie door and my german shepherd is afraid of it. I have been using luring to get her to go trough the door only when I'm holding the door up. Any thoughts on how I can get her to start using the door on her own.Thanks

Id like to ask a couple training questions: Can you use the clicker and 'yes' together to mark? ie. Dog's butt hits the ground, you "click", then say "yes" pause and feed? Is this ok? Are there there certain commands where the clicker is better than 'yes'? Can I mix up training during day - start sit, then move on to down, move on to - stand. Mix in 'nose' or 'place'...then go back - all while being different timings of trainings and not confuse the dog? If no, then how long do you stay at...

Can an ex-pen be used successfully with an adult dog that has never been in one? Our GSD rescue 1 1/2 yr-old neutered male loves his Vari-kennel, sleeps in it at night, and goes in to rest. I rarely leave him unattended in the house and never with our other dogs, but would like to be able to use an ex-pen instead of or in addition to the VK if we travel or have guests.

Hi! I have a 10 month old gsd and we have been working on our tug game to eventually incorporate it as an obedience reward. I have purchased the Michael Ellis dvd on the Power of Playing tug with your dog and I am continuing to study it. I am very pleased with the course. The issue I am having with my dog is he won’t bring it back and I have studied the video where Michael demonstrates to tug a few times, let him have it, and encourage him to take even 1 step toward you, mark and play ag...

Greetings, Most of the puppy toys are not made out of burlap, I assume not to associate possible tooth pain with the texture of jute. At what age should a Schutzhund puppy be introduced to burlap? Thank you much for all the great work you do!!!

Hello, my dog has a very high food drive, which has aided us in the obedience training we have been doing as he is very motivated by it, but often, particularly if I am using a high value reward, he tends to ?hand mug? or bite at the hand to get to the food. I have been teaching him by offering the food, saying ?no? and pulling it away repeatedly if he snaps and ultimately feeding him when he is gentle. It?s not been highly effective, though. What do you recommend?

Hi Cindy, FIrst of all, thank you so much for answering my previous question about multiple people in the household and inconsistencies when training a puppy! You were incredibly helpful. I've now purchased 3 of the DVDs from Leerburg (started with "Raising your Puppy" by Michael Ellis) and am now working on Ed's, "Basic Dog Obedience" DVD. Next will be "The Power of Training Dogs with Markers." I'm so appreciative of this material! Ok - so question is, my puppy automatically offer...

Hi Cindy! I'm excited to learn more about engagement! My question is in regards to using food/toys. I understand when first teaching engagement, it is necessary to use food and/or toys, but what do you do afterwards? If you're at an obedience competition trial, you can't use food/toys in the ring. How do you encourage and maintain engagement when you don't have food/toys? Thanks!!!!

Looking for information/article/video on teaching our dog to out an object. We have 3 dogs and 2 are great at releasing the object when given the command out, however our 1 1/2 year old Mal is not so good to be nice. Any help recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

I am using dog boots on my Border Collie. How long can I keep then on her without doing damage to her paws?

I'm being considered as a new patrol K9 handler with my agency. I've never worked K9 but I do have a 7 year old retired K9 at home as a family pet. When I got him he was very anti-social and wouldn't let anybody get close to me. Now through extensive training he's adapted very well as a family dog and is great with my wife. One major issue with him is that he displays his type- A personality towards other dogs in an aggressive manner. My fear is that if I am to start working a new K9 dog, ...

My question concerns rewarding for an odor 'find' during NW. I am having a disagreement w/nosework trainer who is certified in NW, but does not have an obedience training background. My dog is conditioned to my verbal marker, and when I give it he instantly knows he's giving the correct behavior, and that he can expect a food or toy reward momentarily. Per my trainer, we are not to give direction to the dog during NW practice, but she apparently believes this includes verbally marking the wan...

Have the Educator units held up well for you...? Are they rugged?

Cindy, I have recently purchased the videos "dominant and aggressive dogs" and "e collar training" from your site. I have a 9 month old alpha female Doberman and a 4 year old golden retriever. The Doberman shows handler aggression, aggression towards our golden retriever and toward her bones/toys. I have watched both videos and we have implemented the back to basics approach where we ignore the dog for 2 weeks, keep her on a leash with us in the house at all times, removed all of the toys...

Hello everyone at Leerburg! I feed my 2 1/2 year old doberman female raw (and kibble once in a while, due to limited storage capacity in our little house). The question is: is it OK to only feed the dog once a day, instead of 2 times a day? She is about 80 pounds and I feed her about 2.5-3 pounds of raw. Would it be too hard to digest all at once? I would like to do this to increase motivation during training. She is a crazy bitter and she loves tugging but at times I need to use f...

I have an 8 month old that HAD 1 testicle that never dropped. I do not want to get him neutered. Is there a test we could do to see if he only has 1? If I do not get him fixed after 2 years is it dangerous for problems to arise?

My Lab gave birth three weeks ago. It is her first litter, and it was unplanned. She had 10 puppies. She didn't have very much milk to begin with and it doesn't seem like she has much more than she did. She hasn't been feeding very often nor does she stay in the whelping box very long. She is starting to act depressed she is loosing her fur, and is still discharging. We had her to the vet when she had the pups and we have her on a calcium vitamin and we feed them goats milk to try to take som...