Most Popular Q&As

I have an 8 month old male and he has reached puberty and he bites at his private area and tries to pleasure himself and whines while doing this. He does this a lot and we have a friend who has a female that just went into heat and they want to breed her with our dog... Would this be a good idea? Would it maybe help his problem and calm him a little? Thank you, Karri

Hi Cindy, We have purchased 2 of your videos and have been watching several of your free videos on training. We are volunteer puppy raisers for Canine Companions for Independence and have made great progress with our puppy and with our 2 other dogs (lab/golden mixes). We did have a question and have not found it on the videos (although I am sure it is there, we just haven't been able to come across it yet). After marking a behavior with "yes" she will look for the reward/treat. Is it o...

I have a big and beautiful Brindle English Mastiff. She is a bit vicious for the most part. (Because of fear until she becomes familiar with someone then it's like they do not exist or they are TOTALLY welcome to her house or yard.) She also will not let my male Mastiff mount or "TIE." She teases and he is definitely interested but she snaps right before the "TIE." Anyways, I was thinking of artificial insemination, however, is she going to be a terrible mother? I know.... No one will know...

Hello Ed, This is a question about separation anxiety. I've been over all of the posts on your website and on the forum and I am still wondering what you would recommend as my next step with my dog, given what we've done so far. If you have the time to give me even a short answer, that would be great! I have your Pack Structure and Basic Obedience DVDs. I've been following your rules on pack structure and obedience and have a very well behaved 1.5 year old Australian Shepher...

Ed, I just rec'd your puppy video and watched it today. What a super video to watch!! We got a GS puppy (10 weeks) 2 days ago. I only have a couple questions after watching (I know I'm not supposed to have any) :) On crating the pup, how long/often during the day should he be crated so he's used to it and it works effectively? I don't want to be using it too much. Does that time wind down as he gets older? The video states that with food up at about 6:00 and water by 7:00, h...

Hi Cindy, I am hoping you can help me. I have a now one year old Plot Hound that I rescued at 8 weeks. Without going into endless repetition, all I can say is that training her has required a lot of patience but with one exception is paying off. She has a strong prey drive but now is easily controlled with birds and squirrels. She responds well to commands, and shows absolutely no signs of aggression to people or dogs. The difficulty stems from her wanting to be with ...

How do I determine if my puppy is 'sharp'?

My question is about choosing a helper. Should the helper be someone the dog knows, or not? I have read a lot of articles, and some say the dog shouldn't know the helper, some say they should and some say it doesn't matter. I have read a lot of your articles online and it seems you know what the hell you're talking about. I would appreciate it if you gave me an answer to this question. Sincerely, E. Jones SFC US Army

We utilize a muzzle and choke collar in training. She is dominate aggressive and used to be a fear biter however that is changing with socialization and the prudent use of a muzzle. The dog has been checked by a vet and the vet found no reason for this behavior. she was adopted from a shelter with very little background known. We have had to string her up twice. The problem of dominance shows basically when she is determined not do something that is asked of her even though she is fully c...

Hi Ed, First, I want to thank you for having such a wonderful site. I have read it frequently and learned a great deal. It is the first place I go when I have a question. I just read your section on Q&A on Fear Biters, and either I missed it or it did not address the situation I have. I have an 11-month old AKC male Rottweiler named Roark. We got Roark from my brother 2.5 months ago, just before my brother committed suicide. While I know that Roark was never mistreated, he d...

Dear Mr. Frawley: Today I killed my dog. Abby, our sweet, bicolor GSD, lived with us for six of her eight years. I adopted her from the Humane Society. The worker there later told me Abby had been seized during a raid at a dog fighting ring. They'd tried to use her as a guard dog. They also had bred her continuously and used her pups as bait. It took her two years to learn to wag her tail. She craved attention, and I was her person of choice. Our other GSD, Griffon, d...

Dear Ed, Our family is in a terrible position and we have a very difficult decision to make. We have a 5 year old Wheaton terrier, Reilly, that is a sweet and very loving dog with our family. We have 5 children ranging from 9-19 and she has been incredibly docile with them. She was the tiny one in her litter and very scared of her siblings. In retrospect we should have known that this could become a problem. She has a very weak stomach and requires special food. We tried to board h...

Thank you for taking the time to read my question. Here is a little background. My name is Dannie and I live with my husband and our 1 and a half year old son. We have a golden retriever named Dawson that is 2 and a half. We have been trying to train him out of a food aggression problem since he was 6 months old. We have seen 4 different dog trainers and have tried a number of different techniques. I have read your web site and can tell you a few things that we are doing right and ...

Ed, I have a 2 1/2 yr. old male rott. that has been neutered, and I adopted him from a humane society. He had toy aggression, food aggression, and just overall dominance. He had bitten me several times (a couple over toys, and a couple because I touched a sore spot on him that hurt him). I then bought your dom. dog collar, which worked like a charm, and some of your training vids. I believe that that is why he is still alive today. Anyway, he has done very well in the past 6 m...

Hi Cindy, I have a 7 month working line German Shepherd. I have been training him since I got him at 8 weeks old. He is wonderful at home and very obedient. However, as he got older his aggression towards other dogs increased. I have been working with a trainer who is very experienced and we have tried everything; a prong collar he gets more stimulated, a gentle leader did nothing, I tried rolling up a face towel and when he would start to stare at another dog, just before lunging I would ...

Hi Cindy, I have an almost 5 month old female golden retriever puppy. We got her 3 weeks ago. She pulls on the leash when we walk outside and I just started training her to walk on a loose leash this week. We started in doors and progressed to the backyard. She’s making some progress. My question is, at this stage can I still take her for longer walks before she masters loose leash walking? E.g. a walk in the park or in the neighborhood? If she can’t manage to walk properly with the di...

Hello, I have a question regarding marker training and feral dogs. Do you think marker training can be used in rehabilitating extremely afraid feral dogs? Thank you!?

Hi, I have just recently discovered your training techniques for my 7 month old husky female. We got a prong collar on her a couple months ago, as per suggestion of our trainer to correct her pulling, but made a huge mistake in not correcting when she would not come when called. We thought that if she didn't listen, but then eventually came to us, we should not correct her because she is after all coming to us. Writing it now, I know that was the WRONG choice. So now we have a pup that ...

Hi Cindy, A prominent dog trainer recently said that if a male owner who had a male puppy he couldn't raise himself the first few months of the puppy's life, has the puppy raised by a female, this would cause later problems when the puppy comes back to live with the male owner He said that if she raised a female puppy for the male owner, there would be no such issue He said that if a male raised a puppy for the male owner, there would be no such issue regardless of whether the puppy is a m...

Hi Cindy! Wondering if there are any videos or instructions on how to wean a dog from a raised target to a flat target? I am using raised target for an easily aroused dog in agility with good success, however am struggling with the transition to a more flat target. Maybe I am just transitioning too quickly to a lower target?? Thank you for your valuable information. Take care.