Most Popular Q&As

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, My 1 year old male Golden Retriever will once in a while jump and mouth me on our walks, and it seems to be random. Leash corrections make it worse, he does not listen to commands, even food isn't very effective. I've been using leash pressure to out him into a down, but it takes a few attempts. Any other suggestions? Not too sure what is going on.

Our 6 month old malinois won't consistently sleep through the night without having a barking fit. He is fine some nights and is relentless other nights. Once he is quiet and I let him out he is incessantly wanting his food. Both of our older dogs have always loved their crate and the puppy/crying stage lasted a few weeks or less and then was over with forever. Our new dog, however, is working hard to get us up and will start barking and not cease. The barking, digging, whining will last fo...

Hi Cindy, I have an 8 week old puppy and when I take him out to potty he is focused on eating grass and also likes to chew on his leash. Any tips?

My sister has 2 Boston Terrier's. The older female is smart and has an excellent temperament. They purchased a male when he was 4 months old, he is now 2. When they first got him he would run up to people and was very playful, then around 1 he still comes up to people all excited but the second he gets close he snaps, growls and barks. They've tried everything including medication. Yesterday my daughter 12, was over and she was laying on the couch watching TV and he managed to escape his cage...

We have an 11 week old mastiff puppy and we are struggling with him biting the leash (he wants to hold it in his mouth or tug with it) and he wants to play with us by biting. We have tried redirection with toys and food. He is not food motivated at all so we have struggled to even be successful with engagement. He is under weight and even with deprivation he is not interested in training with treats. Redirecting with toys almost seems like it is a reward to him so he goes back to biting and...

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?

I have an 8-month-old GSD who is very sweet-natured and who I have been successfully working on engagement and luring training since I got him at 8 weeks. He has played successfully with several other dogs that I knew well enough to allow that interaction and had no signs of aggression. However, I started him in obedience and the other two dogs in the class were littermates belonging to a mother and daughter. They were reactive to my dog and began lunging and barking and he lunged and barked ...

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