Chuck W
Hi Robert! We have a 12 week old Rottie male that wants to eat everything in the yard instead of just going out to use the bathroom. Instead of placing him out, ignoring him until he goes, then having the celebration, we spend the entire time saying “leave it” and removing things from his mouth. We always have him on a long lead so we can do gentle corrections. We have tried walking around keeping his head pulled up so he can’t get to the grass, sticks, leaves and rabbit poop (he actually hunts for that!). Instead of being a positive and fun learning experience, none of us enjoy going outside.
Tom
Hi Robert, I love your work and philosophy. I’m based in Europe, where we have a crisis of the force free ideology spreading and it’s frustrating and saddening, so having your resource is so helpful. My question is related to something you wrote in your book “Desperate Dogs”. For a dog that is scared of another person, you say never to get the person the dog is scared of to feed the dog treats. Just wondered what the reasoning for this was please? I thought dropping treats from the scary thing would be a good way to desensitize the fearful dog
Victoria
I always thought that a dog should never put his teeth on a human, but recently, a young local trainer posted a video of herself wrestling her GSD, and said that as long as there is an off-switch, it is okay to play rough and wrestle with a dog, including letting him put his mouth on her. I was wondering if it would be a fun thing to try, or if it is not a good idea. I have a sweet Retriever.
Nikki L
Hi, I have a 7 month old puppy who is a rescue. She is pooping in her crate and peeing. Is this from anxiety? What are the solutions if the cage is the right size?
Kristin M
Hello again. Sorry I keep bugging you with questions. I do have another concern. I’ve noticed with my little beligan pup, when she gets nervous or scared, or pees herself. Another sign why I think she was abused or mistreated before the spca. What can I do to help her overcome that? She does stand up for herself with other dogs. But car rides, she gets nervous and pees. Or i.e. my older sign came running in the house to grab something and I think the she got scared and she tickled herself. What can I do to help her with that? Thank you!
Lauren K
I have a 2 year old Mal who is just beginning to grey around the muzzle. I had heard that it’s a common with the breed, but I can’t help but worry that it’s a sign of premature aging. She gets daily exercise, training, and play, we minimize chemical exposure (no harsh pest preventatives) and she’s on the BARF diet. Is there anything else I can do to help slow this progression, or am I making much to do about nothing? Thank you for your time.
Anita
Hello, It is me again with my distracted Akita Inu having some correcting issues
There are few things I don’t know if or how they should be corrected.
Example: She walks great next to leg but when I allow her to go to grass she starts pulling if she needs to do her business. If I correct her pulling she gives up and goes back to me and I just wanted her to slow down
Other times I command her something and she does it but way to slow. Not sure if that is for correcting because she is still doing it.
And last she gets nervous and wines when we pass near dog park. Do I correct whining and how?
Nickher R
Should I correct my dog when she’s whining to other dogs? She is pretty reactive and we’ve been slowly doing progress with her, but one of her main problems is the whining. Whenever a dog starts barking at her specially from afar, she’ll start whining. Should I correct the whining or only if she lunges or barks?
Shloak
Hello,
How should I go about training my dog to only alert me when guests have come and effectively communicate to her that she can relax and i can handle things, what typically occurs is she’ll bark at new guests when entering the house and will stop 2 minutes into them entering then everything will go back to normal. My main concern is I want her to be completely in my control and also be aware that barking is NOT a bad thing, as I prefer her at least alerting me with a bark or two when somebody is on the property. Should I reward 1-2 barks and send her to the crate right away?
Naomi K
Hello. As we entered the park where I train/play/walk off-leash my 3yo GSD every day, we heard very loud thunder which totally scared her. For the last 2 times when I parked at the same spot, she refused to get out of the car. I parked at different place, walked her to the place where we heard thunder and tried to play her favorite game with bunch of treats. She took treats and listened to me but didn’t play with a ball which she usually loves to play. She looked very anxious for our entire stay at the park. Should I continue to take her there or not take her there for a while? Thank you.
Lisa
Hello Robert and Janet,
We are considering an in ground pool. We have one GSD who is 14 months old. Do you have advice for saltwater vs chlorine? Any other GSD specific tips or things to avoid? Thank you for your input! Lisa in Michigan.
Nadja
Hello Jen and Robert! Many people seem to like flirt poles for exercising their dogs, what is your take on those? Do they encourage a dogs prey drive and can that cause problems? Can they cause injuries?
Mark
Hello Robert,
Mark from Adelaide, Australia.
Love all your work and abundance of information.
?When reducing reward frequency do I still use my ‘yes’ as a marker. Previously this marker is always followed by a treat/ reward. Or do I come up with another marker word?
I use ‘good’ as a continuous marker.
Thanks
Chuck
Hi! For a few weeks now our 13 wk old male rottie does nothing outside but eat grass, etc and rabbit poop in the yard. We have to continually walk him around on a leash holding his head up saying “leave it” until he finally goes to the bathroom. We take him directly outside, after being in the crate, playing or eating, with no engagement until he goes, followed by a huge celebration when he does. But because of the grass issue, he doesn’t even really enjoy going out and neither do we. Instead of a fun training time it’s just a frustration for us all! Suggestions? Thank you so much!
