Recommended Q&As

Good morning, I am needing some new ideas to help get one of my dogs through a particular situation. I teach puppy socialiazation classes and am very familiar with clicker training. I also show in conformation and this is the arena where I am having the problem. About a year ago one of my young females was terrified by a judge in the ring just as he was coming up to her for her exam. During this year I have used the clicker to help her with focus and to have people come up to her and pet ...

Hi, I feel terrible even writing this email, but I would like your advice on this. 2 weeks ago my fiance and I purchased a rescued 3 month old GSD mix. We were 3 weeks out from our wedding and about to close on a new fixer upper home w/ only floorboards in place. We thought this would be the ideal situation while puppy training. Well, the close on the house got delayed, so we are now 2 adults, 2 cats and an untrained puppy in my 600 sq/ft carpeted condo. The puppy naturally is having ac...

Completed the first two Michael Ellis DVDs and 11 month old dog is progressing great EXCEPT he has "sticky" outs. He understands to out but if it is a tug he will continue to teeth it. If its a ball after a retrieve he will come right to me and will out on command but then when ball hits ground will attack it. I have tried simply saying no for a period of time, have said no followed by continuous tension with the leash until he drops it but once it hits ground he is back on it. I have tried s...

Hello, I have a quick question. I am taking my 7 month old GSD/Mal mix through your Basic Obedience after completing the traditional classes. She did very well and continues to do very well. The issue I am having is she is very "goosey" (gets behind me, starts jumping around, hair goes up and doesn't really growl, but makes noise to get back) around people when they get within about 3-5 feet of me or her. I tell the people to ignore her, don't come any closer, back up and I put her in eith...

I have a cocker poo that we love dearly (weights 28 lbs) that eats paper and clothes. We have tried everything-behavior training, lemon juice, etc. If you leave something down for a second he is off and running. I use a walker so it is difficult to get to him. He is also bad when he goes with his dog walker trying to grab paper in the street etc. I even had a nutritional study done but he was fine. I am terrified that he will get ill. Recently a friend left her denim jacket on the couch for a...

I am very interested in your new leash for prong/dominant dog collars. Great idea! However, Please clarify: When you previously have discussed the proper fitting of the dominant dog collar, you have stated it should be worn high on the dog's neck just below the jaw. In the video for the new leash, you show the dominate dog collar being worn well down the dog's neck. Is it safe to assume this is for illustration purposes and that both collars should be worn as you have always recommended? Plea...

Hello, I have an updated Adobe Flash Player but I do not have required download speed you mention to watch a smooth video. Is there any other way I can watch your streaming videos from you newsletters, please? To watch a video that stutters this much is impossible to follow. Thanks a million, Angela

Dear Mr. Frawley, I am a newer, but loyal customer. I just got the new Ellis DVD on working without a decoy and I thinks it's the best one you guys have put out yet. I have a 10 1/2 month old Dutch Shepherd and I have done a poor job socializing him. I have focused too much on protection training. He has tons of drive to work, but I need to really improve his socialization... can you please give me some guidance on how to, and what not to do. I greatly appreciate your time and advice.

Dear Ed and Cindy, I have a problem occurring between my 8 MO. GSD, and my 1 YO. Siberian Husky. This problem only occurs when I'm at the off leash dog park with them. The problem is when my husky starts getting ahead of my GSD, my GSD will chase her down and sack her. By the time my GSD catches up to the husky, they are traveling pretty fast. This is not a mutual, back and forth game that they play. It seems as if my GSD is preying, or maybe she just wants to be in control. Either way, I...

My question is this, I bought a DVD "8 weeks to 8 months" then went to a link that said watch your "streaming video," is this available to me because I bought the DVD or will it charge me another 40 dollars if I watch the streaming video? Thank you, Brad

Cindy, I had emailed you quite a while ago with a question about a GSD female that used to love tugs and bite work, but suddenly stopped. You mentioned seeing the vet and chiropractor, which I did but still didn't seem to fix the problem. What it ended up being was a hormone imbalance, she had a "deformed" ovary. She had been left intact until this past week, and when performing the spay the vet noticed the problem. It was very large and misshapen. It was biopsied and was not cancerous, bu...

My 8 month old male Standard Poodle has recently challenged me by biting twice. We adopted him from a family that neglected him during the first 16 weeks of his life leaving him unsocialized and with some behavior issues. When we brought him home at 4 months, he had severe seperation anxiety if left alone and will bark excessively non stop and still does. We try to take him on walks and to dog parks as much as possible, he gets along with other dogs great but he is still very shy towards stra...

My puppy is a boxer mix. He is about 4 months old and is very playful and friendly with everyone. The problem is excitement/submissive urination. He will run up to someone with his tail wagging, but when they pet him he pees. I have raised 2 dogs now by a Koehler method with positive reinforcement. They were great dogs and eventually did not need to be on a leash to continuously heel and immediately sit when I stopped walking. Neither of those dogs had a urination problem though. He is ...

I've had my 7 year old pitt mix since she was 4 weeks old. I took her through obedience classes and she follows commands nicely unless she is excited about visitors. She's never been aggressive towards anyone. The only aggression I've seen is towards other dogs who approach us while walking and towards a friends toy poodle who constantly harassed her. Up until now she's been great with my son who is 16 months. He loves petting and hugging her and I truly thought she liked it as she's a...

Hi Cindy, I have a 4 1/2 year old GSD that I got as a 2 1/2 year old. She absolutely goes nuts over the vacuum cleaner. thought she was afraid of it until I read on the site that her behavior is likely due to prey drive. That makes sense because she has a very strong prey drive as evidenced in play and her interest in chasing squirrels (which she doesn't get to do because she isn't off leash anyplace we might encounter them). Do you have any suggestions on how to train her to know the vacu...

I adopted a 5 y/o male Rottweiler 3 months ago who occasionally nips other dogs, children, and even me. He is a neutral dog - submissive to me (pack leader) but neither submissive or overly dominant towards other dogs/people. The family I got him from had a 2-3 y/o little girl and he is obsessed with small children when I take him to the park, especially little girls. He gets excited and stays close and keeps a close watch on them. He did a very gentle nip to a little boy who was running and ...

Hi Mr. Frawley, I checked the training articles and discussion boards. Forgive me if the answer is there somewhere. My dog seems to care less where or what he steps on. He carelessly steps on my feet when walking near, running by, or even coming up to and sitting in front of me. It is not all the time but frequent enough that I want to stop this because I just do not like it. I have trouble thinking of a way to accurately correct this when the incident occurs- he steps on and off of my foo...

I'm working on building drive and focus with 1 year old German Shepherd. She has trememdous intensity. When we work with the tug toys we are at the stage where she will wait (sit) until I give a release command to try and grab the tug, and she will also out-it when requested. She will also stay seated as I walk away, and come to get it only when released. As I ratchet up intensity (by darting the tug in front of her so she has to work really hard to grab it) there have been one or two times w...

We have an 8 month old Golden Retriever that is training with a prong collar. We are happy with the training results, but hate the dark ring and the broken hair that results from this collar. I have been on your site and wanted to know if you think the curogan collar might be the answer for us. Thank you.

Hi Ed, I have a three and a half month old Newfoundland pup and have recently ran into some problems while training her on the down command. Up until this point she has been very easy to train, learning sit in just a few minutes and generally being a very well mannered dog. I'm using a 12' training line and a prong type collar as well. She understands the down command but simply does not want to perform it and even bit me a couple of times while I have administered corrections. I have been...