Most Popular Q&As

Hi Cindy, When I am sure my puppy knows a command and he does it 99 times when I tell him, but refuse to the 100th time, do I give a negative marker(NO) or do I just repeat the command and lure him into a sit? This puppy of mine knows exactly what a sit is but sometimes he looks at me with those "what are you talking about" eyes. Thanks

Dear Leerburg, I have a large German Shepherd mix male neutered age 3. He needs help in learning to socialize happily with other dogs. Can I buy a DVD or CD showing large healthy dogs playing together? My dog will watch TV if and only if dogs are on it. He can learn some by watching other large dogs playing without barking. Please reply. Thank You.

Hi Cindy, I have The Power of Playing Tug online video, and have been playing tug with my doberman but when I let him win, some of the time he shuffles the tug in his mouth so he's holding the handle. Then he shakes it by the handle and brings it back. I tried cutting the handles off one but the he does the same but with the end of tug instead! How can I stop him playing with the handles?

I will be bringing home a puppy at the end of April. She is a merle Great Dane. I want to crate train as we did our last dog (Rott / Mastiff). However, I have a bit of a concern that I might not always be able to break up the day with a trip home to break up his period in the crate. Do you have suggestions? I will do everything I can to make it home to give him a 4/5 hour window in the crate, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Robert

Hello, I have been looking at your site and have a question. My girlfriend bought a German Shepherd Puppy and it is now around four months old. We are having a problem with him destroying potted plants. We try and discipline him but he does it again. We think it is out of spite, and we would like to know a way to correct this. I read one of your articles and you said that if a puppy tries to stand over a child when he is lying down that we should be very careful with the puppy. There is one o...

From playing tug to attacking another dog: I have 1.8 border collie who hardly ever shows any aggression towards other dogs. I've been working on playing tug with him outside, with distractions, and this morning we had a great start to the session, with him running after me from sit-stay and grabbing the tug with energy. But then a dog passed on the road near our yard (whose door was open to let in more distractions) and when I told him to 'get it' he ran past me and to the dog (who by this t...

I have a Cocker Spaniel who is 4 years old, I was previously living with my parents who had other animals and another dog that used to urinate in the house. So of course my dog would go and "mark his territory" where the other dog went. My dog is trained to go outside and also use pads, our vet recommended the pads because Cocker Spaniels drink a lot of water and if they need to go at night, they can. When living with my parents he used the pad at night when he had to until my boyfriend came,...

Hi Cindy, Your training DVD products look terrific. Let me give you our background (wife and I). We have had dogs in the past but never trained them to do any more than sit or fetch. Our shepherd mix is 13 and not doing well. We will probably put her down soon. I just got an 8-week-old Belgian Malinois girl. Her father was a police dog and mother a personal protection dog. I am in the military (guard) and my wife will be a stay at home wife after this school year ends. My desire is to ...

I am a little frustrated with my DDR GSD. Out of no where he has become destructive. One pair of glasses, 5 pairs of shoes and vacuum parts. I understand he is entering adolescents. I expected he would become hard headed which he has like I haven't taught him a single thing lol. But the destruction was unexpected I never dealt with this with our lab or Mal. he is our first GSD. I guess my question would be is this normal or am I missing something. I have followed Michael Ellis' training as I ...

Forgive me if this question has been answered on your web site - I couldn't find it. I have a 16 week old German Shepherd from German working lines. I have trained her to ride beside my bike (at a pretty slow pace). She seems to enjoy the experience, but now I have heard conflicting advice on whether it is hard on her hips and according to some I could cripple her by putting stress on her growing joints. Her vet didn't have an opinion. We only ride for about 20 minutes (at a time) ...

Dear Ed -- I just wanted you to know that your training tapes were very helpful and my Doberman has turned out to be an awesome dog. He's great around people, has a tremendous amount of prey drive, and is doing very well in beginning defense. I really owe a tremendous amount to your videos -- my trainer is amazed at how fast my dog learns and how much foundation I had laid in his early puppy-hood. I give the credit to you. I have a question my husband asked and I don't know ...

I began feeding my skinny boxer a raw diet about 3 months ago. Within 3 weeks, he was looking better. Now, he's at a perfect weight. He does get raw chicken parts with bones, but I also grind some of his food. Instead of trying to remember to feed liver and muscle meat a certain number of times weekly, I grind everything together. I might have 1 pound of liver and heart mixed with 10-15 pounds of chicken quarters, plus 10-15 pounds of beef. Those amounts are approximate, as I'm not a stickler...

Hi Cindy, I recently watched the Michael Ellis video Playing Tug and Foundation of puppy bite work. Great videos for someone that is not a formal dog trainer. He answers most of your questions w/out me asking. I'm working a 9 month old Doberman for my fiance and am having a challenge having her gripping the tug and holding it. It feels as though she is not committing to holding it during play w/me. She holds the puppy sleeve great during bite work but won't commit to holding on to...

I teach a puppy kindergarten class. I have a question from one of my students about their dog that I cannot answer, and I am looking for some advice. They have a 12 wk old golden retriever that is showing some dominance. Today it bit the owner in the back of the leg and broke the skin. They were in the front of the house playing, and decided to go to the back yard and play. She started walking and the puppy went after her and bit her in the leg. Also, the puppy seems to play at home very ...

Hi Cindy, We’re watching a 1yr 4mo intact female pit bull. Shes very playful with other dogs, but when other dogs don’t want to play and snap at her, she attacks them. We purchased your aggressive dogs video, but we don’t see anything that pertains to this type of aggression. I’m trying to keep this brief, so if you would like more information about it, I’m happy to provide. Thank you again for all you do for the community!

Training question for the 8m GSD puppy: I never ask her to do anything she cannot do, however, our trainer felt it would be good for her to do basic obedience in the class with 3 other puppies. We failed miserably. She was focused on the other puppies. I had a really hard time getting her attention with treats and tug. Am I wrong to think that we should stay away from group classes now or should we participate even if it means a whole lot of corrections with the prong? Also, at what point sho...

Hi Ed, I am contacting you from England. Boy, I wish I had seen your website before we bought latest dog. We have a 10-year-old female black lab and a 4-year-old male lurcher/labrador/collie cross, when we first introduced him to her I was told by many people never to put a male and female dog together, however we were very lucky and apart from a few spats at the beginning they have lived together quite happily for 2 years. Both are very placid dogs and although the lab shows aggression...

I am a civilian trying to learn how to train my dog for search & rescue work. I have already spent quite a bit of money on instructors, videos, & classes. I have an 11 mo. old GSD who learns very quickly. The problem I'm having are so many opinions on how to teach tracking, air scent; AKC, SCHUTZHUND, etc. Who's right??? After reading some of your articles it seems to me you make the most sense. Fortunately, my dog hasn't had enough training with any particular method of search training as I ...

I have a 2 year old Border Collie mix rescue that is extremely nervous and fearful. I got her at one year old, and have been working with her for the entire year we've had her. We do not have any history of her before we got her, other than she was very underweight. She now weighs a healthy 65 lbs, and is on a raw diet (with Honest Kitchen). While we have made some really positive progress, and she has gone from a dog that was almost impossible to live with to a (mostly) very enjoy...

Can you define fight drive for me?