I am being told that my daughter's pup's behavior of licking faces and chins is a dominance issue, while my intstinct is that it's submissive. What is your take?

My daughter has 14 week old Black Lab/Border Collie mix pup that she adopted at 9 weeks from a shelter. He is the runt of the litter, a full 5 pounds smaller than his litter mate, adopted by my son, (separate households). Ruben is a very happy, curious, energetic, smart puppy who likes to please and has done well with the limited training he has had thus far.

My question arises because of something said by the teacher of the "puppy socialization class" the pups just entered. When asked the meaning of his new behavior of licking under the chin and pawing at the face of another dog, (puppy or older, and in one case a clear alpha female), and on a few occasions with my daughter as well, the teacher said this was a gesture of dominance and should be discouraged. She made a clear distinction between licking under the chin and licking on the face.

I can't find anything about this on-line or in any of the books I have. From the little I know of wolf and dog behavior and my observations of the pup, this seems wrong to me and I would appreciate the benefit of your expertise. My common sense tells me this is a happy pup wanting to make friends and offering to play with the other dog or person - i.e., more submissive than dominant, especially since none of the other dogs have reacted negatively to this behavior and the alpha female even licked in return.

The principle reason for my concern is that if the teacher is telling us something that is clearly wrong, it may not be good to trust her opinion on other dog training matters.

Thank you,
Marilyn

P.S. My son has recently ordered your dog training videos and we are all waiting anxiously for their arrival. I suspect that my son and daughter are going to follow your advise, cease training in the socialization class, work on their own with your training tips and enroll the pups in an obedience class when they are older.