Recommended Q&As

Hi Cindy, I have a 14 month intact female Rottweiler. She was crate trained, and was relatively neutral in terms of her love of the crate. Suddenly in the last 2 weeks she is obsessed with the crate. There is no food or treat in the crate, and with the bedding removed her behavior is identical. She will spend more than half of the day inside the crate with the door open. She often runs back into it when she is out, with intensity. When she is taken outside her energy is great. Her appetite...

Hi Cindy, I'm a bit confused about the rules on puppies with toys. Ed says in several of his videos that the toys are his, and that he doesn't allow the pups to keep them. Yet in the ex pen video, there are toys in the pens that he says he rotates every 2 days. Can I get some clarification on this? My high prey drive GS pup is really getting bored. She's 9 weeks old. I am on steroid inhalers for asthma and the skin on my arms is very thin. Due to my pup being so mouthy, my arms are band...

Hello, I am trying to determine wether I should breed a healthy German Shepherd female we own. We have bred German Shepherds for 20 years but only have a litter every few years. We have an excellent female we have raised since a puppy from excellent German working lineage. Time has gotten away from us and by the time she will be whelping her puppies she will be 7+ years old. She is third generation from our breeding program and if not breed we will loose that lineage. She has never before...

Hi Cindy, My sister and I both have dogs at home that tend to bark when we are at work. We wanted to purchase the collars for both dogs but are concerned that this may limit them from playing with one another since they growl and play bark. Do you have any suggestions? Would keeping it on and off confuse the dogs? Thanks for your assistance.

Hey Cindy, I got the new Nosework DVD and just had a few questions. I didn't see puppies in the video (maybe I just missed them). I have a new puppy so was wondering when you start doing nosework with a puppy? Also, is there an odor that you typically start with so the dog always smells that at first, then switch later? If so when, do you add the additional odors? Thanks so much. Its an interesting sport and think it could be a fun side sport to play with. Thanks as always, David

Cindy, I have a 2 year old GSD (working line) with a high prey drive, strong nerves, yet a temperament on the softer side. Over the past 6 months, she has become leash aggressive (barking during our walk) at certain dogs - not all & hard to predict. This is despite us crossing the street well in advance to be as far away from the passing dog as possible and a strong pop correction on a prong collar (as strong as I can give - my weight is about 25 more pounds than my dog). She usually obeys...

Hello, I read quite a bit of your Q&A about dog biting and nothing really applied to my situation. I have 2 Golden Retrievers just under a year old. They are from the same litter, sisters. They are the best dogs I have ever owned but the problem is when we put them outside, they wrestle around and play. They are in no way trying to hurt each other and they never do this in front of my husband or I. The issue we are having is when they wrestle, they grab at each other's necks. One of th...

I have read your article about introducing dogs and babies and I found it helpful but I still have a question. We have a dog who is about ten years old, Lady. Lady has never shown signs of aggression towards anyone until recently. My son is now 11 months and Lady has suddenly started growling at him almost every time she is around him. When she isn't growling it is like she completely ignores his presence, she even jumped on top of him when getting into the car one day. We don't want to resor...

Hello, First, my wife and I wanted to thank you for providing us the information in Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months DVD and Obedience training DVD for setting us up with a wonderfully trained dog for life. The training has been fun and rewarding, so rewarding we are debating on doing more. We have a high-drive female Doberman that just turned 17 weeks old yesterday. I have been interested in protection work and Schutzhund competition but we don't have any good trainers locally. Also, I...

Hello, I got a beautiful english lab at 7 weeks old. Now she is 7 months old. She is very smart, but dominant. Since she was a pup she keeps biting my hands, feet and jumps a lot. The biting has gotten worse. If my husband and I are watching television, she will growl and try to nip at us. We correct her but she then jumps back and growls and tries again to bite. Different levels of growling and running around our condo like crazy dog until she wears herself out. We have put a lea...

