Thank you and you are so right! It was a bit of an instinctive reaction when he ripped my brand new pants but it was such a growl that I made I doubt he would have recognised his name in there! Most of the time I am calm but assertive. He actually responds well to me holding his scruff. I DON’T mean shaking him - I just hold it. It seems to calm him down and he always wants to lick my face afterwards. I reserve this for when he is clearly finding it hard to switch off from what he’s doing and won’t respond to a command. Incidentally he’s not a puller. He enthusiastically goes forward but if he gets too far ahead I stop and and he will stop and sit and wait for me. Or he will respond to a little jiggle on the leash and look and wait for me. I notice he gets very leash bitey when stressed - cars, dogs barking etc. There is one road (unfortunately our nearest one) that’s almost impossible from him to walk down without seriously playing up yet a walk in the woods and he’s as good as gold.
Inside the house we are adopting a zero tolerance rule of 10mins in the crate for any teeth on the legs that arise from him either choosing to nip us or instigating play with a biting lunge. We think it’s working and we will keep it up.
So thanks again all for your help. He’s a sweetheart and i’m looking forward to the challenge of helping him be even sweeter