Could you try a light lunch for him instead of doubling up in the evening?

smokeybear that really made me laugh about the dogs yakking up their fish! Reminds me of my pup...we were on one of the rare breeds stands at Discover Dogs this year and had taken my pup as she was a nice example of the breed and bomb proof...
..well I gave her lunch....chicken wings.....she wolfed them down so fast that she then proceeded to yak them up in their entirety in front of an adoring crowd!

The crowd recoilled in horror, i burst out laughing but my colleague smiled sweetly at the crowd ands informed them that this was how this particular breed fed...they always yakked everything up before re-eating it! Some bloke turned to his wife and said quietly "don't think I want one of those now!"

My friend whispered imn my ear "well we don't want them getting too popular do we?" Naughty girl but I get her point !

Am interested.....what made you contemplate residential training? What did you think would be beneficial about it? Where you feeling quite desperate at the time? What did you hope it would achieve.

Not criticising just interested to understand what makes people consider this form of training? 

This behaviour is normal, however, adolescent dogs are not like adolescent humans.
Teenagers tend to grow out of or pass through this stage as a natural rite of paasage to adulthood.....Dogs I'm afraid don't do this.

Waiting for this youngster to "calm down so that training can begin again" is the wrong approach.
Training needs to be ongoing, sometimes you need to take a few steps backwards and "re-work" that which you have done before.
Often this is because training has not been comprehensive enough in the early weeks and most pups are very amenable when young so they will cooperate readily, but as dogs mature they become more independant and wish to test boundaries and explore things further.

As I have said many times on here adolescent dogs have higher requiremetns for stimulation and exercise.

My suggestion is,that your sister enrol in a class specifically for adolescents or has some one-to-one sessions with an experienced instructor and that she does so without delay as the issues you describe do not go away they tend to increase if ignored. Good luck!

My guys get a whole trout each once a week or a handful of fresh sardines if I can get them off the fresh fish counter at waitrose....they love them!

I know EXACTLY what you are describing johnderondon, I have seen many many GSDs like this in the years I have fostered for GSD rescue and in my behavioural work.I have owned 3 such gsds in the last few years.

The lack of early appropriate work and socialisation and stimulation creates a dog who can be highly over-reactive to both good and bad experiences.
Not only will the dog display over-exaggerated responses to outside stimuli but will react in the same way when showed affection, being praised, being groomed and being played with.

I have found that the usual ways of play, play, play can often not help with this initially.
To begin with lots of obedience work in short spurts, teaching look commands and focus tasks such as "Settles" or long "downs"....obviously building gradually. The Look command is very useful but the other thing that works well is to use a very very quiet voice almost a whisper when working with such dogs.

Once you have managed to get the dogs attention and you should do this in as low distraction an environment as possible, then start to use the whispeer so he has to concentrate really hard on your voice.

It feels a bit weird to begin with but it does work provided you have established a relationship between you and the dog.

Our previous gsd to the one we have now was like this...she had never been out when we got her at 11mos old!

We did end up with a lovely dog who was eventually good with other dogs and people and had a good recall ,but take her out of her familiar environments and she would again become loud and over=reactive and struggle to cope.....aah the damage people do.
Try the soft voice approach and the more attentive you can get him the softer your voice can get.

Hope this helps  BUT I do think you should get some one-to-one help because these things need to be worked on holistically and how the dog perceives you and his realtionship with you will have an influence on how he copes in the outside scary world.

Idon't think it has much resemblance to a Rottie

If you are going to get a puppy you must make provision for it on the three days it will be left at home.  you taking it work for two days a week will not compensate for leaving itr for three...dogs don't "work" like that....he won't think..."my dad will be taking me tues and thurs so I can manage on my own for mon, wed and friday.

AYoung pup needs daily if not hourly attention, everything will be harder and take longer if you leave a puppy all day three days a week...popping in is not enough.

