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. 

Ebook : How to Fit A Prong CoLLAr

How to Fit A Prong CoLLAr

By Ed Frawley 

Click here to download ebook 

I have trained more dogs than I can remember with prong collars. Not all dogs need them but for those that do I call them POWER STEERING ON DOGS. 

They are excellent for many people who own dogs with behavioral problems. While many think a prong looks nasty the fact is they are far more humane than a normal choke collar. 

The biggest problem with prong collars is that new dog owners don’t know how to put them on, how to size them or how their dog should wear them. This article will address these issues. It will not address the decisions made on which dogs need them and how to use them in a training program. I leave that to my DVD on Basic Dog Obedience. 

Normal choke collars need to be ordered by length (i.e. 22 inches long etc.) Prong collars on the other hand are ordered by weight - Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large.

Prong collars come in a standard length which is adjusted to fit the neck of the dog by removing or adding links to the collar. 

Prong collars (unlike choke collars) are meant to be put on and taken off before and after daily training sessions. 

Choke collars are often left on the dog all the time (in some cases this can be a dangerous practice because dogs can hang themselves if they are kennel climbers). 

One of the most common mistakes new trainers make is they don’t remove enough links to get the correct snug fit. When that happens the collar hangs down on the dogs neck which results in the collar not working the way that it was designed. A prong collar should fit the way you see it in the photo below.

Properly Fit Prong Collar on a Doberman

The correct position for a prong collar is to sit right behind the ears and up under the jaw line like you see in the photo above. The photo below shows how many people mistakenly let a dog wear a prong.

this photo above demonstrates a prong collar that 

was not properly sized for the dog. the collar is too 

loose and riding too far down on the dog’s neck. it 

should be up where i have drawn the yellow line.

this collar is correctly sized and fits properly. 

the rings on the leash are attached to the right place 

on the side of the neck.

Sizing the Prong

Adding and removing Links

Some people mistakenly try and put a prong collar ontheir dog by slipping it over the dogs head and thenmoving it down on the neck. That’s wrong. Prong collarsare designed to be put on and taken off by unhookinglinks and actually unsnapping the collar from around the neck.

The right way to unhook a collar is to pinch one of thelinks and pull it apart. Taking the collar off is always easierthan putting it back on.

this photo shows how to pinch a link and take the 

collar off the dog’s neck. it does not matter which link 

you pinch. 

ebook : Feeding a Raw Diet - Question and Answers

Feeding a Raw Diet 

Question & Answers

written by Cindy Rhodes

Click here to download ebook

DISCLAIMER: I am not a vet or a health care professional. Feeding a raw species appropriate diet can be a controversial topic, and like any feeding regimen can have health risks associated with incorrect feeding and preparation. DO NOT FEED COOKED BONES, ever! Cooking bones changes the molecular structure; they become brittle and may splinter and injure or kill your dog!! NO COOKED BONES. 

Do your own research FIRST before diving into a new method of feeding your dog. Read as many books and articles as you can, talk to successful raw feeders and find a mentor, and use your own judgment and gut instinct. If you aren’t comfortable with it, DON’T do it. Remember there are many ways to feed your dogs, with many variations. Just because I don’t cover it here, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. 

The ideas and opinions in this section of the website are my own, and come from feeding my dogs this way since 1994. I am constantly evolving, tweaking and changing my ideas as my knowledge and experience increases. Take any ideas I present here at your own risk and discretion. 

I hope you and your dogs enjoy many healthy years together. Congratulations on making the first step towards one of the most important things you can do for your dog. 

General Questions on Feeding Dogs a Raw Diet 

1. I am interested in feeding the BARF diet, what do I do first? 

2. My vet told me my dog would get sick or DIE from feeding a raw diet? I am having second thoughts about switching. 

3. Why should I switch my dog to a raw diet? 

4. Is kibble actually bad for my dog? He seems really healthy. 

5. I want to breed my female. Is it ok to feed a raw diet to pregnant dogs? 

6. What about my new puppy? He was fed kibble at the breeder’s place. How do I switch him? I don’t want him to get sick. 

7. What is a RMB? 

8. What is a recreational bone? 

9. I have heard that you should NEVER feed your dog chicken bones! One of the foundations of your feeding program is chicken! Aren’t you afraid your dogs will choke or the bones will splinter? 

