Ebook : Questions and Answers on Raising and Training Puppies

Questions & Answers

on Raising and Training Puppies

By Ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

I try and answer every question I receive on dog training. I may often come across as a little on the blunt side (some may call it brash). That is because I consider myself an advocate for dogs and not dog handlers. I am an advocate for common sense dog training and not the latest fad that appears on the horizon. Good dog training is not rocket science. It’s common sense.

Table of Contents 

1. What are the best toys for puppies? 

2. What kind of dog crate do you recommend?

3. What are the concerns in adding a 3rd dog  to a family? 

4. The ears on my 14 week old German Shepherd pup were up. 2 days ago one  went back down. Should I be worried? 

5. I am 64 years old and have a very hard time cutting my 19 week old German Shepherd puppy’s   nails. What should I do?

6. My 8 month old Rottie growls at me when I try and take his toy away. What should I do?

7. I have a 10 week old American Pitbull Terrier. He is very aggressive toward strangers already. Should I be concerned ?

8. My pup seems to want to fight with other dogs, what do I do? 

9. My wife and I have ordered a pup from you and have a few questions on puppy  training. 

10. My son has a 4 month old German Shepherd. It snaps or “bites” quite often to a degree than can be pretty painful. Otherwise, it has a lovable, friendly nature. Should this be acceptable considering his

age or would you recommend an attempt  be made to correct it? 

11. We have a 3 month old pup German Shepherd and a cat who play chase a lot!The problem is when we call the pup to come he acts like he doesn’t hear us. How do we correct this and get his attention? 

12. Our pup is 4 months old. She is almost impossible to walk down the street  because she pulls so hard. She also wants  to chase cars. Are these things she will get  over or do I need to take corrective  

measures to stop them? I am just concerned with not wanting to make a  mistake.


13. Why is it so important to work with a ball on a string with young pups?

14. Can you tell us how to housebreak our puppy?

15. I have a 7 month old puppy that walks around the yard at a very fast pace. Is this normal?

16. I only have 30 minutes a day for my dog. How do I train it to be a protection dog?

17. I bought a 6 week old puppy, (the last of 14 in the litter). It screams when we go near it. What should I do?

18. What does the “Stamped Normal” mean on a pedigree?

19. I have a 5 day old litter, should I be concerned over the weight gain on our  small female?

20. Should I imprint my new puppy for police work?

21. When should you neuter your puppy?

22.  I have an Airedale pup who throws a fit if it doesn’t get its own way. What should I do?

23. Almost every day my 6 month old Britany escapes from her crate when we are at  work. What can I do?

24. My husband corrected our 12 week old Border Collie for running to the food bowl. Now he won’t eat. What should I do?

25. When we are gone our 7 month old GSD chews up everything in the house. What should we do?

26. My 3 1/2 month old GSD has a slight overbite. Will he grow out of this?

27. When I work with my puppy on the puppy tug, he goes for the handle and not the tug itself. Why is this?

28. My puppy was attacked in a dog park. How can I recognize when a dog is going to attack my dog?

29. The puppy that we bought from you is terribly afraid of other dogs. Two older  dogs bit it. Our local puppy class instructor  told us to squirt bitter apple in his mouth if he screams when an older dog comes near  him.


30.  We have a 12 year old cocker and just got a puppy. The pup is terrorizing the older dog. What should we do?

31. Is there such a thing as a “fear period” that puppies go through?

32. We found what looks to be a purebred black lab roaming in the ditch in the country. We were thinking of getting a  hunting dog and would like to know if this  dog would work out for that.

33. I have a GSP that doesn’t want to bond  with me. What can I do?

34. I would like to get a German Shepherd, but I am out of the house for about 12 hours a day, five days a week. How long can a dog remain in the crate?

35. I just wanted to let you know of a bad experience that we just had with our  puppy and our garage door opener.

35. My male Jack Russell almost killed our new female puppy. What should we do?

36. Our young Leerburg puppy has developed  a habit of wanting to chase cars when I  walk it. What should I do?

37. Our Rot female puppy is constantly licking or lapping. It bugs me. What can we do to stop it?

38. We recently got a puppy. We have an in-ground pool and want to teach him to  swim. What should we do?

39. We are trying to raise 2 littermates at one time. I have some questions.

40. My puppy has no play drive. What can I do to develop his drive to do protection work?

41. Our 8-week old puppy cries in the crate at night. My husband shakes it and scolds it, but it is not working. What should we do?

42. How long should our 10 week old puppy spend in the dog crate? We get up at 2 AM and let her outside when she cries, should we stop doing this?

43. My puppy has a submissive urination problem. When my husband goes near him he squats and pee, even if he has just come in from outside. What should I do?

44. Can you give me some ideas on how to get my litter off on the right foot so the pups  are not dog aggressive?

45. My 41/2 month old puppy drools when I even walk him near our car, much less try and put him in it for a drive. We travel a lot and would like to take the puppy with us. What can we do?

46. My 15 week old GSD has started barking at people that come into my home. I want her to be a personal protection dog, so I am unsure of how to deal with this barking. Should I scold her and stop her from  barking at strangers?

47. What kind of dog should I buy?

48. I bought a pup from another breeder and it is very shy. What should I do?

49. My 10 week puppy has a lot of drive for a ball on a string, but little interest in going after a towel. How can I get it to go after a towel to work on grip?

50. We have a 10 week old puppy that  continues to bite. I shake it, the breeder tells us to slap the heck out of his nose  when he chews on us. Now he’s shy - what  should we do?

51. Our 11 week old puppy cries all the time at night. I have been hitting her with a roiled up newspaper to get her to be quiet. This only works for awhile. What can we do?

52. I bought an American Bulldog from good bloodlines. It seems to be very shy. I have only corrected it twice and it is very hand sensitive. What can I do?

