Most Popular Q&As

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...

Hi Ed, I have a 7 mo. old Lab/Redheeler (and possibly German Shepard) mix. She was a stray that we took in when she was approximately 3 mo. old. We have a great vet for her and an appointment this week for her to be spayed. I would like to have a well trained family pet and also reliable protection (We live in a very shady part of town). I am a college student and stay-at-home with my 2 1/2 year old. We are also on a very tight budget and cannot afford professional training. I have...

Hello, I would really like your opinion on the following situation: Almost 10 years ago we decided to adopt a dog from a shelter. The dog was healthy, and we guessed he was somewhere between 4 and 6 months of age - he was loosing baby teeth. The shelter noted him as a stray and there were no other details. We visited him on two occasions at the shelter prior to adopting him. He had a lot of energy, like to play ball and seemed to be a generally happy dog. We could only guess at the bree...

Thank you for your site. I've spent hours poring over the material, and plan on purchasing some of your DVDs. First however, I wanted to contact you because my situation really is different from anything I've read. One month ago, I moved into a home with a 120 pit bull mastiff, who is completely blind. The dog is a foster dog and has been living with my two roommates for 6 months. He's very poorly trained, dominant, and shows aggressive tendencies (such as growling). After reading your ...

I had the awful experience of witnessing a dog fight between a Pit bull and a Rottweiler. The owners of this dogs were walking their respective dogs when they walked to close to each other, and WHAM! That is when the fight broke out. Despite the owners efforts in trying to separate the dogs, the fight went on for about 15 minutes until one of the dogs was nearly dead. I always though that pit bulls were the most powerful fighters in the dog world but in this case I am sad to say th...

I have a two year old belgian tervuren who I adopted at 4 months old from a household where the little boy abused him (he still has scars on his face). We've spent a good deal of time and training and socializing getting him over his, shall we say, dislike of small boys (never girls, just boys about the same size as his previous owner). Now, we used to go to the dog park for runs and a little bit of socialization, although we mostly went late at night because I didn't want other dogs hurt...

I have a 12 year old Kuvasz, who has governed our pet family for the same amount of years. We recently introduced a Great Dane into the picture. The GD is slightly over a year now and has showed dominance over the Kuvasz by actual fighting. The Kuvasz has ruled by intimidation. The Great Dane didn't buy it and challenged her. The result was bloodshed in the form of puncture wounds. I tried to establish that the Kuvasz is dominant over the Great Dane, by feeding, greeting, and preferential tre...

We have three dogs--to small terrier mixes (Gina and Henry, both over 12 years old, both about 15 lbs.) and a larger brown hound dog, Willie, who is about 60 lbs. We were told he was a lab/German Shepherd mix when we got him at the SPCA, about 7 years ago, but he is clearly some kind of hound. When we first brought Willie home, he was smaller than the terriers. Willie was quite aggressive with the terriers (causing several vet visits) as soon as he was physically bigger than they were, an...

First off, I love your site, but need more help in Dog to Dog Aggression... CASE HISTORY: We own 2 male Fila Brasilieros Mastiffs...They are brothers, same parents, different litters, separated by 6 months ....Older dog is now 3 years old, Young dog now 2 1/2 years old..Both sit, stay, down and are crated ....Until 3 weeks ago they got along fine, with an occasional spat over a toy or bone....not serious. Problem: Younger dog is now attacking the older dog, without warnings ...

Mr. Frawley, I have read much of the information on your site concerning dominance and fighting between dogs. However, I don't know where to begin with the mess that we have created. We currently have seven dogs. They have all been neutered/spayed. They are: Brody 5 year old rescued 110 pound M Akita mix Bentley 5 year old rescued 20 pound M Pug Pops 15 year old rescued 20 pound M Pug Mack 5 year old rescued 65 pound M English Bulldog Lady 15 year old rescued 20 pound F ...

Hi! I have a very serious situation. I have 2 female pit bulls, They are sisters from different litters 2 & 3 yrs. old. I had my 3 yr old spayed when she was 10 months old and in heat. It seems like since she was spayed, she's gotten aggressive toward her sister and it's getting worse. She constantly attacks my younger dog for absolutely no reason. I am at the point that I'm going to have her put down. Yesterday she attacked my youngest dog. It was so HORRIBLE and VICIOUS. M...

Dear Sir, At the risk of being told I'm an idiot, here's the Question. I have had a "pack" of 3 GSD's (1 male, 2 females)for 3 years. Two years ago we added in a small terrier found on the road with a broken leg. After being in the pack and "accepted" for about 11 months, we came home to find the terrier dead. The neighbor reported witnessing the entire pack running the fence line barking at strangers on the ditch. When they turned at the end of the fence one of the GSD's st...

Hi, I have read your article on how to break up dog fights and the Q/A and comment section and it all looks good. I just have one Question. I just adopted a Siberian husky (77 pounds) and he is three years old. He does not seem like an aggressive dog. I also have a 10 year old Shepard/Lab mix (61 pounds). He has a hip problem and is a little slow, but still aggressive. He has never really liked other dogs. We took them to the dog park before we let the husky loose in ...

Sir, I found your website informative and hope you could provide some guidance for us. (Since you don't know the dogs it would be hard to give a definitive answer.) Yesterday when my wife got home my female dog (April) tried to hump my male dog (Snoopy) and he let her know he didn't like it. Well next thing my wife knows April grabs Snoopy by the neck and was tossing him around like a rag doll. They finally stopped but not before doing $350 worth of damage to each other. She is 4 h...