Most Popular Q&As

I have a four year old GSD. He is a dual purpose police k9 dog. We train every Sunday. When we are working a scene he will not work with multiple or strange people around in the area. Also if you can believe this he seems to be afraid of the dark somewhat. It seems that during times of need he gets performance anxiety. On training days he is quite the opposite and is nearly perfect. Also if this makes a difference, he supposedly has bad hips. I discovered this when he was two years old. H...

Ed, Just ordered your dominant dog collar and orbee ball. Headed off to K-9 school at IL. State Police Academy day after labor day. My dept. gave me a chain link kennel 4' x 12'. Have a dominant Malinois and was wondering if the steel mesh kennel would be better as he is pulling at the chain link on the gate. Also which is better 5' x 15' or 10' by 10'? Your dominant dog video was great! Thanks as always, Eric

Hi Ed Thanks for your great site. I am busy training two dogs for patrol dog and have some questions about the "out" command. I've taught the two dogs according to your dvd, building drive and focus. The dogs will not release the tug until I command them to do so. I have started them on the body bite suit and they bite the arms and do transfers to the legs. I'm going to teach them on the find and bite system. My questions are: When the dogs are on the body bite...

Hello! My name is Court. I am a small county Deputy Sheriff and am attempting to train a K-9 on my own budget and time to reduce start up costs, for a k-9 program to pitch to my Sheriff. I am and have been searching for narcotic scent permiated dog toys to work on scent detection. Do you or you company/business have or know where I can find such an item? If you know of any contacts or leads please let me know. Respectfully, Court

Hi, my name is Tracy. I am a new police K-9 handler. I have a great german shepherd, who is doing an outstanding job in narcotics, tracking and bite work. I have run into a small problem and I really need some help. The only problem I have is that my K-9 will not out the reward (rolled up towel) after a positive alert for narcotics. It has become a real problem. I really need some direction to get him to give up the towel upon command. I don't understand why he will not out when wor...

Hi there, my name is Emma and I'm sorry to be a pest,I have just bought 2 extra large prong collars for my great danes who are approximately 8 months old. The problem is I can not physically remove any more links without hurting my dog but when they have been wearing them a while out walking they slip down. Do you think it's best to swap them for the medium prong collar as my instructor has advised? This size seems to stay put better. Regards, Emma P.S. As I really want t...

I recently purchased the SS Buckle Prong w/ DD collar from your website. Before I ordered, I measured Sadie (a 15 month old Doberman) using instructions from your ebook on proper fit/position for a prong collar. Her neck measured 14 inches. I knew I would have to remove several links to get the correct fit since the collar measures 17 inches. I wanted the buckle collar because I have trouble with arthritis in my thumbs, so pinching the links to attach the collar is sometimes painful. ...

Hello Cindy, We are in the process of ordering a muzzle and I was speaking with the ladies at your office. They suggested I contact you about my question on collars. I have a German Shepherd and have just adopted a Ridgeback Shepherd mix. The German Shepherd is not accepting the new addition and has attacked him several times. She is wearing a cloth muzzle now when they are together, but we are ordering a plastic or wire for her. When she is in the house (which is ...

Hi Cindy, I just read the weekly newsletter published today and related to the Q/A on the guy who's dog whines and whimpers when she sees another dog and I do not allow her to go since I do not allow her to meet and greet other dogs. My dog (14 months old now) does the same thing, but she is very loud and it sounds like someone is trying to kill her. Her lunging at another dog (all of this occurs on sidewalks) has diminished where I implemented your earlier recommendations to me; h...

Hi I lost the prong collar I had for my dog, I believe it was a micro I had ordered from a trainer. She is a chihuahua/rat terrier about 7 lbs and neck is about 9.5" What is the difference other then price on the chrome and stainless steel? And what is the difference in the mm size? Is that the size of the prongs? Sorry to sound clueless. I just want to make sure I order the right one and fast as I am using a back up choker chain and don't like it, she walks much better with the pr...

I was interested in purchasing a couple of your dominant dog collars. I have three akitas, two males and one female, ranging from one-hundred to one-hundred and forty pounds (not fat). I have used metal choke collars for the last eight years of so with good results but of course, they tend to slide down the dog's neck and have to be re-set. In the last six months or so, I found your site and have been very happy with your training methods and products (purchased the leather leash and the ...

Hi there, I ordered one of these [Dominant Dog Collar] last night and was wondering if I should be attaching the leash to her regular collar as well as the dominant dog collar in case it breaks. If so, how do I go about doing this? Normally we don't use a leash, but the police have been cracking down on people walking their dogs without one, mostly due to the fact there are so many young people with pitbulls that have no training, and continue to cause problems. I normally don't a...

I have a 9-week old puppy. A local trainer said he would start to do protection work at 3 1/2 months. Should I do this?

Can you give me a list of German commands for my dog?

We have a female Rottweiler, 12 months old and spayed, who is very very bossy with our 2 year old neutered Australian Shepherd. We have done some protection work with the Aussie and he is terrific at anything we try. The Rottie is still too young for most training, so we are working on some obedience and some bite imprinting. She is not aggressive, but will carry her tug to him and bump him until he walks away or growls, will try to stand off with him when he is approaching us from a fetch, a...

Could you recommend a competent and reputable trainer for personal protection in Wisconsin and/or Michigan?? I ask you because I assume your contact and experience are some of the best in the business. Thanks for your help. Ron

Hi, I am interested in purchasing your training videos but I would like to ask a few questions that I haven't seen in your Q&A section before I purchase. I have a Rotty that is 12 weeks old that we bought when he was 8 weeks. He is the sweetest dog and just loves everyone. We purchased him for a family pet as well as for personal protection for our family. Now my two questions;1. I have been told by a local training school that I may consider to attend with my Rotty that he should be trained ...

Hi Cindy, Love what you guys are doing over there, new videos are great. Here's my question, I have an 11 month old GSD, and we started doing our protection work about 1 month ago and having a lot of fun with it, but when we try to work obedience now it seems I have to get him worn down before I can even start to get him to focus. It seems his prey drive is almost taking over all the obedience training I've done with him. I just watched a video from Michael Ellis abo...

I've been doing agitation work, and training my dog for the past 6 months now. To better my knowledge as an agitator, and trainer I've recently purchased a couple of your training tapes, and numerous books on the subject. I've come to the conclusion that I've been caught up in a bit of a scam. It's a combination obedience-protection class. One Hour of obedience (mostly healing) immediately followed by bite work. The class contains approximately 15 dogs. All dogs are present during ...

Hi, I was wondering if you can help me. I have a 3 year old American Bulldog that won't protect the house when I'm gone. But he does when I am there. When I am home he won't let anyone come in. He will protect me but when I am not around he doesn't do anything. Can you tell me what I should do? Dawn