Hi all,

Thanks for your input - all valid and well thought out answers (which is what i was looking for).

I agree strongly with the idea of not forcing any animal into a situation that they are not comfortable with as the mental stress can be worse than most forms of correction as it is ongoing.

I appreciate that you can only comment on the information given - one of the restrictions of web based communication, and as you all know it is virtually impossible to give any input on an animal you haven't seen (I'm breaking all my own rules here it seems).

Anyway, I spent half an hour last night doing retreive and prey based play with her which she enjoyed a lot - her toy motivation is higher than her food - which works nicely in prey building.

By the end of the half hour she was guarding her tug while I did some overly playful 'suspicious' prey sweeps backwards and forwards focusing specifically on the tug (no eye contact).

We finished with her chasing me down and biting my arm (ouch no sleeve ) followed by a release which finished with her chasing her tail and bucking around the field - all off leash no backtie. So she certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, so as long as she is having fun then I am happy with whatever progress she makes.

On further reflection i started looking at how much time I actually spend on actively working with her and realized how lilttle it was - seems we spend so much time on other people's dogs as trainers that we can neglet our own.

As for a blood panel, I will talk to my wife as she runs a vet hopsital, so shouldn't be a problem.

Joel