I'd probably go along with HWS and I know the Dogs Trust behaviorist would too in that persuasion and reward and particularly the same command word will work, you can't shove a big dog off a settee, I know that too

Our GSD has his favourite position on one of our settees, its his guilty secret but not so much of a secret, if you leave the room he'll climb up on there and lay with his big head on the arm ready to stare at you with those puppy dog eyes when you walk back in - we don't even have to say anything to him now, just point to the floor and he gets off, thats simply from re-affirming the same message over and over again, rewarding the correct reaction from him (ie getting off) but most importantly making sure that all of the family tell him the same thing every time he climbs up there - we'll never stop him doing it but he never resists being told to get off.

my brothers Rottweiler/lab loves yoghurt pots too, I'd finished a muller corner and before I'd even put it down for him he had his face in it and bit straight through the pot.

He also seems to have a thing for takeaway chips, mainly the crunchy little ones, must be the same as the obsession with crisps all dogs have. He's still learning to behave so he gets the "sit, paw, high five, lie down, roll over" before he gets food and as I went to give him a chip last night he did the whole routine before I'd asked he was that excited

Thanks for the advice, I tried substituting his toy today and it worked quite well. I also used it to coax him off the couch with too so all in all quite a success.

He's got plenty of energy as you say and seems to need about two hours of walking a day which suits me quite well as I manage to combine it with a trip to the allotment. Foodwise the vet warned us about Bakers so we've been giving him Burns instead.

I must admit to secretly liking her black and white (probably why) border collie.
It's a bit of a fussy pain in the @rse but is a pleasure after the snarling horrible little Jack Russell typee thing she had.
Fooking horrible little rat that was.
I wasn't particularly unhappy when it popped it's clogs.

For someone who has made a point of never having anything to do with our 4 legged friends I've even started taking it out for the ocassional walk and even picking it's shoite up.

A new man?

We should have play dates with the dogs on Rockford Green

Can you stop Sully from being a little bag?

Can you also stop Tilly from peeing on my pillow?

TIA

rlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22536727rl

The evidence in the article is backed up by my own extensive research involving my own golden retriever Jake and two brother-in-laws and one close friend who are/were all police dog handlers - longevity in dogs is DEFINITELY connected to idleness

A police dog is normally retired at around seven years of age after years of living out of doors in kennels, being walked around the streets, chasing ne'er-do-wells, being thrown over walls and down embankments after ne'er-do-wells etc etc etc, after retirement, my research has proved, that they don't tend to live beyond their tenth birthdays, being worn out through hard work and all.

Jake was one month beyond his 13th birthday when the cancer claimed him and like the Irish Wolfhound in that BBC article had a lifetime of relaxing behind him, and like the Labrador took his exercise when running away from things that spooked him, like plastic bags or Cable TV street cabinets that hummed, that sort of thing.

Its a regime that I am also proud to follow - all of my friends of the same age as me now have fooked up knees, one has a hip thats completely worn away, at least one has already had a heart attack and when I sit with them in a pub our corner stinks of fiery jack and they all moan when they stand up, I on the other hand have hardly ever troubled the NHS with an ailment (so far) - the main difference is that they all played football at Sunday League and five-a-side level until recently, one still plays but he is also mental - they've all knackered themselves completely whilst I lived a sedentary life and still have parts of me that haven't been used yet.

Seriously folks, stick the gym membership in the back of the drawer and sit down for a nice cup of coffee and some chocolate cake, no-one ever died from relaxing.

I assume this is meant to be tongue in cheek, but on the off chance that it's not, I will just point out that every study ever conducted on the subject of physical exercise has shown it to be beneficial in a whole host of ways. Not football though, that's a mug's game if you like having functional knees.

None of my footballing friends have functional knees at 56 years of age

Owning a dog is one surefire way to make sure you get a healthy dose of exercise and rain.