53. I have had a trainer train my 5 month old puppy. The dog does sit, down, stay and heel. Can you tell me how to do 180 degree about turns?

54. My pup is 6 months old and friendly to everyone. Did I buy the wrong puppy because I want a protection dog?

55. My dog will not allow me to brush him or cut his nails. The vet has to knock him out  to do the nails. What can I do?

56. I have a young pup and have to go away for the weekend. My vet has a boarding kennel that I am able to leave the pup at while I’m gone, but I’m concerned about leaving my pup when it’s so young. Will this affect his training and development?

57. I just bought 2 GSD puppies. They like being in the same crate. Should I allow  this?

58. Our 12 week old puppy is very nervous when in the crate, whines and cries the whole time, and drools terribly. Will he get dehydrated?

59. We have a 10 month old GSD that we think  is bored during the day while we are at work. Should we buy a second puppy to keep him busy when we are gone?

60. I bought a GSD puppy that is 5 months old. It’s the Alpha dominant pup. It is very protective- it barks very aggressively at any dog it sees when I am out with it. I have a few questions about this.

61. A local trainer recommended that we get a choke collar for our 16 week old Golden Retriever that pulls too hard when we walk him. Should we?

62. My puppy eats ROCKS and STICKS and GRASS every time I take her out. What can
I do?

63. I read your instructions on socialization of dogs. My question is how do you do proper socialization if you never allow your dog to come in contact with strangers or other dogs?

64. I have small children. My 8 week old puppy snapped at food from my hand yesterday. What should I do?

65. My obedience class lets the dogs all run loose together at the end of class. Should I let my 6 month GSD loose as well?

66. My 12 week old pup scratches and bites himself excessively even though nothing is wrong with his skin. Do you have any advice about what to do?

67. My 6 month old female GSD has been showing signs of being weak nerved lately.
What do you think?

68. My Weimaraner pup tends to eat her food too fast. What can we do to slow her down?

69. My 12 week old puppy will not follow us,  and cries and screams when we pull her on walks. Please help!

70. We have an 11 week old Cockapoo that is aggressive. A trainer told us that this is not normal and we should put the pup down or give him back to the breeder. We have young children. What are your thoughts?

71. My 11 month old Schnoodle is terrified of the invisible fence. I have had the fence a week and she refuses to go into the yard. As a result she has had accidents in the house. What can I do?

72. My 4 month old puppy is very dominant over her littermates. She even tried to bite my husband when he tried to stop her. I want to send her to a trainer, but am  worried about corrections at this young of  an age. Do you have any suggestions?

73. I have a comment on the use of a puppy prong collar on my 3 month old GSD.

74. My 14 week old puppy pees when he is excited. He is also moody about his eating habits. Do you have any thoughts?

75. Ever since I corrected my puppy for growling at me, she acts fearful. What should I do now?

76. My dog tears up my bedding when I am gone. Do you have any ideas?

77. I have a 4 1/2 month old GSD from Czech lines. He is afraid of strange people and is dog aggressive to strange dogs. What should I do?

78. My 11 week old Shiloh Shepherd pup  keeps eating rocks and mulch when  outside. What can I do to keep him safe?

79. I am being pushed to join a puppy kindergarten class by the owner. I prefer to train my puppy myself. What do you suggest?

80. I just got a puppy. I can only take it outside once a day. Do you have any advice on training her with potty pads?

81. My puppy is afraid of other dogs? Is this a socialization issue? What should I do?

Answer
1 .........

Ebook : Putting Your Dog To Sleep

How Do You Decide that Today is the Day to Put 

Your Best Friend 

to Sleep? 

A Tribute to a Friend 

“THE RAINBOW BRIDGE”

Click here to download ebook

The recent death of a friend’s 13 1/2-year-old German Shepherd, again reminded me of January the 5th, 1998 (the worst day of my life to date). I was forced to make the hardest decision I have ever been faced with, that was to put my best friend (Nickie) to sleep. This was something I had put off for months. 

Going through the process to make this decision for an old or sick dog is a long and painful experience. 

Mine went something like this: 

• Boy he's not looking too good today. 

• The steroids really made him act like he did 3 or 4 months ago; this is great! 

• He is not able to hold his bladder (because of the steroids). This is hard for him. He knows he shouldn't be having accidents in the house. It embarrasses him. He is so proud. 

• The heck with the Steroids. They are fixing one problem but causing him too many other problems. It's not worth it (for him). 

• Now he can't walk up stairs again. 

• God he's getting worse again. I know I am going to have to make the decision. I can't even think about it! 

• I don't mind picking him up and carrying him down the steps to the front yard so he can relieve himself. I have to steady him. His old legs are a little wobbly. 

• "How do I know what day is going to be THE DAY"? Look at the way he looks at me. Do I wake up one morning and decide, "today is the day I am going to be a cold hearted S.O.B. and call the vet?" No. I don't mind carrying him outside. It's not so hard and I really don't mind cleaning up after him in the house, it's not like he meant to do it. 

• God, he fell down the steps again. That really hurt him. He still has the heart but the body is gone. 

• Am I keeping him alive for myself or for him? 

• Shit, he can't even get up this morning. He was forced to lie in a pool of urine all night because he couldn't move. Today is the day. Thank God my vet will come to the house. 

• The vet is here and I don't have the guts to watch this. I give him one last hug. I have to leave the house crying like a baby. Thank God for my ex-wife. She held him until the end. 

• Every now and then when things slow down I find myself thinking of our times together. It almost always brings a lump to my throat and quite often a tear to my eye. 

• We sure had some good times. 

• It's been 11 months and 6 days. As I wrote this I started to cry again. I can't help it. Who cares? Not me!! I still miss him andthink about him every day when I look at his pictures in my bedroom. 

The answer to the question of “When is the right day?” Should always be when you ask “Am I keeping him alive for me and not for him?” 

