Background first.

I have a springer (almost 2) and a beagle (3).  I have had the springer from 7 weeks and the beagle I got as an older puppy - around 5 months.  The beagle has been neutered, the springer is entire.  They both have bags of energy but get walks and a bit of training/playtime with me.  They both play appropriately with people, the beagle plays with dogs the springer is not interested in dogs, apart from being a bit daft and wizzy at times they are pretty good dogs with no major issues.  Both have good bite inhibition and are not particularly mouthy.  Both are a little bit protective of food but only with the other dogs and only in so far as they will grumble if somebody tries to share.

I also have a housemate who has a staff x neutered bitch of 6.  She has lived with us for about a year now.  She has used a lot of negative reinforcement with the dog, rattle bottles etc.  She is another high energy dog.  I tend to do most of the walking with the three of them and from the minute I put on some dog walking clothes she is yelping and whining until we are out and she is off the lead.  Even on the lead she whinges and whines.  Basically it is as if she spends her whole life well over any sort of training threshold.  As my housemate works from home I suggested she try and wind her down a bit using a protocol for calm I have, but even the baby steps she struggles with and my housemate is really and honestly not the best person for the job.  She has little patience for this sort of work.  We tried leaving the lead around, picking up and putting it down etc but she was permanently wired when she could see it.  She is also a very clingy dog, she has a bit of seperation anxiety although that has got better over the last year.  She does not like any of the other dogs having more attention or a toy that she does not.  She regularly will take toys from my springer and although we correct this it does not seem to make any difference to her continuing to do it.  My housemate does not tend to buy her toys as her main objective is to destroy any sort of toys. 

Recently she has started nipping, usually when in a high state of arousal.  So this might be when I am getting ready to walk them, happened on the stairs the other day.  It has happened twice when people have been playing with my beagle, the beagle likes to roughhouse a bit and on the first occasion she was playing with my housemates boyfriend who lives there part time, the second was last night with my fiance (who does not live with us but stays occasionally)  She nipped the back of my leg when I was destroying an old arm chair with a saw.  Got to a nail and I was kicking to break the piece and she came in to nip the back of my kicking leg.  At that time we had all been in the garden for a bit, and she had already been back in the house to calm down a bit as next door's children were chatting to me over the fence and it was upsetting her - she was agitated and barking.  She has also nipped at my housemate when agitated (barking at someone at the door)

She has a mega high chase drive and will go after cats, my dogs when they are running - she generally likes to tackle them to the floor - consequentially they are not all that keen to play chase with her.  She plays fetch to the point of an ocd but we cannot do too much with her as she had a terrible bout of lungworm as a youngster and has been left with damaged lungs so she will exert herself to the point of collapse.

My housemate was given the dog as a older puppy, she had already been passed from pillar to post two or three times by 8 months old when she got her.  I don't think she has ever been taught any sort of bite inhibition, or any way to play appropriately.  She will play fetch but she just becomes obssessed with the ball, jumping up at you and trying to snatch it, she won't play tug she will just snatch things from either dogs or people.  Basically imo she has been taught not to do things rather than being taught what she should be doing.  My worry is that as there are various triggers for this behaviour she may get herself in to some serious trouble doing it to a stranger.  Or that she will progress to biting.  And that it cannot be healthy to be in such a state of arousal all the time. 

Any help or advise on how to work with her would be much appreciated.

I've heard of Zyklene being used to work with a dog that very easily goes above threshold. It is not, as I thought, a sedative but infact a milk protein and might just get her calm enough for some training to sink in.

My dog, Nando is prone to getting above his threshold very easily around other dogs, as well as in the car and it was recommended for me- I am still considering it and next time I visit the vet I'm going to have a discussion with him about its suitability for my dog.

Thank you I will have a look at that.

I've heard of Zyklene being used to work with a dog that very easily goes above threshold. It is not, as I thought, a sedative but infact a milk protein and might just get her calm enough for some training to sink in.

My dog, Nando is prone to getting above his threshold very easily around other dogs, as well as in the car and it was recommended for me- I am still considering it and next time I visit the vet I'm going to have a discussion with him about its suitability for my dog.

I've started using zilkine on my girl to help her fear of people, I was unsure about using it. So far I'm only using it when we plan to go somewhere that normally winds her up up and start two days befor. She is still the same girl just with less fear, still naughty and still runs about playing lol It's realy helped in the ring her last two shows on it she stood perfectly like she use to do, hopefully it will help out of the ring too when we take her new places where scary strangers are. You don't need to wean them off it so can use it long term or just when needed most but it apparently works for some and won't work for others my vet said you won't know untill you try so we got 3 capsules to try and took her to a show then brought more. Tryed it when family came to stay the night this week but we only had 12 hours notice so she only had one, took her an hour to stop barking at them and relax. There coming back in a few weeks so will try two days befor as see how she goes.