Obedience Q&As

Ed, I recently purchased a Mal Puppy from John Browne on long island. I can't be happier with the pup. She has great prey drive, great nerves, and so far a great temperament. My situation is this; I have had her for about 2 weeks. She has been doing great with the crate training only one accident which was my fault. During this accident, I tried to stop her from going, so I screamed PHOIE grabbed her and brought her outside. I screamed way too loud, it was just instinct and she cow...

Hi! I just got an 2 Month puppy (Golden Retriever/Lab/Cocker Spaniel mix) from the Humane Society. I live in an apartment with a roommate and our puppy doesn't have access to a yard. We take her out once a day, but that is about all we can do and it isn't like a huge green area. So we are trying to train it with the potty pads which I read you are against, but its the best we can do. So do you have any advice on training a puppy with the pads? We are also doing the crate training as well, but...

I have just purchased your DVD's on Basic Obedience, Raising a Working Puppy, and Training Focus and Drive. I have previously owned a working line GSD, but had adopted him at 6 months old, well after he had been started in training towards Schutzhund titling. Due to unfortunate personal circumstances, he had to go back to my co-owner and was later placed with a disabled man for personal protection. Therefore, I haven't learned everything I need to know to title my new GSD puppy, who is a ...

Mr. Frawley, The breeder from whom we purchased our dog, suggested we check out your site or contact you about a problem we are encountering with our pup, Jake. I have been a reader of your site and have gotten a lot of wonderful info from it. Background. Jake's dad is from a Czech line. We obtained Jake when he was 11 weeks old. We were unable to make the trip until then and the breeder agreed to keep him for us. When we went to pick him up he seemed a little shy but not mu...

I have a 9 month old Doberman. I am training her to run the house while I am away. She gets on the bed and chews the blankets. She does not touch anything else in the house and she knows it is bad. She truly does nothing else wrong, no trash, furniture, shoes, nothing. My last dobe did the same thing with our bedding for almost a year and a half before finally quitting. They sleep on the bed, so they are not jealous. She gets a treat every time she is good. Do you have any ideas. Thanks

Dear Ed, I am a first time dog owner who recently purchased a toy poodle puppy at 8 weeks old. She is now 12 weeks. I got a toy breed because I live in an apartment and because this is my first dog. I chose a breed in which I thought would be easy to train and be a good house pet. Even from 8 weeks, I started doing basic training at home, and she very quickly learned to sit, down, stay, and come (although she really only comes consistently when she knows I have food). She seemed li...

Ed, Received your DVD 8 weeks to 8 months, really enjoying it. Two questions: 1) I have half cocker spaniel and Chihuahua that is 14 weeks old. I've had him now for 6 days and started crate training him, he is doing quite good with the exception of peeing on himself when he sees me, I know he is excited. Any thoughts? He does potty and pee when I take him outside. He only pooped once in the crate and the pee is fresh from excitement. 2) My puppy is very moody about eating, sometime...

I have read a few of your articles on dominance in dogs, but I did not see one on dominance in puppies. My female is 4 months old. She is very high drive and has, over the last few weeks, become extremely dominant over her litter mates (I know you do not like the idea of raising more than one puppy at a time but everyone is afraid to buy the remaining puppies because they are afraid that they are "mean"). I do not kennel them together, but I have allowed them (there are 4 total) to...

I have an 11 month old Schnoodle. I'm a first time dog owner. I love my dog, but I really wanted to be able to 'let her out' and she would walk in the backyard and go to the bathroom. Therefore, I had the invisible fence installed. I should mention that before I installed the fence, I would take her out 3 times a day... in the morning, after work and before bed. I would walk with her after work and the other times take her in the backyard or to the curb. Now that I installed the fe...

We have an 11 week old cockapoo that we picked up when he was 7 weeks. Early on he was showing signs of aggressive behavior, we didn't really think anything of it, just a playful puppy. Early this week the pup found a balloon and when my wife tried to get it out of his mouth he growled and bit her pretty hard, viciously. The next day he found a napkin on the floor. I tried to do the same and he really went after me and bit me very hard also. We called a trainer referred to us by ou...

