Bad Puppy!!!!

Question
I have a 4.5 month old GSD. She is a good pup and very smart. Too smart for us I wonder sometimes. There are times when the pup just will not listen. She learns very quickly. We've taught her to sit, lie down, give both paws, stay, bark, bark to go out doors, and fetch, with little effort. We've used the treat method to teach her, so she will get a treat when she preforms the trick. I've been trying to remove the treat from the equation and she does allright when she know that she will get something in return. But without the treat she don't want to listen at all. We've successfully kept the dog from chewing things up around the house by watching her, telling her "no", and replacing her target with one of her toys. The pup knows when she is doing something wrong, she will avoid us and when we tell her to drop things she does and then she will run away like its a game. We don't chase her, I try and wait for her to calm down and then tell her "no".
But the dog sometimes blatenly dosent listen, she does things even though she know's she is wrong, eg. smelling the garbage and trying to take things out of it. I'll look right at her and tell her "no" and she'll do it anyway and as I approach her closer she will run away, and then go back to it again. I know dogs are pac animals and they all have their place in the pac. I believe she thinks she is higher than us and don't respect us. How do we take control of the situation? How do we knock her down and let her know that we are the leaders? What am I doing wrong?

Answer
You may have over done the treats.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm