Most Popular Q&As

Ed, I came across you website while looking for answers to an issue with my 21 month old German Sheppard mix, Hannah. I read several articles and lots of Q&A's, but did not find an answer specific to my issue. We have three dogs, Brandy a 13 year old German Sheppard mix, Lucy a 5 year old lab mix, and Hannah. We adopted Hannah when she was 12 weeks old from a humane society in the area, and quickly began training classes with her. She's very well behaved, follows commands an...

Hello, I have a 70-75 pound Alaskan Malamute that is 2 years old and have 2 cats that lived in the house prior to my dog living here. Ever since she (my dog) was a puppy, I followed your techniques with training her to get along with the cats. At this time, she is wonderful with the cats! She seems to even be protective over them and does NOT chase them, in fact she will quickly look the other way if she accidently catches a glance of my 15 year old cat (my 15 year old cat is the b...

Good morning! I'm hoping you can give me some advice please. I just came across your web page,5 months too late however! You offer great advice, and I hope to gain more. We have an 11year old Jack Russell female and a 5 year old unaltered male Scottish Terrier. The Jack is the boss, and they were spoiled as our "kids" up until 5 months ago, when we had our son. We've done everything wrong according to your points on introducing dogs to babies. The dogs have full run of the house,...

I am a owner of a 2 yr old boxer-lab mix, who has just recently developed aggression towards other dogs. As a puppy, I took him to the dog park (almost every day) until he was attacked by a female pit. (He had to have stitches and a drain put into a puncture wound.- probably one of the worst days of my life!) He never had any aggression problems at the dog park up until about 18 months when he started being aggressive towards puppies. (I read in your articles that this is the age of matur...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I was wondering if you could offer any suggestions for me. My 3 year old dog Kraemer, an Australian Cattle dog and Rottweiler mix, has started to develop aggressive behavior toward other dogs at the leash-free dog park. When we enter the park through the double gates and if there are dogs to greet us, he'll charge out of the gates and bark and chase the dogs away from us (me and my other dog Annie). He loves to smell the other dogs and literally gets urina...

Hello, I have an 11 month old lab/border collie mix that is very toy obsessed. I don't mind that she likes to always play with toys but I'm having trouble with getting her to only play with the toys when I say it is alright, she's at her worst at the dog parks when other owners are playing with their own dogs. Once she sees the toy (mainly balls) she does not listen at all she is so fixated on the ball and it gets really frustrating when she takes the other dog's toy. She's really good at ...

I am a 40-year-old woman who has always had dogs - all kinds of dog. I particularly like dominant dogs in that I want protection (I live alone). My experience has been with Dobermans (females - love that breed). Recently I rescued/adopted an almost 2 year old Giant Schnauzer who was apparently left to his resources for 20 months. He did not have proper human bonding, was belligerent and arrogant when first here but has come around somewhat. I have worked him daily with obedience; I practi...

I have a two-year-old Australian cattle dog that was given to me as an adult at one and a half years of age. He was such a loving dog when I got him, he liked everyone. I am a construction worker and took him to work with me to socialize him. He stayed in the back of the truck all day long and never got out as long as he could see me. He was a dog for everyone. Children use to play with him all day long. This guy at work started teasing him because he said he looks like he would bi...

My husband and I acquired a Gordon setter from a breeder who told us that Indy was a dominant bitch and couldn't get along with other bitches. We have another older dog, which is a big friendly kind of guy. We had some problems with Indy immediately, but we did get her to get along with our older dog. Four months ago, Indy began snapping at other dogs while out on walks. In one instance, my husband was bitten as he tried to pull her off another dog. These incidents are escalating q...

Hi Cindy: I had my 3 year old German Shepherd female hips xrayed. She has her CGC and BH in the fall I want to go for her Schutzhund 1. I also have her in SAR 6 months training. At the trainer's request she suggested to have my dogs hips xrayed. They were not good. I will have her spayed of course. I was very disappointed because her whole line parents grandparents were all good. My question is do I have to quit Schutzhund? She does very well on the jumps and a frame so I could stop traini...

