Thanks Jay and others for your input. I thought about the counter surfing all night and this morning, taking into consideration my pup's temperament/personality/response to certain things. I came to the conclusion that crating him while making his food is the way to go for now. When we've worked on the stay longer, I'll let him out and work the stay during food prep. If that doesn't work, I may go to the ScatMat.

To explain: He is a reactive dog - extreme high energy. No plans on Schutzhund, but do plan on protection training under a professional's guidance, provided I can find one here in Phoenix that I like.

Although I know that he will basically be a puppy for a long time, I feel that since he's so hectic, he needs calming down and basic rudimentary manners for his own good, to learn to calm himself with some degree of self-control. Not that any of that has been mastered yet, I don't expect a lot from him, I really don't. He does sit and down very well, even from a short distance, even comes well when I call him, sometimes sits in front of me. He goes to his place when I tell him, although I have to close the door cause he won't stay there on his own (don't expect him to). He knows little things like "go outside", "come inside", "wait", "catch", "find it", "where's 'whatever'", rides well in the car, stuff like that. Most was learned through daily "conversation" rather than actual training.

Counter jumping is a little different because of the danger of the stove. If he gets into that habit, there may be an accident if, God forbid, I forget one day and let him out of the crate while a burner is on. I've had to tether him to me when he was trying to jump on everything in sight. When I stopped tethering him as it seemed we were over the hump, he one day jumped on top of his crate (30 inches high) and down before I could grab the leash. Another day I had him come in from outside and he ran in a straight line to the stove (wasn't on at the time) and tried to jump on top (36 inches high). He didn't make it but that was about a month ago. He could probably easily make it now.

As far as training him to stay, I keep it short and release him before he breaks. None of the training is formal as yet, just giving him snippets of what will be expected later. No real corrections either, mostly gentle guidance.

He seems to challenge me (less often now) for dominance and so is different than any other dog I've had. Others just seemed to accept me as leader without constant questioning or challenging. I believe that if I let him do as he pleases, it will quickly get out of hand and I won't be able to control him later when he's 10 times stronger than me. When I asked the breeder if he was the dominant pup in the litter, I was told he was one of 3 who were constantly vying for position.

Any thoughts on any of this? Side note: I now have a nice big hole in my backyard where I can plant a tree this spring

Sandy,
Well based on your response here and considering your pup is only 5 months old, I would say that he is doing very well. Yes I know what you mean about basic manners and the jummping on counters, but you have also said that at some point in time you are going to want to take him to or through some protection training. From all that I have read and understood, dogs that are going in that direction really can be and kind of need to be some what mannerless for a pretty long time. If you can get them to sit, down and do things of this nature then from what I understand you are on the right path. The biggest thing that you do not want to do in a some day PPD type of dog is not remove that drive and energy at too young an age. (Hopefully some of the more experienced folks will slap my hand if I am wrong at all). You are talking about a future working dog here and not just a house pet so the expections are different as well as what you would consider acceptable at this early age. Example if my Max was going to be a house pet, both my wife and I would not have bleed so much in his very young days, but we also did not want to inhibit his bite, so we bleed and allowed him to some what bite and play, if he was going to be just a pet that would have never been allowed. The best thing to work on from all that I understand is the pack and rank order, day after day after day. If your pup is a bit on the dominate side that is going to be where you spend the most of your time, enforcing your pack and rank order. Never slacking up even on the days you are worn out and tired, that is the tuff part. My Max is much the same way and he is a handful to say the least. He is a tuff and some what dominate dog that every day has to be reminded of his place in the pack or he will surely want to lead himself. So keeping your pup in the create when you are feeding him is a very good idea. Keeping him teather or attached to you and always controlling every minute of his life is going to be very time consuming and will keep enforcing that pack and rank order.
Do not allow him to do anything that you are not going to want to happen in the future, like the digging. Max at a little over 9 months has never been out side off lead. Lead = E-Collar, Prong Collar, Flat Collar and always with a long line, remote or Flexi-Lead but never ever out of sight and never alone in my back yard and it has a fence. This is all to control every aspect of his life and to enforce that both my wife and I are the leading pack members. Now I will admit that at 9 months in the house Max has free rain, but he never ever get out of my door without a lead on. So he is always reminded out side that he has to deverte to what either my wife or I say. No digging allowed, not allowed to go into my neighbors yard, not allowed to relive himself where ever he likes but can only go where and when he is told is okay. Now try that on a mile walk.. LOL Any way your dog sounds like a leader so to speak and you will have to control everything he does. If you do not set up that rank and pack order now when he get a bit more mature he will surely challenge you even more. So get that part right now while he is still a bit younger. Example Max is now 9 month and weighs in at 75 lbs, so needless to say he can surely drag you down the street if he had not been taught to walk nicely on a lead early on.
BTW: Max was one of two others in his litter that was ALWAYS trying to be the top dog in his litter. So be consistant and do not let this get out of hand, the earlier you get the pack order in your pups mind the better off you will be.

