Most Popular Q&As

I enjoy your site and the tremendous amount of experience and information you make available to others. My husband and I have owned German Shepherd dogs for over 20 years and have begun breeding the last five years. My breeding stock are OFA and of good quality and excellent temperament. My 5 year old female has produced 3 litters and just had her fourth. However she developed gestational diabetes. It threw everyone for a loop as it is apparently unheard of in dogs and especially in german...

I have german shepherd pups that are less than one week old. The dam was in with them all the time and now is exiting the box more. We don't see her nursing and I'm a bit worried. Should I force her to nurse the pups or tube feed? How often should she be nursing them? Thanks for any assistance, Cynthia

Dear Mr. Frawley, HELP! I have a beautiful 12 week old purebred black German Shepherd puppy named Kincade. Against my better judgment I had him vaccinated at 9 weeks for Parvo and Distemper. I am in the process of moving, but presently live in an apartment and was terribly afraid he would pick up something since I cannot control the environment. He has had no reactions thus far and I feel very blessed and am praying he is fine. So he is supposed to go in for his next ...

Cindy, I am soon, be getting a GSD pup which I intend to train and use for SAR work. I am receiving conflicting information as to how the dog should be raised on a day to day basis. People who have a large number of dogs, ie. (far too many to keep them all in the house) say that after the initial socialization process, I should kennel my dog, taking him out 3-4 times a day to train and play, followed my an hour or so in the house, to learn indoor manners. I'm told that this ...

Hi, I just recently got a 6 month old female purebred black lab. She came from the breeder and was one of the last to go from the litter. For the first 5 months of her life she has been with her mother and other members of the litter. She was primarily an outside dog with little to no restrictions. She is a very loveable, friendly pup but we are having issues with keeping her up while we are at work. She has jumped a 5 foot fence and climbed a 10 ft fence. She cries terribly when w...

Hi Ed, I have written before and hoped you may be able to help me again. I have a 16 month old English Pointer bitch who has really come along well with her training. I had a problem with her recall which is loads better although I know I have to work with her more. I admit I have been a bit slack recently. My problem is this. Myself and my partner are separating shortly and the dog is coming with me. She has been a bit spoilt recently and that's down to all of us, (probably more me!!) I...

I have a 6 year old un-neutered male black lab. He has started becoming very aggressive in the past year. He has never liked me being around any man but my husband, and he would get very agitated at the unknown male, such as a repairman. This past year he has bitten my cousin, not badly, just enough to make her scream and make the attack worse. He also snapped at the vet, which in turn made the vet muzzle him and refuse to treat him unless he is restrained and doped up on medicine. The v...

Hi Cindy, I have a training question to ask. I recently decided to back up my puppies training, back to square one starting with establishing pack structure. After watching the DVD on pack structure on the crate training I think I moved on to phase two to soon and would like to start again, because I don't think he views me as pack leader. He still cries a bit after I put him in before he settles down, sometimes a lot and even tries to bite me when putting him in. My question is, is he sup...

We are a family of 2 adults, and three children ages 7, 14, and 19. We bought a male German shepherd from experienced breeder about 8 months ago. He is developing pretty normal. However we have number of points of concern. He had been biting us from a very young age. We read that it may be normal in young puppies. But this behavior had been persisting occasionally until now. It looks like a game, no one gets hurt, but some times it's pretty painful. He couldn't be admitted to an obedience cou...

Hi Cindy & Ed, I ordered two dog training DVDs (puppy & pack structure) from you guys and they are fantastic! Both really opened my eyes to what I've been doing wrongly. I have a 4 month old female Boston terrier/pug mix, who has quite a personality to match. She recognizes my husband as leader of the pack but not me. I admit it is my fault as I babied her so she only listens to me at times and even growls at me when I tell her to stop doing something like jumping on the couch or l...

Hi, Sorry to bother you, but I have one question. How do I find out if my 2 German Shepherds see me as the pack leader? I've had them for 4 years now since they were 5 weeks old and immediately started training when they were old enough; Schutzhund, search. I sometimes get a feeling that they don't see me as the pack leader. I saw your sample video on pack leadership with the puppies and the bone. They are not aggressive towards people taking they're food away, but sometimes they don't lis...

Good morning. I have read at least 20 articles that you have written and I finally got fed up when I read the ones on introducing a new dog.... Although what you say "can happen" I think you fail to realize that 80% of all dog owners do not have the time, knowledge or inclination to follow your very restrictive training rules. I have personally had 7 dogs in my career and I have always brought a second puppy into the home without any incident. I am also a member of a lot of dog owners groups ...

I have a question. I have just started volunteering at a small shelter. The new director seems to like click-training with a clicker. She also likes using a head harness called a Gentle Lead (goes fairly tight on the mussel and behind the ears). Before I order the video are these methods consistent with your teaching methods? Please comment. Joyce Perry, Iowa

Hello, I did read pretty much the whole site. Couldn't find a question completely like this one and it is probably something other people deal with. We have a really good GSD. She is easy to train and easy to live with. We have not had her that long, but she is 1 year old (rescued). When we kennel her for any length of time, she tries to get out of the kennel non-stop and barks non-stop. I understand that we can use the e-collar to fix the barking problem. Again, like...

Hello, I just ordered two of your videos, "Bite Training for Puppies" and "The First Steps of Bite Training," and I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival. I have a question that I have posted on the message boards and asked several trainers about all with varying responses. First of all I have a Belgian Malinois pup age four months. I want to eventually train him for personal protection since I own a retail business. I also like the idea of competing in a sport such as Schutzhund...

If you will, please voice your opinion.. I have a 3 yr. old GSD, German lines, who got his SCH I 2 weeks ago. We had never practiced a "judge" coming in on the B&H which was not real intense to begin with...we had only been working it for some 6 wks prior to that (once or twice a week). At trial the judge caused him to leave the blind and I had to give the reverie command again.. he went back in and was satisfactory. He does well on the courage test, attack on handler, etc. Now, in...

Hi Ed, I just finished watching, how to raise a working puppy, and building drive focus and grip. They were great videos. I plan on buying preparing your dog for the helper. At what age should the information in that video be applied to my puppy. I will be building his drive, but what is a good age to start working the puppy on preparing him for the helper. If it's best that I wait until the puppy matures a bit, then I will wait and get the video later. I am getting my puppy in two...

My dog and I just passed the BH test and are now training for Schutzhund 1. A problem I am encountering is this: my dog doesn't bark easily at the bark and hold, so we went back out of the blind to build the dog's drive to bark through the helper standing in front of the dog cracking a whip while I am holding on to my dog. The dog starts barking and wants to go for the sleeve, but can't right away because he is supposed to sit and bark. But he gets really frustrated and starts to look aro...

I am a little confused on the method to use for my Schutzhund tracking dog. Should I use only food drops in the footprint or a food drag?

Hi Ed!! My husband and I recently purchased quite a few of your videos and I must say that I have learned so very much from them. I do have a tracking question for you though. My 7 month old GSD bitch does not pick up the food drops. She'll put her nose on it and then pass it by. I was thinking that she's just looking forward to the "payoff" at the end, so instead of putting her food there I have replaced her supper with a toy, hoping that she'd start picking up the bait again. so ...