The following poem (The Rainbow Bridge) is one that was sent to me after Nickie died. I asked a local artist friend here in town to do the artwork. I took this poem along with several very nice photos of Nickie and had them matted and framed. They hang on my bedroom wall. I am thinking about asking her if we can make prints to offer people who lave lost their pet. If you are interested in purchasing a print, please go to http://alldog360.blogspot.com/

Ebook : Puppies

Puppies

By: Ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

Pack Structure 

Dogs are pack animals, just like wolves are pack animals. They are predators. Horse and cows on 

the other hand are herd animals and as such they are prey animals. 

Predators live by one set of genetic rules, prey animals live by a different set of genetic rules. Pack animals live in family packs which have a pack leader and lower ranking pack members. 

Dog packs, like wolf packs, are not a democracy. A pack is organized in a hierarchy of rank. Simply 

put this means every member of the pack knows exactly what its rank is within the family pack. Pack animals genetical y understand this concept. This concept is the reason people have dog fights when they add a new dog to a home that already has dogs. Everyone has to re-establish the new pecking order when a new pack member comes on board. 

The Beginning of Pack Structure 

When a puppy is raised with litter mates they begin to establish their family pack at about 4 ½ weeks of age. They start by playing with one another. 

They bite and push each other around. Those pups that bite the hardest and push the most become the higher ranking pack members of the litter. 

With that said there is no question that the mother is the pack leader. A good mother wil exert her leadership by warning puppies to stay away from her food bowl when she is eating. She protects her litter which demonstrates leadership and she also controls the litter in subtle ways that establish her as the pack leader. 

What is a Pack Leader? 

When people get puppies they need to establish themselves as the new pack leader. To do this correctly they should first understand exactly what a pack leader is. 

Pack leaders are aloof, they are calm and they are self confident. A pack leader is fair in how he lives 

with pack members and while he is a dictator, he is a fair dictator who enforces a wel defined set of rules that members know, understand and are expected to live by. 

What a pack leader is not is a dictator who looses his temper, bul ies pack members into compliance, and does not act in a fair manner in regard to the lives of pack members. 

For example, the leader always eats first. Lower ranking members don’t get the choice food. But when the leader is finished and he turns the food over to other pack members, he does not come back and drive them away from the food. 

People who put food down and then take it away or push the dogs away from the food bowl are bul ies. This is how their dogs view them too. This is not practicing fair leadership principles. 

The correct way is to make the dog do something (i.e. sit) before the food is put down. But once its 

down they leave it alone until its time to pick it up. We leave food down for 15 minutes and then pick it up, even if the dog has not eaten it al . 

It’s easy to bul y your way into a leadership position. People (mostly men) do this al the time. The problem is that the bul y destroys their relationship with their dogs. 

I want my pack members to trust me, feel relaxed around me and be comfortable in my presence. 

The only way this can happen is if they know the rules and anticipate our expectations. When that happens they know they wil be treated fairly. They also know that if they ignore the rules they 

wil suffer the consequences. 

This leadership relationship is a learned endeavor. 

It’s learned through the day to day experiences of living with an owner who establishes and enforces rules. It’s also learned through formal obedience training. But with this said I tel people that hundreds of thousands of dogs go through obedience classes in this country every year. The vast majority of 

dominant dogs come out of these classes just as dominant as when they went in. That’s because 

the owners were not trained in pack structure. 

When puppies grow up and become dominant, aggressive dogs they always live with people who do not establish the correct family pack structure.

Ebook : Preventing Dog Bites in Children

Preventing Dog Bites in Children 

How to Avoid Dog Bites in Children

By: Ed Frawley

 

Click here to download ebook

How to Avoid Dog Bites in Children 

According to a 994 study by Mathews and Lattal approximately one million dog bites occur every 

year in the United States – according to the study 60-70% of those involve children, boys are bitten 

more often than girls and a third of the dogs that attack children are owned by the family. 

A study by Beck done in 975 indicated that 87% of biting dogs are intact males and most dogs bites occur in or near the victim’s home. Another study by Sacks in 989 indicated that 70% of the children that were killed by dogs were under the age of 0 and % were under the age of one year with 7% being sleeping infants.

A young boy after a dog attack

HINTS for PARENTS to TEACH YOUR CHILD Concerning Dogs 

1. . NEVER disturb any dog who is sleeping, eating, or caring for puppies. 
2. . NEVER pet a dog, even your own, without letting him see and sniff you first. 
3. . Children must always ASK PERMISSION from the owner and their parents BEFORE petting any dog. I never allowed my children near strange dogs much less pet them. 
4. . If the owner cannot control the dog and have it SIT nicely for the child to pet, WALK AWAY. 
5. . NEVER approach a dog who is confined behind a fence, within a car, or on a chain. 
6. . NEVER TEASE any dog by poking at them through fences or car windows or reaching your arm through to pet them. 
7. . NEVER approach a strange dog you don’t know or a dog who is not with his owner. 
8. . NEVER RUN away from a dog that is chasing you. STOP, STAND STILL, REMAIN CALM, ARMS AT YOUR SIDES, be quiet and DO NOT SCREAM. Walk away SLOWLY FACING THE DOG BUT NOT STARING AT its eyes. 
9. . If a dog attacks, “feed” him your jacket, a school book, a bicycle, or anything else that you can get 
10. between you and the dog. 
11. . If you are attacked, STOP, CURL UP IN A BALL LIKE A TURTLE, COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR ARMS AND HANDS. 

If you own any dog, but especially a dog that has had the smallest amount of aggression or protection training it is your moral and legal obligation to make sure that you do everything possible to insure that your dog is never in a situation where it could bite a child. 

The Humane Society estimates that there are 800,000 dog bites that require medical attention every year. Dog bites rank second behind sexually transmitted diseases as the most costly health problem in the country. Over 60% of those bitten are children and 80% of the fatalities are children. 

