my lab

Question
hi anne, having a couple of problems that we need a bit of help with but first some background. wife and I have 2 male pups, a black lab(coming up on 6 months old,not yet neutered) and a neutered mixed terrier coming up on 9 months old. dogs have access to the outdoors via a dog door and have a rather large play area as we have enclosed a 4 acre area with invisible fencing(don't think that didn't take alot of overtime). dogs are housed in a 10x10 kennel while wife and I are at work. as we both work extremely long hours, we haven't spent nearly enough time/energy with the pups and their training. that's about to change as I'm retiring Nov. 1. I believe the free access the dogs have been given in and out and undersupervised has allowed them to become the pains in the butt/hellians they are turning into. The terrier is a terrible jumper/barker/nipper when he's excited and we would like to stop this. and my lab has stopped fetching. he'll run to the thrown toys, look at them and run back. this is unacceptable as I want to hunt this dog in the future and want to start his formal training this fall. I trained a female black lab 16 years ago and everything was so easy with her. not the case with this male. the lab also has a bad habit of lunging at our backs knocking us to the ground when we're outside. at not even 6 months and at 65 lbs, he's too big to be doing this(we named him Moose when we got him at 7 weeks, at least we got the name right). So, if you could break down the problems I listed and give some suggestions to correct them, it would be a great help. and don't hold back - if we're messing up here(like I suspect) by not giving them the needed attention, let me know. Thanks, Paul

Answer
I think that you might want to investigate clicker training, for two reasons.  One, it works! And, two, it doesn't hurt.  I'm not a fan of electronic collars and leaving dogs out in large expanses of yard, especially if they haven't been trained yet.  People often do this to see that Labs get exercise, but what they really crave is time with their people.  Terriers not so much - they generally are a bit more independent;-)
Training a dog to keep "four on the floor" is much easier in puppy hood, but is certainly something you can do with an older dog.  I would train one dog at a time, away from one another.  There are some VERY good tutorial videos on Kikopup channel on YouTube that can help you.  For basics, visit www.clickerlessons.com and go through their exercises.  My advice would be to bite the bullet and find a KPCT trainer in your area, or someone who is listed on the Truly Dog Friendly web site, because you have several issues which need to be addressed.  First, you need to gain your Lab's respect, but not through "correction" - he needs to understand you via communication that makes sense to him, and learn to "choose" the right behavior.  That's where clicker training is sooooo useful.  Dog gets it right, he gets a click and a treat - dog gets it wrong, nothing happens.  In other words, the wrong behavior doesn't work!!!  (Important, because often dogs are doing irritating things to get attention, and if they get some, even if YOU think it's "correction" - wellll, you have accidentally reinforced behavior you didn't like!
I have found the tapes from Ian Dunbar on adolescent dog training to be excellent - lots of good self control exercises for dogs. You can download them from Amazon on demand for cheap money:-))