Recommended Q&As

Hi Cindy, I work at an animal shelter and we have a very large Dane mix (160 pounds) with us at the moment. He's an unneutered male, just over 2 years old. He grew up without boundaries and pulled his previous owners off their feet several times, even broke their leg and shoulder. We trained him to walk nicely on the leash without distractions, but he is very reactive to other dogs (sex doesn't matter, so I assume it's not a testosterone issue). When he sees dogs he lunges like crazy, ...

Hi! We have a 7 month old male Corso pup that we got when he was about 15 weeks old from a good breeder. I don’t think a lot of training was done prior and we’ve been constantly working with the dog thru the crazy puppy phase. We can’t seem to break him of this jumping and nipping that he does to me, my husband, and teen son. It seems to come out of nowhere and once he starts it’s hard to redirect without blurring the lines of rewarding bad behavior or redirecting. He’s good driven ...

So I have a new 8 week old Siberian on the way, it it’s been almost 30 years since I’ve had one this young - even though I’ve had four previous huskys. I’m looking for advice on the first few nights, and with all the videos and trainers I feel like everyone’s training advice is all different. I have a crate, but it’s not in my bedroom (although my house isn’t huge - about 1600 sqft). I think I have enough of the right gear, and am always up for other suggestions. But I will ...

I just listened to Ed's video about your advice to the lady whose veterinarian recommended to neuter her GSD at 10 months as it stopped growing. I only agreed with Ed on one thing -- that this Vet was a moron. He said that vets should stick to what they know -- i.e., medical related areas -- this is no true -- many don't even know their medical stuff. I strongly disagree that you and him recommend to neuter a dog after it matured. The research on this matter is clear - there is no hea...

Hi Cindy, I was very excited to start whistle recall training with my dog. I ordered an ACME dog whistle. I brought out high-value hot dogs and had the hot dogs in hand. Blew the whistle, and the dog tucked his tail under and ran away. I've never seen him so scared. Nothing would help bring him close to me, not even the hotdogs. It took a good 30 minutes before he would even be in the same room. I think I'll be returning the whistle as I feel it's damaging the trust I've worked so hard to ...

Hi Cindy, I would not have dreamed of asking you this question but I read an article that Ed wrote about it, so thought it may be a valid question. My 5mo shepherd still has both ears down completely. They stand up but flipped at top occasionally when alert for a few seconds but then drop. They didn’t stand up before teething either. How do I know when teething has finished? Is it when the baby teeth have all come out or when adult teeth have fully grown? Should I intervene at this age or...

I’m facing a problem with my male indoor dog. I also have two outdoor dogs—one male and one female. The outdoor male is actually his son, and there has been competition between them, which is why I separated them. Lately, my indoor dog has started marking inside the house, but only when I’m not home. When I return and try to correct him, he doesn’t seem to understand or respond to the correction. I suspect this might be related to the competition between him and his son, but I’m ...

When I walk my five and half month old female GSD along with my smaller dog, an eight year old Cavaton the GSD grabs his leash constantly. If two of us are walking and I walk her 10 yards away she pulls like crazy. Is this something that I can fix besides walking them separately? I have yet to give the GSD a leash correction and she has been doing well on solo walks even when passing other dogs. Thank you

My dog killed my kitten today. She was lying at the top of the stairs, and the kitten jumped on her trying to play and in 4 seconds he was gone. She has lived with cats in the past and has never done this. I am so heartbroken. I need to get her fitted for a good muzzle. She also tries to dominate me; she sits on me in bed and growls if I try to move. She is also aggressive to other dogs. Please how do I handle this? It can not happen again. I kept them separate for weeks. and weeks aft...

I have a pointer and when I walk her I can't let her off the leash in the woods. She becomes focused on smells in the bushes and not respond to commands. I know that her instinct is to hunt and she is so focused on the smells around her. We recently adopted her and she is 8 years old, so we don't know how much training she has had. She is very good with recall at home in the yard, except a couple of times when she wandered away and went to the woods which are across the street. She didn'...

Hi Cindy; My German Shepherd pup is 13 weeks old and I think we are entering a fear stage. He is suddenly reluctant to walk on the leash around the neighborhood, what is the best way to navigate this phase ...

Hello, I have a 1.5 y.o. Working line Female Gsd and 5 y.o. Male Gsd. Both r neutered. The female is guarded with possessions toward our male. When we are in the house relaxing and our male gets up to move towards a toy way across the room the female will rush and grab the toy. She’ll chew on it (Maybe, she just doesn’t want him to have it)then perhaps the male may a few minutes later go after another chew item. She’ll go after him again- and either take this new toy or guard it s...

Hi Cindy, Me again......I really appreciate being able to ask questions and getting good answers! Thank you! I have a 2y old upland hunting dog (by now you probably know I have Springers) who I have trained to retrieve using Michael Ellis's methods. She is awesome.....until a bird is shot. Seems a warm, just shot bird is different than the dead ones I thaw and use for different training activities. She marks and finds the just shot bird, goes out to get it, starts heading back with it ...

My dog knows to come when called but sometimes blows me off .I have now purchased remote collar training but no collar yet. My question is when we walk I enjoy seeing him chasing and hunting the rabbits will this have to stop?

Hi Cindy, first off, thank you for this wonderful service that you and Ed provide! My question is : I have a 16 week old australian sheperd/poodle mix. She plays too hard and approaches other puppies/adult dogs friendly but then wants to pounce on them and play very roughly. Some pups view her play tactics as aggressive and want nothing to do with her. We are enrolled in a 6 week puppy class that allows playtime and the trainer is working very diligently with my puppy. My puppy is on a ...

Hi Cindy, Hope your well. I have a 5 year old intact male sporting dog (Pointer). We got him when he was around 12 weeks old. Since day one he light chased. The breeder use a laser light for the puppies to chase to tire them out. Anytime there is a light reflection he will sit and stare at it, wagging his tail and whining. If the light reflection moves, he chases it and repeats the behavior. We have tried increasing his mental and physical exercise, but this actually makes him really sna...

Hi. I'm training my dog as a service dog. He is just over 3 years old. He is a mutt mix of Blue Tick Coonhound, Siberian Husky, American Pit Bull, Labrador, and many other breeds. He performs his tasks well and learns more as my disability changes. We have been training for 14 months. In public, he reacts poorly to some dogs. A male black German shepherd bit him about two years ago. I've been working with a friend who has a male black lab. His reactions are getting better until I go to Fleet ...

Hi. We used to foster through our local shelter, and foster failed with the last puppy. Lucy, the new addition , is around 9 months old and spayed. She was brought into the shelter with her litter mates at 14wks, and all were very timid. We worked a lot on obedience and commands, building trust, not rushing her - luckily she's very treat motivated. Lucy gets plenty of exercise everyday - we own a gym, and I work from home, so it's usually play with toys, the other pups, or a long trail walk w...

Hi Cindy, I have a 13 week old GSD and she’s been great, but the other day our neighbor’s dog started barking at her and she freaked out because she couldn’t see it (we were walking back into our garage). Then another day the dog came out of the garage and barked at her and my dog barked back (hair standing up, full on bark). Then she barked at another dog on our walk when they weren’t doing anything. I told her leave it and tried to re engage her, but it was hard to get her t...

Hi Cindy, I have a 7 month working line German Shepherd. I have been training him since I got him at 8 weeks old. He is wonderful at home and very obedient. However, as he got older his aggression towards other dogs increased. I have been working with a trainer who is very experienced and we have tried everything; a prong collar he gets more stimulated, a gentle leader did nothing, I tried rolling up a face towel and when he would start to stare at another dog, just before lunging I would ...