Obedience Q&As

We have two dogs, a 7 1/2 year old female rottweiler mix (neutered) and a 7 year old male rottweiler (not neutered). We have had both since they were puppies and both were raised as outside dogs. The male is very dominating toward the female and will push her out of the way any time we try to pet her. He is also very aggressive towards our neighbor's dog (a toy poodle) and rushes the fence when it barks at him. He refuses to mind anyone but my husband and is therefore very difficult for m...

Hi Cindy, Let me start by saying I love your website and the changes you made to the streaming videos are excellent. I have purchased various DVDs and equipment and thanks to you I have a very obedient and happy dog. I hope you can help me with a problem that just occurred with my 14 month old female GSD. She has good nerves and a wonderful temperament. She can go anywhere with me, experience different situations, meet other dogs and people without a single change in her behavior. She i...

I have a problem I hope you can help me with. I have a 7-year old female GSD and a 14 week old male GSD. About 4 weeks ago my 7-year old attacked the pup over a rawhide and broke his jaw. I normally don?t give my animals rawhide, but the pup has a biting/mouthing problem and this helped. (He was taken away from the mother at 3 weeks of age by the breeder with a bad injury and left at an emergency vet. That is where I adopted him). My female showed no signs of bite inhibitors during this i...

I found the information on your website to be very helpful-particularly about dog fights. I have two male (neutered) Jack Russell Terriers. They have been together since one was 12 and the other was 8 weeks old. We initially questioned having two males-we had always heard that JRT's of the same sex would fight to the death if given the chance. But when we introduced the younger dog to the older one they immediately took to one another-the older one allowed the younger one to sleep in his ...

I have a 6-year-old lab/chow mix. He has always been a good dog, but not very obedient. Because of his behavior lately (eating food off counter, sleeping on couch) I locked him into my bedroom while at work. He destroyed my carpet trying to get out. So I went to the garage to retrieve the crate we used years ago for him. He refused to get into it, and when I tried to physically put him into the crate. He attacked me! It was much more than a snap, he grabbed hold of my arm, and star...

I read a few of the pages on your sight about the case of the Rottweilers who killed the boy waiting for his school bus. I find it interesting that you are generally against a pack living situation for dogs. I'd like to hear your reasoning on this. Many thanks, Kristina

I am wondering if you can help us or tell us where to look for more information. Our Scottish Terrier, Angus, is 11 months old. He is a male and we also have two female Labrador Retrievers, one 6 years old and one 12 years old. Angus of late has urinated on his master twice now once when he was in his rubber boots and once when he was in moccasins. Needless to say my husband is not pleased. Is this a dominance issue or is he marking my husband. My husband does most of the fe...

My husband and I acquired a Gordon setter from a breeder who told us that Indy was a dominant bitch and couldn't get along with other bitches. We have another older dog, which is a big friendly kind of guy. We had some problems with Indy immediately, but we did get her to get along with our older dog. Four months ago, Indy began snapping at other dogs while out on walks. In one instance, my husband was bitten as he tried to pull her off another dog. These incidents are escalating q...

I'm writing on behalf of my friend Candace. She has a nine-month-old neutered male GSD named Canaan. Canaan comes from a line of even-tempered shepherds and was raised with children. Candace did some obedience work with him, though he tends to not always listen to her as well as others. Candace had a baby five weeks ago. Although she did all the appropriate things to prepare Canaan for the baby, he has not adjust well. he is fine with the baby, but takes it out on Candace. He has grabbed at h...

I have a 20-month-old male Rott. Over the past few months he has been displaying aggressive behavior when corrected. What I mean by aggressive is growling, bearing of teeth, and just last night, he actually snapped at my hand as a warning, in my opinion. He is getting to where even a stern tone makes him pin his ears, and become defensive. Even growl. He listens to commands when growling though. I can put him in a down position, and he obeys. We have 2 children 3 and 8. Also when he is permit...

I have a two-year-old Australian cattle dog that was given to me as an adult at one and a half years of age. He was such a loving dog when I got him, he liked everyone. I am a construction worker and took him to work with me to socialize him. He stayed in the back of the truck all day long and never got out as long as he could see me. He was a dog for everyone. Children use to play with him all day long. This guy at work started teasing him because he said he looks like he would bi...

We have a male Rott that is ten months old, he has one annoying habit. When on the leash he will periodically bite at the leash and we have tried everything to try him to break this habit, he seems to do it to get something going and then he gets feisty and argumentative. If you try to use force, it gets worse. The Alpha roll does not seem to get it. He is better with my wife, he really tries to get something going with me. Looking for help, we would like to break him from this and we do ...

My 6-month-old Australian Shepherd is an extremely smart, responsive dog but has no use for my husband. I walk him everyday and I used to feed him. Since we noticed this problem my husband has begun to do all the feeding, and though the dog is nicer to him he won't leave the house with him or play with him. Thanks for any help you can give us. Kathleen

I am a 40-year-old woman who has always had dogs - all kinds of dog. I particularly like dominant dogs in that I want protection (I live alone). My experience has been with Dobermans (females - love that breed). Recently I rescued/adopted an almost 2 year old Giant Schnauzer who was apparently left to his resources for 20 months. He did not have proper human bonding, was belligerent and arrogant when first here but has come around somewhat. I have worked him daily with obedience; I practi...

My puppy is very mouthy. It grabs my kids, my arms, my pants. What should I do to stop this?

Hello Ed, I've read through all of the Q&A on crate training and didn't see this specifically addressed so my apologies if it is, perhaps you could direct me to where it's already been answered. I'm sure you receive a million questions! We have two dogs a 4-month old Cairn terrier, who is doing VERY well. We've had him almost 4 weeks. We're crate training, and he makes it through the night, goes outside on command, and is just bridging the gap between knowing that he's supp...

Hi Ed: I've been raising English Mastiffs and doing rescue for the last 17 years so I am not new to puppy training to say the least. I completely agree with your method of training so this was the first place I came now that I am having some issues with our new puppy, a rottie named Odin. Odin is 10 weeks old, I've had him for 2 weeks now. He was with his mother and siblings up until I got him. I introduced him to the crate day one. He goes in for his naps and at night or when we a...

Hi Cindy, Thank you for all the great training advice you have given me in the past. I have another issue regarding my 2 year old female GSD. I raised her since she was 8 weeks old and followed Leerburg's protocol on making sure she is crated when not attended to. Thanks to this great and simple advice, she has never destroyed anything in the house. Now at 2 years old I would like to start leaving her out of the crate overnight and possibly while I am at work. What I have done up to thi...

Hi, We got our German Shepherd puppy 2 weeks ago while my girlfriend was on break from school vacation. He has learned to go to the bathroom outside, but has an occasional accident. The question I have is that he will be left in the crate from 8 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday. Should he have access to water while we are not home during this period of time? We have heard several different opinions, but it seems a little cruel to leave him without water for that period of time. Obviousl...

HELP! I am at my wits end! I have been trying to crate training a 4 month old male miniature Dachshund for 4 weeks now and I still have problems with him barking continuously at night. I do all the things the cd says to do but he still barks. I don't not keep him in a crate during the day since I am gone for nearly 10 hours to work. He is kept in a small doggy play pen. When I get home I play with him in the kitchen while I am working on Supper and then in his crate while we ea...