Aidan

As you are doing so many cool activities with your dog, including agility, I strongly recommend "Control Unleashed" by Leslie McDevitt. It mainly addresses excited dogs at sports like agility, but some of the exercises look very similar to the ones I use in my reactive dogs class.

Can you keep him inside? It depends a bit on how much fencing you need to cover. If it's not a long fence, a few lengths of downpipe and some fencing wire are cheap. You put the wire through the pipe and nail the wire to the top of the fence so that the pipe becomes a roller just inside the top edge of the fence. Does that make sense?

As far as your cats are concerned, a crate can only be a good thing as it will give you a place to put pup when you cannot supervise and pups really do love their crate. If you are anything like me you will get sick of baby gates very quickly anyway. Crate training makes toilet training very easy. If appropriately sized, they will not foul their crate. You can keep the crate by your bed, which is very reassuring for pup in the night. Set your alarm for, let's say 2:00am for a toilet break. Each night you can set your alarm 5 minutes later until pup is sleeping through. At some point your dog is going to end up in a crate; travel, vet, groomer, sport, shows etc, so you might as well teach them to willingly enter a crate and not cause fuss. I recommend the method Sue Ailsby teaches in the Training Levels program which you can find here: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html Of course, often you can just pop a young pup into a crate and they will accept it straight away, with maybe a little food to make it feel like a nice place, but the instructions given are fool-proof if you do experience any trouble.

Clark's may have it, phone around, upholsterers are your best bet. It is the "crust" off the top of the blocks of foam. When foam is made it has a firm, shiny crust that needs to be trimmed before the foam can be used. It would normally be thrown out but it makes quite good dog bed filler.

Sure, invest in an appropriately sized crate and have him in the bedroom with you. If he wakes up to have a chew on the bedding, you will hopefully wake up and should be able to interrupt him. I made a few beds out of heavy PVC (520gsm used for banners). Any industrial sewing place should be able to make them. For the foam I bought a "crust" from a foam supplier, $10 for enough to make several beds.

I can train my reactive GSD to accept nearly anything, but the vet is our Kryptonite! The problem is that we don't have regular enough exposure (and every time she goes there it is an unpleasant experience). A while back I would drive to the vet, then just go through some obedience stuff in the car park. Each time we would get a little closer to the door. At least we can enter the building without a panic attack now I get Sabella to do very simple tricks that she knows well, sit, target, shake paw etc We also play the "Look at That" game with the vet. In zoos they train a lot of different husbandry behaviours. If you ever get a chance to attend a talk with Kerrie Haynes-Lovell (polar bear trainer from Sea World Gold Coast), make sure you go. Ask her how they train a polar bear to accept an injection willingly. It would be worth searching You Tube ("animal husbandry zoo" or "clicker training zoo") re: muzzling, it's a good thing but don't ignore warning signals. You want those warning signals to work for your dog. Use training to stay a step ahead, do simulated vaccinations using your finger, then something a little harder, for e.g Mind you, in a real emergency their behaviour can be quite different. I remember the vet nurse putting a drain in my dog's stomach with over the phone instructions from the vet. Just as the needle was going in, the practice cat walked past with her tail in the air! Sabella didn't move a muscle.

I always recommend the method taught by Sue Ailsby in her "Training Levels" program which you can find here: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html

Given that Casper is very young and this is a highly specific behaviour, if you can deal with it now, it will probably not generalise to other situations. A fast and effective approach to dealing with this sort of highly specific separation anxiety is my Calming Yo Yo exercise which you can find here: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1556 Follow the instructions closely, don't use any corrections or even food. Don't try to rush ahead, Casper should be succeeding at every point.

Keep all food, including crumbs, off your kitchen bench except when you are in the room. This suggests that he doesn't understand why you are angry, and that he is trying to appease you. It becomes a lot easier to solve behaviour problems when you forget about who is dominant and remember this: -- Dogs do what works for them -- If you want to take it a step further, you can start asking yourself questions like, "what would I like my dog to do instead of the thing I don't want him to do?" and "how can what I want my dog to do be used to earn what my dog wants?" He is, he has learned how to avoid punishment by doing stuff when you are not looking. It works for him, too.

In my experience, a physical target almost always works where a food lure does not for fear issues such as this. I would suggest clicker training a nose touch to a target stick, then taping the door up out of the way, standing on the other side of the door and having the dog touch the target stick. Start off close to the door, move back by successive approximation. Often what happens is that you hit a point where the dog just "gets it".

