Obedience Q&As

Dear Mr. Frawley, I have a 2 year old German Shepherd, just became 2 this August. My dog has undergone training in obedience with several trainers whom I paid for but I was never satisfied. Recently I hired a private trainer which according to him he had experience in dog training and would like to try it on my GSD. Although there was some improvement, I noticed that the dog is still disobedient, when I walk him off leash, he would run away and will not listen to my callback. When ...

What is the best way to teach a puppy the "stay" command?

Dear Ed: I have purchased your basic dog obedience tape and it is great. However, I still have a couple of questions if you don't mind answering. My GSD (8 months) knows the sit, lay and stay commands as well as the come command (without the sit. Just started working on that). And you were right in your tape that the lay was much harder for her to comply with. However, now when I ask for the sit she will either sit or lay and it is usually lay. Do I need to work on that a...

Dear Ed, First thing I wanted to say is thank you for an excellent training aid. I recently purchased the Basic Obedience training video and found it to be an inspiration. Already my dog is doing the sit - stay (with level 6 distractions) on a thirty foot line after about a week of training. I have one question. Normally when I issue a correction, the dog responds in the normal manner - I correct and then order the sit - stay command and 99% of the time there is no problem. ...

Can you explain the different types of corrections used in dog training?

Hello Mr. Frawley, I wanted to know what your opinion on the product below was, is it worth buying. The new Pro Trainer Plus is an electronic pet training aid that uses sound, not shock, to teach your dog or cat to behave. The Pro Trainer Plus gives you four different training tones. Three obedience tones are provided to teach your pet specific behaviors such as Sit, Come, Heel, etc. A rapidly pulsating, irritating "NO!" tone is provided to deter barking, jumping, digging an...

I have a redbone coonhound pup. She is 9 months old. She has done quite well on her obedience training. We belong to Evergreen Search Dogs, (Vancouver, Wa.) My problem is she will not come after one or two finds. She starts running. I use treats on her returns, however, after one or two finds she's in la-la land. Any help would be appreciated. Dale

Dear Mr. Frawley, Recently, I decided that I wanted to learn competition obedience, and had a Schutzhund instructor recommended to me. I took two 4-year-old males that I had taken through several obedience classes. One male is extremely pain sensitive, and I have always been very careful since he would yelp with a light pressure pop on his choke leash. My previous instructor had never taught me to teach my dogs to focus, and I wanted to teach my dogs this skill when heeling....

Mr. Frawley I have a 2 year old female rott, she is trained for basic obedience on and off leash, but there is one problem I have with her, I can not for the life of me get her to jump, all I am really wanting is for her to jump up into my truck, she loves going for rides and gets excited at the mention of the word "ride" but it is very annoying to have to lift this 130 lb k-9 every time, she has no problem getting out but going in all she will do is put her front paws on the seat ...

Dear Ed, I received your Basic Obedience tape a couple of days ago and was eager to start training. I had already been to my local obedience classes, so she knows sit and down, but performs only when I have a treat in my hand. She is very soft, so I used an extremely gentle leash correction and she became scared. She froze and put her ears down. I praised her greatly, but when I stopped she tried to run. I stopped and tried again after a few hours with similar results. I ado...

Ed, I bought your basic obedience video. Great video!!! I have a 13-month-old female Rottweiler. She would be considered a soft dog. She is very submissive to any other dog or person. This is not a problem. What concerns me is that when I raise my voice or grab her by the collar, she cowers away and usually rolls over. I have never hit her, but have never hesitated to grasp her by the collar or scuff of the neck to correct her when nipping or swatting at me. Is there any type of ex...

Hello I just came across your site. I find it very interesting and informative. I have two wonderful dogs, one is a 2 1/2 year old Border Collie female (have had her since 10 weeks), and the other one is a 4 (?) years old German Shepherd mix (adopted her a year ago). I am in the process of training them ...I haven't been such a good trainer or alpha leader in the past, but I am learning greatly from books I've purchased and articles on the Internet. I have a few questions, but first I nee...

Ed, greetings from Miami. I need your advice on an issue that's driving me crazy. My GSD is now 11 months and is very playful and his prey drive is very high. My concern is that when we are in the backyard he becomes unmanageable with the way he plays. He jumps up and bites your hand and runs away like a speeding bullet and comes back and does it again. He doesn't get the message when I correct him and I do correct him hard. He has a prong collar and I sure yank the hell out of him and te...

Hi, you helped me once before when I had a puppy with severe hip dysplasia. He was put down at six months of age. I am hoping you can help one more time. Two issues. First - 9 month old East German male, great dog, high drive for prey and reproduction. I have no idea if he has any defense or not, he is so bomb proof with nerves, he may show it later in training. Right now he is extremely good in area and article searches both on and off line. He is a great little tracker, still learning c...

I have been training my dog with your tape for three months now. My dog learns fast, but the problem is that when I tell him to stay, no matter the position, he gets up and runs away when I turn my back. I sit him down and correct him for not staying, but its like he doesn't even care. I have bought him a prong collar. He still doesn't care. What can I do so he listens?

My female GSD has a problem with the male Australian Shepherd next door. If she is in the yard they both try and stick their noses under the 8 foot privacy fence and go nuts barking. I go out and get immediately and she is mainly an inside dog and so is he, so it doesn't happen often. I know that she needs work and I have purchased your Basic Dog Obedience video. She will pay attention when on the leash and if is corrected, but off is another story. I am guessing I need to have a long lea...

Hi, I have a few questions that I hope you'll be able to answer for me. I have a small dog that is almost four years old. He is very obedient in the home unless he becomes distracted by strangers, outside noises, etc. I understand that this means he is not fully trained. I've had problems with completing his training in the past mainly because of two reasons. One being that my fiance is inconsistent with reinforcing the training (for example I correct the dog for getting on the bed and the ne...

I have heard mention correcting a dog many times in your articles. My question is what would a level 10 correction look like compared to a lower level correction? My dog is almost eighteen months old and grabbing by the back of the neck does not have the same affect as it did when he was a puppy. Most of the time he minds, but occasional he will be a knuckle head. He knows basic obedience and most of the time he will respond to me saying "no." Another problem that I have is that he knows when...

My dog is totally ball crazy. He always walks around the house with it in his mouth and is always ready to fetch. For exercise I take him to the park and let him off leash I hit the tennis ball with a racquet to get some distance. I put him in a down-stay and as soon as I hit the ball he is off after it. Totally ignoring the down-stay. At all other times he will correctly execute the down stay even with loose dogs running around him. I have pulled him back to his down-stay spot, after tri...

I have two beautiful three year old labs. They are not trained except for the basic commands. I walk them in an open mesa area near my home every morning. The problem is they have begun not only chasing young rabbits, but when they do catch one they pick it up and clamp down, thus causing internal organ damage, which of course kills the rabbit. I am a nature lover and very upset by this behavior! I have thought of getting a shock collar and using this devise to get them to quit chasing th...