Sounds like you're making some progress, except for the yucky runny business.

 Quote: Kristin Muntz

The jumping/front paws up on us is getting to be his favorite thing,

You can discourage this easily enough...negative marker ("uh uh" or "No") with a knee block; pushing him away with your hands simulates play wrestling and puts some pups in higher drive.

 Quote: Kristin Muntz

I turned my back at lunch the other day and he had his face in my lunch bowl while it was still on the table amazing how tall he's getting so fast!

Okay! Enough's enough! Now it's okay to use the bat.
JUST KIDDING!!
Throw his theivin' butt in the ex-pen whenever humans have food out. My dog knows better than to even come in the kitchen or DR during meals/prep, unless invited. Laying at the door staring longingly is okay as long as there's no overt begging, or unless she's just getting on my nerves. Then the crate is her safer option (Sadie crates herself at the appropriate times).

This morning was pretty rough. But I'll go with the good bits first.

This week things have been going pretty well overall - Duke was in for his 12 week checkup this Wednesday - he's 29.4 lbs, which is 10 lbs up from his 9 week checkup. He did really quite well at the vet's office considering. He was able to sit and down a couple of times with their office cat in the room, and multiple people, including one of the staff member's daughter, trying to get in his face.

It amazes me when that people hear 'this puppy will bite you' and their response is 'that's ok, I don't mind!' Sigh. The staff member did tell her daughter to LEAVE THE DOG ALONE after the second time so at least I didn't have to worry about them, just the other clientele.

We have had a few great morning walks, including one where he started to go all alligator on me, and he redirected easily onto the cloth lead and shook the crap out of it - I praised the heck out of him for that. I carried a tug with me every morning after that to give him something to latch onto if he felt the need to bite the crap out of something.

This morning, I could just NOT get him to redirect onto the tug. He wanted me, my hands, my feet, my shirt. He tore a hole through a 2 layer tight athletic shirt that was 1" from being indecent exposure and I've got 2 lovely puncture marks on my upper left thigh - he managed to do this with only 2 feet on the ground as I had hoisted him up with his harness at a full arm's length. I was speaking to him in a calm voice trying to calm him down, trying to redirect with first the tug then food since he was ignoring the tug - finally was able to get his attention by tossing food down on the road and redirecting him that way. We then did some basic ob in the road for about 2 or 3 minutes until I could get him calm enough to get back to the house. Cripes.

Any more ideas for the redirect? Maybe I should start carrying pieces of raw meat with me!

You're making great progress; he just had a bad day. Sounds like he might have been amped up about something or just too much raw energy. You might try fetch or some type of running game before the walk or interaction, to take his edge off.

JMO

P.S. David could teach how to treadmill his butt, if you have one.

I actually think he had bad dreams last night, he sounded like he was 'running' in his crate which isn't normal for him (crate is in our bedroom for now) We were enjoying a good game of soccer last night in the back yard with an old volleyball, I may try that first thing tomorrow to see if we can get him tired before walking.

Yeah I second that, if ever he has too much energy, some running around, a play session, a structured no nonsense walk are in order. You of course have to repeat this several times per day. I do or I can't live with my dutchie LOL.

Pushing back a dog in drive just builds drive like teasing them with a toy. Redirecting is good just don't be trying to calm a crazy dog by playing with it. First you drain the energy then when he puts his teeth or paws on you, hold him up calmly and firmly say NO...don't back off until he does. Ignore any struggling or scratching you. Then put him down calmly, no praise party or party of any kind. You want him to be calm, be calm. He NEEDS (calm never angry or excited) discipline and consistently. He's running all over you. But hey you gotta start somewhere.

Pet him on your terms only, play with him on your terms only. Don't wait for him to get spastic before you exercise, that was too long....many shorter sessions are better and easier I have found. Puppies don't need long bouts anyway. When he's older you can bike him like I do with my Dutch.

I would not over run (over exercise) a puppy. Not at all good for their joints. Neither is a tread mill for pups until the growth plates close. JMO.

Pups need multiple short exercise periods on soft ground throughout the day.

We'll try a few different types of exercise this weekend now that he's got his full complement of shots - I'm thinking to take him to the kid's park, if it's empty and see if he'll go down the slides (the contained tube should be safe enough) also down to the nearest boat ramp for some play in the water, maybe. I'm not much of a runner, nor do I currently own a treadmill, so the most running he'll really get at the moment is chasing a ball or stick from one end to the other of the yard. We have a couple of sets of friends' dogs waiting to socialize with him for some new experiences too.

There's an interesting question - how much swimming is too much for a puppy? I guess I'm assuming he'll actual be interested - and I promise not to carry him in on my shoulders

Nothing should be to exhaustion with pups. Should be fun & busy but not to where the pup is too tired. Swiming is low impact, which is good...but again tiring especially for a pup when learning how to swim. They tend to use their whole body thrashing around until they figure it out.

Be very careful introducing pups to adult dogs. One bad experience or attach can ruin a dog for life ....making him dog aggressvie. They don't REALLY need dog play mates to be happy....they have THEIR pack whatever & whoever that consists of. You are better off letting hin play with pups of similar size & age if you really feel he needs dog friends.

No never exhaust a puppy or jog it, never meant that...just burn off the energy so he can calm down. Otherwise telling him to chillout with all that energy isn't really fair.

Running on grass with you for short distances is fine, playing with toys, swimming is fine just at his pace. When he gets full grown, jogging him and also sprints across a field will be great and even pulling weight.

Thought I would update since it's been a couple of weeks..

Duke stopped sleeping through the night about 3 days after my last post - it took me a night to figure out that discomfort was waking him up and chewing helped him get back to sleep.. so teething? We have been through massive amounts of dried sweet potato and frozen carrots. Last 2 nights have been good, I moved his crate back to the kitchen so him waking up would not wake me up which would keep him from falling back asleep since I tend to get bad nighttime anxiety, and I'm pretty sure he could 'smell' it. Better sleep for everyone.

Duke had a great day on this last Saturday. I did a 'scent pad' with some hot dogs for him, we had a great walk. He was exceptionally well behaved all day long.

Almost every other day has been quite problematic. I have had enough issues with lunging and nipping/biting that I have made an appt with a behaviorist that I was able to find in town. Since Saturday, Duke has consistently bitten at my legs/hands/rear when I try to redirect him from digging in 1 specific spot, when I am playing retrieve with him, or when I am walking him. Because of the issue while walking, I have completely stopped walking him for the past 3 days. I do not want to set him up for failure by putting him in a position where I'm going to be pained and frustrated and he's going to be worked up and the entire neighborhood is going to witness me trying to get a dog that's trying to gnaw on me back to the house from 5 min away.

I tried 2 specific things that she told me until then to attempt to calm him out of the biting fits - one being to hold his mouth shut until he stops, the other being to hold him ON HIS BACK until he stops. Holding him on his back....... does not seem to work at all. Other than to make him scared of me or make him mad, depending on the location we're in. Holding his mouth shut just seems to work him up more. So for now, the back yard it is, and the crate as soon as he gets out of hand.

She did say she had had some contact with the MWD program and that she would have someone else she could get me in touch with if she was unable to assist. I think she was pretty irritated that I was asking so many questions about her background and experience with working dog breeds as she's one of the only people in town with behaviorist training, but I hope she didn't take it personally.

So that's where we are now.