Behavior Problems Q&As

I read your comment about not having time for people who did not read the information provided already on your web site So I read many postings before sending you this request for information but perhaps being both hopeful and confused I think I need a straight forward answer. We had one female spayed doberman we have had since 10 weeks old who we have taken through beginning obedience training at 16 weeks old. Several months later we rescued her litter mate, also female. Due to her agg...

Hi there, I am writing this to you in a state of high distress. My doberman who is 2, we have had him 6 months, just bit my 5 year old son requiring many stitches. This is the 2nd incident and I believe it is a dominance pack issue thing as it only happens if he is alone with my kids, something I try desperately to not have happen. I don't know what my son may have done to provoke it but it would likely have been trying to hug the dog he said he had rolled onto his back and he went to pet his...

Ed, I got your name from a woman Cynthia from Trinity Croft. She recommended you to me because I have an aggressive dog, who seems to be getting worse. When she was about 3 mos old I took her to a place called K-9 Guardian and we were asked to leave because she was so aggressive. For a long time I thought I could handle her but she got worse. Last March I hired a dog trainer from ?Who?s The Boss? and he worked with us until just recently and is still consulting over the phone. She...

I had emailed not too long ago about having sent my Golden to training and it being the worst thing I could have done. Well, I did order the basic obedience video (coming in the mail soon), I got a prong collar, and an electric collar. I read the information in the web site and tried to do what it suggested. I used to just give him his food, but I started asking him to down-stay and wait until I release him and give him the okay to get his food. The first day was almost a complete disaster...

I have attended 2 different schools to become a dog trainer. Basic Obedience, behavior and scent work. Somehow I got involved in schutzhund and I like it a lot. I like challenge. So not knowing anything about the sport, my husband decided that we should buy a green dog from Slovakia and he would be my challenge and my project to achieve. My husband is from Slovakia. He found this gorgeous dog Donnie with an incredible pedigree. It cost me money. The entire time I knew I did not want a gre...

I recently adopted a 9mo. old female Dogo Argentino. Sol was an owner surrender, the reason for this is complicated but I'll try to explain as briefly as possible. Sol's former owner runs a dog rescue agency in West Va. In addition to this the woman has four small children and a few animals (cats and dogs) that she keeps as pets obviously over-extended! One of her pets was a Dogo that she adopted. She loved the breed so much that she thought it would be a good idea to breed them. Thank ...

Hi Ed, I have written before and hoped you may be able to help me again. I have a 16 month old English Pointer bitch who has really come along well with her training. I had a problem with her recall which is loads better although I know I have to work with her more. I admit I have been a bit slack recently. My problem is this. Myself and my partner are separating shortly and the dog is coming with me. She has been a bit spoilt recently and that's down to all of us, (probably more me!!) I...

Dear Mr Frawley, I am extremely concerned about my dog as I have been told by our head Schutzhund trainer that my dog is a risk to my small children and people in general. He is 9 month old black and tan from very good show lines. The problem is that for the past few months he has become extremely aggressive. When walking on the street he barks and has tried to bite a few people. I am trying to correct it and have been told that he is "high in the nerve" and I will only achieve limited ...

Dear Ed, I have your puppy video and your Basic obedience training videos. They have been very helpful - since before these I was pretty clueless on how to train my dog on anything. Crate training was a breeze with your advice we only had one accident, which was my misreading his whining - he had diarrhea - which I didn't expect and I mistook it for wanting attention and he had an accident in his crate. But that is it. He goes into his crate on command and now the only time he ...

My fiance and I have a dog that is wearing on our patience as he is incredibly destructive and does not deal well with being kenneled. He has actually broken out of two steel kennels. The ones with the thin bars of metal. Now we keep him and our other dog in a room in the basement, and as you can see from the attached photo, he is slowly destroying it, day by day. That is an older picture and since then the damage he has done has tripled. I've heard so many things about muzzles and my main...

I have two German Shepherds. The older one is 11 years. He looks like the scary and dangerous one. He is a sable and mostly black. His temperament from day one till now is excellent. He is great with other dogs people and children. He know when to bark (door bell) and when not to. The young one is 14 months old. She follows the big guy like a shadow. There are several problems. One is with other dogs. Just some of them. She will want to be aggressive. The second problem is t...

My husband and I have a 14 week old black lab named Marla. She has been with us for 6 weeks. She shows real signs of separation anxiety and appears to be a clingy puppy. She doesn't like to be left alone and when she is out of her crate she follows me and my husband everywhere we go. During the day we put her in her crate while we work, which has been reduced in size so that she just fits and can just stand and move to lay down. Every single day she urinates and defecates in her crate, w...

Dear Cindy, My now almost 4 year-old GSD female, Pepper, whom my wife and brought home as a 6 week-old puppy (too young to be taken from the dam, I know, but there you have it), is crate trained, and has historically been an obedient and well behaved almost 80 pound dog with an energetic, pleasant demeanor and a lot of 'personality' (she is very vocally expressive when commanded to do something that for whatever reason displeases her, sounding remarkably like Chewbacca of Star Wars...

Hi Cindy, My new 2 year old GSD/Malmute rescue is frightened of the crate (possibly used for discipline) for reasons we can only speculate. He is gentle and well-mannered, but our real problem is when we try to leave him at home for several hours alone. He has a "temper tantrum" and the house we return to is a mess. Is restricting him on a leash when we go out a option? Any ideas? Thank you, Alan

Ed, I have an 11 month, almost one year, old German shepherd. Great dog, me and my wife love him to death. I have been working with him a lot on obedience lately and he is very eager to learn. He does a good job, I think he should have been a stand in for the energizer bunny though. The problem I have been having with him is I think he may have a bit of a separation anxiety issue. We have been trying so much to help him with this problem but it seems as thought nothing is working. Gun...

Cindy, I have a 17 month old male APBT, who is intact. He is exercised twice a day. But he has this uncontrollable urge to want to escape my yard and roam the neighborhood. I supervise outside in my fenced in yard, but my gate has a little play in it and a 3 inch space where the latch comes together, this is where he's been able to get his big head out of and his body follows. It happened to me the first time as a surprise. He saw something and went to the gate the next I knew he was out r...

Hi Cindy, I have an 11 year old male neutered Standard Schnauzer. I wish I had found you years ago as this behavior has been present since my dog was a puppy. As a puppy I would notice that on occasion when I would leave the kitchen area where the dog was confined to, I'd come back to find he had urinated in front of the board blocking his exit from the kitchen (he was house trained by this time). He would also do this if I went into the bathroom with my children and shut the door behi...

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...

Hi, I just recently got a 6 month old female purebred black lab. She came from the breeder and was one of the last to go from the litter. For the first 5 months of her life she has been with her mother and other members of the litter. She was primarily an outside dog with little to no restrictions. She is a very loveable, friendly pup but we are having issues with keeping her up while we are at work. She has jumped a 5 foot fence and climbed a 10 ft fence. She cries terribly when w...

Hello, I got your email address from your website. My husband and I have a 4 year old yellow lab who recently started chewing again. We tried to keep her in a crate when she was a puppy, but when we would come home, the carpet was tore up, webbing and nose bleeding. Fairly painlessly she grew out of it for about 1.5 years. She then about 9 months ago started chewing the dining room furniture while we were away and the baseboards in the house. Bought a plastic crate so she couldn't...