Most Popular Q&As

Hi Cindy, sorry to bug you, I need a little advice, I was doing some imprint work with my 4 month presa canario this morning using a clatter stick and leather rag, and as I was doing exagerated movements with the clatter stick my pup accidentaly leaned into the clatter stick , and I hit her eye and muzzle, she didn't wimper or get hurt but her prey drive was gone immediately and she became shy of the leather rag, I'm not sure how detrimental this could be, what would you recommend I do ...

I know you are busy but I would appreciate some feedback from you regarding treat rewards. I am currently training my two year old rott/shepherd mix, a family pet, and will soon start training a GSD for police work - I'm a deputy sheriff in Oregon. I've done my homework on many different types of training methods. Most seem to be useless for my purposes. I doubt a strong tempered/dominate dog would really respond to those types of training which are geared for the politically corre...

Dear Ed: I live in Shadow Hills, CA, a livestock/horse keeping area in northeastern Los Angeles City. This is a foothill area and there are lots of horse trails connecting through open areas. I have shown dogs, trained them, and bred a few litters so I understand the variations in the breed temperaments. I would like your opinion on this situation. Last year we suffered a dog attack on our rabbitry losing 20 animals. The dogs came over 2 fences onto our property. Within a few weeks our ...

Hey Cindy, I am contacting you because I am a dog trainer and I have recently stumbled across something that I have not encountered before and I am not exactly sure how to correct it. I have a 6 month American pit bull terrier that I am using for a demonstration dog. He is very smart, and attentive. I have taken him through the learning phase for basic obedience (come, sit, down, down stay), so he knows the difference between sit and down. But when entering the correction phase I have f...

Cindy, My dog has been on a raw diet for over a month now and I've noticed he's panting quite a bit. I've searched the website and looked over the books but haven't seen anything on this. Do you know of any correlation between excessive panting and raw? He seems healthy otherwise. Otherwise, the diet has been a dream. Earwax-gone, itching-greatly diminished, coat-like a puppy, I mean it is really noticeable. Thank you for teaching me about raw though Leerburg. I have already convinced...

Hi Cindy, I have purchased two videos from Leerburg and I am very satisfied with them. I purchased the Power of Training with Food By Michael Ellis and The power of playing Tug By Michael Ellis. Now, I would like to learn if Michael has any videos on how to teach control my dog when I have visitors to my house. My dog is very protective of my house which I like but I want to be able to let him know when someone is welcome and to turn off his protective behavior once the visitor is clearly wel...

I'm a police officer in Connecticut. My police dog is two years old. We just completed 4 months of training and he is doing well. He already has a couple of finds. My question is that sometimes when he is tracking, he will stop to smell animal odor. Sometimes it's so bad, that I have to grab him by the collar to pull him from that spot. He will even lick the area, and taste whatever he is smelling. He's a great tracking dog, but if he smells a certain odor, he will completely stop tracking a...

My mother in law owns a beagle/lab/chow mix who is about 2 years old. Recently, she got another dog from the local shelter and was told by the shelter that she would have to neuter her chow mix in order to keep her new dog. The chow mix was neutered, but became increasingly violent towards humans and the new dog, where he had not been before. He DID calm down about 3 weeks after the operation. Two days ago, a friend of ours walked into the house with me, and the chow mix bit him! It didn't...

Cindy We would like to fly our dog out to CA. for two weeks for our grandson; it was mentioned to us that he could fly with us if he was a service dog or a dog in training. We were wondering if you could share with us any insight to this. Or if their is a way you might know where he could fly. Our daughter is having her second child, and we will be on grandparents duty with the first child. We just love our dog who is mid size. I hope this question makes sense. Thanks, ...

I am hoping you can help me with a problem I am having with my female German Shepherd "Gracie." Gracie is now 14 month old, she knows the basic obedience commands, but refuses to obey on recall. The minute she hears the door she will try to bolt through the door and refuses to come back until she is ready. We will live in a rural community in Fairbanks, Alaska and so far this has not caused a problem, but it is extremely frustrating as well as posing a potential future problem. She does chase...

