Dear Mr. Katz:
I have a 6 month old German Shepherd named Thor. Having read your book, I applied your techniques to him and he responded very quickly, to my surprise!
He is quite good at a sit-stay and down-stay now, which is very, very useful. I do have one problem that I couldn’t fix with him though.
Here are the circumstances and the problem:
Thor lives outside in a dog kennel/pen thing, I walk him every day and play ball with him and always make sure he has food and water, I brush him and I spend a lot of time with him. But whenever I leave him, he sits and whines for half an hour! He just won’t be quiet! And if I go back out to make him stop, as soon as he sees me, he’s quiet… but as soon as I leave, he starts whining and barking again, so I just ignore him, but it has gotten to be such a problem that the neighbors have started to complain about it. I don’t make a big deal out of leaving him or anything. I just say ‘Bye Thor’ and leave.
Can you help?
Christina Hathaway
Dear Christina:
Welcome to the wonderful world of German Shepherd ownership.
Here’s what you can...