I am not going to go into the reasons people train dogs to bite. But if you want to have your eyes opened I suggest that you buy the book we sell titled FATAL DOG ATTACKS - The Stories Behind the Statistics, This book will shock you. 

When you start to read it you cannot put it down. 

The STUPIDITY of how people handle their dogs will shock you 

I am the first to admit that problems exist when inexperienced people attempt to protection train a dog with inappropriate temperament. Many often follow this training with inadequate and irresponsible handling or housing. The fact is that most dog bites occur from dogs that have had little to no training, they simply have poor temperament. 

They are either sharp, dominant or territorial animals. 

A perfect example occurred in Kansas a few years ago when Sabine Davidson allowed her Rotts to kill an year old neighbor boy. This case was an example of one mistake compounded upon another. 

• Ms. Davidson had attempted protection training her 4 Rotts. 

• She had tried to join several Schutzhund clubs and had been kicked out of all of them. 

• She had purchased several training videos from me. 

• The dog had an inappropriate temperament. When I testified against her in court, I saw video of one of these dogs. It had weak nerves and was a sharp dog. 

• From all indications the male pack leader was a dominant dog. 

• The dogs were allowed to live together in the back yard and were not kept in separate kennels. (This elevated their pack drive.) 

• The gate to the back yard was in poor repair. The dogs had gotten out of the yard numerous times and roamed the neighborhood chasing children into their homes. As a result of this, the dogs had 

established a large area that they considered "THEIR TERRITORY". 

• The police had warned them on numerous occasions to fix the gate and keep the dogsin. 

• The Davidson's had not made any attempt to repair the gate. 

• The dogs were allowed to run the fence and bark aggressively at neighborhood children who would be playing across the street (The Rotts considered this their territory and the children were looked at as prey or competition to that territory) 

I am proud of the fact that I testified (free of charge) for / hours at the Davidson trial and helped put her in prison for years. The DA sent me a letter that he would not have gotten a conviction without my testimony. I would do it again in a similar case. 

This article deals with things that can be done to help eliminate child bites in dogs. It’s too late for the young boy in the Davidson case (and I am not sure that the things I am about to talk about would 

have saved his life; we will never know.) But there are things that other children can do to lessen their 

chances of getting bit by strange dogs or even their own dogs.

Ebook : Ground Work To Establish Pack Structure With Adult Dogs

Ground Work To Establish 

Pack Structure 

With Adult Dogs

By Ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

There are a couple of sayings that I use a lot: 

1 - “You can feed, water and love your dog and he will like you, but he very well may not respect you.” 

2- “Dogs know what you know and they know what you don’t know.” 

This article details how I establish pack structure with an adult dog. This is especially important with 

dogs that are predisposed to becoming dominant or aggressive. 

The information you are about to read is the way we introduce new dogs into our home here at Leerburg. 

It shows how I gained control over some very tough and dangerous, dominant dogs over the past 45 plus years of breeding, owning and training police service dogs. 

Becoming a pack leader involves adopting the attitude of a pack leader. It does not involve being 

aggressive towards a dog, it doesn’t involve rolling him on his back or giving hard leash corrections 

or even raising your voice to the dog. It involves adopting a leader’s attitude. This is something that 

even new dog owners must learn how to do. 

Every dog knows a leader when he is in the presence of one. They can sense a leader. They don’t need 

leash corrections to consider their owner a pack leader. In fact inappropriate corrections often result 

in a dog looking at the offender with contempt rather than respect. 

There is an old saying, “Dogs know what you know and they know what you don’t know.” This article is going to explain how I show my dog “what I know.” It is also going to explain how I establish responsibility and limits to the relationship I build with my dogs. 

The content of this article will mean more to you if you take a minute and read the article I wrote titled 

“My Philosophy of Dog Training.”

Love is Not Enough 

The vast majority of behavioral problems are caused by mistakes that were made in the basic foundation of how relationships were set up between owners and their dogs. 

I call these “mistakes in ground work (GW)” and I define ground work as “that work which involves 

establishing pack structure with a new dog.” 

Many people think that loving a dog is enough to form a good relationship. These people are dead wrong. 

Unconditional love is never enough. Love has conditions and boundaries along with mutual trust and respect. Unless humans deal with the respect issue in love, they will never have a relationship with a dog in which the dog looks at them as a pack leader. 

What is “Ground Work”? 

When I talk about GW I am not talking about training a dog to come, or heel, or sit. I am talking about 

teaching the dog how I plan on living with it. I am talking about how I establish pack structure with a 

new dog. 

The way we handle a dog in our day-to-day life will teach that dog a great deal about yourself, your pack, and your pack rules. 

How and when I do anything with the dog-whether it is grooming, feeding, or exercising-along with my general attitude when I am around him will tell the dog volumes about our future relationship. 

I call these the first steps to establishing a family pack structure. 

When we bring a new dog into our home the decisions we make on how we live with that dog 

and the methods used to train that dog have long term implications on what kind of relationship we 

develop with the dog. 

I tell people “they may not think of themselves as a dog trainer, but the fact is every time we are around our dog we are teaching the dog something. The question is “are we teaching it something good or something bad?” Some people don’t know the difference. Hopefully this article and my DVDs along with my web site will help people get off on the right foot. 

The solutions to most Behavioral Problems 

The solution to almost all behavioral problems lies within changes owners need to make in the way they live with their dogs. 

Unlike humans, dogs live in the present. Human psychologists almost all focus on the past to find answers to current problems. This is fine for a human but it’s a mistake to think that this is how to fix a pack animal. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that modifications to training don’t need to be made for a dog that was truly abused. The fact is the term “abuse’ is used far too often when trying to explain behavioral problems. 

I always tell pet owners that I never change my philosophy of how to live with or train a dog just 

because it had bad experience in the past. 

it is Never too Late to change 

I want to make a point here and that is if you currently have a problem with your dog it’s never too late to consider making changes on how you live with your dog. 

