In the sense of giving hope to those who will no doubt be searching for reassurance on this type of behaviour:
Salty is now the best dog in the world ever, with sugar on Amen!
He will be 1 at the end of the month and has calmed down so much, but is still so much fun
He is usually to be found lying on his back in someone's arms having his tummy scratched with his back legs akimbo and snoring
Or else he is running around like a lunatic, trying to get us to play with him, or stealing something, or just generally being adorably mischievous
He still tries it on every so often, snapping too much, usually when tired in evening, but a sharp word and being led outside to his kennel for a few minutes is enough for him to sheepishly return and be on best behaviour again.
He still thinks my daughter is his sister but hopefully that will change and my daughter cant resist cuddling him when he is not in the mood ....
He also is still mouthing a lot, but no aggression at all, although he has perfected the 'extremely painful bum nip' technique if we ignore him for too long
I have no idea what made the difference, probably a mixture of the following:
1. Continually using forced separation (i.e. outside to his kennel) when bad behaviour / biting happened. And I mean continual, for months and months, and months.
2. Ensuring enough sleep (I read 16 hrs a day). Just like a kid, I would put him in bed during the day, this seemed to help lots
3. Having a 2m simple thin (5mm) rope house lead put me back into control - he couldn't lead me a merry dance around the house - and he knew it; as soon as I put it on each day he calmed down
4. A visit to the vet for the chop (he is less aggressive since this time, but could be age too?)
5. He has been an inside pet dog, but always slept outside at night. We changed to sleeping inside in feb due to nocturnal processionary caterpillars, and since this he has been much better. I read somewhere that making him sleep outside might 'confuse' him as to being 'punished' with separation for no reason. He is still not aloud upstairs tho.
6. Getting older (and loosing those needle milk teeth
)
I think that the most immediately effective ones were 2, 3, & 5 (and maybe 4?). But what do I know?
Of course, I am beginning to realise that all dogs are different and these worked for our particular 'problem' doggy, so YMMV
W.r.t. the guarding of bones etc behaviour, this is also much better now and he lets me have back what is in his mouth, and even to open his mouth and let me put my fingers in to remove dangerous things. Its easier with things he knows are ours. I used the 'swap a treat for the thing' method which gradually worked
He even comes to me from outside when I whistle now, knowing he will get a treat. I started to let him off the lead on the beach and this was going reasonably well and would no doubt have improved once the free beach running novelty wore off, but then the beach was closed due to the coronovirus
I even go jogging with him now on the end of a lead tied around my waist (I am so out of shape that I don't have a hope of over stressing him) I think this helped w.r.t excess energy too actually
What a dog!!
He's my boy!!
Thanks so, so, so much to all the advice on here that was so much help, and also to the 'I'm not alone' moral support in realising that this type of biting behaviour was common for Cockers