I did clicker with him and still do, transfering to a verbal marker, but still use the clicker a lot in all his obedience. I didn't ever correct him on the leash until he was almost 6 months old, at which point he started to try and bite when he didn't get his way. He is by no means a soft dog, very attentive and eager to learn, but not soft. When we started to do the obedience in the protection work for a good while he didn't get many if any corrections but than he started to come after me when he wanted to keep the sleeve, and I got more serous about the corrections. None of the decoys that have met and worked him would call him a soft dog, he is very serous and intense for his age. He doesn't care if there is equipment on the decoy or not. I have been told by a couple of decoys that he is a strong puppy.
I am willing to learn new things and prefer the clicker/marker method, in fact most of my dogs are trained almost completely on flat collars, or martingale collars, with very little leash corrections And I love it. I apprecaite all the comments and suggestions, and will try them at training.

And let us know!

I will. I am giving him the week off of training, since its Labor day weekend I need the break too We will be back to training next week and I will let you know how it goes Thanks again for all the advice.

Just a quick update We took last weekend off, and so we went back to training this past Wednesday night. On the field Gage came out his normal quite self, sat when told and when he was sent for the bite he hit the decoy so hard that decoy yelled a bit and commented that the bite hurt, lol So Gage seems to be feeling better. He still wasn't really thrilled about the decoy touching him, another thing that showed up, but the decoy said that he didn't see fear in Gage's eyes at all, he saw him get mad, as if Gage was thinking the hand was coming to try and take the sleeve from him. So we worked on that and Gage made a lot of improvement. The decoy worked him in prey and that seemed to make a big difference. I am starting to wonder if the issues that we have had in the last couple of weeks is more due to Gage possibly hitting puberty. I have noticed in the last week or so that Gage is doing more "boy" things than he normally does, and his attitude is changing too. He seems to be testing his boundaries alot lately, and seeing if I will follow through with his training, which I do. I have just really noticed him changing a lot lately, He just turned 9 months old, so I wonder if that is the cause of some of the issues. Thank you again for all the advice. I appreacite it

Why is an 8 month old puppy already having this much training? Build up his biting and his confidence. Make him feel strong and scary.

Cut the defense. I don't even think adult dogs need defense. There are three parts to defense: fight, flight, and freeze. Out of those three things you only want to get the fight.

Sounds your puppy coming off the bite is flight, and the extended time to re-engage is a freeze. I don't ever want to see that in training.

I want to build my dog up in confidence and really make her feel like she can over power the helper.

You saw a problem with the stick and whip because it's new and he's worried. Instead of backing off and building his confidence you're trying to get him over it.

He's 8 months old. Put him up from protection and let him grow up. I honestly wouldn't really be doing much but pole work with this dog right now.