SKB, with regard to the mouthing, it isn't biting. I have more pain off him giving me a paw! It just isn't great when he does it to a none dog person, and they die of fright (most of my family!)

At the minute, I sometimes get him opening his mouth when he is having a fuss, so I say "gob" and stop. So his gob shuts (sometimes I say no, but don't tell )

Or votes Labour?

Are you MAD?

Ok, if you remember from other threads I like to give things TO do rather than NOT to do (hence why I say sit/stand/down instead of wait/stay; I like them to perform specific actions).

So if a dog is wandering off, I give the recall cue, or the down cue,

If it has something in its gob it should not have then I give the OUT cue (same as I do if he has a ball or sleeve in his gnashers)

If he comes over for a fuss I give the go to bed cue.

Does that help?

ps mouthing is NEVER acceptable, a dog should never learn that it is sometimes ok to put its jaws around a piece of human flesh.

If he doesn't actually mouth you - then what's the problem exactly?

As regards the attention seeking - the pawing - if you are having people round then a rawhide or a kong should settle him down and then the non doggy people can relax a little.

Yep, it is what I would think is the right thing to do. But, I'm sure they said, if a dog is hyper, it just needs calming down, rather than being given something else to do. The dogs need to have a harness and a collar and a double lead, and with the hyper springer, she just sort of walked it round til it calmed down. When Jake has blipped and gone hyper over car, I make him sit and look at me, wait, and then he gets a treat (and has forgotten about the car!). They are saying not to do that?

I allow mine to bite as pups and teach them how hard they are biting so they can learn bite inhibition. Once they reach 4/5 months i no longer allow biting at all.

No you are making him do something - they aren't saying not to do it, if he calms down by looking at you and sitting then you are taking his mind off it. Giving the dog something to do is giving it a job - this is focusing their mind - if that makes sense.

Yep, it is what I would think is the right thing to do. But, I'm sure they said, if a dog is hyper, it just needs calming down, rather than being given something else to do. The dogs need to have a harness and a collar and a double lead, and with the hyper springer, she just sort of walked it round til it calmed down. When Jake has blipped and gone hyper over car, I make him sit and look at me, wait, and then he gets a treat (and has forgotten about the car!). They are saying not to do that?

First of all I absolutely LOATHE the term "hyper" ; for one thing one person's "hyper" is another person's "keen".

Secondly, I am not a real believer in putting all this equipment on a dog I tend to work my dogs at liberty.

When you are training a dog one of the first things you do is to determine the hierarchy of rewards in order to understand what builds and lowers drive in your dog.

I have a very high drive GSD, if I want to teach him very precise actions I NEVER get the ball out as this puts him in a position where he cannot learn, it is too stimulating for him.

So I use food instead. The reverse is true for my Weimaraner.

So, using the hierarchy of rewards I can get the behaviour I want in a calm, focused manner.

I doubt if they are telling you not to do what you are doing, but I expect they will be working on your timing.

If you walked my GSD around like this it would merely RAISE his drive as he would get increasingly frustrated at not doing anything.

For him, we spend a lot of time getting him to concentrate on being still.

Does any of that make sense?

Sorry for the delay - it was past my bedtime!

Thank you so much for the helpful advice. I just want to get started now, and when I do, I'm sure I'll have loads more questions

Take one thing at a time - you'll find it works better good luck.