Obedience Q&As

Hi Ed- I have many of your DVD's. I am a member of your forum. I have a problem with this pup. I need some expert advice. I've owned working import bloodline Rotts and GSD my whole life. I am 60 years old and consider myself experienced with handling these type dogs. I used to be a Koehler type trainer but over the years have changed my methods to more middle of the road. I have a super hard male Dutch Shepherd pup. I've had this pup for two months. I am the center of this dogs life. I sp...

Hello, I have watched the video I purchased, Basic Obedience Training, over and over. The introduction on how the dog thinks was very informative for me. Even though we have had many dogs, I have tended to train them the same as I would my horses. Mistake. I own an 18 month old male Belgian Malinois. I can see why the breeder was so careful on "placing" him with us. They are wonderful smart dogs that could quickly rule the roost if the owner wasn't consistent. He i...

Hello, I recently purchased some of your DVDs; Building Drive and Focus, Bite Training for Puppies, and The First Steps of Bite Training. I plan to follow up with the first steps of defense and training personal protection dogs. I find them very informative and very well done. I have a couple of questions that I would like your insight on. The first is I have a GSD that is 20 weeks old. He is very smart, obeys commands sit, stay, retrieve, leads well sits in the kennel while I go out fir...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I am a long time member of your discussion board and have purchased items from your website. My question for you is about my 14 week old female rottweiler pup. I would like to know what you think of her nerves at this stage in her life. I have a fully protection trained male adult rott that we train with at a PSA club here in town that has such strong nerve I couldn't mess him up if I tried. We plan to protection train this pup as well. The pup comes from s...

I read about your natural diet which I agree with, but then you sell or support treats for (marking training) made with molasses. Should I use something else, like cut up hot dog? "Do not feed a dog any sugar. Sugar increases a dog's chances of getting cancer. Sugar is made when dogs eat things like sugar beets, molasses, grains or dairy products." Thanks, Mitch

Hi Ed and Cindy. Thank you for all the help. I have a question about engagement. I wish I could just buy the DVD: The Power of Training Dogs with Food, but I just cannot afford it right now. My question is: what am I looking for in my dog when he is engaged? Will he be focused on me and me only even in new environments? Or does engagement mean that he will cooperate just enough so that I can teach him a new position even though he may be a little distracted? And also ...

Hi Cindy, I've been working on engagement with my dogs after watching Michael Ellis' "The Power of Training Dogs with Food." They are all doing wonderfully and I'm very happy with the results. I've run into a small "problem" that I'm not sure how to resolve. The dogs are so engaged that when we go out for bathroom breaks, they will not leave me long enough to go to the bathroom. I certainly don't want to discourage their attention. Do you just not reward until after they've taken c...

Hi Cindy Love your website. It's very helpful and interesting to read. You guys are very busy and devoted to your dogs; that's why I hate to bother you with such a trivial question...But! I see on your website that you have several training treats available to purchase. My 1 1/2 year old, male GDS is on a raw diet. Is there a training treat that you prefer to use? So far I've just used string cheese or boiled chicken. We purchased the DVD package that contains the marker trainin...

Thank you Cindy for replying to my previous message. I purchased three of the six DVDs (puppy 8 weeks/months and both power of training with food & markers) you suggested and the training equipment/toys. They have been great!!! I love them and have learned a lot. The Power of Training with Markers is fantastic, but the one with Training with Food, wow! Fantastic, Michael had me realize I needed to put the brakes on my training and spend more time on engagement. I am also planning t...

I have bought a lot of your DVDs and soon will be buying (dealing with dominant and aggresive dogs and e-collor training and michael ellis playing tug with your dog). Ed's DVDs have been a big help. I had a question regarding corrections on a dominant dog and if you have time to answer I would appreciate it. I have a dominant 15 month female GSD who I have been useing mostly positive training methods such as marker training. I have been slowly adding distractions and corrections to her tr...

Dear Mr Frawley, Thank you very much for the HUGELY informative web pages helping us with dog training problems. I am I am training a two year old Samoyed male for obedience. He appears to want to learn the exercises we are training and definitely has enthusiasm for what we are doing. However, the heel work is not up to scratch. He starts off "alright" and very quickly tries to "change the subject." He will hang his head and trail along for a few steps, then decide to catc...

I bought your marker training dvd and started doing the training a few weeks ago. I'm having trouble because Kasey is soooo motivated to get the treats, that I don't feel that he's paying enough attention to me and what I am asking him to do. He was already trained in sit, down, stay, etc. before I started marker training. So I started with tricks like wave, play dead, high 5 - he learned those quickly because they were easy and now that I am starting to use it to teach serious things like 'w...

Hi Cindy. I got the Michael Ellis training with food DVD last week and have started watching it - thank you for recommending it, it's SO good! In the first chapter where he talks about the food, he says that in the beginning you will have to be giving a lot of food, so if he trains 3 times a day he'll just use their food for the day and then not feed them their meals. If we are using a lot of food in the beginning, and Kasey is raw fed (I feed chicken parts, hamburger, a gross slop...

Moose is a 2 1/2 year old mix, taken off death row at Animal Control. I've heard so many theories about what type of mix he is, that I've stopped guessing. He has already gone through two years of ongoing basic obedience training, and I consider him to be a well behaved/adjusted animal. I am currently starting him with marker training. Is there any advice you can provide me with to help me during this awkward time when the marker training and his previous training are overlapping/conflicting ...

Hi Cindy, Both DVDs are GREAT information! Michael makes training dogs seem so simple and easy. I can honestly say that I was one of those trainers that was ahead of myself in where I should have been with my dogs. They could do a lot but to be honest the TRUE engagement wasn't all there. I have been working on nothing but engagement and will be for a month. With that said. Since Prong Collars can kill engagement. Should I still allow them to wear the collars and never use t...

Hello, I have a WGSD that I adopted from the shelter. (I was there the day he came in)Since he was a puppy he was frightened in new situations and very anxious. He is a great house protector. But when I take him to stressful places ex. the shelter when I volunteer, or any place that's not at home. He ranges from being very anxious at the shelter and fails to listen, to sometimes frightened & tries to get away from the circumstances he is in. I know he can overcome this because he h...

Hi, my name is Michelle. I have a kind of complicated question to ask but I don't have anywhere else to turn to. I've been searching and went through a lot of different dogs trying to find the right dog to be a service dog for me because I have anxiety, depression, social phobia and I black out. For some odd reason most dogs I go around seem to perceive what I have as threatening. So my boyfriend saw this add online for a litter of rescued bottle feed 3 week old puppies and thought maybe me r...

Cindy We would like to fly our dog out to CA. for two weeks for our grandson; it was mentioned to us that he could fly with us if he was a service dog or a dog in training. We were wondering if you could share with us any insight to this. Or if their is a way you might know where he could fly. Our daughter is having her second child, and we will be on grandparents duty with the first child. We just love our dog who is mid size. I hope this question makes sense. Thanks, ...

A woman with a therapy dog gave me your web site address. I have an Australian Shepherd puppy that is wonderful with people. Because I am a teacher, I have been taking him to work and training him to sit with kids who have special needs. This women mentioned "home schooling" through your video program. What do you suggest? I need to have some kind of certification process so he can enter nursing homes and children's centers. She takes her dog everywhere and has cards of certification to ...

I bought the dog from a good breeder, (same as my last GSD), but from predominately a show line of German ancestry. Most of the dogs have Sch 3 pedigrees, so I do not think he will be useless but, is it worth even trying as he is not from a proven working kennel? And is there any way of assessing him? His prey drive is good, he is ballsy and mouthy and I am playing with him with appropriate toys, and socializing him.