First of all, I really love your advice!! It's put simply, and it's very reliable! I have used used your web site for most of my dog training needs, and it has worked fantastically well! But there is one question I still have. I haven't found any mention of this on your site. (If it is on your site, then my apologies, I must not have looked hard enough) My 12 week old puppy refuses to go anywhere with me, or anyone in our family. We try to take her on walks, but she always pulls the other way...

Mr. Frawley, 17 week old Weimaraner House with family of two adults and three children Adult Bichon Frise (three years old) Two adult cats (four & five years old) Very large fenced in back yard My wife and I recently purchased an 8 week old female Weimaraner back on May 19, 2005. During the first 2 weeks we had the puppy I purchased the Leerburg training video 120-D "Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months" and have been using most of your training techniques. I really have appreciate your t...

Hi Ed, I'm a long time follower of your site and I think it's good that you offer blunt/matter of fact advise. I have a 6 mos old female GSD from German working lines and so far she's been a wonderful dog. I do have a couple of concerns though; I came home the other night and had forgotten my keys in the house. I have a 3 year old son and a 7 mos old daughter and I knew they would both be asleep so I tapped gently on the door trying to get my wife's attention and not ...

Good Morning Ed, Just a quick note to say how very much we enjoyed your 8 weeks to 8 months puppy DVD. After having read your web site. from top to bottom, we did not agree with some of the more conventional issues, but your DVD gone a long way to make us understand these. I have a question though. Our puppy who is 12 weeks now, seem to scratch excessively, also bites his thighs, various vets have seen him and agreed that he does not have any fleas or skin problem and explai...

Mr. Frawley, I am in the process of training our 6 month old GSD with the use of positive reinforcement, prong collar and your training videos. In addition, we are attending an obedience class each Saturday. At the end of each session, anywhere from 10-20 dogs are allowed to run freely in a confined, secure area providing them with "dog socialization". I recently read the material on your site relating to dog parks and the injuries that may occur. My feeling is that I should not le...

Hi, We have an 8 week old labrador X collie, he is very well behaved and is doing well at house training, he mouths a lot with the children in play which we know he will grow out of when he is older but yesterday I tried hand feeding him a small piece of ham and he snapped at my hand and made it bleed. I am guessing he had to fight for his food with his siblings so I am putting it down to this and hoping it will not carry on but I am a little worried in case it does, we have...

Ed, You wrote, "I also NEVER allow a dog to come in contact with another dog unless my dog is 100% solid in obedience under extreme distraction (i.e. another dog is extreme distraction). Also I NEVER allow people to pet my dog." My question is how do you socialize the dog if the dog has never been pet by a stranger. If you don't take your dog around other dogs until he is 100% trained, isn't that a little late in life to begin socialization with other animals? Thanks, Vanessa

Hello Ed. When is the most appropriate time to start Training a golden retriever basic commands? I have read a lot of your articles on training and don't want to do any damage to her personality. We have been working on getting her to walk beside us during short walks around the block but we were told to invest in a choke collar to get her to stop pulling on the lease. She she is now 16 weeks is it to early for all of this? Thanks in advance. Lisa

Greetings; I have recently purchased a GSD puppy. I'm keeping him at the kennel I bought him from one month ago. He's now 5 months old. He's the alpha male of his litter, and very protective. Whenever any dog comes about 2 meters from us (him and I), he starts barking uncontrollably. I haven't trained him yet, since his breeder considers 6 months being the ideal age to start obedience training. He barks at any dog he doesn't know, big or small. Another breeder told me his barking reflects ...

Mr. Frawley, My wife and I own a 10 month old GSD. We give him plenty of attention in the afternoon after work. We take him on a two mile walk, play fetch the ball, tug, hide and seek, etc. We also bring him in at night and let him interact with us. However, it's the period that we're not home during the day that concerns me. We have a fairly large fenced back yard, but I know he gets bored and lonely by himself. Do you think it would be a good idea for us to get another dog so that he wou...