Behavior Problems Q&As

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...

Hello Mr. Frawley, I recently discovered your list of articles on the internet and have enjoyed reading several of them. The article about 'Dog Parks' caught my eye as I am a frequent user of a public dog park here where I live in Florida. I have two Dobermans, a 3 year old American-bred male from show and obedience lines and a 10 month old bitch I imported from Holland at the age of 10 weeks. My male has an excellent mind for a non-working Dobe. He has good confidence, is p...

Hi Cindy, First I want to thank you guys for your wonderful web site and all the invaluable training information it's provided to me and my currently 12 month old GSD Max. To give you a little background, I've had Max since he was about 18 weeks old. I purchased your marker training, focused heeling, and Power of Tug videos and have completely used marker training with Max from day one. Currently, (thanks to the marker training) I have had very few corrections with Max. He is a house d...

I have a one year old New Guinea Singing Dog, and I'm having problems getting her to go from using her puppy pads to going outside. I have tried to move the pads outside but she still doesn't go on them. The longest, continuous training time that I have tried to house break her was a week. I just need to know if I need more patience, or is there a certain technique I should use. She very domesticated for her breed, she picked up using the pad in about 2 days when she was 8 weeks old. So I ...

Hi, My name is Lisa and I have been training dogs for about 40 years, I'm 48. This is an issue I can't figure out and of course it's my own dog. We bought our Mal 2 1/2 years ago. Great dog. very high drive, sweet temperament. Great at obedience and agility. Here is the crazy part. We bought new furniture 2 weeks ago, the day after I got home from the hospital having surgery (I was in hosp. for a week). We got a couch and 2 recliners. Dirk (our dog) is terrified of the noise the recliners...

Hi Ed, We purchased your puppy & obedience tapes before we even got our dog. We have followed them very closely with very good results. Our dog is crate trained and loves his crate. About 4 months ago we have been leaving him out of the crate, and he has been perfect ....until today. He tore up some boxes and papers in the basement (that he knows he is not allowed to touch). I came home to a mess and corrected him harshly. Problem is I don't know if that was the right reaction and ...