Behavior Problems Q&As

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

Hi Cindy, I just re-watched (for the third time) Ed's video on electric dog collar training, and I have a question: Can my "small-dog aggressive" dog be trained not to bother small dogs? He's a two year old Lab, and recently started "attacking" small dogs on leads (which doesn't sit well with their owners--to say the least). Up to this point he's been responsive to my commands and friendly towards other dogs, but "loses it" when he sees a small dog. We live in an area where most o...

Dear Mr. Frawley, It is with much sadness that I write to you today, in search of professional guidance, to better understand what has occurred to me this past Sunday. I'd like to begin with a bit of history for your better understanding. We have a 2 year and 7 month old German Shepherd, named Tango, that we have had since he was seven weeks old. At that time, we purchased some of your videos, which we have found truly fascinating and appropriate, as listed below: ...

I have a 12 month old Boxer (neutered) who is extremely dominant/aggressive towards other dogs. I have just watched your DVD on this matter and am anxious to start applying your techniques. I have a prong collar (which I found out I was putting on the wrong way) although he still accepted it well. I also just received the dominant dog collar from you. Here is my question. I am a small woman and my Boxer is about 55 pounds but seems like an elephant when he sees another dog. The prong help...

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...

Hi, Thank you for putting all the great information on your website. I have two male unaltered Malamute/German Shepherd dogs that my husband picked alone and brought home. It seems for a while is my job to take care of them as my husband is most of the time away from home. I am trying my best as I don't want anything bad to happen to them or to anybody. One of them (Sam) is the boss of the other one (Labus), his brother. Sam is obedient, comes when called even from the distan...

I have a nine month old Boxer-Lab mix, Zachary. He is fun loving - loves dogs and people, but I am wondering if I am making mistakes with him. I have been taking him to a local dog park since he was 4 months old. He loves it. This dog is fun loving and loves to play and romp with all dogs. But he is full of energy and he is very strong and some dogs don't want to be bothered. He will usually learn which dogs want to play and run and wrestle with him, but occasionally he will be too much f...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I was wondering if you could offer any suggestions for me. My 3 year old dog Kraemer, an Australian Cattle dog and Rottweiler mix, has started to develop aggressive behavior toward other dogs at the leash-free dog park. When we enter the park through the double gates and if there are dogs to greet us, he'll charge out of the gates and bark and chase the dogs away from us (me and my other dog Annie). He loves to smell the other dogs and literally gets urina...

Hello Mr. Frawley! Unfortunately I read your article on dog parks too late and now I'm not sure what I should do with my dog. I have an 8 month old GSD puppy named Shaman. He got sick when we just got him and he did not get his shots until he was 5 month old, so he did not have any experience with other dogs. I slowly introduced Shaman to my friends dog (girl shiba-inu, his age) and it took him a while to get used to her but now they are best friends and play very nicely. S...

Hello, My husband and I have a 13 month old rottweiler who is very well behaved, and enjoys going to the dog park to play and socialize. Lately, though, he has begun peeing on the other dogs, and twice he has almost peed on people. He is not a dominant dog, but this behavior is awful, and the only thing we know to do is catch him in the act and take him home. We want him to understand that behavior is unacceptable. What can we do? Thank you.

I have been reading your Q&A section, and have found several articles very useful for our problem, specifically the one about the dog that wouldn't come when called. Our problem is this: We take our Kimba, a neutered, 1 yr old male Rhodesian Ridgeback, everyday to an off-leash park to run/walk/play (I know that you are not an advocate of dog parks, but please hear me out). We often walk with friends who also have two RR's - Rio, a female litter mate of Kimba's, and Rocco, a 4 yr ol...