Jordon
Hello Robert,
I have a 9.5 month old working line GSD. We’re actively training towards our BH. One of our current issues is leash pulling. I have followed your videos, changing directions and letting the prong collar correct him. He will pay attention for a short time and not pull if we’re actively changing directions, but if we stop doing that and just walk in a straight line for >10 seconds its like he just forgets and goes back to pulling. This leads to me basically only walking in circles/back and forth/etc, without actually walking anywhere.
What am I missing here?
Patrick H
Robert,
I have a 19 month old Malinois, named Creek. Creek is an awesome dog, he is very friendly and not dominant or aggressive. He has had basic and off leash obedience training and does very well. The one issue that we are struggling with is he is very reactive towards cyclists. we do lots of hiking and he is great passing other dogs and people but bike, set him off. I am sure I am making the problem worse because when I see a bike coming I will tense up and generally tighten up on his lease, bracing for his “launch” ANy suggestions would be great. Thanks!
Julie
Hello Robert and Janet- How do you correct a doberman that heels so close it trips the handler. The dogs head is turned inward onto the handlers thigh instead of forward too. Thank you for your help.
Ryan
What is your recommendation on retraining and correcting a severly abused Bully?She refuses to listen to any commands and she essentially does whatever she wants whenever she wants. It took quite some time just for her to get used to me because of how afraid of men she is and she still cowers if I use a stern tone with her or move to quickly in the house. I tried an e collar but even on the lowest setting she peed, a prong and choke makes her shake when she is wearing it. For the most part she is a sweet dog but she needs structure and needs to relearn obedience.
Ryan A
I’ve been seriously considering the purchase of an e-collar to my dogs. By now, I don’t expect off leash walking, I just hope that it’ll help with their reactivity towards other dogs and make them listen outside. I just want you to tell me if I get or not how to use one.
Let’s say it’s an collar that goes from 0 to 99 and I find out that my dog’s working level is 4. Whenever I give him a command I press the button until the obey and release immediately after, and whenever they decide to lunge or bark to something I press the button at like a 14. Is that right?
Fred T
So I’ve been binge watching your videos at the platform, and I came across the part 3 video where you guide Sonny and Ben. In case you don’t remember, Ben is the black German Shepherd. And in that particular lesson, I saw that you opted to have the leash attached to the martingale (I think) instead of the prong collar the dog was wearing, where I guess the prong would be more effective in communicating with the dog. Why didn’t you use the prong collar? Is there a strategy behind it or was it a requirement from the owner?
Marie S
I have three mongrel dogs. One is the mother, the other two are their female “puppies”. The “puppies” are almost 3yo. Sometimes the puppies fight with each other, and there are no apparent reasons, and it’s almost always a specific puppy that begins, let’s call her X. Sometimes X is playing with her mother. The mother is growling and gently biting. Y is just minding her business.
Then suddenly, X gets up, goes to Y staring at her and growling wanting to fight. Y tries to avoid, but X follows her. Eventually they leave and X returns playing, but smt they fight. What could that be?
Ellie
I have 2 Mal pups, they are 12 weeks old. We live on a farm and I’d love to be in the position where they wouldn’t chase/herd the livestock. I appreciate I may never get there and may have to keep them separated forever, but how do I begin to manage their herding/chasing instinct? I appreciate they are still puppies but I just want to start as I mean to go on. Thanks so much
Keryn S
I have a 2 yr old Female GSD and every time it’s feeding time she constantly barks. I say get in your place after she starts running around crazy . She goes but constantly barks. My little Chuweenie sits quietly. Our new puppy is learning but afraid he is starting to pick up her bad habit. Any suggestions. I started to move her into crate. Which she just barks crazy there. Once she is quiet I say yes and she runs to eat her food. She is good with waiting it’s just the chaos of barking.
Zaid
I have a 7 month female GSD, I’ve been struggling with getting her to engage with me during training. I’ve tried lots of different approaches, I don’t seem to ever be more interesting than other dogs or sniffing grass. She is aware of where I am, she will move close to me and stay around me, however she wont look at me or engage. she will even respond to basic commands (sit/down) but she will also do them while looking at whatever she is distracted by. Is this something I can fix? if yes, please advise me on what i should focus on for the next couple of weeks
Joseph D
Hi, my 1 yr old GSD has never liked going for walks in the neighborhood. It takes a lot of correction to get her moving initially and it seems obvious this is not something she likes to do. Do you think I should just stop and not force her to walk? She is OK when walking with our older dog but I don’t always have someone else to come with us to take one of them and cannot walk both by myself. I’ve never had a dog that did not like going for walks and do not know how to handle. Thanks
Gina
Hi Robert, I’m starting to teach my dog the concept of the the e-collar, how long/often should I have him wear it throughout the day when we are not training? I don’t want him to get collar savvy. And how many short sessions should I do per day? I tried the garmin delta se but just purchased the chameleon for him, I want the contact reliability it offers to ensure I find his correct working level, to eliminate as much error as possible when getting him to understand. I’m hoping it will feel more like his normal collar to him vs the tight box feel of the garmin, having used both do you agree?
Darius
I know that we should start our puppies with a flat/ martingale collar, but my question is when do we introduce the other types? I know you always say to introduce a prong collar & e-collar in the 6-9 month window. When should we introduce the slip lead? Can it be done before 6 months? My Mal is almost 4 months old and she pulls a lot when she sees other dogs with a martingale, can I switch to skip leads for walks? Thank you so much for everything you do