In fact if you have a problem it’s imperative that YOU DO MAKE CHANGES because the way you have been living with your dog has allowed these problems to develop. 

Never forget what I said: Dogs live in the moment and they miss nothing. The old adage about “not 

being able to teach an old dog a new trick” is just that – bad old information. 

So it’s never too late to turn things around. It’s never too late to start to do things correctly. You just need the patience and confidence in what you are doing to fix your problems. 

Everyone has an Opinion 

You will quickly learn that everyone has an opinion on how to raise and train your dog. You only need to ask your mailman, your barber or your relatives how to solve your training problems. 

If you go to your local Pet Smart warehouse and talk to their trainers or look in their book section you will see stacks of conflicting advice. 

The problem is that most people (including a vast majority of instructors) don’t have enough experience to offer sound advice on training, much less advice on establishing pack structure. 

This results in a lot of bad information being passed out. 

You can go to my web site and read my biography on the experience I bring to the table when I talk about dog training. 

What Breeds Need Ground Work? 

This information in this article applies to dogs of all breeds and ages. 

Every breed of dog needs good ground work. Dog training is not breed specific. It’s temperament and

drive specific. 

Every new dog needs to go through a solid ground work program no matter how old the new dog is, no matter what breed the new dog is, no matter how big or small the new dog is, no matter where the dog came from or what it’s background is, and final y, no matter what his current level of training is. 

Ground work exercises help get dogs under control. They provide new owners experience in learning to handle and control character traits (both learned and genetic) the new dog has. 

These GW exercises also result in owners having more confidence in handling their dogs. In fact there 

is a saying I use “the more ground work, the more experience, the more confidence every new dog 

owner will have.” 

Many Rescue Dogs Genetically have Faulty Temperaments 

Many people who rescue dogs are told their new rescue dog has been abused, when in fact this is not 

the case. Many, many, many, dogs are turned into humane societies because they have genetically 

faulty temperaments or because the dogs lived in homes that did not promote a healthy pack structure. 

It’s important to remember that dogs with faulty temperaments are also dogs with pack drives. They just react to the “rank” portion of their pack drive differently than well adjusted house dogs do. 

In fact, dogs with faulty temperaments often need sound pack structure training more than normal dogs. 

I also need to point out that many dogs with temper- ament issues have these issues as a result of people who own animals and prefer to treat them anthro- pomorphically (like a human child) rather than as a pack animal and a member of their family pack. This causes HUGE problems. 

Some of these people come to their senses when their dogs develop serious dominance problems. 

Others simply turn the dog into animal shelters or worse yet, they have the dogs put to sleep. 

ThE FiRsT WEEKs 

When I bring a new adult into our home, I socially isolate the dog for a period of time. With some dogs 

this may only be for 3 or 4 days. With dominant dogs it can be weeks. 

Social isolation means that I take care of the dog’s basic needs: feeding, water, walking and a clean place to sleep, but nothing else. I don’t pet the dog, I don’t play with the dog, I don’t talk sweet to the dog. I act like it is not there. 

During this social isolation period the only time the dog is out of the crate while in the house is when it is on its way outside.

Ebook : Introducing Dogs (or Puppies) into Homes with Cats

Introducing Dogs 

(or Puppies) into Homes 

with Cats 

Click here to download Ebook 

I am often asked if a new puppy (or dog) will get along with the family cat or cats. My answer is 

always the same “it depends.” 

It depends on: 

• The ability of the new owners to be consistent in their training 

• The effort that the new owners are prepared to make to insure success 

• The dogs 

• The cats

Over the years I have introduced a number of dogs to cats. These dogs have accepted and lived with my two house cats without problems. I would have bet a lot of money that a couple of those adult police dogs would never have accepted a cat, but they did. With that said – I have seen a couple of dogs that I would never trust with my cats. 

Usually the biggest part of a cat-dog problem is the owners. They make a huge mistake by just 

bringing a pup or a dog home and just let it loose in the house with the cat. This is a formula for disaster.

Dog owners need to understand that their dogs are pack animals with strong instincts. It’s the owner’s job to learn about pack behaviors and to teach the dog that cats are part of the family pack. 

The first step in this process of acclimating a dog to your cat is to provide controlled exposure. 

The dog must see the cats in the house over an extended period of time (weeks.) This is done with the use of a dog crate. In the beginning cats are put in a separate room before the dog is brought into the house. I put my dogs on a leash when I bring them in to show them that coming into the house is a controlled experience and not someplace where they can charge around and be crazy. In other words by having them on leash I set the tone of how I want them to act in the house right off the bat.

The period of time that an adult dog spendsin the crate, he is acclimated to a muzzle. I like the wire basket muzzles because they are less restrictive to the dog and the dogs accept them quicker than the plastic muzzles we sell. The down side is they are more expensive. For those people who do not want to spend the money on a wire muzzle the plastic Jafco muzzles are inexpensive and work just fine. It is important to learn to put them on properly. If it’s done wrong the dog may get them off and chew them up when you are not watching.

Once in the crate if the dog barks at the cats they are verbally scolded. If they will not stop barking 

I will either cover the crate with a sheet or spray lemon water in their face with a water bottle or any number of other things to control the barking. (That’s the subject for a different article) 

The dog is never allowed to be out of the crate with the cats loose until they have gone a week without barking when the cats come into the room. This does not mean the dogs are locked in dog crates for weeks at a time. They can have free time in the house but the cats are put in a different room when the dog is out.

Ebook : Introducing Dogs Into Homes With Other Dogs

Introducing Dogs Into Homes 

With Other Dogs

By ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

The problems encountered when introducing a new dog into a home which already has another dog are often underestimated and misunderstood by pet owners. This can be a difficult and potentially dangerous situation when its not handled correctly. You only need to go to Q&A section on my web site and read the hundreds of emails I have on dog fights. 

