Behavior Problems Q&As

Mr. Frawley, I have a 6-year-old German Shepherd named Caro. About a year ago, we sent him to be professionally trained over the course of a month. When Caro came home, his behavior was excellent. We also got two other dogs a few months ago - a Lab mix and an Italian Greyhound - both are puppies. Lately though, Caro has been up to his old tricks again - only at a worse level. He likes to run around and bark at trees, but sometimes he will bite the bark off. Recently he de-ba...

You have a very informative site. Thank you for your open and honest opinions. I will implement some of your suggestions if I ever find myself a witness to another dogfight. I notice that you seemingly have little hesitation at telling people to kill their dogs when you have no other remedy for their situations. Have you any experience with natural medicine, i.e. herbs and homeopathic, in treating some of the symptoms and causes of those symptoms, such as fear? For the patient and consistent ...

Hi Ed, I finally got to read the Q&A on your web site and realize you are an expert on canine behavior. So I am going to ask for your advice on my German Shorthaired Pointer. He is a wonderful soul "after" I took him to behavior training. "Before" he did not respect me as a pack leader, for good reasons as I had no idea I was supposed to be one, and small dogs have attacked him before when he was a puppy. When he was an adult, he would bark and go submit a small dog. He woul...

I was reading your article on aggression in dogs and I have a question for you. I recently purchased a Beagle/sheltie mix. Well, that's what the mother was in the shelter I got it from. They couldn't tell me what the father was. My question is this; he has a bad habit of biting and nipping at my wife and me. He will be playing fine, but every once in a while he will start barking at us and lunging at our feet, hands etc. He also has a fear or other dogs I think. When I take ...

We recently purchased a male GS. When we visited the dog, he seemed very confident and outgoing. However, when we brought him home, he has latched onto my husband. He gets upset when he leaves, he has to be constantly with him. When he leaves, I try to bring the dog out by playing with him, etc., and he just goes back into the porch to wait for my husband. He's a very soft dog, so I don't want the corrections to be to harsh, but he just doesn't engage in anything when my husband is gone, ...

Hi good day!!! I just have a question regarding my 4 month old german shepherd. He was barking at someone and the one handling him pulled his leash to prevent him from attacking the person he was barking at. But instead of stopping he bit the one holding him. The dog didn't have any attack training or have any advance training. He has just been trained at home with basic training by me which is only my first time to train a dog. Thank you and more power!!! G. S.

I love your web site! But I have a question for you about one of your products. I have a new GSD, approximately fifteen months old. He's from working lines, and has never lived in a house before. Everything is going very well, except for one thing. He barks! I'm crating him while I go to school, and this is when the problem arises. He likes his crate very much and enjoys being in it when I'm with him. But as soon as I close that door and leave, he barks all day long. According to m...

I read your pages about dealing with an aggressive dog and what to ask you about my situation. I have a three year old Lab/German Shepherd mix dog. She is a very loving dog to my roommate and me. She does a have very bad dependency problem which has cost me a lot of money. Most of the time when I leave her, she tries to break out of the house. She will chew on the fence, chew on the front door or anything else that could possible get her out. I have tried giving her a lot of exerci...

I came across your site on the Internet and found it very informative. I was wondering if you might offer me a suggestion for my scenario. I have a 9-month-old female Weimaraner that I just recently had spayed. I have taken Sierra just about everywhere that I can. Since she was 8 weeks old (she recently completed her CGC training...which turns out to be ironic). Sierra is very protective of my home and barks when she sees anything close to our yard. Recently I have trained her to bark onc...

I have an eight-month-old male American Bulldog puppy. I know Bulldogs aren't your breed of preference, but after reading several of your articles, I would very much value your insight. He is a well behaved puppy (sits, comes, etc.) but whenever I take him away from our house, he is terribly shy. He was from a litter of eleven. I met both of his parents, and neither one of them were in the least bit shy. He trembles badly, won't eat treats (especially from strangers) and tucks his tail. A...

I have a 6 month old puppy (rescue dog) that is a house dog and I was considering getting her dew claws removed and was wondering what you thought about it. She'll always be a house pet and the only real motivation for removing them is the pain they cause when she jumps up on us. We're in the process of using the front paw pinching technique from your "puppy" video and we're having success but she's a fairly excitable dog. Is there any health reason not to have this done? Thanks, ...

Our 8 year old pomeranian eats the "personal" items our of the bathroom trash can. Is he too old for this and is there something we can do?? Please help.

First of all, thanks for your email advice from your last note. We did have our pups checked for worms, and sure enough, they had them Since treatment our male pup's energy has gone up noticeably. He is now enjoying the ball-on-a-string game. Here's my question: Our pups are pretty quiet most of the day and night, but sometimes during the evening they start a barking fit loud enough to wake the dead. They can see us moving inside our house in the evening as we pass in front of the ...

My husband and I have adopted a Doberman from our neighbor who passed away a couple months ago. When we got Duke he was 10 lbs underweight and had every parasite I could think of. He also had several sores from over licking and lying in his own feces. He is about 10 years old. Now he is minus the parasites and 10 lbs heavier and a lot healthier. He is a happy boy but shows some signs of aggression. I know he was severely neglected (starved and maybe beaten). He is, for lack of a better wo...

We have a 10-month-old female German shepherd, who is very smart, totally housebroke, crate trained and loves all people and other animals. I realized I was allergic to her fur so I gave her to my daughter and son-in-law who live 800 miles away. Since we have left her she is breaking out of her crate and peeing and pooping on their floor. They can't leave her outside for more than 30 minutes or she will start digging. She never did any of this when I had her. They are about ready to go crazy....

While reading the articles is very inspiring I feel the need to ask a more personal question: How do I train our dog to stay off the furniture (when we're not home & at night)? He doesn't try to get on the furniture while we're home (thus indicating that he 'knows' he's not allowed up) and when we come home he is very submissive and has the 'oops!' look on his face. We've tried the sprays that are supposed to stink the boundaries into him to no avail. What else should we do? For now we ju...

My dog chases her tail round and round constantly. Her tail is one wet mess. Is there any way to stop her from doing this? I would appreciate any way to solve this problem.

I got one of your prong collars for my mother's Springer Spaniel. This is a very hard dog that does not respond to ANY level of correction on a choke collar. She is now 7 months old - at 14 weeks when I first tried correcting her by shaking her by the back of the neck it had no effect. I have one major concern. This dog (bitch) is very dominant and the prong collar is very useful for correcting her since the normal choker had no effect. I have to snap the collar very hard to get a ...

We have an 8 month old puppy who is extremely soft. If we raise our voice just a little bit, he cowers. We have had him since he was 9 weeks old and has never been hit, spanked or beaten in any way. He is an excellent dog who listens great and when we do discipline him, it?s with verbal warnings only. He knows when he has done wrong and usually only does it once. My problem is that at a family gathering today he was kicked in the butt by a relative that feels you have to beat the dog to get h...

My husband and I have a 2 1/2 year old male German Shepherd. He is very sweet and great with children. He is also very high strung. At times he will dig many holes in our yard. None by the fence. He has no rhyme or reason. He will go for weeks without digging and then dig half a dozen at a time. We have tried filling his holes with water and holding his head under for about 5 seconds. Filling the holes with feces. Spanking. Hitting his digging feet with a wooden spoon enough to make him n...