Most Popular Q&As

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 am desperate for some advice and found your web site very interesting and I am hoping you can give some guidance.... We got our dog at 8 weeks of age from a reputable local breeder. He is now 15 months old. He was socialized very well - loves kids and people in general. We were first time dog owners so at the vet's suggestions attended obedience school at 6 months (6 weeks). He was friendly with all participants in the class - both dogs and owners. The instructor of these classes...

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...

I just rescued a 2 year old Cocker and she has been peeing in the house. I have since gotten a crate for night cause that is when she has be doing her business. What I want to know is when I take her out to pee and poop is it right or wrong to give her a treat for going outside? My friend said it is very wrong for giving her the treat as it says when you pee you get a treat so she pees in the she thinking she will get a treat. Thanks soo much for helping me. I have a 13 y/o JRT that I give...

Hi Cindy. I purchased your video: Your puppy 8 weeks to 12 months. In module 4 segment 3 Ed talks about taking puppy to different locations and doing engagement exercises for one minute and then take it to another place and do some more engagement practices and so forth. My questions is: do I need to be concerned with my 5 month old Rottweiler puppy jumping in and out of the car due to its growth plates? Will this affect his bone development? Thank you for your reply. I so respect what ...

Hi Cindy, I have an 8 month old working line GSD that I would like to do agility with. We are working on loose leash walking and engagement games. And she is smart as a whip! I would like to take her for longline sniffs walks but am afraid she will not want to focus on me if I allow her to just do her own thing on the longline. I have numerous dvd's from Leerburg so if the answer is in a dvd would you point me in the right direction? I should also add that I am 76 years old and have...

I have a 3-month-old, 30 pound Doberman with whom we have used a harness and 6 foot drag line except when he is in his crate sleeping for the night (he also has a pen for daytime use when we are not directly training or playing with him). Over the past 10 days, have noticed that he will pull hard against the 6-foot line when I'm with him outdoors (as well as jump on my legs and try to bite) but not when I'm using the 20 foot drag line. Wonder if the amount of pressure exerted by the line ma...

15 months, Aussie, intact male. Hard Natured, stoic but sensitive. training since 9 weeks. In our training my dog no longer is as interested or driven to work with anyone, he still has a desire and seeks things to do but has no interest in the training and his body language is flat. I get some motivation but he will disengage and seems to act begrudgingly. I included more game-based but still seems bored. Trained with +reinforcement and limited corrections, herding weekly, trick and ...

Hi Cindy, I was very excited to start whistle recall training with my dog. I ordered an ACME dog whistle. I brought out high-value hot dogs and had the hot dogs in hand. Blew the whistle, and the dog tucked his tail under and ran away. I've never seen him so scared. Nothing would help bring him close to me, not even the hotdogs. It took a good 30 minutes before he would even be in the same room. I think I'll be returning the whistle as I feel it's damaging the trust I've worked so hard to ...

I have a pointer and when I walk her I can't let her off the leash in the woods. She becomes focused on smells in the bushes and not respond to commands. I know that her instinct is to hunt and she is so focused on the smells around her. We recently adopted her and she is 8 years old, so we don't know how much training she has had. She is very good with recall at home in the yard, except a couple of times when she wandered away and went to the woods which are across the street. She didn'...

My pup is now 10 months old (per DNA testing, 76% German Sheperd and 24% Belgian Malinois, adopted from a shelter at age 3 months). She has always had a great food drive. Her toy drive has kicked into high gear recently and her food drive and appetite has dropped off. Sadly, no vet near me has any experience with working dogs. She's not losing weight (just hit 63 pounds) and I don't want to bring up the issue with the vet for fear of the office wanting me to give her some drug to 'stim...

I have a 6-month-old rottweiler puppy who is well-socialized, and has the right amount of exercise, for his age, and we are attending obedience. 95% of the time he is amazing he listens and engages. However, he has no respect for our 5-year-old pug he jumps on her and mauls her. I use verbal corrections like " uh uhh" which is the word I have chosen to let him know he has made a mistake and "off" in a loud stern voice. He gets off but then 5 minutes later does it again...is my only option to ...

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?