Many people think they can just bring a new dog home and let the dogs work things out themselves. For the lucky ones this works out OK, but more often than not people find themselves in the middle of a dog fight and wonder what went wrong. 

Dogs are pack animals. The average pet owner does not have a clue about how strong the genetic instincts are that float just under the fur of their lovable family pet.

The average pet owner does not realize how the addition of a second or third dog into their home will trigger a genetic pack drive or rAnK DrIVE response in their best friend. In fact many people are shocked and confused when they see the aggression that results from their family dog. 

There is usually more than one thing going on that result in these problems. To name just a few; a house dog is often territorial; they can be rank or dominant; or there can be inter-male or inter-female issues that result in aggression. 

Yesterday, I had a lady write me who has a serious problem. She owned 30 house dogs. People like her are called dog collectors. She takes in strays and if you can believe it she keeps the majority of them in her home. 

The woman realized that she has an obsessive compulsive disorder. 

As obvious as it is, this lady has created a huge dog pack and seen some awesome dog fights. The fact is the genetic instincts that control her 30 dog pack are the exact same instincts that start to flow in a home which only has 3 dogs. Three dogs are a dog pack. 

tHrEE Dogs ArE A Dog PAcK ! 

The vast majority of pet owners don’t realize that 3 dogs are a dog pack. 

Here are some of the issues that develop when people create dog packs: 

Dogs become much more territorial (just like a wolf pack) 

Three dogs will develop a pack or rAnK orDEr which includes a pack leader. Every dog in the pack knows exactly what it’s rank is within that dog pack and if they don’t feel they have a strong human pack leader, one of the three dogs will step to the line and become the leader. 

Remember that a dog can love you and not respect you. 

These are two totally different things. 

Most dogs don’t want to be pack leaders. When it’s forcedon them they get stressed and nervous. 

When a new dog is added to a home every dog in that house has to re-establish its personal ranking within the new family pack. Re-establishing rank is where dog fights come from. 

By the way, the worst dog fights are inter-female dog fights (they are fierce) 

When fights begin in a larger pack (4 or more dogs), most of the time all the dogs will gang up on the newer dog. 

Once a dog has been attacked it is often traumatized for life. These dogs will always be leery of meeting new dogs. 

In fact, once a dog has been attacked it will often become dog aggressive and automatically want to fight any new dogs that it sees. 

Unless they receive the correct training these dogs will be fighters for the rest of their lives. They take the approach that a good offense is their best defense. 

When dogs have strong pack leaders this does not happen. The human pack leader makes it crystal clear that this aggressive behavior is uncalled for and will not be tolerated. 

In addition the human pack leader shows his dog or dogs that he will protect them FROM OTHER DOGS. This is very important issue that the average dog owner doesn’t realize, but I guarantee you your dog does. 

Our goal in introducing a new dog into a family which already has other dogs comes down to “bringing another member into the family pack in a manner that is seamless and nonviolent”. 

I can’t and won’t give you a step by step way to do this for every dog. Every dog is different, every owner has their own strengths and weaknesses and every pack has its own personality. 

What I will do is provide you with training steps. It will be your responsibility to determine how many of these steps you need to use. 

With this said I caution you about going to fast and skipping steps. You have nothing to lose in letting this process take some time and using all the steps, you have a lot to lose if you screw up and end up with a dog fight. 

The most important part of this process is to get and use dog crates. We have a dog crate for every dog in the house. Just because your current dogs don’t use crates is not a good enough reason to not use them in this process. 

We put the new dog in a dog crate in our home where the other dogs can go up and smell the new comer. If our house dogs growl at the new dog, we immediately step right in and give a strong correction. 

Your job as tHE PAcK LEADEr Is to sHoW Your Dogs tHAt You WILL not toLErAtE AggrEssIon 

toWArDs tHIs nEW PAcK MEMBEr. 

Pack leaders decide when there will be a fight and by your stopping aggression you are reminding them who the leader is. If you want to learn about corrections you can read the article I wrote titled The Theory of Corrections in Dog Training. 

We put prong collars or REMOTE COLLARS or dominant dog collars on our house dogs and let them drag a short leash around the house. If they growl we then have the tools in place to give an appropriate correction. 

If you have a rank problem between you and your dog then you are going to have to deal with that before you introduce this new dog. If need be you may want to get DVD DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS. 

There is no reason to rush the introduction of a new dog into your home. It can take weeks or even months for that matter. We have 5 house dogs. We have 5 crates in our basement furnace room. Three of our dogs can be out together and the other two are never out when another dog is loose. The odds are they never will be out with other dogs. We accept this as a fact of life. 

We rotate our dogs through the house, through their dog crates and through the outside dog kennels and yards. 

During the period that you are introducing an adult dog into your home you will have times when your existing dogs are in their crates and the new dog is loose or on a line in the house. This is the time that you establish your relationship with this new dog. This is done through grooming, walks, play, and obedience training.

Establishing a relationship means that you are subtly teaching the dog that you are the boss (or pack leader). This is done by controlling every aspect of this dogs life. I have written extensively on this process and it’s covered in my DVD on dominant dogs. 

Even if you don’t have a dominant dog you should still read the article I wrote titled Dealing with the 

Dominant Dogs. Being aware of the kinds of situations which can lead to dominant behavior can help to circumvent this type ot behavior. 

I also recommend the article I wrote titled THEGROUND WORK TO BECOMING A PACK LEADER.  

This is the protocol we use in our home to introduce new dogs and puppies. 

Now back to introducing a the dogs. 

During the first weeks the only time our dogs are around one another is when one of them is in a crate and the others are loose. We will know when they are beginning to accept one another because they will begin to ignore one another. 

This means that they are beginning to accept one another as pack members. 

When that happens you can start to think about how to introduce the dogs outside of the crates. 