Hi, I just opened the DVD sales newsletter e-mail on defense drive and it made me continue my thinking on this subject. I have a very weak-nerved dog and if I try to leave him for an out of sight stay he has a look of discomfort/stress and I realize he is not going to get very far in training if he feels this way - therefore, my thinking is he needs to feel different about the exercise... so I have been thinking if I could switch him out of pack drive (which is where I suspect he is since ...

I am sorry to bother you, but I really enjoyed your articles on raw feeding on your web site and I was wondering if you would share some of your experiences with me. I am the proud owner of three Australian Shepherds that all are fed raw and have been since they came into my life. Recently I purchased the youngest of the three from a holistic breeder, who is very knowledgeable and ethical. The puppy was raised raw and of course is very healthy, but within the past week he has become a bit...

Hi, Ed and Cindy! I've been enjoying your newsletter for a while, and I've got a pretty minor training issue I'm hoping you might be able to help with. My dog (papillon, 2 years) is not very toy motivated, and I've been trying to teach him to fetch as a game to get him some more exercise. He will chase a toy and pick it up, but the second I say his name to get his attention to call him back, he will drop the toy and run back to me, because he would much rather be with me than play ...

Hi, I've been watching your videos and they really helped me to realize what is normal with puppies. We have a 6 month old female Rottweiler we also have 5 children ages 15 to 6. We did puppy kindergarten at 8 weeks and then at 16 weeks we did a 4 week training class where we dropped her off 4 days a week and brought her home every night at 4pm. We still go back for training 2 times a week together for a half hour. My problem is when her leash and prong are off she forgets all her training...

Hi Cindy, I have a 16mo GSD. A month ago, someone charged my dog for "fun" at a family party. Initially, my dog cowered, and everyone got a pathetic laugh. That same person who charged my dog, could not stand up from a sitting position without my dog jumping up on all fours and barking aggressively at the previous perpretrator. My dog could not relax while that person was present. This person told me that I had a serious problem with my dog. I laughed. Today I took my GSD to the vet. Th...

Hi, My dog is about 8 years old. She is a lab beagle mix. We have a 9 month old baby, who loves the dog. We take them on walks together, but the dog pulls and almost knocks the stroller over sometimes. We have taken her to an obedience class once, but we did not keep the training up enough. We were trying to let them be together, but when the baby started crawling, she got a warning bark from the dog twice. Then another time he was crawling towards the dog and the dog snapped at the baby. ...

Hi Cindy, I have a 14 month intact female Rottweiler. She was crate trained, and was relatively neutral in terms of her love of the crate. Suddenly in the last 2 weeks she is obsessed with the crate. There is no food or treat in the crate, and with the bedding removed her behavior is identical. She will spend more than half of the day inside the crate with the door open. She often runs back into it when she is out, with intensity. When she is taken outside her energy is great. Her appetite...

My puppy just turned 9 weeks old and she has recently started barking and trying to bite at my legs. I can't decide what it is she's is wanting. It can happen at times when we are doing something she doesn't want to do, like walking away from something she was trying to eat. (which is everything outside). My response is to stand and tell her nope and if she continues I will put her either in her crate or expen. I've also been trying to direct her to playing tug, which she will do some but not...

I have a 10 year old son who likes to play with our 4month GSD. The issues I’m having is the puppy wants to bite on him. Even with re direction and giving a bully stick or elk antler chew. I think the puppy views my son as a litter mate. She doesn’t really bite on me but I’m the one training and feeding her. She does it more so with my husband who likes to get on the floor with her and roll around. She does it constantly with my son who likes to play tug with her and he tends to move pr...

Hi Cindy, I have a two month old puppy that has no treat or enough toy drive. Thus I can't do luring, crate training, etc. He is also very slow eater with same food from breeder. Have never experienced this before so I am a bit perplexed. Any advice please?