How old is Jasper? He sounds young! If sooo... lots of training ahead and you are on the right road. NEVER give up on stepup training. EXTREMELY important. As the trust develops, so does the following of your commands. Been where you are. I was lucky when we had a house fire, we were at the stage of trust to stepup immediately. Birds were all out on play gyms... I don't think I even said " stepup". Birds were put in their cages, dragged outside, ripped up the hardwood floors... of course, didn't care. Dogs were put in the cars. Of course if they didn't allow stepup, I would have toweled them.( birds can complain later!) Fire was put out, and I am proud to say, our practiced fire drills with kids paid off! We did it exactly as we had practiced, remained calm, and everyone was safe. Nancy