Most Popular Q&As

My problem is my aggressive mastiff mix. She is dog aggressive because her first owner trained her to fight other dogs. She is stout, with short nose, broad muzzle, strong body. She weighs about 90 pounds and I am short 5'3" and 115lbs. Her body type is more like a small bull mastiff. I am interested in the following: Stopping her aggressive dog behavior.purchasing the following with your recommendation:Collar: prong or dominant collar? Which will give me the best contr...

Dear Sir: I have a female German Shepard about 2 years old, who has been spayed. She has always been a lovable dog and still is, but in the last 2 weeks she has become aggressive toward my 9 year lab, who is also a female and has been spayed. She never offers to fight with this dog when they are eating, in fact, if the lab goes over to the shepard's pile of food she will move to the other pile of food. The shepard has acts like she is trying to dominate the lab. She will go up ...

Hello my name is Alicia and I raise boxers, And I have a question for you. I have a female boxer that is aggressive towards my other boxers and does not want to go anywhere near them and if they come toward her she will fight them. What can I do to help her? or to help her join the pack. Thanks, Alicia

I'm about to delve into some problem solving with a client's S&R dog. This particular dog has a great deal of talent and truly excels at his work. One problem though. He is aggressive to other dogs on the search. Do any of your materials address this issue? He is 3 yrs old and intact. Susan

Hi Ed, I found your site online and I wish I found it earlier. After reading some of your site I realize I didn't know the importance about properly training dogs from the start and it clearly wasn't a smart thing to do when I stuck my hand in the middle of my fighting dogs - but it already happened and I want to try and figure out what to do now. Basically I tried to break my dogs up during a fight that took place indoors, and I was in the middle of them from the get go so...

We have a problem with our 15-week old female GSD - or should I say, she has a problem with our neighbors pit bulls. Our little girl is a solid, stable, dream of a dog. She has displayed very sound temperament and good nerves from day one. However, I worry about negative effects from our neighbors pit bulls. We share our back fence with them, and at any given time, at lease one of their FOUR pit bulls is in the yard. We have never liked these dogs, as we were told horror stories about the...

I have reviewed your web site and hope you could share your insight and opinion about our ability to positively resolve this situation. I have a 12 month Brittany who was one of 2 puppies (both male) in a litter I bred. Parents and grandparents had good temperaments. We compete in field trials which require 2 dogs to be turned loose together and search for birds in 30 minutes to 1 hr braces. I have 6 dogs who are all house pets; 1 female (the puppy's mother), a 13 year old neutered...

I have been reading the question and answer section as long as I can tolerate sitting here. I am sorry to bother you, I recently had back surgery and cant sit here any longer. I have 2 dogs, 5 year old mushball of a Boxer and a young 1 year old American Bulldogg. I keep my dogs sleeping in a crate at night. During the day they are out on our 2 acres to run freely. They are contained with the Invisible Fence system. They are very people friendly. Problem is keeping a neighbor dog ou...

Hi Ed and Cindy: I am writing you for any information and advice you can give me regarding one of our dogs. We have 3 dogs; (Polo), a 6 year old male American white shepherd, (Bella), a 5 month old female lab/shepherd mix, and (Riley), a 4-1/2 year old female australian shepherd/cattledog mix. We got the puppy at 9 weeks old in June, and previous to that we had a 16 year old female black lab/shepherd mix. They are all spayed/neutered except the puppy which will be spayed on ...

Hi, I have a 3 year old labradoodle. I only got her at 4 months and I know she wasn't socialized to people or other animals before then. I immediately got her into training and we were working on becoming a therapy dog team. When she was 17 months old she was attacked by a 3 year old Great Dane. It ran up from behind us sunk its teeth into her hind quarter. When I freed her, the dog then grabbed onto her tail and began to pull her away from me. I did get her free but she was bitten...

Hi, I just spent the last two afternoons watching your videos that arrived on Tuesday: 'Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs' and 'Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet'. They are excellent! I have been doing everything wrong. I ordered these videos after my two German Shepherd bitches were in another fight this past Saturday. To give you some background, I have kept them totally separate for the past six months since their last fight. I was terrified Saturday ...

Hi there, We have a 16 month old Boerboel (South African Mastiff). We have been following your videos for puppies and he sailed through a local obedience class with flying colors. We are having a baby in September and countless people have expressed concern over introducing the dog to the baby and visa versa. I scanned your Q&A, but couldn't find something close on the subject. Is there a right vs. wrong way to introduce a dog to a new high ranking member of the pack?...

Hello Ed, I've always been a big fan of you and your website, and I do get your newsletters? thank you! Quick question: I thought I was done with parenting after my first daughter turned 16 and the other 12 so I got a beautiful German Shepherd with 100% german lines out of a Texas breeder. He is a wonderful, obedient, sweet dog with what I would presume a great temperament. No issues with aggressiveness at all; He is a bit of a baby who enjoys to play and be w...

I am inquiring about my sister's mini pin/ Chihuahua mix dog, roughly 2 years old. He is generally a sweet little boy, but rules the roost among the other (3) dogs. The other day, my sister witnessed severe aggression toward one of the dogs over a chewee, and tried to break it up using a spray bottle (no effect), a whistle (same deal), and yelling (well you can imagine). In the end he bit her. She really is at wits end. I wonder if you have any input on this situation. I worry, since she also...

Hello, I'm hoping you can answer a question for me. We have been taking our very sweet and gentle hound mix to the dog park for the last six months. However, in the last month there has been a change in her behavior. She is becoming more and more aggressive toward other dogs, in particular smaller dogs. Also, she is becoming more and more disobedient. We have cut the dog park out of her life now. I'm wondering what could be causing this to happen though? Thank you for any information...

I wish I had read your articles about breaking up dog fights and dog parks. I have a very well trained lab/shep and took her to the dog park yesterday, not knowing what I know now. She was immediately attacked by a dog as soon as we let her off her leash inside the fenced in area, six other dogs joined in. I had no idea what to do. FINALLY? the owners casually walks over to retrieve their dogs. We immediately left the park and will never go back. I had an idea though and wanted to...

Dear Ed Frawley, I have been to your website many times the past few months since I purchased a GSD puppy in January. He is 10 months old, a great house dog and is sweet to my Pomeranian and my two cats (never had problems before with them getting into actual fights, only play fights). I have been training him with a prong collar and using long leashes to teach him sit, heel, come. I am moving slow with his training but I am still trying to find a reputable obedience class in my ar...

I am wondering if you can help us or tell us where to look for more information. Our Scottish Terrier, Angus, is 11 months old. He is a male and we also have two female Labrador Retrievers, one 6 years old and one 12 years old. Angus of late has urinated on his master twice now once when he was in his rubber boots and once when he was in moccasins. Needless to say my husband is not pleased. Is this a dominance issue or is he marking my husband. My husband does most of the fe...

I have a 6-year-old lab/chow mix. He has always been a good dog, but not very obedient. Because of his behavior lately (eating food off counter, sleeping on couch) I locked him into my bedroom while at work. He destroyed my carpet trying to get out. So I went to the garage to retrieve the crate we used years ago for him. He refused to get into it, and when I tried to physically put him into the crate. He attacked me! It was much more than a snap, he grabbed hold of my arm, and star...

Hello! First off, I was reading about the prong collar and if I decide to try this I just know that if I were to go to PetSmart who probably sells it they will tell me how cruel it is. They always do that which makes me wonder why they sell the stuff if they want to make their customers feel bad about buying it. Ok, I adopted a dog about a year ago. He was then 1.5 years old. Now he's 2. He typically is a real sweetie, and he is neutered. A few months ago in my house the lit...