Professinal traning

Question
Hello Labman, I have decied to get my 4 1/2 year old labrador retreiver professinally trained... it seems I can never get this dog ot listen to me... she barks, she wont sit/down/stay she eats things from counter tops and tables she pulls terribly when walked just to name a few... My question is after an 8 week course or proper training
NOT from a petstore! can I expect my dog to listen to me and respect me as her pack leader? She is not agressive at all but does not listen to anything I tell her to do...without a treat. I have two small terriers also and was wondering if I can use the training methods on them?

Answer
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

Any training you take will be useless unless it is about you learning to give the dog proper leader ship.  Although some dogs are more difficult than others, they all think like their ancestors the wolves.  The same methods should work on all.