I read the entire post. I am, in fact, printing it out AND saving it to a word doc so I can refer to it time and time again. I definitely have a problem with Lexi.
She sleeps on the back of the couch - we let her so she can see out the window.
She has suddenly taken to sleeping in our bed with us. This just started a couple of weeks ago and we thought it no harm, but having read how this may be adding to her 'domininace issues' I will have to stop it.
She barks non-stop on walks. She's also gotten a bit nippy with strangers. And if she's friendly and playful with them when they come in, she'll nip at their ankles when they go to leave.
She get's no table scraps. I won't lie. She used to. But she's always getting the runs and so I've asked my family to stop it and she slowly, but surely stopped begging. However, feeding her was really a problem. I didn't think she would starve herself but she went close to some 6 days without eating and I couldn't take it. Now I boil chicken and she get's 2 meals a day that are 1/2 chicken and 1/2 Pedigree dog food. She's not always thrilled about the combo (would prefer straight chicken) but at least she won't go 6 days without eating.
I don't use the crate because she has never ever barked or cried that she needs to get out to do her business (but outside she never STOPS barking - go figure). It got to be awful because she makes such a mess when she has tummy upset.
On walks I've tried keeping her on a shortened lease and holding my arm a bit behind me on our walks - so I could walk first. All that does is cause her to pull until she's wheezing and she'll do the entire walk on her 2 hind legs.
I am going to read ALL the articles in ALL the links. I'm more and more convinced that it is I that need to be trained first.