Hi Steve,

This is Melissa ********  Thanks for all the great emails you send out.  They are great.  Speaking of training...  I was wondering what you might recommend as far as a few training issues that I have been having.  I have sent them for training and have also had someone come to the house.  If their is anyway you can give me a few helpful hints, it would be a big help:

Thanks for asking! I wish you could come spend a couple of hours with me, we could fix most of this very quickly.

Walking on a leash - they still pull a lot. Never play tug-o-war, give fast jerky corrections. They are not supposed to hurt, they are supposed to capture attention so you can redirect them. I am not a fan of pinch or prong collars, I don’t use choke chains, just a flat collar with sharp tugs.
The girl just loves to jump up on the back door when she is ready to come in. This also takes correction with a leash or remote collar as it happens, but you can teach the dog to sit at the door before it opens and that will also eliminate the behavior.
Digging That’s the hardest one, usually giving them other things to do works, not giving them unsupervised time outside etc. One thing that helps is fill up the holes with their dog waste and they avoid that spot in the future, sometimes though this just moves the hole they are digging. If it is always the same spot such as digging under a gate, you can lay some chicken wire down then cover it with a few inches of dirt. This hurts their pads when they dig and makes a physical barrier
Also, when they know they have done something wrong, they won't come. Always, the golden rule is never punish a dog that came to you, it teaches them not to come to you. If they have done something wrong it is up to you to go catch them. Also if you didn’t catch them doing it, their attention span can’t relate to why they are being corrected, but never ever correct a dog that came to you, always praise them “Good Here!” or “Good come!” then they will always have a strong here command.
They also still love to fight, but sometimes it gets a little to rough.  How can I stop them? By being a very strong and dominant pack leader, don’t allow it at all, when things start to escalate, send them to “Their place” which may be a dog bed etc in opposite corners of the room.

I also remember you saying that you will travel to train.  At what age would you recommend that?  I hope you can help me a little.  It has been a lot of work training them. Generally the stuff done before one year of age builds foundation for later formal stuff. Young puppies can learn all the command set, but it has to be repeated nearly daily to stick, whereas when we work older dogs they retain their learning a little longer between sessions.

Thanks,

Melissa