Most Popular Q&As

Cindy, Hello, first of all great info I have received from your newsletters and the question and answer part of the webpage. I have a 10 month old rottweiler that I am training with Michael Ellis methods. I have the 3 DVDs and I have followed them through. I have two questions on them. When I am asking my dog positions, sometimes he makes a mistake or just stares at me, this is usually when I am 2-3 feet away in front of him. Should I correct with an e-collar or a prong collar when he d...

Its hard to add a feeding schedule when I work away from home. Do you think adding it to kibble is a bad idea? I don't have an reservations about feeding the Honest Kitchen with additional meat. However, what meats would you add that would be easy? Also, I have three Great Danes; wouldn't it get quite costly to do the meat add ins? Thanks, Amy

I am a raw feeder for my dogs. I have recently took up raw eating for myself too and have learned if things are dehydrated at higher then 118 degree it begins to kill enzymes and is no longer considered raw. So I am wondering if your raw dehydrated dog food list what temperature it is dehydrated at as I would like to buy some if it is truly raw? Thank you, Robin

Hi Cindy, I have two small yorkshire terriers who have been eating Honest Kitchen for about 18 months. They are doing fantastic. I feed Preference and supplement with meat protein, fish, turkey, etc. The older one (12 years) had continuous tummy upsets (continuously soft stool) for the first 10 years of his life. Since eating Preference we have not had one instance of runny, soft stool. The younger one (2 years) was raised on it from the time he was 12 weeks old. Their coats are beautiful ...

Hi, My husband and I really enjoy watching and reading your various articles on dog training. We currently have two GSD (1 male, 1 female). The female is the newest in the family and the two seem to get along quite well. The question we have is this... the female is very submissive and the male very dominant. We give them their own time to play with us and we also allow them time to play together. The problem (we think) when they play together is that the female just runs after the...

Hi Cindy, I train dogs, mostly rehabilitating troubled dogs in animal shelters to help them to be adopted and not live a life in a shelter or be put down. I also have been training my second pit bull rescue. I've been using force training for years (Koehler-type training). I've had much success with this training, however, due to your info. I've become more open-minded. I've poo-poo'd marker training for the same obvious reasons Ed previously had (positive-only blah blah). N...

My husband found a small puppy sitting in the middle of the road a few weeks back. The puppy seems to be a pit bull, I don't think he's more than 12 weeks old. This puppy is both blind and deaf. We kept him because I felt if we took him to the shelter no one would want him. We are having a hard time house breaking him and I'm trying to see if there is some way I can do this. We keep him outside during the day, and bring him in at night due to the cold. Do you have any suggestions? He's a ...

I have taken my puppy to the vet for the first 2 check ups and shots...we have done many numerous, numerous blood, urine, fecal tests because of the amount of water she is drinking and all tests have come back pretty normal. One came back a little high on some kind of liver count. They said it wasn't something that they would say I should worry about yet because it was only border line but they are going to monitor it on all her check ups to make sure it doesn't get worse. They did not think ...

Hi Cindy, A couple of months ago, I sent you an email about my 11 yr. old German Shepherd who has arthritis in her hips. I have switched her, as well as the rest of my dogs, to the raw diet and all are doing very well on it. Their excitement at meal time is unreal. Thank you so much for advising the switch. I have a few questions that I couldn't find the answers to on your site. One is a feeding question and the other three are about medications/vaccines. 1. We've ...

Dear Cindy, My dog is only a 6 months old GSD but with drive like I never seen. Her parents were both German imports from working lines. Setting my transmitter at #100, I barely get a reaction... and I mean barely. I made very sure the electrodes make good skin contact. The transmitter only goes up to #128, although I haven?t gone higher yet. Should I consider returning unit for a slightly more powerful unit? Aloha, Capt. Howie

Hi, I recently purchased a Dogtra e collar from you along with your training video. We have a dominant 22 month old male Australian Shepherd who is fairly well obedience trained, but needs work in a couple of areas. Before we begin the e collar training, I wanted to get your advice. He has very strong prey drive, and though we have trained him to "leave" cars that pass by he is intensely provoked by the mailtruck, UPS, FedEX, or any loud truck that goes by. The prong collar ...

Can you tell me where to buy and how to store my pseudo drugs?

What is your position on this puppy narcotics training program being promoted in Texas by the Texas Police Canine Association?

Hello Ed, I am a out of K9 school for just over 1 year. My dog is a German Shepherd patrol/narc dog. I am having a problem with him alerting, scratching AFTER he locates the narcotics. I am reading him to the point where I know when he locates it. After he locates it, he walks away from it and shows little or no interest in scratching so I do not give him his reward which is a towel. I've heard that putting the towel (reward) in with the find will increase his scratch? What do you think...

I am sure you are a very busy man but I am so frustrated and have no where else to turn for answers. If you could please give me a bit of advice I would greatly appreciate it because no one in my area has yet been able to help. Last June, my husband was given a puppy that had been handed down from owner to owner. We were not told much about her history so I took her to the vet the next day who said she was a Beagle-Pincher mix. She had many health problems when we first got her but...

My dog, which is now 4 years old, is a lab mix whom we adopted from a shelter. Since she was a puppy (Mattie) she has exhibited signs of weak nerves. We always attributed her aggression toward people as acts based out of fear or lack of trust. She has also exhibited problems wanting to dominate relationships with other dogs and, in doing so, displayed signs of aggression. As far as we were concerned, we had raised and trained our dog very well. She follows all commands with the occ...

Dear Ed, Hello there from Australia and thank you once again for your invaluable advice and information provided through your web site. A while ago you advised me (via email) about training my German Shepherd. Upon purchasing your Basic Dog Obedience video and applying the training techniques within, I am thrilled to report overwhelming improvement in the discipline and relationship with my dog as a direct result of that video. Thank you 1 million times over!!! Zach is just over 2 ...

Your videos, toys, vitamins, leashes and collars, Cindy's raw diet instructions - everything! - have helped me over the past 3 years to make my Lab Jake the healthy dog and wonderful buddy he is to me. I have one area in which I need your help - unnecessary barking. He is trained beautifully (by me) with the help of your videos, but I have this one problem; he seems to forget that I am the pack leader when he wants me to himself, and he gets possessive and demanding through barkin...

We have a lot of chickens that are allowed to roam freely on our acreage. We got a dog last fall, and he is now about 8 months old. He is neutered, 1/4 miniature pinscher 3/4 jack russel. We had the original batch of chickens before we had the dog, and he treats them with respect, especially because the rooster chases him. We have a newer batch of half grown chickens that are more skittish. Unfortunately, he killed one of the small chickens today. We scolded him sharply, but I'm no...

Good Evening, We are raising two females at my home. One is a pit bull and the other is a mix which we were told had pit in her but we don't see it. We have two small children, 11 and 7 years old. We are currently having a problem with what we think is dominance but we aren't sure. We had our mix pit (named Daisy) first and have had her since she was a pup. She is now 1 1/2 years and we got our 4 yr old pit less than a year ago. They have been in three fights since we got Lexi (the...