Behavior Problems Q&As

I have two pit bulls, 1 male, 1 female, both three years old. They are great dogs and my life. Single military guy, not much else to do. They dogs are great in the home and have never been aggressive towards me in any way. But are aggressive towards other dogs and will do anything to get to a cat and kill it. Major prey aggression. The dogs and I have established the master of the pack situation, but I am having trouble controlling them off the leash. I am trying to retrain them (previous mil...

Hello, My name is Leon and I have a 1yr old GSD that is becoming increasingly afraid of meeting friendly strangers. I take him on walks daily and he has attended obedience class since he was five months old. Walking through the park or a crowd of people he behaves normal. The problems occur when I decide to walk up to someone for him to meet, he begins to bark and growl. In obedience class he is fine with anyone petting him even volunteers from audience. I am at a complete loss and was ...

Mr Frawley, I understand you get lots of emails with questions on dog training. I admit I need help. Here is my story. We adopted a puppy from a rescue almost 2 years ago. Our older dog is of unknown breed, we where told collie/hound mix (female), but I do not think this is true. I have worked very hard with this dog, and she is truly a wonderful dog, but from reading most of your articles I think we need to revisit some training. which I will do gladly. We have adopted another dog, 2 m...

Hello, I want to thank you for the great info in your videos, podcasts, eBooks and forums. I've got an 18 month old female GSD who is doing SAR training. Specifically, we're doing trailing work and loving it. We just got one of your fabulous leather trailing harnesses. I'm a lifelong member of the 'explainers club' and really appreciate your explanations. It's a big help for me that you work with high drive dogs because I've got one myself. I loved the video of Dayma at 6 months because sh...

Hi Mr. Frawley, I've been on your site several hours because it's the most informative and well written site on the internet. Thank-you for taking the time to put this all together. I have a 2 year old female English springer spaniel. Smart, loving, companionable etc etc purchased from a show breeder. In my ignorance, because the dog is so smart and follows me around all day, I never did obedience training with her, my son taught her 'sit, paw.' She always came when called... And re...

I am hoping to get your opinion on a serious dominance problem we are having with our 2 year old male rottie, Fantom. Fantom is of German working lineage (both parents have advance Schutzhund titles) and is what I would call a hard dog (when distracted, he ignores all but the most significant corrections). He was neutered at 1 year. My wife and I have tried to be diligent in our training since he was a puppy, using both positive reinforcement and corrections (most recently using a dominant...

Ed, I have a 75 lb. airedale that growls at me, I have an e-collar and I ordered the "training with an e-collar" and " training an aggressive and dominant dog."Do I need the special collar also? (I have a strong leather leash). Thanks, Mike

Great web site! I have a 2 year old male shar pei who growls at me if I try to approach him while he is laying down/resting/sleeping. If I proceed to approach him when he growls, he will then bark viciously and snap at me. A few seconds after he does that, he seems out of sorts and remorseful, and comes right over to me to give me a kiss/lick. Although it is frightening when he snaps, is this acceptable? After all, I WAS interrupting his sleep and I myself wouldn't be a happy camper if someo...

We are a family of 2 adults, and three children ages 7, 14, and 19. We bought a male German shepherd from experienced breeder about 8 months ago. He is developing pretty normal. However we have number of points of concern. He had been biting us from a very young age. We read that it may be normal in young puppies. But this behavior had been persisting occasionally until now. It looks like a game, no one gets hurt, but some times it's pretty painful. He couldn't be admitted to an obedience cou...

My boyfriend has a 2 yr old male (unaltered) Rottie named Bones. Recently, he bit me because I was trying to teach him not to get into my cats' toys. Now, I had only known him for less than a month, do you think that it was too soon for me to be correcting him? Also he has bit two other people after me for the same reason of trying to correct him. He also is constantly after my cats, not aggressively but very excitedly and it scares them. Will he ever get over this? The problem that I am ...

