Most Popular Q&As

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 ...

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 ...

I have a question regarding my 5 year old Jack Russell Terrier and my 4 year old Miniature Pinscher, within the last 6 weeks both of my dogs have been urinating in my house in every room. We have a 1 1/2 year old son and when we brought him home from the hospital they were fine. I am now pregnant with my second child and just out of the blue they are both peeing on furniture, carpet, anything they can lift their leg on. They are let outside frequently because I work from home. We have blo...

Hi Mr Frawley, I am finding your web site very helpful. I have had GSD all my life and back in June lost our best friend of 11 years. I now have (my first, and much wanted) a new 100% German bloodline female. She is 4.5 months old. I have a urination problem with her as well as many I read on your board. I am convinced at this point that this is a German bloodline thing. I have had all American breeds until now and have never had this problem. My question is: how do you know a pupp...

We bought a Mini Dauschand puppy when she was 8 weeks. I also have a standard who is 11 and is not doing so well with her health. We got her about 5 weeks ago. Her living arrangements were very clean and they were well looked after. I did try to crate train her, but I gave up. I wish I would have read your site in the beginning!! Anyways, I messed up! She did pee in her crate and whined constantly, so of course I took the easy way out and put her in bed with my other dog. My older dog we ...

Having the worse time housebreaking my puppy - have tired recommended time outside, diapers. She stills pees and poops in the house - I watch her like a hawk but she beats me, and is quick about it - we don't put her in a crate - because she also does it in there, she pee's in her diaper. She doesn't pee on a regular time intervals, I tracked it by time and sleeping patterns - I am confused and trying to patience with her. I know she isn't acting out and trying to be disobedience but I ca...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I have a 12 week old puppy that I I received two weeks ago from South Africa, and I live in Canada. I have been training him according to your method of house training, with lots of exercise and walking before and after meals. Until now his training has been flawless, with no accidents in or outside of the crate. He came in a wood crate, and I felt the crate was getting too small, because there is not enough room to put his water in without him knocking it over. I...

Hello Cindy, I tried to find this on your site before I asked but I couldn't. When I take my dog out to go potty, I don't have trouble with him peeing, but when it's time to poop, he has to find the right spot. He with sniff around, and get ready to poop and stop and move around and sniff some more. This drives me nuts. It's like he has to find the perfect spot. Why does he do this? I didn't have a problem with this when he was a puppy. I would bring him to the spot I wanted him to...

Ed, I have a GSD puppy just short of 5 months old and have watched your 8 weeks to 8 months video and looked at your website and Q&A, but I can't seem to find an answer to my question. It seems that everyone has an opinion on how long my GSD should be able to hold her pee or poop. A friend told me puppies can hold it for 1.5 hours for each month of age. Is this true? My wife and I continue to take her out almost every 4 hours and she performs satisfactory each time (strange conside...

Hi I have a question regarding my 3 month old German Shepherd. I read some of your answers about a dog being 'mouthy' vs. being truly aggressive. My dog is mouthy and bites our pant legs and socks etc. However when we tell her 'no' a couple times she then barks at us, and when my husband tells her 'no' she barks at him and sometimes growls when he tries to correct her. Are we not correcting her enough or do you think this may be a temperament problem?

I received and viewed your "puppy" video. Thanks, it helped, although I already knew most of it from having a Doberman and GS years ago, though the refresher was appreciated. However, I now have an 11-week old Rottie. He is friendly, outgoing, and learns quickly. However, when we walk by, he will "latch on" to our pant legs or legs if we have shorts on, the jeans will rip as he will not let go until the command of "no bite" is given. We want to stop the original bite. We hadn't planned to do ...

Hi, Can you tell me at what age I can start using the dominant dog collar. I got a puppy that is out of control with the biting. He has been like this since he was 6 weeks old and now he's 16 weeks old. I have your DVDs on pack structure and puppy training 8 weeks to 8 months and nothing seems to help I had to put him on a choker for self preservation. Please help he acts at times like a viscous dog. I don't know if its my fault in this training process or what, would a prong colla...