Most Popular Q&As

Ed, Thank you for your site. The information that it contains has been helpful in trying to figure out what to do with my dog, Rocky. Rocky is a 7 year old Australian Shepard that we have had since he was 9 weeks old. He has been a great dog with a great personality. He never barks unless some comes near the house or if he and I are playing. He has always been very "happy" around people even children. There are 10 grandchildren on my wife's side of the family of which 7 of them hav...

Hi Cindy, We have a two year old German Shepherd/Australian Cattle dog that we got from a shelter at three months old. We used both your Puppy and Basic training videos and our dog generally behaves well and we are happy with her. She is a soft dog and shows signs of being submissive as I understand it (presents her back side, licks me, etc.) She has never been aggressive towards anyone save for when we used to get near her and her food although that behavior has almost disappeared. We...

Hello my name is Angie, I was searching around online and found your site and had a similar situation. I have a 9 month old rott and when she was a puppy, about 3 months, she bit my daughter while eating a bone. My daughter had dropped something by her reached down to get it and she bit her lip. Since then, my other daughter claims she bit her head while she brushing her hair next to her and just tonight my other daughter, 5, was trying to hug the puppy and she said at first she bit her but t...

I have a 20-month-old male Rott. Over the past few months he has been displaying aggressive behavior when corrected. What I mean by aggressive is growling, bearing of teeth, and just last night, he actually snapped at my hand as a warning, in my opinion. He is getting to where even a stern tone makes him pin his ears, and become defensive. Even growl. He listens to commands when growling though. I can put him in a down position, and he obeys. We have 2 children 3 and 8. Also when he is permit...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I adopted my dog about 2 years ago from a no kill shelter when he was about 8 months old. They told me he was found laying in the street with a bad wound leg from a knife or fence. He is a chow, yellow lab and Shepard or rottie mix. He is neutered. I took him to obedience training from the very beginning but he would get aggressive towards the other dogs in class and the teacher suggested I put him to sleep or go to private classes. I have gone to private c...

About two years ago I rescued a large mix-breed dog from a veterinarian. The dog had been abused and tossed out the back of a pick up truck and left to die, until it was brought in to the veterinarian's for care. Since the rescue, my dog has demonstrated mild aggressive behaviors and has displayed few dominance problems. He has occasionally nipped at certain people, but never broke skin . He had responded well to correction. He shows similar behaviors when playing with other dogs, and aga...

I have a 5 year old male German Shepard that bit my neighbor last week severely enough to need 17 stitches and will need some plastic surgery. The dog has never been a problem before and always has been very friendly with our family friends. We were visiting at home with my wife and another couple at our lake house when the next door neighbor came over as he usually does when we are at the lake. We welcome him to come over any time and enjoy his company. He and my dog have never go...

We raised two German Shepherd from puppies Male and female, neutered and spayed. When they were between 1 and 2 we adopted a 1-year old neutered male from German Shepherd Rescue who had been abused. After about four days of his being in a kennel our Shepherds accepted him. The three of them are now between 2 and 2?. We adopted another male (neutered) from the German Shepherd Rescue a couple of weeks ago and are not having the same success. Our male we raised from a pup and the new GS have...

I know you must get many letters so I appreciate you taking the time to read and answer my email. and I am writing to ask your opinion because I am at wit's end with my dog which is part Border Collie and part Australian Sheppard. I picked up the dog when it was 6 weeks old and met the mother, but the father was locked up because they said it would attack strangers (perhaps that should have been a clue - but I did not know it at the time). I trained her by positive reinforcement. The dog,...

Dear Ed, We have a 2 1/2 yr old female Rotti who was attacked a month ago by a female Pit Bull while my husband was walking her - luckily neither my husband or my dog were injured. The dog had gotten away from it's owner. Since then she has shown aggression towards dogs smaller than her and towards small children - but still very friendly to adults. Before the attack she had always been loving and friendly to EVERYONE especially children. She has basic obedience training. Please gi...