10. I was told that if you feed dogs raw meat, they will become vicious and kill animals. Is this true? 

11. How Do I Make The Switch? 

12. What Should I Expect At First? 

13. I have heard that raw is much more expensive than kibble, how much will it cost me to feed my dog this way? 

14. I read somewhere on the internet that feeding a raw diet reduces vet bills? How does that work? 

15. It seems too complicated to feed a raw diet; I don’t have any free time to spend on this. How much time does it take each day to prepare the food? 

16. What Do You Feed Your Dogs? Can You Send Me Some Menu Plans? 

17. How Do I Know Each Meal Is Balanced? 

18. How Much Do I feed? 

19. I’m Not Sure I Am Ready To Switch to Raw, But I Don’t Want To Feed Kibble. Do you have any 

suggestions? 

20. I have small kids and I am worried about Salmonella and E-Coli! 

21. What about Grains? I read that you don’t feed them to your dogs. Why not? 

22. What supplements do I need to use? 

23. How often do you use supplements? The label says to give it every day. 

24. What is ACV? 

25. What are probiotics? 

26. What are digestive enzymes? 

27. What about vegetables? 

28. What kinds of meat can I feed my dogs? 

29. Are there parasites in raw meat? 

30. I want to feed a raw diet but whole bones scare me! Can I grind them up before feeding? 

31. What kind of equipment do I need to grind RMBs? 

32. I see that some places sell preground raw pet food. Are these ok to feed? They seem very expensive though! 

33. Can I buy RMBs at the grocery store? If not, where do I find them? 

34. What about feeding Raw and Kibble together, is that OK? 

35. I forgot to thaw out my dog’s next meal, can I feed it frozen? 

36. I left my dog’s raw food out of the fridge too long and it smells bad! Is it safe to feed it or 

should I throw it away? 

37. Wendy Vollhard and her husband have written a number of articles or books on feeding a raw diet. Some of your information is different that what they recommend. There seems to be a conflict among experts here. What are your thoughts?

ebook : Ed Frawley’s PhiLosoPhy on Dog Training

“Ed Frawley’s” 

PhiLosoPhy oN Dog TraiNiNg 

writed by Ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

My philosophy of how to train dogs has been a journey that began when I was a boy in the 1950’s and continues to this day. I get as excited when I learn something new about dog training today as I did 45 or 50 years ago. For me this journey began as a hobby and has evolved into a life’s passion and work. It will end on the day I die. 

There is nothing secretive or magical about training dogs. I have learned that good dog training is pretty much all common sense with a foundation based on experience and a clear understanding of the way dogs think and interact (pack structure). The key is to get the right experience. 

One only needs to spend a couple of hours searching the internet to understand that there are certainly a lot of people out there who lack experience or are basing their training opinions on poorly acquired experience. 

Dog training does not necessarily have to begin when you buy an 8 week old puppy (although it should) or when your 10 year old dog bites a child. In reality it begins on the day you make up your mind to learn how your dog thinks and relates to the world it lives in. It begins when you decide to relate to your dog in a manner that both you and your dog respect and understand. It begins when you make up your mind to develop a meaningful relationship based on trust, communication and control. 

Although our family had owned dogs my entire life I made this decision to really try and understand dogs when I was in high school. I was 16 years old and it was the 1960’s. I owned a rescue dog named King and thought he was the cat’s meow. 

We took 2 or 3 walks in the woods every day. He was my best bud. I had him trained to hand signals and verbal commands. One morning, before school, we came out of the woods and King chased a cat into the road. He would not respond to my calls to stop and COME. He ran in front of an Austin Martin sports car and was killed. To this day I can close my eyes and replay that event in slow motion. 

That one incident changed the way I looked at dog training. It caused me to step back and make up my mind that the next time I would learn how to communicate in a way that my dog would listen to me in every scenario and not just in the ones he felt like doing so. 

I wrote this article with the thought that it may help other dog owners develop a new approach on how 

they relate to and train their dogs. I hope in some small way it makes you think and develop or adopt your own philosophy of how to train your dog. 

There are 3 Categories of Dog Trainers 

Three basic categories of dog trainers which I place on a sliding scale. 

First Category 

The first category on the left is the group of people who beg or bribe their dogs to do something by offering a food or toy reward. 

Don’t get me wrong, I use food and toys in training, but I also use distractions and corrections. The people in this first category use neither. All of the large pet food warehouses (i.e. Pet Smart, Petco , or 

the Monks of New Skeet etc) sponsor this category of ineffective training because they feel it’s politically correct. 

