Most Popular Q&As

Hello Cindy, I was wondering if I could get some help and advice. I have a German shepherd puppy who is a few months old. Still a baby of course but we have started marker/clicker training as I do with all my dogs. The shepherds I have had in the past all matured slowly but they at least showed some form of prey drive as babies. This puppy comes from good working lines and is high energy. However, I cannot get him to chase ANYTHING. We have put various tugs on a string, including buffa...

Cindy, I'm amazed by the focused heeling video that Ed just sent out. I have a few questions. My dog has only food drive, though it's a very strong food drive. Will this be a problem for that training? Will tugs be involved in the focused heeling training? The site has jute tugs that you can put food in, would that be a good to teach my terrier mix to like tugs? I'm also wondering if the DVD would be good for dog owners not engaged in any competition training. Thanks. -Ben

My Sheriff Dept. is considering starting a auxiliary K-9 unit to be staffed by some reserve officers, to be spread into the county areas to assist the regular K-9 unit. Because the reserve officers are routinely called out to back up the zone officers we feel this will greatly enhance our k 9 dept since our k9 unit also work regular zones and not strictly k9. The Sheriff wants the dogs to do tracking and narcotics search and not really specialize in "bite," what type of dogs should we look fo...

We have a New Hope Borough officer who has been in K-9 training in Bucks County, PA for drug detection. The program is reimbursed by the County (drug forfeiture funds). The dog completed his training, and goes for monthly refresher courses. Our borough Council has yet to approve the dog for active drug detection, citing that they have found that there can be serious "liability problems" with having a K-9 program. No further explanation is given. There are many citizens who f...

Hi Ed! I'm having problems stimulating my current work dog on "passive attack." Once the stimulus is there no problem, just he does not seem to understand that "command" means action before the stimulus from the perp. Any thoughts that may help on this? Regards, Nick

Hello Cindy, I have a 2.3 year old "trained" German Shepard that need some re-training, two bad habits jumping up & trying to drag you where he wants to go (like into open door in house or auto). We got him from an older couple that couldn't keep him any longer. We've bought 3 of your DVDs (all excellent) and we've picked out some more for later. We've bought a Dogtra E collar, and a quick release prong collar Extra heavy. Currently ordered your Leerburg Dominant Dog ...

Greetings Cindy, Really appreciate all your help you guys give us. I was wondering your opinion of using a DD collar for someone that is smaller in stature but has a big dog that pulls. Historically I would automatically use a pinch. Can one replace a pinch used for pulling, with a DD collar. P.S. I really enjoyed the video on proper sizing of the DD Collar. James

Cindy, I'm trying to determine the proper size prong collar to order for my 7 month old border collie and had one question. Based on your sizing instructions, he measures a snug 14 behind the ears; this is the size I'm ordering my dominant dog collar in. However, I'm not so sure about the correct prong collar. Should I buy the 14? and add links, or go with the 18? and remove links to start? Does the difference in thickness of the links make more sense to order the larger collar as ...

Hi Ed: I just received my dominant dog collar and am wondering whether I can keep it on my GSD 24/7. I am training him with a prong collar under the guidance of an accredited trainer. I bought the dominant dog collar to have on my dog as a backup to the prong collar. But there are occasions in the house where he needs correcting and I don't want to use or leave the prong collar on him. Regards, Dick

I have a 6 month old dobe puppy that is a very good dog ,but he is lacking courage. As he gets older will he become more alert and want to defend the family? At this point he barks but if someone keeps moving towards him he wines and runs away. Is there any way to make him develop his courage. Please E-mail me with some advice. p.s. He has good lines. One of his grandparents was a police dog and another was a schutzhund champion.

We just bought an 8-week pup for family protection. We also have an older dog, (10 years), will it be OK to leave them together?

If I take my pup to protection training will I be able to have people come over without putting my dog away? I want him to protect us but not have to worry if my neighbor or friends come over. I was told that you can train them to look at you to see what to do when someone comes over. My neighbors and good friends will knock and I will say come in and I would not want that to stop. Is there a difference from guard dog and protection dog?

Hi, I have two German Line dogs, one a Tom Vant Leefdaalhof grandson and one with Fero Hemmelreich, Troll and Xato Nachbarschaft and others. Because I made many errors before getting your videos and attending a Flinks seminar, I am hoping you might have a suggestion on refocusing my dog's prey drive to the sleeve. When they attended the Flinks seminar at eight months and 13 weeks Flinks said the Leefdaalhof grandson was a great, great puppy and could it was up to me how far I took hi...

I have purchased your puppy tug, bamboo whip, first steps in bite training video, and now your soft sleeve. I have an 11 month old English Bull dog. He weighs 80lbs. My question is this. Even though he is extremely aggressive towards the tug and the sleeve, I can't seem to get him to bite with a full mouth. He constantly tries to bite with just the front part of his mouth. Is he still too young? His mouth seems to be big enough to handle it. Any suggestions on how to make him grab ...

Hi Cindy, I have read your information regarding dog muzzles. I am confused whether I would like to purchase the plastic one or fabric for my Lhasa Apso, Rocco. Rocco is my 6-year old dog, 17 lbs, and he does not allow me to touch and treat his infected ear. He is so smart that he runs when he hears the word "ears" and growls at me. He is quite aggressive when it comes to touching his face or ears. He also hates taking a bath, so I just have a groomer give him a bath, which is...

Hi Cindy- I have a 5 month old dog who eats just about everything that comes in it's path-- mulch, insects, stones etc. I have taken him to a doggie day care one day a week to get him used to it in preparation for boarding there the last week in May for our vacation. When he comes home he has diarrhea for 2 days and stool specimens indicate a parasite that he's getting from drinking standing water. This last time his stool was full of pebbles-- so apparently he's eati...

I have your videos on Pack Structure, Puppy 8 weeks to 8 Months, and Basic Obedience, have read your articles and tried to find this on the discussion board but have been unable to do so. First, I am a former math teacher and have had a lot of experience with teenage boys and a normal amount of experience with dogs. Your training methods for dogs are just what I applied in the classroom. I am retired and spend most of my time with the dogs. My husband is a pack member but he doesn'...

Cindy, We are planning to add to our family. Currently, we have a 3 year old, spayed female GSD who we purchased from the breeder when she was 9 weeks old. Raven is very sweet and 'soft' in temperament ? definitely not an alpha female. With the increase in home foreclosures, loss of jobs, etc., we feel as though it would be more socially responsible to adopt a rescue dog. My question is this: is it a myth that the best pairings are male-female rather than adopting a dog o...

Here is the history. I've had Yorkie's in the past and they are the very sensitive, loyal, and loveable dogs. As a breed, I don't feel they are the most brilliant, but smart enough if you work with them to catch on to basic tasks and potty training. A couple of months ago, I was in a store and overheard a man talking about a breeding kennel that had a little Yorkie that would not breed and they were getting rid of her. I could tell by the way he talked that she needed a home immediately. ...

I have made almost every mistake possible buying a new puppy. Here is my story. I can hardly believe it's 3 a.m. and I've been reading all you have to say! Such a wealth of information! I can see many places that I have gone wrong. First, I didn't buy a Leerburg pup. I can clearly see that was the first mistake! In fact, I got Gatsby (sort of black & cream American) from a fairly respectable breeder... to our dismay we found that she had a heart defect (valve didn't close af...