Male Chesador

Question
We have a 8 month old puppy that is more than stubborn.He was the boss of his litter of 7 puppies. Very VERY stubborn. He turns on my bath water to give himself a bath, he opens doors, opens toilet seats to get a drink, sleeps on the couch, ignores any rules. I literally have to wrestle him when we have company as he is obsessed with certain people. We can throw the ball for him for HOURS and he NEVER gets tired. I get so tired of throwing the ball I fake throw it and hide it. I think he has obsessive compulsive personality with balls. I have tried leash training in the house he stares at me like he is deaf. No matter how strict I am with him he still thinks he is the pack leader. He is all over the kids and loves to play. It bothers me because he is relentless shoving rubber chicken in my kids face forcing until he knocks kids over. He moved his kennel and barks...now escapes from kennel. Crate he just cries. I don't know what to do, but he is so unruly. He is so smart, sat and came on command the second day we had him, but being around kids he is always competing. I say dance(talking to the kids) and he stands on his hind legs and grabs me, tries to dance with me. I turn my back to him, tell him to go lay on his bed. He lays on the bed then sneaks off. I have laid on him for long periods of times but he still fights. HELP, HE IS CRAZY!

Answer

Therapy Dog Class paws   I never think of dogs as stubborn, I just think of them as independent or untrained:-)  At eight months of age, he's an adolescent, not a puppy, so even if he WAS trained, he's at the stage where he would forget a bit of that for a little while.  This would be a great time to take a positive training class, either as a reminder, or to initiate better communication between you.  

Laying on a dog is not training and you shouldn't have to do any such things.  Some dogs, at maturity, will turn the tables on you for that kind of treatment and become aggressive, and you certainly don't want that.  

A Lab/Chessie cross is a retriever breed, so it's not surprising that he would like to retrieve a ball for hours - both those breeds were designed to fetch ducks out of cold water for the hunter all day long!  

I think a good start would be to forget all that pack leader stuff.  Dogs don't form linear hierarchies anyway, and thinking of them like that tends to make humans get stern with the dog, which isn't necessary to train it either.  There is a very good video with some self control exercises you can do with him - it's one of Ian Dunbar's and it only costs about $20: http://www.amazon.com/SIRIUS-r-Adult-Dog-Training/dp/B0030EPWT2. We do these exercises in our manners classes and after a few lessons there's a very noticeable difference in the dogs.  

There are also some free lessons here to get you started: www.clickerlessons.com.



I'm glad you're going to try some of my suggestions.  It would really be a great advantage to take him to a positive training class, too, especially at his age.  Then, I would go to class again as he hits social maturity (around 1.5 - 2 years old)