It's easy to get caught up thinking this sort of behaviour is simply an attempt to "rise through the ranks" but that could lead to some pointless outcomes that don't directly address the issue (e.g "alpha roll"). At the heart of the matter you have a resource guarding issue, a dog who wants that side of the bed, or you, to himself. Dogs do what works. This didn't work, in fact it got him banished from the bed. His behaviour (growling) resulted in a cost (loss of resource or privilege). I'm not sure if your OH is in any danger, but this is probably all that you need to do if it is safe to do so. Calmly ask him to get down from the bed (if he knows what that means, and it seems that he does), or place him on the floor. He probably only needs a minute off the bed, then you can invite him back onto the bed. If he objects to your OH again, calmly ask him to get off the bed. If you need to do this more than 4 or 5 times I would be surprised. If it makes him worse, then abort the mission. If there is very little change, then just don't let him sleep on the bed. If he is able to return to the bed, only let him sleep at your feet. It's quite possible that your OH rolling over in their sleep has frightened your dog and this may even be the reason (one of many possibilities) for this recent behaviour.

No. If she learns inappropriate behaviours to get what she wants, then you have a problem. In that case it is simply a matter of learning how to change your behaviour to address those inappropriate behaviours. There is nothing from your posts that might suggest this is the case, but feel free to add. If she doesn't like being touched, grooming and veterinary care could become an issue. You can teach dogs to accept these procedures, I would use clicker training. I am actually thinking that she might not like being touched because previously when I do get her close to me I try and groom her, eg combing her or cutting nails because that's the only time I can do it. Otherwise she is running around playing and all sorts. Could it be because of this? In theory, yes, but it is fairly unlikely. Something that I like to do with dogs who don't like to be touched is train them to touch me. Google "target training", you can use your hand instead of a target stick. Apart from being a very handy behaviour (use it to get a dog off furniture, into the car, or teach sit, drop etc with it), but it gives the dog some confidence in being in close contact with you and gives them something to "think about" rather than "react to". After reading some of the other posts, you might want to wash your hands first

No. If she learns inappropriate behaviours to get what she wants, then you have a problem. In that case it is simply a matter of learning how to change your behaviour to address those inappropriate behaviours. There is nothing from your posts that might suggest this is the case, but feel free to add. If she doesn't like being touched, grooming and veterinary care could become an issue. You can teach dogs to accept these procedures, I would use clicker training.

Most dogs dislike being hugged, and some of our body language can actually be quite intimidating to a dog. Have you taken her to a puppy class? They are very important for quality socialisation, and your instructor should be able to show you some ways to express your affection that your pup might enjoy.

It needs to be an enzyme-based cleaner used according to the instructions. I would imagine that a timber deck may require more than one or two applications, but I don't really know the answer to that one. Is his crate appropriately sized? It is very unusual for a pup to go in his crate unless forced to, if the crate is the correct size. There are average times for house-training, but these aren't applicable to an individual pup. Just do the best you can to avoid accidents and reinforce good habits and you will get there.

No they won't work over time, it was terrible advice in the first place and I don't often say that. When you say "out of control", what specifically would you call out of control? Is one dog trying to escape? Has there ever been blood? Does the collie not stop if the pug squeals?

One approach is to use a double-ended leash, clip the other end to a flat collar. By changing where your hand holds the leash, you can use one or the other for as long as you need to. When you are confident that you no longer need the Halti, keep putting it on, but don't clip the leash to it at all for a couple of weeks, then stop using it.

Yes I have heard that, but it is not quite correct. Still good advice though, to treat as soon as possible after the click. I've never seen a PROBLEM caused by inattention to what is happening after the click, nothing that made me think "Gee, I wish I'd headed that one off at the pass". More "OK, need to tidy that up a little" instead. Most people should just pay attention to making sure that what they click is actually increasing.

I don't like retractable leads either, but if you've ever had a strong dog take off while you're holding a rope you'll never use a rope again. A good quality tracking leash is much safer (and you can use it for tracking too).

Initially? I think I still get it wrong almost as often as I get it right! That's why I cringe when I hear of people using e-collars when they haven't even demonstrated a basic ability with positive reinforcement.

I think all your concerns can be answered with this one line - he's 14 weeks old! He's not going to do anything reliably for a little while, and in a few weeks you'll probably notice he will forget what little he already knows for a couple of weeks too!

Regardless of the cause, look into clicker training. Start with a muffled clicker, just in case.

Paying Attention - A Training Exercise for Puppies and Dogs: http://ezinearticles.com/?Paying-Attention...s&id=267680

Training Your Puppy Dog to Listen to You: http://ezinearticles.com/?Training-Your-Pu...n&id=249330

What I do depends on the dog. A bit of noise is a good thing, helps to avoid a fight. Dogs can make a bit of noise then learn to get along once they know what's up. If the dog has learned to make noise to make the other dog go away then that is something that needs to be addressed - the dog might be anxious, or may not have learned how to respond appropriately to other dogs. In any event, an alpha roll is the least productive approach. Adding stress isn't good.