Dear Mr. Ed Frawley, I have a question concerning Displaced biting. We live in the middle of 20 fenced acres. Last night a car stopped at our gate about a quarter mile away that can be seen from our house. My seven year old bitch, Lady, became excited and grabbed my 15-year-old neutered submissive Rat Terrier that is half her size. I had two other dogs that joined in when the Rat Terrier was down, perhaps because he squealed. As Lady, who is a German Pinscher bitch, hung on ...

Dear Ed, Thank you for your very informative web site. I started looking for information due to a situation here yesterday. I need some advice. I live alone in rural Oregon. I am 58, female. I am caring for a small nine-year-old Boston Bull Terrier for a friend of mine who is currently unable to take care of him. Next door to me are some people who rent a mobile home, and they have two red dogs chained in the back yard. Last summer, shortly after they moved in, I got very fa...

Hi, My son has a staffy cross, not sure what the cross is, but she is mainly staffy to look at. He had two dogs, the dog that was attached by the staffy was a border collie named Jess, she was 17 years old. Molly, the staffy, is 5 years old. They were alone in the house together, when Molly attacked and so severely injured Jess that she had to be put down. Molly must have thrown and shook her around. The injuries that Jess received were horrific, to her throat, her lung was punctur...

Dear Mr. Frawley! I hope you can help me with a problem I am having - your advise on your web site. to new puppy owners has been excellent and seemed to help others very much. We have an adorable 3-1/2 month old cairn terrier puppy that we got at age 9 weeks old from a wonderful breeder who really took amazing care of her dogs. Our puppy has been doing very well but seems to have a problem with peeing in the kitchen where he is confined during his play time. I am home with h...

Dear Cindy, My Dogo (born May 2009) has a poop problem. I've tried many things but nothing seems to work. 1. After eating between 6-7 in the afternoon, I take her to walk for about half a mile and after that I let her play in the backyard for about 1.5 hours. At that time, her crate is quite big, 1.2m x 1.2 m. In the morning, about 5:45, she pooped in her crate. 2. After that I tried to put her in crate with the door opened. For a few days she didn't poop in the crate...

I know you are extremely busy, but you are the acknowledged dog expert from so many different circles, and I am running out of ideas on what to do with my dog, so forgive me for taking your time... I adopted a rott/shep mix when he was 6 mo old, and have had him for a year and a half. As you have probably already guessed, he is a fear biter. We have been to several different trainers, and he is somewhat more comfortable around children after our follow up trips to the park, but he is stil...

Hello I am a small Labrador breeder. I just had a litter of 12 pups to a mother with 4 injured nipples (hunting accident). I have been bottle feeding them with your puppy formula recipe. This formula is a lifesaver. They would not eat the powdered formula very well, but they love your recipe and are gaining weight like crazy and full of energy. My only concern is if the recipe has enough iron in it. None of the ingredients contain iron except maybe the egg yolks. Do I need to add s...

Mr. Frawley, I had to get my two cents in after reading all of the email letters and your replies that you have on your site. Our Australian Shepard had her puppies August 7th, 2009 after going to the vet because I was getting worried about Lady. She wasn't due until August 9th. The vet did his exam and did x-rays for me. And we estimated about 6 to 9 puppies. Lady was going through Stage 1 of labor since Wednesday night and easing off then, more Stage 1 of labor Thursday. S...

Hi, I have several of your tapes - they are excellent and I have learned a lot through watching them. I would recommend them to anyone. My question is on the recall. I have read your training articles on the recall and no one has quite the same problem as I have with my 8 month old male 27 kg Malinois. My problem is when I call him or even if he just sees me in the distance he will come at 100 miles per hour as fast - as he can and then doesn't stop in time and slams ...

Could you please give me some in-sight on the term HDD (handler dependent dog) My trainer in agility is throwing this term around and I believe she has the wrong idea on what in really means. I believe a team needs to build confidence in each others and in return that helps a dog not be so dependent on our every move. But she thinks it means that a dog should be able to work with any one and wants us to let some one else take our dog through the course. I'm not so ready to turn my leash over ...