Hi guys, I have purchased several of your great videos and they have been awesome. However, I am getting hung up in one area. I am teaching my new puppy to go in the kennel by throwing a treat inside and giving a "kennel" command. Now I'm trying to transition to giving the command and then rewarding the behavior with a marker/treat. Sounds simple... but now the dog won't go inside first and keeps staring at the treat. Where did I go wrong here? Thanks in advance!

Ed and Cindy, My wife and I got our first GSD 4 1/2 years ago (I got her BH last year and I've done some SHZ with a local club) and we are in love with the breed and will forever have a GSD. She is 4 1/2, our only pet, high drive and very obedient that primarily stays outside but a huge part of the family! We've trained her to be very calm in the house and has her "place" as you call it (dog mat) in the house where we allow her to come in the evenings, but she isn't allowed anywhere else i...

Cindy, After reading an article about walking a new dog in an area without distraction, I wanted to give a recommendation. I take my 4-yr old GSD for a one to two mile walk each night through an industrial park near my house (too many stupid owners whose dogs 'just want to say hi' in my neighborhood). Yes, we have to get in the car and drive a couple of minutes, but we NEVER see people or dogs. Occasionally a police car will pass by and they might stop and chat for a few minutes, but...

I adopted a German Shepherd from the local humane society. She is friendly, gets along with my other dogs, loves and trusts people and loves to fetch a ball. She is about two years old. When I try to touch her or interact she gets extremely wiggly and tries to lick me constantly. It seems very submissive but it is hard to deal with a dog that I can't even brush because she tries to lay down and lick my hand. Of course I don't want to yell at her. I need to treat her like a puppy, albeit a ver...

I am planning on switching my 5 year old Shih Tzu over to natural food soon. I know that dogs eat raw food in the wild, but I'm worried about buying him raw food at the grocery store. I have heard that raw food for humans does not have as strict regulations on it, because we cook our food. Some natural, raw food companies claim that they have higher regulations than food in our grocery stores because it is meant to be safe before cooking. Can I really trust a grocery store to sell me chicken ...

My 10 month old dobie needs a prong collar to walk nice on a leash. Nothing else works. My problem is I was putting it too loose and he now has bumps on the front of his neck down low where the collar should not be. After finding tour website and reading how to fit a prong collar I removed a link and set it up behind his ears over his and now it just seems too tight. The skin looks pinched and he gulps at times. Would a collar with smaller links fit better? This is my fifth doberman and I nev...

Hello, I recently got a french bulldog puppy. She was picked up from the airport on Sunday night, she was perfectly healthy and went to the vet the next day, he also said she was perfect. She did not itch or have any skin issues other than a little dander. I fed her the last of her food they sent Monday and Tuesday I started her on raw. She has eaten mainly chicken necks and meat from leg quarter with a little yogurt, just enough to get her to eat her digestive enzymes and probiotics. She...

I have a small dog, who has become very aggressive. He has bitten several family members and recently, in the last 6 months, has ran after several family members with teeth showing and acting like a wild animal. I had a trainer come to my home to help us with him. The dog did go for him very aggressively and he leashed him and held him head up in a choking (hanging) manner and the dog was fighting until (to me) he passed out with lack of oxygen. At his time the dog did defecate and urinate on...

I've been trying to crate train my 9 month old collie mix. We've had him for 8 days. He was crate trained at the foster house he lived in before we adopted him, and would willingly go into the crate with or without being told. However, when we say, "Go to bed," he tries to get away, will roll over and play dead, or do anything that it takes to not go into his crate. I'm thinking about moving his crate into the family room and luring him in with treats to get him to start liking it again. We d...

Hi Cindy, My miniature schnauzer delivered 9 puppies on Monday. She was very large before giving birth, so we anticipated a large litter and purchased puppy formula from our Vet. After delivery we were very concerned about this being such a large litter, and wondering if she would be able to care for each puppy. So on Tuesday we got involved and started helping her, by feeding the puppies the formula/supplement advised by our Vet. The puppies hated it, and just whined as we were feeding th...