Behavior Problems Q&As

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...

Hello Ed: I have a 50 lb English terrier mix (6 yrs), very sweet and loving when around people/strangers while in my house, backyard or on leash. Off leash, he chases anything that moves, typically ankles of people that are running, biking, skateboarding, etc. He is aggressive with other dogs. The most nerve racking is he goes after children. I picked him up from an unknown family handing out puppies when he was 8 weeks old. He was shy as a puppy. I've had dogs all my life, and if ...

Dear Cindy, My 9 months old male German Shepherd has just recently begun barking for prolonged periods of time either loose or crated and we need some guidance. When crated, day or night, as soon as either my husband or I go upstairs in our house, Dio will bark for 30-60 minutes nonstop and repeat this behavior several times a night. FYI, he is always taken out before being crated, has chew sticks, a toy, and some water in his crate. We have tried classical music & a sheet c...

Hi Cindy, I bought a bark collar from you about 4 weeks ago and I have been using it on my pit bull because he barks a lot when outside. Soon after I started using it he has slowed down with the barking but his aggression has seemed to increase and he seems scared when wearing the collar. I was wondering if I did something wrong and whether the collar might be increasing his aggression. He was use to wearing an e-collar before I bought the bark collar because I have been training h...

Hi. I have a barking question for you. I have a four month old Giant Schnauzer puppy. He is a great pup, he is crate trained, learning obedience quickly but he has one problem I am unable to break him of. Very early in he morning he begins barking/yipping to get out and get fed. I have tried everything I can think of like trying to ignore him, not let him out until he stops, spray with a water bottle, nothing works. I was considering a shock collar on a very low setting but I am ...

I have a 2 yr old male Catahoula that barks a lot at night. However, he is supposed to bark when treeing a coon or baying a hog. If a bark collar is applicable in this situation, how best to use it? David PS: I checked your Tritronics Q&A and did not find a situation like this. Thank you in advance

My girlfriend and I have a 7 1/2 month old female Standard Schnauzer named Gracie that we have had since 8 weeks old. I have had no problem establishing myself as a pack leader, but it has not come so easy for my girlfriend, so we purchased your Pack Leader DVD along with Obedience Training for later. We started the social isolation phase this past week. My main issue that I have is that I let a friend move in a month ago while he deals with separation/divorce. He stays in the basement and...

Hi Cindy, I wrote to you some time ago with questions regarding my 2-year-old (about) GSD, which I adopted about 4 months ago. Briefly, Dyna (the dog) is from a working GSD kennel and was unwanted because of one floppy ear. She was kept at the breeder's kennel until she was about 7 months old (he wanted to retain her as a breeding bitch) and then sold to a family as a pet-only dog (as her ear didn't stand up). She stayed with this family for about 10 months or so and then was retur...

Hi Cindy, Your staff has been very helpful with muzzles. They also referred me to you for help with electronic collars. We have very specific situation and need your help chosing the right product. Since our dogs spend much more time in their crates now and cannot be left loose in the house when we are gone anymore, they started barking and whining in crates which makes our life living hell. We got a 3rd pup recently - a 8mo Husky mix. He does not bark mostly but "speaks" an...

Hey Ed, I have used TT collars and love them with my GSD's, but my wife has a 10 lb brussels griffon. We need to get a bark collar but she has such a small neck. What do we do? Thanks,John

My dog is a cocker and 9 months old. When I take her to the YMCA for beginning puppy class she barks and barks really loud all the way into the classroom. She stops when we get into the room. She also barks and barks when I take her to the Vet and and I have tried doing this every month to get her used to the place. She doesn't stop barking at the Vet's. What can I do? Thanks, Karen

Hi Cindy, Our puppy Lucy is 15 months old, she is a very smart dog we are of course still in the process of training her. One thing that really bugs us is she will start to bark and bark it seems for attention especially if we have guests over. She seems to be doing it for attention because we are just conversing with one another and she'll bark and sometimes jump on our leg, it seems to get our attention. How do we break her of this bad habit? We do say no bark to her in a firm vo...

Cindy, I talked w/ Donna today and she requested that I write you for advice on which e-collar to purchase for my dog. Charley is a 15 month old miniature poodle, about 12 pounds. Charley is a an extremely active, athletic dog. We do a 3 or 4 mile run most days. He?s not aggressive, very social, a poodle, but a ?soft? dog, mild and loving most of the time. He?s probably the best dog I?ve ever had. I am working w/ Charley steadily on obedience training, aiming for trials for CD ti...

I am hoping that you can help us. I have two ? Australian Cattle Dogs. The ? comes when my step son?s Australian Cattle Dog (neutered male) (Ryder) comes to stay with us for two days every two days (my step-son is a fireman at Otis AFB, here in Mass.). I have a spayed female (Libby) and a Champion show dog (Diesel). ALL these dogs are crate trained. All these dogs are registered ACDs. When Diesel and Libby are home and out of their crates, they are very good together, I am the pack lead...