Obedience Q&As

Our 9-week-old German Shepherd just arrived from Texas, and we recently purchased your "Puppy" & "Basic Obedience" videos. There is an issue you might help us with that was not addressed in either. Swimming. We have an in-ground pool and considering the heat in South Florida we are anxious to introduce him to it. Any suggestions or advice? I might also add that we have tried to strictly adhere to all of the information offered in your tapes and on your web site, and so far knock on...

Ed, We have a Rottweiler female puppy (born Jan 14th). We also have your puppy training video. Abby has responded well to our correction for jumping up on us. Thank you. She is outlawed from the house because she doesn't control herself and tinkles when she gets excited. Any hints for that? However, the main reason we are writing is because of her constant lapping. Abby loves people, and she laps thin air, hands, thin air, legs, thin air, clothes, and thin air. It drives us crazy. ...

Ed, Our great puppy, Xanda vom Leerburg (born January 16, 2000; call name "Rebound"), is progressing beautifully. She is almost five months old and has settled in as a full-fledged member of the family (which includes my wife, three children, our male yellow lab and me). I would like your thoughts on a particularly disturbing and dangerous habit that she has exhibited. During our walks in the neighborhood, she literally lunges at moving cars. In response, I shorten way up on...

Dear Mr. Ed Frawley: I found your website on the internet, and I was hoping you would be willing to help with some advice or maybe a referral to someone who would be able to help us. I am sorry to say that we are having a problem with our Jack Russell Terriers. We have a 5 month old male Jack Russell Terrier who we bought from a friend who bought him from a pet store called "Just Puppies." We have had our male dog for about 1.5 months. My husband bought me a 12 week o...

I would like to get a German Shepherd, but I am out of the house for about 12 hours a day five days a week. I would have to leave him locked in a crate until he was fully house broken. What is the maximum amount of time a dog can be left in his crate? Thank you, Mary

I was wondering if you could help me. I have a nine-week-old GSD pup that doesn't seem to want to bond w/ me. It never seeks out affection from me and only seems to tolerate being petted. She seems to be healthy and has a high prey drive. She only seems to want to bond with my grown mixed breed dog. He is a large very strong, Pit bull mix. She is not intimidated by him at all and will play rough with him and likes to bite him and pull on the skin under his throat. She only ways 14 lbs but...

We recently found a puppy in the ditch wandering around a mile away from our home in the country. We carefully called him to approach us and he seemed adorable so we took him around to several houses in the area to see if anyone lost him. No one knew anything about him. We proceeded over the next several days to see if anyone lost him. Meanwhile I took him to the vet and got worm medicine - they tested his poop and he had worms. They thought he was about 8-12 weeks. He still has his baby ...

Is there a thing as a "fear period" that puppies go through or is it just a way to justify weak nerve? A six-month-old pup that has always been friendly and inquisitive all of a sudden-without any bad experiences becomes hesitant about meeting people. He still is inquisitive with things, but hesitates when meeting new people. Once he has met them and accepted them he is his old friendly self. Karen

We recently purchased a 5 month old, German Shepherd of German and Dutch breeding. She is a pleasant puppy and quite active. We already had a 12 year old Cocker Spaniel who also has a very pleasant and now placid personality. We have had the shepherd for 3 weeks. During this time we have allowed the dogs to sniff each other through a gate, but have not allowed them to be free together. Our few attempts to introduce the dogs without the gate; have resulted in the following: the shepherd ea...

Our puppy - Nitro (Male Sable) is terribly afraid of other dogs. Our Lasha Apso, 8 years old, has bitten him a few times, but he is not afraid of her. Our relative's small dog also bites him. Now when he goes around any dogs he starts screaming, his backhair goes up and he wants to run and hide. We did get your training video on puppies and I know it is important to socialize him. He loves people and has met many people. We were going to bring him to puppy class at A-1 Training in Brooklyn Pa...

I was hoping that you could give me some advice. I have a 5 1/2 month old female GSD (both her parents came from your kennel.) We took her to an agility park last weekend where we were socializing her with an 8 month old 100+lb GSD. The pups were both on leashes when the male suddenly went crazy and attacked our Maddie. She was hollering & trying to get away and the male just wouldn't let up. My husband finally got her away from him and the owner apologized saying that her dog had never b...

Why does my pup target the puppy tug handle as opposed to the tug itself? It seems 50% of the time he goes for the handle. Any suggestions? James

How likely is it that a slight overbite in a 3 1/2 month old GSD puppy will correct itself? And regarding dominance: Can a dog be submissive to people but still be dominant when it comes to dogs?

I have enjoyed your tapes. The question I have is my GSD just turned 7 months,and he's very playful, temperment very good. If I'm gone for a couple of hours, he will chew up or chew baseball caps, socks, papers, remotes (TV), anything, but he only does that when we are gone,and that?s not all the time, but when I come home, if he's not at the door, then he's done something. I don?t correct him hard on that, because again, he doesn?t do it all the time, but shouldn?t he be coming out of that p...

I have a 12 week old Border Collie pup. We were working on sit stay before each meal and then given a release command "OK" and he runs to his dish. But after my husband corrected him at one meal he hesitates going to his dish after the "OK" command is given. He looks at us as if asking for permission again. At which time we have to say "OK, go get it" two or three times. Should we correct this, if so how do we do it. Thanks, Marci

We adopted a 6-9 month old Brittany and have had her for approx. 2 months. We have done a lot of work with her and she and our 3 cats can now co-exist rather well. Our main concern is that she literally hates being crated when we leave the house. She is never left in her crate more than 7 hrs. while we are at work/school. She seems to find some way to escape and then ultimately chews something up while before we get home at least two days out of the five. What can we do?

I brought Lacy home at 7 weeks 10 days ago. I have a 2 1/2 year old mild mannered Airedale (Callie) who enjoys playing with baby, but might not be aggressive enough in disciplining puppy who consistantly nips at her...and hurts her (has drawn blood)...should we stop allowing tug of war with frisbees and chew toys for awhile? Puppy is extremely assertive. Also, puppy has flat out snit fits if she does not get her own way...for instance, she got over-stimulated today and got put in her indoor r...

When should you neuter your puppy?

Hello, I am a police officer in Mississippi. I am not a K-9 unit, but I do hope to someday get my own. My question is I am about to get a puppy and train it for search and rescue, now what I would like to do is eventually train him for police work (narcotics, bite). Do you think I should go ahead and incorporate those aspects in now or should I work with him later. The people I am going to be training with are all police K-9 officers who have many years of experience. They all know very w...

We ordered and received your puppy video, none to soon I might add. It has been very helpful. This is our first litter. We had 7 (4F/3M) healthy GSD puppies on Tuesday the 16th of Feb. The heaviest two, a male and a female each weighed 570g. The male now is 785g and the female is 855g. A 285g gain in 5 days. I'm thinking, oink oink. The runts, one male & one female weighed 510g and 480g respectively. Now after five days the male weighs in at 740g and the female at 700g. My question...