That was interesting. I have been working on the "ignore the bad dog" technique for the temper tantrums and while slow to catch on, I can see that it does work eventually. In fact, the behaviour I don't like (pulling on the leash with his teeth, playing tug-of-war) only escalates into a tantrum when I focus on the dog and tell him "no". If I just turn my back and wait, he eventually stops because he isn't getting any attention (it doesn't seem to matter whether the attention is positive or negative to him).

This morning when we got back from our walk, he was still wound up from playing with another dog along the way. So he went into his mad-dog-dash-around-the-house-and-kick-up-carpets routine. The only thing is, Peter was trying to sleep. He's been up for 24 hours on business and this play makes a lot of noise. I tried for a second to shush him (literally by placing my finger on my lips and saying shh like you would do with a human) and that was acknowledged by even louder barking. So I picked up my breakfast and walked away into the kitchen. In a moment, he came to lie in the kitchen doorway and look at me. I kept my back turned and eventually, he sighed and lay down in the hall! Success! Not fast success but success!

Also, I learned that when Rockwell has slobbered big white globs on someone and I try to point it out so they can wipe it off, I shouldn't say "you have dog goop on you" because that sounds just like "dog poop"! Sorry Robert.