Most Popular Q&As

I meant to add this question to my last email training question....our 9 month old female Giant Schnauzer has developed a fear for traffic and loud trucks. Because we live in rural area, we rarely see traffic except for UPS or FED EX trucks. As of late, I have been taking her to our quaint downtown Main Street for walks in hopes of making her more comfortable with the loud noise. From the time we've had her at 4 months, we have expanded her "socializing" her via various situations such as car...

Hello - I just adopted a 1 1/2 year old German Shepherd from the German Shepherd Rescue in Las Vegas. He is awesome! He gets along great with my other dog, and he is getting along with my cat very nicely. But we have 1 problems that I can not seem to fix or train out of him. The vet suggested to crate train him, and I have mixed feelings about that. Our other dog is not crate trained and he does just fine. The bad habits is that at night he grabs anything that I have left on the counter, ...

Hello Cindy, We have a GSD 2-1/2 yrs. She is trained in obedience and agility, is well socialized and is generally a very good, calm dog. She has always enjoyed catching insects and I guess that's normal. Earlier this summer, she caught a wasp which stung the roof of her mouth. We gave her an allergy pill and she was okay. But we would like to stop this behavior. When we want her to ignore something (like a barking dog in a yard as we walk, or a food scrap on the ground) we ...

Cindy, Thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail. My 1 year old female GSD has been with me every day since she was 5 months old. She has gone everywhere with me mostly Lowes and the credit union. Several weeks ago she became very shy of other people even those that she had been friendly with before. If I let someone pet her she will do a submissive pee right there with her ears laid back down low. Now she doesn't even want to associate with people and will pull away. ...

Hi Cindy, I've emailed you previously and you have been very helpful. I have become partially disabled over the last several years and would like to teach my dog to assist me. I have a wonderful, 65 lb. female, rough coated Collie who I adopted from a breeder. My dog was bred previously. She was born and raised by her breeder who also did quite a bit of helpful training. I, too, have done training with my dog and this, I believe, solidified our bond. My problem is that my dog will not pla...

Cindy, We are almost at our wits end and need some help ! My 1 year old female AB "spayed" will at times tear up our throw rugs. She's been disciplined numerous times but nothing seems to work. She only does this when we're gone to work (9 hours). So I never caught her in the act. First let me give you a bit of back ground. We have a very stable male AB 7 years old and they get along just fine. She's been obedience trained "your DVDs." She's completely house broken. W...

Hello, I bought your training videos and several other items over the years and you gave me great advice for my Max(a pup at that time) and it worked out great. It was greatly appreciated. I have recommended and have been visiting your website ever since. Now that my Max is getting up in age(9 years old), his vet found some evidence of spondylosis on his rear spine. Vet said no need for meds at this time since it's still a mild case and the dog is walking and running fine with no appare...

Ed, I have a 14 month old dog that I've housebroken and trained using your videos. She's been crate trained since day one and was very easy to house break and we've only lost one heating pad cord due to her chewing mainly because whenever we leave the house we place her in her cage. Recently I've been considering allowing her to stay in an area in the basement where she can do no harm. I'd love her to eventually be able to roam the house or at least the whole basement but in...

I have question I hope you can answer for me. Our college-aged son adopted from a shelter a 2-year-old Kelpie and Australian Shepherd mix (I think). Anyway it is very evident the previous owners abused this dog. It hides from the newspaper when it is rolled up and it will run away from any balls etc. The problem is the dog is now living with us because our son is in an apartment in a large city with a new job that requires him to be gone 10 hours or so. The dog is well behaved except for ...

I have two dogs and both seem to show signs of aggression to people who are afraid of them. I do my best to question people to whether or not they are afraid before they approach. For some reason they always tell me no yet I can see it in their eyes. I know if I can see it my dogs can see it. It is at this point they begin to growl as the person approaches. I correct it at the time but is there anything I can do long term. Is this a sign of weak nerves or dominance? Can it be permanently ...