Dear Ed, My wife and I recently rescued a two year old female pit bull. We have had her for two or three weeks, walk her for at least two hours a day, and she has shown no signs of aggression towards people, however, she does pull on her leash on the walks and wants to pull towards other dogs/people. It's obvious to us that we have a long way to go. We want to make sure that we are providing the best possible situation for her and us. I just ordered your Basic dog obedience and pack ...

Hi Cindy, I have a training question to ask. I recently decided to back up my puppies training, back to square one starting with establishing pack structure. After watching the DVD on pack structure on the crate training I think I moved on to phase two to soon and would like to start again, because I don't think he views me as pack leader. He still cries a bit after I put him in before he settles down, sometimes a lot and even tries to bite me when putting him in. My question is, is he sup...

Hello, I just got your DVD about dominant and aggressive dogs. Let me tell you about my 8 months old puppy. She is jack Russell/beagle mix. She is very smart she listen very well. She is very aggressive towards me and just me since she was about 3-4 months old. She is very friendly. She starts showing her teeth and snipes for no reason. Mostly when I pet her or pick her up but not always. Since she was a baby we let her sleep in bed. I'm very strict with her now, but my boyfriend just spoi...

Hello Cindy/Ed, I hope you had a great holiday. Recall I have a 3 1/2 month old doberman puppy and a two year old female doberman. I listened to the DVD's and am following the instructions and tips the best I can as I found them most helpful. I'm the only handler to my dog, my wife only takes him outside to do his thing and places him back in the crate trying to be neutral as possible. I don't allow our older two year old female to play with him although she doesn't show any dominant te...

I adopted a 3 yr old cocker from an animal rescue center. I have learned that she has had 3 litters of puppies in two years. She is very timid. She walks on leash ok and can stay inside without being crated all day with no problems. The issue is: When we enter the home, she looks to see what the noise is and then runs to the opposite end of the home to hide. When we enter the home from being on a walk, she runs to hide. I have purchased toys that she will not play with during the day,...

I read a little about dog fights because of an incident with my dog this afternoon. I have a 1 1/2 year old female Rott. .."Sunny"....she is very gentle with my three little boys. She has been a little aggressive on two occasions with repairmen that have come to the door....snapping and hair standing up on back, otherwise she has basically licked to death anyone who comes to the house. We live across the street from my brother who has two female Dobermans. Sunny plays very hard with the young...

I have a basic question for you, and your response will be so much appreciated. My parents have a White German Shepherd named Zeus. Since Zeus was 9 weeks old, I have been a part of his life, visiting my parents 3-4 times a week and interacting with Zeus. Zeus is 6 years old as of this past May. When he was a puppy, I regularly picked him up, but he never wanted to stay in my arms for long, and would squirm and act restless. I'd end up putting him down sooner than I wanted. Other tha...

I have a Boxer that I rescued. The previous owner was terminally ill and had to give her up. Or that was what I was told. She seemed to be fine with all the other animals and then she got into a fight with one of my older dogs and that dog died from it. Since then she has killed one of my baby goats and attacked an adult goat through the fence. I have been watching very closely and yesterday I saw him grab the male goat by the face and would not let go until I hit her with a stick. My daug...

Hello, I know that you are probably very very busy and don't have that much time answering personal emails but I thought I would give it a try. I have two male dogs, Ace who is 1yr and 2 months old and is a complete mutt (not sure what he is possibly puggle with something else that makes him a bit bigger), and Tyson who is 8 months old and is a pit bull/lab mix. Ace is about 48 pounds and Tyson is probably around 50 and an inch taller than Ace. I have read every book possible to make...

Great Site. Began buying equipment from you just recently. Thanks. 1 year old male GSD. Very good. Very obedient. Somewhat dog aggressive; but, we are working on that. My partner plays "chase" with Kipp. She tosses a toy. He runs after it. Waits. She chases him. (I searched your site for answers to this one and wasn't successful yet ... so I'm writing). Seems to me that this is a back-asswards game. Yes/NO? Should I allow her to continue (and things are OK)? Or, should I...