• Exercise & Mental Stimulation plays an important part in helping prevent bad behaviours. A well exercised and stimulted dog is a happy dog, more likely to settle down and relax.
• Fear vs Fun. Teaching by fear is outdated and does not work. Use rewards more to help the dog build trust in you and to make yourself worth listening to.
• Dominant? It is very rare for a dog to be dominant over a human being and is more usually a case of being allowed to "get away" with things or no boundaries being set.
• Good Diet? Diet can have a huge effect on your dogs behaviour, discuss this with your vet or with me when I visit.
• Patience & Tolerance - Its what you need to change your dogs behaviour. You can teach an old dog new tricks so never think your dog cannot be changed or helped. They may have certain genetic traits depending on the breed but they all like and will actively work for rewards that motivate them and work to obtain them.

• Its never the dogs fault, always the owners - Even the most caring of owners can become exhaperated with thier dogs behaviour. But naughty behaviour can be reinforced unintentionally. However, you must not blame yourself for your dog's problem and feel it is all your fault. Some dogs on not angels. It pays to remember you are only human and there are plenty of things you can do to change your dogs behaviour.. 

Recommended Reading

The Culture Clash - Jean Donaldson (ISBN 1-888047-05-4)

Dominance: Fact or Fiction - Barry Eaton (ISBN 0-95330391-1-8)

The Canine Commandments - Kendal Shepherd (ISBN 978-1-874092-55-1)