We have a 5 yr old Rat terrier and we recently adopted a 5 yr old German Shepherd male which we immediately neutered. The dogs get along ok and they are very good with my 2yr old son. The GS has been obedience trained although I bought your video so I would know how to properly handle him. When people come to the door or drive down the driveway they bark and they get VERY aggressive. I try to correct them but I'm not sure if that's what I should be doing or maybe I should get the visitors to ...

I have a neighbor that has an attack trained GS. The dog only responds to German commands. Two years ago the dog attacked a neighbor?s dog and almost killed it. Since then the owners have put up a fence. When this dog is out in the yard it growls and barks at all people and other dogs. My dog will run over to the fence wanting to play and the GS will urinate on him. I have planted bushes on that side of the fence to keep children in my yard from approaching the fence. The neighbor has bad dog...

I have read your web site carefully but I am still at a loss. My 3 yr. old male basset has been with us since he was 11-12 weeks old. His mother died giving birth and he and his litter mates were bottle fed. He was neutered at about 5 months. He is a wonderful, affectionate dog most of the time, but under certain circumstances he will attack. Usually the attack occurs when he is with me, is relaxing, and someone comes into the room. This could be any member of our family... he will growl, cha...

I really hope you can answer my question, as I am very concerned about a potentially injurious situation involving my brother and wife's newborn baby and an alpha female German Shepherd (age 6). I've read through your site but didn't find anything that COMBINES dog aggression with people aggression. Does a dog aggressive dog imply a people aggressive dog? Do they distinguish between the two? Could there be a problem if a new baby is seen as a threat? What would make this happen? Please he...

Hello Mr. Frawley, I am a college student that got a chihuahua puppy about 7 months ago for a companion. I live in a 1 bedroom condo in San Francisco. He's almost 9 months old now and lately he's been showing a lot of aggression towards me (growling and showing some teeth) when I pick him up or hold him. I've been at a loss of what to do and I heard to alpha roll him and so I have been but it's only seems to make things worse. He's very stubborn and persistent and I don't want to make him ...

My eight year old female springer has just seriously bitten a neighborhood 12 year boy on the hand after darting past my teenage son who was putting his bike away in the garage. The incident was unprovoked. The dog seems much more territorial lately growling and showing teeth when the mail carrier arrives and had growled at my daughter a few weeks ago, when she pulled on her paw while the dog was sitting on her place. My daughter is 8. My vet has suggested we put the dog down citing the e...

Hi, I'm from Bogot?, Colombia. I have a 6 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback. We hired a dog trainer for him 2 months ago, it was working great. But 5 weeks ago as the trainer was walking back to our house with my dog and another puppy, a Rottweiler which was off leash jumped towards him. The trainer released the leashes, my dog was scared and ran like crazy... At the end, he was hit by a car... He was seriously injured: his right leg was broken in three pieces (he required surgery), hi...

Cindy, First I must say job well done for the all DVD produced. I have purchased many DVDs from Leerburg. I have a very foundation question if I bring my dog out, although I tried to avoid meeting other stranger dogs but somehow somewhere we tend to meet. If the other dog is approach to my dog about 10, 15 meter before I have time to turn away and this stranger dog is showing aggression and barking at us, then I dog reacts and barks back. Should I stop my dog from barking a...

Dear Mr Leerburg, We have just adopted a beautiful 2 1/2 year old male boxer. We have had 'Niko' for 6 days now. We also have a 2 year old female mini- schnauzer named Bella, that we've had from 8 weeks. How I found your website is that we had an incident in that our very dominate male adopted cat, Roscoe, 'got into it with Niko about 4 days after Niko was here. Up until that point, my cats & dogs have always loved and 'hung out' with each other. For the first 4 days indoors, they could...

Hello, I just got my puppy at 9.5 weeks, I put her in the expen so I could make dinner but she is crying so much and climbing the walls to try to get out. I don’t want to reward this behavior and want her to see the expen as a good thing. How do I stop this? I gave her toys and food in the pen and put her in when she was napping but she’s still fully freaked out. I had her in there earlier playing with toys and food to familiarize herself with it but I’m not sure how else to acclimate h...