The problem with this group is that the dogs often choose to not do what’s asked because they don’t think the reward is worth the task. These dogs end up being pushy, dominant and often antisocial aggressive animals. These are the dogs that are turned into animal shelters as being unmanageable when in fact they act the way they do as a result of ineffective dog training. 

second Category 

At the other end of the scale, on the right side, is the second category of dog trainers. These are trainers who intimidate or force their dogs to do what they want (the William Kholer trainers) . I call them the old school “yank and crank” trainers. 

They put a choke collar on a dog and force it to do everything. Many professional dog trainers use these methods because for them time is money and with enough force a dog can be trained to do lmost 

anything. 

The problem with yank and crank trainers is the dogs seldom like their handlers and in fact are often afraid of them. These are the dogs that tuck their tails or lay on the ground when asked to do something. When these dogs are near their owners they don’t look happy because they never know when the hammer is going to fall. 

The problem with both of these categories of dog trainers is that their training produces inconsistent 

results along with dogs that don’t like or respect their owners. If you don’t have a good bond with your dog, or if your dog does not respect you as a pack leader, you will never reach consistency in training. 

Third Category 

The third category of dog trainer is the where I want to be. Category three trainers strive to be in the middle of the other two categories. They balance in the middle but are always prepared to move one way or the other depending on what’s going on in their dog training at a given point in time. 

The third group uses food, toys or praise to take a dog through a learning phase. This is where the dog actually learns the meaning of a command – for example it learns the meaning of the word “COME”. 

Once the dog understands the meaning of the command the trainer then adds distractions to the program. A good example of this is a dog that has learned the meaning of the command “DOWN - STAY” but now must learn to stay when the owner or someone else tosses a ball in front of the dogs feet or drops a hot dog 4 feet from where he is lying. 

When a dog is disobedient under distraction or does not follow directions this third category of dog trainers teaches a dog that they will be corrected for being disobedient.

ebook : Understanding the Drives of Protection Training

Can I Train My Own Dog in Bite Work? 

Understanding the Drives of Protection Training 

By Ed Frawley

Click here to download ebook

I have studied the art of protection training dogs since 1974. I have bred over 350 litters of protection dogs and produced over 120 dog training videos, many of them on protection dog training. 

Protection training (when it is done properly) is one of the most demanding and difficult dog training tasks that there is. Most dogs can learn obedience, scent work or agility, but few dogs can be trained in handler protection. 

I often hear people say,”My dog has not been trained in protection but I know that if someone came after me he would protect me.” In 99% of the cases this is wishful thinking. In actual fact, most dogs, when threatened, will show avoidance and run away, leaving their handler to fend for themselves. 

The reason for this is based in the temperament of the dogs. In its simplest sense, bite training is founded on the ability of a dog to deal with stress. A good protection dog is taught from a young age to act in an appropriate way when threatened. He is taught that to show avoidance and run away does not solve his problem. 

To be successful in this training, handlers need to have a thorough understanding of the drives that govern a dog’s temperament in protection work. They are: 

1. Prey drive 

2. Defensive Drive 

3. Fight Drive 

4. Avoidance 

If your goal is to learn how to train a dog in protection work, your job begins by understanding these drives and how they relate to each other. If a trainer does not fully understand drive development he may as well not even start this work because he is never going to accomplish anything in protection training. 

If you are new to this sport, you need to listen to what I am about to say about drives and then either watch my video on the subject (The First Steps of Bite Work - Video 101-B) or go to an experienced trainer and learn from them. Every time you watch a dog doing bite work you should be thinking “What drive is this dog in and why?” 

If you can watch an experienced helper work a dog you need to be thinking “What drive does the helper have the dog in?” When he switches drives you need to try and recognize when that happens and why. 

In my video I will define and demonstrate drives by showing you dogs that have good drives and dogs that lack drive. I want the viewer to recognize when a dog has the potential for protection work. 

Probably just as important, I want them to understand when a dog has not inherited the necessary drive and therefore cannot be trained in protection work. 

Right from the beginning, everyone needs to understand that dogs inherit the drives for protection work. It is a genetic factor and neither a factor of training nor a factor of breed. In other words, if a dog does not have the genes for protection work you are not going to train the drives into the dog. Just because a dog is a German shepherd does not mean that it can be trained in bite work. That would be like saying just because I have a horse I think it can run in the Kentucky Derby. 

The first part of the video deals with defining the drives a dog uses in protection work. We then go into the training steps for the dog, the handler and the helper. To be effective in protection training the handler and helper must work as a team.