But now he'll RUN to his crate and can't wait to get his reward. He used to howl like a tornado siren every time we left. Now that he knows his morning routine, he doesn't howl. BUT– he will howl if we leave him in there any other time of day. Odd.
None of the problems you have described warrant a behaviorist. A good trainer yes, and probably a basic obedience class too.
Still gets overly excited when people come to visit. She will be loving and ears back when the guests first arrive. And once guests are relaxed out come her teeth… She doesn't BITE she Mouths... If she gets to excited she will Mouth a little harder than other times...
The moment she puts teeth on anyone, she needs to get a 10 second time out. Every single time. Once you've marked the naughty behavior (I like "too bad") say nothing else to her. Just calmly collect her and time her out. You must be absolutely consistent. This works.
She licks herself like crazy… I mean LIKE ALL THE TIME. Lick-lick-lick-lick... that is all we hear her doing... I know a clean dog is great but MY GOD!! Any ideas here?!
Is this a problem? Is she causing damage to herself? If so, see your vet. Otherwise I'd leave her alone.
If she is sleeping on me and my lady tries to pick her up to crate her she snarrles and growls and will absolutely try to bit and is extremely vocals..
This is a problem with either resource guarding or body handling. You need a trainer to help you with this. For now, don't move her bodily. Call her. When she arrives have her do a sit or a down and then, give her a food reward. Then ask her to crate up. I assume she goes in willingly. If not, that is a whole separate issue. You should never force a dog into a crate.
She (Kevin) for the first time ever has chewed up not only our bed spread in the dead center of the bed but also a very expensive couch cushion, that I flipped when she tore it up 3 days again and today she tore up the other side…... This has never been something she has done
She should not be allowed access to things things that will upset you if destroyed. You know now she has a propensity for it, so manage her.
Loves to steal our socks and underwear and run around with it (since she was a baby she knows it gets a rise out of us so I am pretty sure I don't know how to NOT get a rise from this?). Now I know that if we don't go after her she would relax with it because it doesn't 'get our goat' but she has ruined too much stuff when we simply try to ignore it.
See above. If you cannot ignore it, don't allow her access to socks and underwear. See a trainer to teach you how to train her to "drop it".
When she want to play we will but we make it on OUR terms not hers…when we want to stop, well that is when the mouthing starts up and we again... try to ignore it and she will simply go after any extremity she can... so she will go to time out.
When play time is over, say a phrase like, "All done!" and then totally blow her off. The second her mouth so much as touchs your skin or clothing, say "too bad" and time her out for 10 seconds. Every. Single. Time.
It also sounds like your dog isn't getting enough exercise. Dogs should have 40 min to an hour of cardio. A walk is not cardio. Also try enriching her environment by feeding her out of work to eat puzzles and take her to training class. The destruction sounds like a bored dog, the rest is adolescent stuff. Mostly very normal stuff that any decent trainer can help you with.