We always handle introductions with both dogs on leash and either a prong collar or a dominant dog collar. I would like to make the point here that for this work I prefer a dominant dog collar over a prong collar. 

Many times a prong collar correction can over stimulate a dog and result in redirected aggression. This means a stressed dog attacking either the handler or the other dog. 

I explain it to new handlers like this - a prong can put more drive into a dog and a dominant dog collar takes drive out of a dog. At this point we want to take drive out of a dog. 

We handle the introduction by taking the dogs for walks together. If there is even the slightest possibility of a fight we will muzzle the dogs (more on that later) The bottom line is to error on the side of caution and safety. 

Your first walks should be away from your home and the route you take should not be the normal route you have walked your house dogs for the past 3 years. They consider that route their personal territory and you run the risk of territorial aggression. 

During the introductory walks keep the leash loose. If they dogs pull they need a firm POP correction. A tight leash can causes frustration in the dogs and this could trigger re-directed aggressive. 

If things go well on these walks then that’s great, but again there is no hurry. You have the rest of your dog’s lives to get things settled. One mistake at this stage could lead to a fight from which some dogs never mentally recover. 

When the walks have gone well we will introduce them on either side of a chain link fence. The leash is dropped and dragging on the ground. One dog goes inside the yard by itself and the second dog is on a leash outside the yard. 

They can sniff through the fence like they did through the dog crate, but here they feel less restricted. They certainly cannot get into a real fight. I demonstrate this process in my DVD - DEALING WITH A DOMINANT DOG. 

That DVD has excellent examples of dogs being aggressive through fences. The DVD also demonstrates when a smaller woman needs to consider a remote collar to be able to handle a large dog. 

When the walks and fence are going well there comes a time to allow your dogs to meet face to face when you are not holding the leashes. Allow them to sniff one another. Talk to them in a firm commanding neutral voice. 

Keep the meeting short. Then take them for a walk together. If there is any growling they always get a VERY STRONG VERBAL NO !!

Be prepared to use the dominant dog collar the way it is intended to be used (lift the dogs front feet off the ground by the leash). When dog fights begin they are often right out of the blue and lighting fast. 

In extreme cases where you are not sure of what may happen, both dogs should have a muzzle on. We offer inexpensive plastic Jafco muzzles which work just fine. 

We also offer excellent wire basket muzzles. That way if there is a fight the dogs will not get injured and you can step in and break the fight up without getting dog bit. If you screw up and a dog fight starts - NEVER STEP IN AND TRY TO BREAK UP THE FIGHT by grabbing both collar. There is a protocol to follow in breaking up dog fights. I have written and article on this. 

DOG FIGHTS are very dangerous events. (Read the article I wrote on this). But with that said, know your physical limitations and always error on the side of safety. 

When I introduce 2 adult dogs I will allow sniffing but no dominant posturing – it’s called “T-ing” off. In other words the dominant dog will put its head over the top shoulder of the other dog and press down. 

One of the most common causes of dog fights in the home are fights over food and toys. Feed the dogs in dog crates or in different rooms. Pick any uneaten food up after 15 minutes. You will be surprised at how fast your dog will clean his food bowl when he understands that you always take the food away after 15 minutes. 

Ebook : How to Break Up a Dog Fight Without Getting Hurt

How to Break Up a Dog Fight 

Without Getting Hurt! 

By Ed Frawley

Click here to download

I have owned, trained and bred dogs for 45 years. I have trained protection dogs and police service 

dogs since 1974. If you have come to this page you have issues with aggressive dogs. In the mid 1990’s I wrote this article on “How to Break Up A Dog Fight Without Getting Hurt” which you can read below. 

It has been reprinted (with my permission) in many different languages.

My web site is over 10,000 pages and a good portion of this site is dedicated to dominant dogs and aggressive dogs. I have organized this page to not only include my article, but also list training DVD’s that I have produced to help deal with aggressive dogs, books on dog aggression and links to the numerous articles I have written on the topic of aggressive dogs.

Leerburg® DVDs on Training Aggressive Dogs 

DEALING WITH DOMINAT AND AGGRESSIVEDOGS 3 hrs 45 min This DVD demonstrates how 

to break up a dog fight if you are alone. Basic Dog Obedience - 4 hours - Obedience training needs to be part of the solution to dog aggression. With that said it’s not the only solution. I tell people it’s about 25% of the solution. The problem is if that 25% is not addressed you will never solve your problem. 

Electric Collar Training for the Pet Owner 2 1/2 hours - This DVD teaches pet owners who have never owned an electric collar how to condition their dog to the collar, how to determine the working level of stimulation to use on their dog (every dog is different) and then there is a detailed step by step section on how to train a dog with an electric collar.

Before we start, I would like to say that I amalways looking for photos of dog bites that can be used to demonstrate to others how dangerous breaking up a fight can be. I have included some photos at the bottom of this page and on other dog bite pages in my web site. 

This past week I had an incident at my kennel that reminds me how important it is for everyone who works with dogs, or owns dogs to know how to break up a dogfight without getting hurt. I will start with a warning. Unless you have a lot of experience do not try and break up a dog fight by yourself. Never step in the middle of two loving pets and try and grab them by the collar to stop a dog fight. If you try this, the chances of you being badly bitten are extremely high. 

People don’t understand that 2 animals in the middle of a fight are in survival drive. If they see you at all, they don’t look at you as their loving owner. When you charge in and grab them they either react out of a fight reflex and bite, or they see you as another aggressor. When they are in fight or flight mode they will bite you. You can take that to the bank. 

Here is what happened at my kennel this week. The wife of a friend came to the kennel with her 

daughter. She told my secretaries that I had said it was OK to go into my whelping rooms to show her little girl our puppies. 