I have a two-year-old German Shepherd that is of 100% German descent. I bought him when he was 11 months old and he was obedience trained and had all the basics down. I planned on taking him to advance obedience training but he was very dog aggressive and attacked my friends dog in the park when we were trying to acclimate them and attacked another dog at the groomers while we were waiting for our turn. Both of the attacks resulted in only minor injuries but in both I was not able to get ...

We have an 18-month-old girl lab mix named "Lily" that we rescued six months ago. She was a loud barker right from the start, but seemed to make herself at home with us. Neither my wife or I had much experience as dog owners, so we naively hoped that a loving & comfortable home life would be enough to calm her down. She is very smart and did in fact learn to mind us and show us a lot of affection after a while, but she was still difficult to manage on walks and showed territorial aggressi...

Hello, My name is Lisa. I have a 3 1/2 year old Shepard male named Bud. I found him when he was a few months old and so I'm not sure about his temperaments in blood lines. We recently had some sheep on the property and he got loose and killed two. He has killed cats before but we thought he was playing too hard. Today he went after a calf, but luckily I was there to stop it. I punished him but it doesn't seem to do anything. I don't want to put him down. Is there any thing to do to...

Hello: My wife & I are having twins. Our German Shepherd is now 2 years old and for the most part well behaved. We have been told many different ways of presenting our Lola to the babies for the first time. Also my goal is to have Lola baby sit as much as possible in the future. Lola is rarely on a leash in the front or back yard. Already knowing her boundaries, I would like to teach her to keep the kids in their own front yard & out of the street. Of course this is in the future &...

Hello Mr. Frawley, My name is Mark Wright. My wife, Cassie, and I have two dogs? and a newborn (our daughter Anna was born a week ago). Our dogs are Lacey, an 11-year-old pure bred Cocker Spaniel and Gidgit, an 11-month old Beagle/Collie mix. Prior to Gidgit?s arrival, Lacey was fine and understood that we are the masters. I believe that is still understood today. I can approach Lacey and pull a bone or other toy away from her without her becoming aggressive towards me....

Dear Mr. Frawley, I have a problem with a friend's dog and I don't know what to do about it. I am wondering if you could give me advice or direction on what to do. This may be a little long, so I apologize now if it is. I have been with my boyfriend for almost three years and have known him for five. His family has a Springer Spaniel. I have never liked that dog. The first time I walked through that door, his dog showed his teeth and growled the whole time. Nobody did anythi...

I have a 16 month old male Shepherd with whom I have inadvertently caused a big problem. When he was young he had hardly any interest in food and I tried everything to get him to eat, including teasing him that our other dog was, "going to get his food." I realize now how big a mistake that was. My question is, what can I do to undo the damage? To give you a little background, I am not an inexperienced dog trainer. I've raised many dogs, including two Dobermans that are well rounded, lika...

I've read your homepage and the last story there was from a lady asking you if you ever did try using the stun gun for sound effect. I would like to know the answer to that Question on Dog Fights because I have a medium size male (supposedly chow and Akita mix not sure) that has started beating the heck out of my male St Bernard. They both were puppies growing up together and all was well until the last month. The medium dog keeps attacking the St Bernard every time I go out side to chang...

Dear Ed, I am writing to you as one trainer to another. I need some advise on a aggression issue. I will apologize ahead of time for the length of the post but I would like to give you as much info as possible. I began OB training with two male siblings (Rott, pit, shar mix). Both are about 90 lbs and growing. They were 7 months old when the owners contacted me and dominance issues had already started between the two of them. They both had recent surgery to to a hellaious fi...

My husband found your website today and we have a few Question on Dog Fights about the products and techniques you have listed. First of all I want to give you some background on our situation: We have 2 recently neutered male doxies; The oldest dog (Oscar - 2 ? years old) is the one who displays aggressive behavior; We took an obedience class with Oscar when he was about 6 months old at Pet Smart. While in the classes, he would behave like an angel, but he would not ...