[Ashton Green]

Yes I think a Zoom call would be really useful – we are concerned some of his behaviours could be dangerous (hard play biting, demanding attention, barking/jumping on top of our heads and shoulders when we are attempting to lie down or to sit on couch. He has already accidentally minorly injured us a few times!

[Ashton Green]

Thanks so much again for your response! Alvin is not allowed on the furniture, though he has been with us less than a week and he is still testing that. We do not free feed, in fact for the last few days we have used all of his allocated food to hand feed treats to him for behaviour reasons (usually in 20 minute sessions near mealtimes).

We have been told Alvin is crate trained by the police officer who used a crate in the transport van which was similar in size to our crate, however, we have only started testing it from the ground up because I do not want to traumatize him if indeed he is not used to a crate. We are up to 5 minutes in the crate now with relaxed behaviour and no reaction showing that he might want to get out. I have put a kong in the crate but no water or food except popping treats (kibble) through the front periodically when he is in there. I imagine this may need to change as he works his way up to more time in the crate though.

I would be happy to talk further on zoom if you think this could be helpful to others!

[Ashton Green]

PS – I wanted to add (which I did not add above) that when Alvin jumps up on me and play bites, I have tried giving him a timeout where I say no firmly and then close a door between us for 30 seconds to a minute. This does not seem to help because when I open the door he starts to snap excitedly towards me and my clothing. What is your advice about timeouts?

[Ashton Green]

Thank you this is really useful. We are doing about 40-60 minutes of fetch in 20 minute periods in the yard and severl 10-20 minute training sessions per day in addition to walks. He is beginning to improve when I am awake and walking around, but when Alvin is awake and ready to play and I am either in bed (early in the morning or late at night as I am going to sleep) or when I want to sit on the couch and read for example he is obsessive about jumping up onto the couch/bed and me and playbiting. He will not let me sit or lay down on soft furniture in the same room as him unless he is well tired from a walk.

I have a crate that I have started training with and he seems to want to go in on his own, and in trainings he has been in for up to one minute. His officer said that he used to be in a similar sized crate much of the day in the police van so he should be used to it. I would love to put him in the crate for longer times (20 or 30 minutes while I read a book, or at the end of the day to settle, or after his early morning potty break (when I want another half hour of sleep). However, I am worried if this is moving too fast with the crate? I don’t want to put him off the crate as he seems to like it.

Any advice for morning / bedtime will be much appreciated. This is the most exhausting for us as we spend about 30 – 40 minutes standing near our bed and using commands for him to get off each time he jumps on, having him lay down, and then as soon as we lay down, repeating the process. I worry about putting him outside the room or in the crate and going to sleep as I cannot monitor him. He has shown no signs of being destructive yet but its possible – is this something I should test?

Thanks again

Ashton