* We have a german shepherd, and the breeder we got him off said that 10 minutes after meals, to take him out side and say "hurry up" until he peed and/or did number 2's. Once he did you had to show him a silly amount of affection and basically make a huge deal out of it ><; Perhaps you could try that? Our pup is 2 and a half now and to this day when you take him out and ask him to hurry up he'll do his business on command - he'll also do it at free will, of course. Toilet training is the hard part, mostly!
* Leash, mum always said (she used to do obdeince trials) to put it on them and let them walk around with it, and pretend it's not there! As they get older she would teach them that when they are on leash it wasn't "play time" anymore, and it was serious business and they had to behave themselves. Once they did, they were let off and rewarded and played with.
* I think it's a puppy thing to nip! The breeder we got Mannix from said to spray them with a spary bottle with vinegar and water mixed together, apprently they didn't like the smell. For us it didn't work, we just had a dog that smelled like a fish and chip shop! Mannix responds mostly to our emotions and physical attention, in the end we worked out that if we showed we were upset with him, he would generally not be naughty! EG, If he chewed something we would lock him outside and 10 minutes and not "speak" to him until he started behaving himself again, works the same for when he did his business in the house as well!
It really is all about trial and error. Some dogs respond well to food rewards and others respond well to affection (like ours, who's only interest in food in for survival!) I will be honest with you, our dog is 2 and a half and all the training we put him through seemed to have only really sunk in over the last 3 months. It's tough and alot of work but you will get there and in the end it's very rewarding!
Good Luck!
ETA, another tip we were showed by a trainer for when they misbehave such as jumping up at people, was to get a chain and throw it up there rump and say "BAH!" really loud. Apparently it's meant to be the same as how the Mum would nip and growl at them if they were naughty in the wild. We did this with our dog as he got into a nasty habbit of jumping, and we only had to do it a couple of times before he got the gist of it. They key to it though is to keep the chain a mysterious object, so once you throw it you need to pick it back up quite quickly before they see/sniff at it.. Perhaps you could try that with the biting?
Managed to do some more lead time and he comes along when i call and sort of follows - but i think he's doing it to just get a treat, is that okay at this point? I'm treating every few paces. (large treat cut in to tiny peices, not exceeding daily serve). I've figured out the annoying thing is my toddler distracts the dog, so i think he's been confused, but i'm getting firm with my toddler so that he stays back, and he's doing that now.
How do you get them to walk along side you, or is that not so important? so far he kind of just follows me on the leash.
To get him to walk along side you we were taught that, if he starts pulling, to abruptly change the direction you're walking in. This way he'll learn that he has to watch what you're doing otherwise he's going to get pulled over by the lead
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