Behavior Problems Q&As

Hello, I'm having trouble with my 6 month old siberian husky. I recently bought a german shepherd/husky mix about 6 months also (new puppy). At first everything was fine my husky loved the new puppy they played forever. Finally when things started to settle I took out toys for both of them I gave the husky her toy and the new puppy his, as soon as my husky saw this she took the bone and growled at the new puppy. Now anytime the new puppy comes near her my husky growls at the new pu...

Hi Cindy, I have an urgent dog question I was hoping you can help me out. I have purchased and watched the Leerburg puppy training DVD and went through a few podcasts regarding introducing dogs. Yesterday I brought home a 3 month old German Shepherd puppy and in my home I already have a 2 year old Yorkshire terrier. I introduced them in my front yard with both dog on their leashes. However the problem I'm having is that my terrier is really scared of the German Shepherd puppy and s...

I had a question about introducing our new puppy to our older dog. We recently got an 8 week old female Rottie. We currently have a 3 year old female Lab. How do we go about socializing the two? Is there a certain age the puppy should be? Eventually we want to put two in the kennel together. (Our kennel is large...20 ft by 40 ft.) Any suggestions? Jacklyn

Hi, Yesterday I bought a 2.5 month czechoslovakian wolfdog. I have a 6 months female Husky and she knows that me and my boyfriend are the alpha pair. She never had growled at us, but today, when we gave the food bowl to her, I did something that I always do to her when she is eating: I pet her. She began growling at me and I said no to her. I've continued to pet her and she tried to bite me and same with my boyfriend. She has never done this to us. I think that she is trying to be...

Hi, I just opened the DVD sales newsletter e-mail on defense drive and it made me continue my thinking on this subject. I have a very weak-nerved dog and if I try to leave him for an out of sight stay he has a look of discomfort/stress and I realize he is not going to get very far in training if he feels this way - therefore, my thinking is he needs to feel different about the exercise... so I have been thinking if I could switch him out of pack drive (which is where I suspect he is since ...

Hi, I have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old male Sable German Shepherd that I truly love; however, he has issues that I desperately need help with resolving. Bandit has gone through basic obedience training and I continue to work with him with what I know. He is very smart but based on the pod casts from your web site I believe he has weak nerves. He is very nervous around strangers and any quick moves from anyone other than me he reacts as if he is going into fight or flight mode. I have h...

Hello, I need help with my 15 week old dachshund. I am having the hardest time getting him to wear his collar. I've had dogs my whole life and have never encountered this problem before. As soon as the collar goes on he transforms into a completely different dog. He lays in a corner and whines the entire time it is on him. He does not move! He won't eat, pee, or poop while it's on him. From previous experience, I decided to just leave it on him and he would eventually get used to i...

Your Q&As are extremely interesting and helpful. We have a three year-old male neutered white GSD named Trigger.? He can be a bit fear-based dominant and aggressive (I have your DVD). We are working on this aspect of his personality and making good progress. We would appreciate your advice on one small issue. Our bedroom is a duplex. There is an open staircase from the first floor where we have our home office and the second floor where the bed is located. By open ...

Hi, My husband and I really enjoy watching and reading your various articles on dog training. We currently have two GSD (1 male, 1 female). The female is the newest in the family and the two seem to get along quite well. The question we have is this... the female is very submissive and the male very dominant. We give them their own time to play with us and we also allow them time to play together. The problem (we think) when they play together is that the female just runs after the...

Hi, I am very impressed with your website and have referred to it for advice many a time, but I cannot find the answer to this question: I have a six year old, well trained, docile dachshund female. She comes to work with me every day as a therapy dog, and has met thousands of people. She also has several "dog friends" that she interacts with calmly and non -aggressively. if a large dog gets too "physical" in play, she runs to me, and asks to be picked up. She is crate trained. ...

We have a 12 week old German Shepherd male and have introduced him to our older 2 year old GSD female. When they are together, occasionally our puppy will grab onto the nape of the neck (whale blubber) and hold on and not let go. The 2 year old doesn't do much about it, but what is the puppy doing? I have your videos and have learned a lot. I can only assume this is establishing pack, but it seems really weird to grab a hold and just hang there like a tick. He will hang there until the ol...

Hello, I've been reading your articles on your website about adding a new dog to your home, but I'm still having trouble. I have two female Standard Poodles, and am thinking of introducing a new male standard into our home. My girls are 6 and 3, the new dog is about 7 months. My eldest dog, Tasha, is sweet, even-tempered... we say the younger one, Maya is a toddler... full of mischief, into everything, but so, so loving and fun! They get along sooo well... they are actually ...

Hello, I just read your article about introducing dogs. I was glad to hear that I'm proceeding in the right fashion. Just one problem I have is my resident dog (15 year old pom) Is stone deaf and has only 1 eye. My new dog is an 18 month old pom. NO commands are not heard. Any ideas for this delicate situation? They are separated. They bark hysterically at one another upon sight. Thanks. Cathy

Hello, I rescued and 8 yr old Akita from the animal shelter about a month ago. The first week was perfect and he was a great dog. After that, he has started to tear down my vertical blinds in my front picture window. I believe it is due to the mailman walking in front of it to get to the next house. In the process he has also knocked over an antique lamp which was my grandmother's and broke it. That was my fault though for not moving it. I am trying different things to prevent this...

Cindy, I am writing to see if I am going in the right direction. I was walking my blue heeler/ border collie, Blu. He was wearing his tri tronics bark collar. He's been using it for over a year.We had just seen 5-6 does on our last walk, he was pretty excited about that. Next walk, two little shi tzu puppies approached from about 25 feet away. Blu began the long howling barks, you could hear each time he barked the collar set at 4 shocked him, and he just kept going off. This was the 1st t...

I have a neutered female 4 yr-old Miniature American Eskimo. My husband and I both work during the day, and she is alone all day. A very small amount of obedience training has been done with her, but she pretty much runs our house. The problem: She has become aggressive with most people who approach our home or us. She seems mostly aggressive with men, and has grabbed three or four by the pant leg. I need a video to help train her with this problem. What video would you recommend? (I took...

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...

Hello, I have an 11 month old lab/border collie mix that is very toy obsessed. I don't mind that she likes to always play with toys but I'm having trouble with getting her to only play with the toys when I say it is alright, she's at her worst at the dog parks when other owners are playing with their own dogs. Once she sees the toy (mainly balls) she does not listen at all she is so fixated on the ball and it gets really frustrating when she takes the other dog's toy. She's really good at ...

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...

Hi Cindy, Please share with me what methods you teach your clients to use when their adult dog (the K9 is K9 friendly and on leash) wants to meet this strange adult dog (who is on leash too) walking in their direction? Thank you, Ron