I had never told her this. Anyway, that does not matter. When she left, she did not latch one of the kennel gates properly (this was also an employee mistake for not checking the gate). Later, one of my kennel staff let another bitch outside. The first bitch jumped against her poorly latched kennel gate, and it came open. She ran outside and started a terrible dog fight. I had not told this young kennel person how to break up a dog fight in progress. He ran in and tried to grab both dog collars. He was bitten very badly in the forearm and hand before I could get on scene and break up the dog fight the correct way. 

The safest way to break up a dogfight requires 2 people. Each person grabs the back feet of one of the dogs. The dog back feet are then picked up like a wheelbarrow. With the legs up, both dogs are then pulled apart. 

Once the dog fight is broken up and the dogs pulled apart it is critical that the people do not release the dogs or the dog fight will begin again. 

The two people need to start turning in a circle, or slowly swinging the dogs in a circle while they 

back away from the other dog. This stops the dog from curling and coming back and biting the person holding their legs. 

By circling the dog has to sidestep with its front feet or it will fall on its chin. As long as you slowly continue to back and circle, the dog cannot do any damage to you. To insure that the fight will not begin all over again when you release the dogs, one of the dogs needs to be dragged into an enclosure (i.e. a kennel, the garage, another room) before the dog is released. If you do not do this, the dogs will often charge back and start fighting again or if you release the dog to quickly the dog will turn and attack the person who had his feet. 

Dog fights are a very dangerous thing to try and break up alone. You should never rush in and try and grab the dogs to pull them apart. They are in high “fight drive” and are not thinking clearly when fighting. If someone grabs them they will bite without even thinking about who or what they are biting. This is how your loving pet can dog bite the living crap out of you in about a second and a half. 

In reality it probably doesn’t even know it’s biting you. I compare it to a bar fight. If a person comes up behind 2 guys fighting and just reaches out and grabs the shoulder of one of the combatants most of the time the fighter is going to turn and throw a punch without even looking at who or what he is hitting. This is because his adrenaline in pumping and he is in “fight drive”. 

The worst case scenario is that you are alone when a serious fight breaks out. There are a couple things that you must keep in mind: 

• Keep your cool you have a job to do. 

• Do not waste time screaming at the dogs. It hardly ever works. 

• Your goal is still the same; you must break up the fight without getting hurt. 

• Go get a leash (allow the fight to continue while you do this). 

• Dogs are almost always locked onto one another. Walk up and loop the leash around the back loin of the dog by either threading the leash through the handle or use the clip. I prefer the thread method. 

• Now slowly back away and drag the dog to a fence or to an object that you can tie the leash to. By doing this, you effectively create an anchor for one of the dogs. 

• Then walk around and grab the back legs of the second dog and drag it away from the dog that is tied up. Remember to turn and circle as they release. 

• Drag the dog into a dog pen or another room before you release the back legs. 

• Go back and take the dog off the fence and put him or her into a dog kennel. 

• Sit down and have a stiff drink (or two). 

People talk about using cattle prods or shock collars to break up 2 pets that fight. I can tell you that many times this is not going to work. The electric cattle prod or electric collar will only put the dogs into higher fight drive. When they are shocked they will turn and bite the prod, or when they are shocked they will think the other dog is causing the pain and they will fight harder. An electric collar is best used in conditioning training, but not during an actual dogfight. I had a friend tell me that using a stun gun works. 

Not to actually shock the dog, but just to hold it in your hand and allow it to snap. The sound of the electrical snap is supposed to cause the dogs to stop fighting. I will muzzle 2 of my dogs and let them go at it to see if this works. I will be surprised if it works on 2 really strong dogs going after each other. 

Ebook : The Importance of Good Positioning on Canine Hip X-rays

The Importance of Good 

Positioning 

on Canine Hip X-rays 

By Ed Frawley 

Click here to download ebook

I would like to thank Dr. Jane Brakken for help with my dogs and allowing me the use of her x-ray room to take these photos. 

Hip Dysplasia (another article on the subject) 

The positioning is so bad in this x-ray that the dog’s 

owner should have refused to pay for it. 

The purpose of this article is to teach the average dog owner how to determine if a hip x-ray is done properly on their dog’s hips. The article will demonstrate correct positioning and poor positioning. It will show 2 different sets of x-rays done on the same dog on the same day. One set has good positioning; the second set has poor positioning. You will see that with poor positioning, a dog’s hips can look worse than they actually are. You will also see that no matter what you do with positioning you can never make a bad hip into a good hip. 

The photo of the hip x-ray above (labeled good positioning) was done on a 10 month old German Shepherd from my kennel. While the dog is slightly angled on the x-ray plate, the positioning for the hips is pretty good. The photo below (the same photo as above) shows the various points on an x-ray to look at to determine if the dog was positioned properly.

Good Positioning 

Because this article is directed to the general public, I will not attempt to use the proper medical names for a lot of the terminology in this article. 

The first thing to look at in an x-ray is to see if the legs come straight down from the hips with the knee caps square and looking alike. We don’t want to see one leg straight and the other going off at an angle. 

The above photo has 3 sets of colored arrows (green, yellow and red). 

The green arrows above point to the bone that the hip socket is built into. These bones almost look like wings. You will notice that you can see more of the wing on the right than the wing on the left. When the position is 100% perfect, both wings will look exactly alike. 

The yellow arrows point to holes in the bone structure. When the body positioning is correct the 2 holes on the left side are the same shape and size as the holes on the right side. The positioning is good on this dog, but not 100% perfect. That’s why the holes on the right are slightly different than the left. This is most noticeable in the lower right hole being smaller than the left side lower hole. 

The red arrows above are the first things I look at when examining an x-ray. They point to the amount of pelvis bone that is covered by the leg bones on the x-ray. If you look at the pelvis, you can see that with the legs fully extended straight down, the legs overlay the very corners or tips of the pelvis. You can see the overlap through the leg bone. The picture above shows an even amount of overlap on both sides of the pelvis. 

The photo below shows a much larger overlap on the left of the screen than on the right of the screen. This is poor positioning.