Obedience Q&As

I am wanting to purchase an electric collar for my saint bernard. He gave me a huge scare last night when he refused to come when called after he slipped out the front door. I have conditioned him to wearing a long line, but he can still tell when it's off, and will completely disregard me and act like it's some kind of game when I call him. I'd like him to know that no matter where he is, I can reach him. It is frustrating, scary, and infuriating when he runs from me, and he won't respond to...

Hi Cindy, I love the newsletter I get. It's very informative. I have a question. I have a 1 year old Malinois. I want to make him neutral to other dogs and I wanted your advice on how to do this. I have several of the training videos already. His recall is good with the ecollar on and off but when there are dogs around he wants to go and play. Do you think this is because of his age? Some times I have to give him a little extra stim because he wants to play instead of returning rig...

I had a question about remote collar training. I have already conditioned my 7 month old female pitbull for the collar. My biggest question is, what should I do if my dog does not really respond to a nick at a certain level but will respond to continuous on that same level. Does this mean that my level is too low? Also when you use your dogtra 1900ncp, generally for a 7 month old dog what level do you use. I know that stem level does not have correlation with age, but I was just wondering...

Mr. Frawley, Let me first commend you on such an informative and well thought out website. This website keeps me occupied for hours, I just flat out love it. I am new to dog training but have been around dogs for a while. I am a 20 year college student and I own a pit bull, but let's get back to that in a minute. I recently bought your e-collar DVD and I have purchased the Dogtra 1900 ncp collar (I got it because I saw it was one of your favorites on your web site. I have no...

I have a 16 month old spayed Maremma sheepdog which was purchased as a puppy. This breed is used to guard livestock, and is supposed to have a low prey drive, which allows them to bond to the livestock. She is a wonderful animal, very loving and also protective of her animals and of us. She lives in a completely fenced 3 acre yard with her goats. She lives outside and never comes into the house. We purchased a prong collar and E collar as well as your DVDs on Basic Obedience training and ...

Hello, I don't know if you truly get a chance to answer much of this, but I have a question that stems from a husband/wife debate. I've searched on the forums but I don't see this, and I really want an authority figure that he and I will both respect. My husband is a police officer and we have a female GSD (2 years) who he has been training, in bite work as well as searching, but not in an official capacity. She is a great dog and very obedient. I trust her 100% with us and as well as I...

Cindy, I have a 2y F GSD. I sent her to basic obedience training at around 10months. She has done well and follows her commands on and off leash. My big problem is with recall especially once I start to play with her and she isn't focused on training. Once I stop working her and just play, she will often see another dog and run across the park. I will yell here (I know she hears me but decides to ignore). As you can imagine the other owner isn't to pleased and I know it can become ...

Cindy, I have a 27 month old intact male Doberman. My problem is probably not breed specific, but I mention it knowing you have a history with them. He is a very dominant boy. I bought your e-collar DVD and an e-collar when he was 8-months. I can not tell enough people who have stubborn dogs how great a tool this can be. Using Ed's #1 through #10 correction rule, I can tell you that a #10 correction doesn't phase him. But there is something about the tingle of a nick that gets his ...

Dear Cindy and Ed, Just a quick note to let you know Moeshe's e-collar training is going wonderfully. He's a high prey drive dog who now downs at a distance while chasing ravens or even when someone is approaching on a four-wheeler. (We live in rural Alaska where there are no roads or cars). He also has learned to sit quietly in closer proximity to other dogs. The self-control he is mastering has made exercising him a joy and I know that he too must appreciate all of the extra off-...

Hi Cindy, I wanted to get your opinion, and Ed's on my two females who hate each other (the mother/daughter). I updated you previously that they get along as long as we are outside and are playing ball. As soon as I ignore them to do something else, they will start circling each other and then I have to get their attention with the balls again. In the trailer, they will fight between closed doors; the daughter will now ignore the mother when I call her when her mother is ins...

I searched through your site and didnt find much on chasing. I am awaiting your ecollar intro DVD. I just bought the tritronics G3 sport combo. So far she is just wearing it and on and off, I have not used it yet. i have someone coming over tomorrow to help with finding her level and comparing it to a dogtra 280 with more low level of stims. The dog is a 10 month old spayed female akita with high prey drive. She has been in training since 4 weeks. (I visited her a few times a week at the s...

Your videos, toys, vitamins, leashes and collars, Cindy's raw diet instructions - everything! - have helped me over the past 3 years to make my Lab Jake the healthy dog and wonderful buddy he is to me. I have one area in which I need your help - unnecessary barking. He is trained beautifully (by me) with the help of your videos, but I have this one problem; he seems to forget that I am the pack leader when he wants me to himself, and he gets possessive and demanding through barkin...

Ed, Please do an e-collar video! Everything out there is crap. That said, I have a couple questions. About a year ago, with the help of the training director at the local schutzhund club (I am in Chicago), I introduced my three year old dog to the e-collar using "escape training" in the manner consistent with the Dobbs/Tri Tronics Three Action Introduction -- apply continuous stimulation immediately before a command, and then shut off stimulation when dog complies (or for th...

We've enjoyed your Puppy video as well as Basic Obedience 302...and still need a little help with "Come." We live on 5 acres and our 10 month old male GSD is very responsive and obedient while on the leash, whether it's the 6 foot or 20 foot line. But once we take him off the lead and go inside and then outside later to call him in or call him to stop barking, etc., he ignores me. The property is too big to have him drag a line around in case we need to call him, so we let him off once we go ...

How old should my dog be before I start training with a remote collar?

What is the difference between continuous and momentary stimulation?

How do I know what level of stimulation to train with?

My dog, which is now 4 years old, is a lab mix whom we adopted from a shelter. Since she was a puppy (Mattie) she has exhibited signs of weak nerves. We always attributed her aggression toward people as acts based out of fear or lack of trust. She has also exhibited problems wanting to dominate relationships with other dogs and, in doing so, displayed signs of aggression. As far as we were concerned, we had raised and trained our dog very well. She follows all commands with the occ...

Cindy, I have an 8 month old Boxer, named Rambo, who's always had a very dominant personality. I think our mistake was getting him at just barely 6 weeks of age from the breeder before he learned bite inhibition. The past couple months he's developed what appear to be dominant traits of trying to mount smaller dogs and even my 4 yr old son. He also resource guards, but I'm the only thing he resource guards, he gets near vicious (back up, teeth barred, barking) when anyone comes nea...

Hi, I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Is it common for a daughter of 18 months want to take over her dam's alpha position who is 4 yrs old? I thought 18 months was kind of young... but the daughter is bigger, more strong willed, and I saw this coming months ago but I don't if I could have done anything about it. How they started was I would run the 2 adults first, then the pups and the pups would sit stay and wait their turn. Well, when the daughter was about 12 months...