Most Popular Q&As

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 Cindy I lost a german shepherd to bloat in the past. She was not a well dog and developed chronic issues including heart failure and perianal fistula. I am going to have the undescended testicle removed in my 2 year old german shepherd. We will keep him intact. Should I consider doing a stomach tacking (gastropexy) at the same time? He is on raw diet and we never exercising him for few hours after feeding. Thank you so much,

Hi Cindy, Becoming a dog trainer here using very much relationship / engagement-based training approach. I can imagine I'm going to run into clients who absolutely don't want to give their dog treats directly from their hand (since I know owners like that already). Apart from offering to show them how to do so safely and encouraging them to do so for the more direct connection to you, how absolutely necessary or unnecessary is that delivery when it comes to food rewards? Is placing it ...

I have been clicker training with my dog for some time now. My dog responds very well and is ready to get her reward after the click. I was hoping to transition to the marker word “yes.” How would you suggest going about shifting from the clicker marker to the marker work “yes.” Should I just “yes” and reward several times a day to get her accustomed to the marker word or is there more to it than that? Thank you so much for everything you share. Have a great day!

Hello Cindy, I have a Labrador Retriever that I'm in the process of training, I'm having to use balanced training with him since positive reinforcement and food rewards aren't enough for my strong, stubborn working line Labrador. Here's my question, I have a nosey neighbor who gets in my business about how I train my dog using corrections with a prong collar, she tells me I'm abusing my animal and ruining my relationship with my dog by giving a simple correction with a light pop on the prong....

Hello! I have a 20 month old pit bull mix that I rescued. Her oral fixation is getting worse. Please let me know which course I could take to work with her. It is becoming a problem. Thank you!

My dog tugs/shakes aggressively and wants to run off with the tug and "kill" it. How do I get my dog to calm down a little around the tug and play nicely?

Hi Cindy, are there any videos about training pet terriers?

Hello from Australia, I have recently purchased the Send Away DVD and am currently teaching my 17 month old dobe the send away. I have trained her to work from a touch pad and the touch pad was gradually replaced with a disc (water frisbee), which virtually sits flat on the ground. The cue to go to the touch pad/or disc is "step." My sendaway pre-cue is "where is it," then the actual send away cue is "go" followed by "step" - she is progressing well. Only still doing short distance...

I just got a male 10 week old GSD puppy 3 days ago. He has coccidia and I have started him on the medication the vet recommended. His appetite is decent not voracious. He is lively and healthy. However, I wonder if I should hold off beginning high value rewards for marker training until he finishes the medication? At the moment Zuke's small cookies do not interest him enough.

Hello, I read quite a bit of your Q&A about dog biting and nothing really applied to my situation. I have 2 Golden Retrievers just under a year old. They are from the same litter, sisters. They are the best dogs I have ever owned but the problem is when we put them outside, they wrestle around and play. They are in no way trying to hurt each other and they never do this in front of my husband or I. The issue we are having is when they wrestle, they grab at each other's necks. One of th...

Hello, I recently got a french bulldog puppy. She was picked up from the airport on Sunday night, she was perfectly healthy and went to the vet the next day, he also said she was perfect. She did not itch or have any skin issues other than a little dander. I fed her the last of her food they sent Monday and Tuesday I started her on raw. She has eaten mainly chicken necks and meat from leg quarter with a little yogurt, just enough to get her to eat her digestive enzymes and probiotics. She...

I've been trying to crate train my 9 month old collie mix. We've had him for 8 days. He was crate trained at the foster house he lived in before we adopted him, and would willingly go into the crate with or without being told. However, when we say, "Go to bed," he tries to get away, will roll over and play dead, or do anything that it takes to not go into his crate. I'm thinking about moving his crate into the family room and luring him in with treats to get him to start liking it again. We d...

Cindy, Thanks so much for what you and Ed produce. We've got a 9 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback that has been a great dog (so far). We (him and I) have been through the basic obedience and pack structure work and it has made him a great little dog (though he's 85lbs now). We got your e collar video and that has really helped me work with him (he now knows the difference between corrections and rough play). Last month he ate some Sago Palm seeds (highly toxic) which of course sent him ...

So sorry to ask you to respond immediately, but I was hoping to get your opinion on a german shepherd puppy that I may be bringing home tomorrow. Her breeding seems excellent for temperament and health (including hips, etc.). She is 3 months old. The only concern that I have is that she swallowed a sock last week and had surgery to remove it. The vet, who is supposed to be very good, had to cut open her belly (6 inch cut) to remove the sock which she swallowed whole. The stitches are inside a...

We have a 6 month old Portugese Water Dog (weighs 40 pounds). He's an awesome dog and did reasonably well in basic obedience training... but I'm having difficulty getting him to stop jumping and nipping on my 5-year old daughter, going after shoes to chew on, and chasing our cat. I've heard great things about your e-collar video -- before I order can you suggest the best e-collar to go with it? Regards, Eric