Most Popular Q&As

I found your site and felt compelled to reach out. I had 6 dogs. All of my dogs are neutered or spayed and rescues. My oldest, a female German/Rotti mix died from Degenerative Myleopathy at the age of 9 1/2 in November (3 months ago). She was the only one that could deal with the American bulldog. He started urinating in the house after her death. We took him for tests, but the vet said he is healthy-but depressed. I recently began interacting with a Golden Retriever female puppy that was...

I have an 18 mo. old airedale that does excellent obedience work, except when she is on a field where lots of other dogs have been allowed to run around or walk on - including an obedience ring. She'll refuse to sit or down, side steps over patches of grass, and usually backs up when she does sit at a halt from the heel. Have you encountered anything like this before? I've been at "dog-run" parks and tried to force the sit and down, etc. At that point she usually shuts down ...

My name is Mohamed. I am from South Africa and love anything to do about animals. I may come across as a child but my excitement is to blame for that. My question is: Can a person train a dog in 3 weeks? I have seen several advertisements on the internet and was actually considering sending my 11 month old doberman for such training. The person I was considering was recommended by my training school. His name is Robert Lee and he further guarantees that the dog will maintain...

I have a male GS 15 months. His temperament is excellent. He is a very happy and a confident dog. Now that I have him it has become even more apparent that the female did not have good nerves. Anyway, I have started doing bite work with the male. That is going great. He has a full, strong grip. He really enjoys the work. I have been trying to do something with him every night (socialization, obedience, playing) he has so much energy! Now that the holiday are here my trainer is taki...

I have just purchased your obedience video and only have one question. How did you get the dog in the video to be so calm? My dog turns one this month. Is a lot of this age? When completing an exercise any praise makes my dog go wild - as you say in your video she stops thinking. Does this mean I should immediately move on to the next exercise if she is bored? When she does go wild I use a number 7 correction. In the video you had a level seven correction which you had thought some people...

I have two beautiful three year old labs. They are not trained except for the basic commands. I walk them in an open mesa area near my home every morning. The problem is they have begun not only chasing young rabbits, but when they do catch one they pick it up and clamp down, thus causing internal organ damage, which of course kills the rabbit. I am a nature lover and very upset by this behavior! I have thought of getting a shock collar and using this devise to get them to quit chasing th...

Hi, I have a few questions that I hope you'll be able to answer for me. I have a small dog that is almost four years old. He is very obedient in the home unless he becomes distracted by strangers, outside noises, etc. I understand that this means he is not fully trained. I've had problems with completing his training in the past mainly because of two reasons. One being that my fiance is inconsistent with reinforcing the training (for example I correct the dog for getting on the bed and the ne...

Ed, greetings from Miami. I need your advice on an issue that's driving me crazy. My GSD is now 11 months and is very playful and his prey drive is very high. My concern is that when we are in the backyard he becomes unmanageable with the way he plays. He jumps up and bites your hand and runs away like a speeding bullet and comes back and does it again. He doesn't get the message when I correct him and I do correct him hard. He has a prong collar and I sure yank the hell out of him and te...

Hi Ed, I've read about not staring into the eyes of your dog, as it's suppose to be a dominating factor. In your opinion is this true and does it have any bad effects on a dog? Especially a GSD. Thanks, Peter

Hi, I have a 4 month old (on Nov 1st) boxer puppy, Judah, who has just completed puppy kindergarten and is about to begin beginner obedience at my local dog training facility. He's doing exceptionally well in his general behavior as well as obedience, however in reading through some of your articles, you speak about a dog working obedience with drive instead of compulsion. You defined working with compulsion as a dog who appears to at best tolerate obedience training. I see so many...

Thanks for putting this video [The Power of Training Dogs with Markers) out. I am waiting patiently and I am rejuvenated in my training aspirations. I have trained my GS in obedience and achieved a CD title in AKC. I now want to try Marker training and move up the ladder in AKC obedience. I trained my GS with high praise and yank and crank. I am really excited about trying this method. My question is, will this video explain how to retrain an already trained dog? Will it give me th...

I have been a big fan of your work for the past year and a bit. I am hoping that in my club that I can show your article to a few of my friends stating its source and not taking any credability. Basically showing a print off. I don't know if I can. Please let me know. Thanks Also.... I have a dog that is very good, very trained and I love him but he has problems. What has happened and I repent everyday for it is that I have mis-timed corrections and severe corrections as in ...

Hi Cindy, I have a question on training that I would like your advice on please. When say for example that you are correcting your dog for an unwanted behaviour like looking at another dog or chasing and barking at a cat and you put him a down stay and he complies but he will whimper and whine to express his frustration at not being able to do what he wants, should this verbalisation of his frustration be tolerated or should it be corrected at an appropriate level to stop th...

Hello Ed, Thanks so much for building such a great and informative site. I have and train sporting dogs for show and field work. I never agreed with total compulsion training, but was against those clicker/positive only extremists as well. I'm glad to have found your site and videos that gives me a good middle ground. I am now rewriting all my former compulsive only methods of ecollar training and field work to inlude marker work to train the commands... but will still use the ecollar to r...

Hi Cindy, I have a small problem with my Doberman he is now 5 years old, when I give the command down or drop depends which word some handler use, he drops but starts to whine(cry) non stop, I tried everything used the e-collar he stops for a few seconds than he starts again, than I tried to release him the very moment he stops whining to give him the message that he will be released only when he stops this behavior didn't work either, and it is a problem when we are in a competiti...

Hi Cindy, After watching the obedience video, I have a question concerning "marking"... When training the dogs to an invisible fence boundary should I "mark" when they turn away from the flags upon hearing the audio signal and head to the "safe" part of the yard? Thanks in advance... Tom

Hi Cindy, I have a 14 week old Black Russian Terrier. I have her currently on Innova Large Breed Puppy food and would like to transition her to Honest Kitchen. I have a couple of questions and concerns. As an owner of a Giant breed I am obsessed with worrying about calcium rates, and calories and I don't understand it all that well. With giant breeds and I am sure with your GSDs, these are concerns along with a multitude of other things like "no stairs, no over exercising and e...

Cindy, Hello. I have been talking with Connie back & forth on the leerburg forums in regards to raw feeding. We are going to be switching from kibble to THK & get started on the raw. What should we introduce with the THK to our dogs? What THK should we purchase? Any ideas you can provide is greatly appreciated. Do you need the weight & ages of my dogs? I have been wanting to go raw for a few years now but I have been very intimidated on getting the raw feeding right for our pups. W...

Hi Cindy, I have three Danes between the ages of 14-17 months that I'm feeding the Wellness Core (grain free) Ocean formula. I am thinking about substituting the can mix in that I'm using in conjunction with their kibble with the Honest Kitchen, but wondering which one would be more favored for a picky/finicky eater. One of my Danes is petite and its hard to find something that she really is 'crazy' about enough to keep eating and maintain her weight. Its amazing what 3-5 lbs can ...

Hi Cindy, I have a ten month old cocker spaniel that I suspect has some allergies-not sure what specifically but I thought a grain free food would be a good place to start. I am presently feeding him Natural Balance fish and sweet potato dry kibble-it was suggested after I tried giving him Orijen for a couple of weeks -but he had bloody stools( to much protein maybe) but he seemed to like it-he does not seem to like the Natural Balance I am feeding him now. My question is-does Hone...