Staffs usually adore their owners and to be apart from them is particularly hard for them. Organise daycare for your pup and be prepared to pay for it. Good daycare ( not just a walk...this you can arrange when your dog has matured) is worth its weight in gold...again do some research and put these things in place BEFORE you get a dog.

Why are you asking?

Sorry hit send button.................So I feel that this is a good thing for Iams to do. I expect the cynics will say it is a PR stunt...... well whatever their motives...if it helps us cope with the rescue crisis for dogs that we have in this country at present then so be it. Something needs to be done so this seems a good place to start.

I too boycott P&G to the best of my knowledge and confess to feeling uncomfortable about this. However, as someone who regularly takes in rescues from at least 3 small Rescues locally, am thinking that sponsorship for this is vital.
As I have stated on this forum elsewhere, things are at meltdown right now as far as rescues go. The dogs are coming in faster than there are homes or even fosters and kennel spaces available to take them

The Dobe rescue locally has 35 dogs waiting for home 35!!! The gsd rescue about the same.

It's a question of appropriate early socialisation.......making sure that the staff is comfortable around other dogs but not seeing them as really great playthings to begin with. It is important with Staffs to teach them early on about self control, too not allow the excitement levels to climb and climb and climb.

Plenty of firm consistent boundaries...lots of play with YOU with toys..tuggy games are great but I would avoid wrestling games on the floor...........you want to avoid high arousal activities.

Plenty of decent walks off lead.....teach obedience cues early.........Come, stop! follow me, Look! Wait, Sit, Down.

Put commands on the game so you can stop start them at your request.
Feed good quality diet...avoid Bakers, Pedigree and Hills.
Teach your dog to cope alone....because staff's are so people orientated they can experience very easily seperation distress....your kitchen may look like there is nothing to damage but I had a client whose staff had managed to rip all the kitchen units of the wall in her distress...if there are floors and walls believe me the dog can do considreable damage ( just been to see a gsd that eats the plaster of teh wall when dad goes out

How long are you intending to lerave this dog? Do you work...if so what hours? What provision will you make for your dog when you are out?

So it is kind to teach your dog to cope alone. Staffs are great dogs and not hard to obedience train at all and clicker training is great for them..lots of exercise, lots of stimualation as opposed to arousal, lots of un interesting inter-action with dogs, get them focused on play with you......fantastic family pet.

Be aware that there is a breed inclination to aggression towards other dogs...this is a fighting breed afterall...and manage your dogs environment so that your dog is not put in a difficult position.

Last but not least GO TO A PROPER BREEDER.....research, research, research...find someone experienced who is concerned about who owns their dogs. Responsible breeders will want to promote their breed and will sell to pethomes carefully. GOOD luck!

Regards pulling no dog pulls automatically on lead it is a learnt behaviour...if you teach a puppy early how to walk nicely on a lead your dog shouldn't pull you and "pulling strenght" should be irrelevant.

I don't believe there is any issue with criticising a book one has read regardless whether one has written one or not.

I don't recall asking anyone for definitve reply about the "best" book was interested in peoples thoughts on what they had read not who thought which book was best?
Wasn't aware my questions requested specific answers about training methods either, interesting how different people interpret what you write.

briarlow...am interested....how have you come to this decision about 7 weeks for Spanish but 12 for Poms?

Am not being critical but am interested to learn what this decision is based on? 

I feed raw but if I did go back to feeding commercial foods I wouldn't feed any food that contained a meat meal as an ingredient, whether it be chicken meal, fish meal, lamb meal or good ol' meat derivatives.

If those words are on the packaging it wouldn't be going into my dogs!

Meat meal is the poorest quality "meat" well I would refute it is meat. It can be diseased parts it can in some cases be euthanased companion animals (and that includes the chemicals used to euthananse them and the bags they were disposed of in) all the worst parts .

I would only feed a food that said chicken meat or lamb meat etc...I can see that TWO has chicken meat in it but the most prevalent ingredient is chicken meal. This I would choose not to feed my dogs IMHO.