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Well I have a 4 year old Springer Spaniel and I have two small problems.
I don’t know if Brad reads these or not but I though I should try asking on here. Me being 16 years old, and not having a lot of experience with training (this dog being my first.) the reason I’m writing this is because this is my dog and not my mothers, I walk her, feed her, train her, groom her every thing. Any way my problem is my dog jumps up on the counter. But she knows she is not allowed to do this she KNOWS THIS VERY WELL, because she will only do it if I or my mother is up stairs, or we are out of the house. So there lays the problem I can’t catch her in the act because she doesn’t do it around me or my mother. Ya I know this is a coming thing but I don’t know how to stop her from doing it. I can call her off of anything make her walk beside me off leash. But I can’t get her two stop jumping up on the counters.
But I did say I have two problems and this one is well a bit harder, she has a break down when someone coming into the house. But she doesn’t do it to me or my mother. Break down = crying running around getting toy running back, jumping ect. I know how to stop the jumping she didn’t do it and was retrained by one of my mother’s ex-boy friend and me being 13, 14 at the time couldn’t do much to stop this. The end result is my dog had a break down and my mothers ex is not longer around and I have a 4 year old dog that I’m trying to train, again. So I need help because I have no idea how I can teacher my dog a little self control when someone comes to the door, which has happened 2 times sins I have bean righting this, and how I can stop her from going on the counters.
Thanx Tori

I know haw you feel. I got my first dog when I was 13 (b-day present, but not a surprise). I have done everything for her and my other dog. I am almost 19. My mom is basically the money and car. She does play with they though. I don't think we have gone on a leashed walk together in over a month. We do go the the off leash park about once a week.

I don't know what to suggest about the counter problems. You could try setting her up and leaving the room, but watch from around a corner until she get up. Then surprise her and correct her.

For the door, when the door bell rings, put her on a leash and make her Sit Stay while you open the door. If she moves, correct her and put her back into a Sit Stay. This is best started if you have a friend come to the door to help you practice. It can take a while for her to get it.

You should download Brad's book. It has lots of info about this (or so I am told). I know it can be hard being a young adult and raising dogs.

One of the things you can do with jumping on the counter is put a bunch of empty pop cans with some pennies inside it and place them all around the edge of the counter ... when your dog jumps on the counter it will make a huge noise. The idea - startle the dog enough to stop it from doing it ... and you're not there to correct so the noise has to be the correction ... make sense????

I did this with one of my cats and after jumping into pennies and pop cans TWICE he'd had it ... never went on the counters again!