Well, as for the obedience the basics are good to have in any dogs, what makes a good PPD dog ,one: is good drives , good nerves and a good foundation.You have to teach a dog to bite the right way, if that makes sense work on his bite(unless he is teething)get atug or a small sack and let him practise his bite and target.Too many people assume that "dog" know how to bite the man and hold him there or take him to the ground but they really don't.It's better to have a foundation on your dog/pup if you have a plan for your dog rather it's PPD or sports ect......Don't let your pup just sit around.Get a plan going on that pup now for what you want him to be later on.My PPD dog is now a little over three and I certainely never let him bite me when he was younger I gave him a tug or a small sack to bite but never did I allow him to bite me.He's an awsome PPD dog today.
I think I am totally off the subject, but heck it took me a bit of time to write this

Sandy, I alway forget how young your pup is , I don't know why I always think he's a year when I hear you talking about him.I think you're right about the crating but as he gets older and as more OB in him, other methods might work just fine, so that he is not crated.

"The best thing to work on from all that I understand is the pack and rank order, day after day after day. If your pup is a bit on the dominate side that is going to be where you spend the most of your time, enforcing your pack and rank order. Never slacking up even on the days you are worn out and tired, that is the tuff part. My Max is much the same way and he is a handful to say the least. He is a tuff and some what dominate dog that every day has to be reminded of his place in the pack or he will surely want to lead himself. So keeping your pup in the create when you are feeding him is a very good idea."

Thank you for the reminder Jay. The rest of your post was great as well, good reminders. I do get worn out and have seen myself let a few things slide, like the digging. Don't tell my pup, but I rather appreciated him digging that hole for me, it's more than I could do with a shovel and I really did want to plant a tree in the backyard, and he chose the perfect spot. I'm sure that's why I let it slide - bad me. Confession time, this is how bad I am: when the hole got deep enough and wide enough, I started telling him "no more digging", and he doesn't do it anymore (has only dug that one spot). That's terrible, isn't it...

Jay and Angelique, sorry to be tardy in my response, was under the impression I had already posted a response to you.

My pup is one hard cookie, and Jay, I found that I had to stop his biting me because it was getting out of control. I would try to divert and sometimes he would go after the diversion, sometimes he would come after me even more intently, tearing me up badly. I couldn't allow that. It was getting to where I couldn't move or touch him without him coming after me. But I have to say, I have seen no drive diminishment whatsoever. His prey drive is still excellent, his tug/grip is strong and purposeful and he still carries his "prey" around proudly, in a prancing type trot. Now he wants to play with me instead of prey on me. When he gets overly excited with the prey, he forgets and starts to come at me and just needs a reminder "no" and a diversion. Now he heeds the "no" and goes after the diversion.

Angelique, you're right, I need a thought out plan. Being new to the world of protection dogs, it tends to get confusing what to do and when to do it. Would sure like to come see you up in Vegas one day, get a better handle on this whole thing.

Dude, if you're hectic about your dog being hectic, you create a hectic environment. Training is easy if you are calm, cool and collected in everything you do when dealing with your 'hectic pup' It really is that simple. Doesn't sound to me like your dog is dominant, it sounds like he is getting the best of your emotions. Sorry, but I didn't read all of these posts, I skimmed and picked and chose some things. Again I am going to say, if you are calm and cool about dealing with the problems you are having with your pup this will spill over to him as his leader being in complete control. The simplest fix to a counter surfer is to leave nothing on the counter to surf. Simple.

I have read thousands of posts on this site and it is amazing to me how many dominant dogs people have. I attribute most dominance problems with lack of leadership. Or lack of leadership qualities. If you can't be confident and calm and cool when trying to train a dog then you don't have leadership qualities!! Please don't take that the wrong way, because I am not bagging on anyone, I am just stating a fact.

Here is an example: If you have an argumentative personality and constantly argued with your boss at work and one day he decides to come to work and slap you into submission, or displays anger every time you disagree with him.... You will respect him less and less and the problem will only escalate. But..... if your boss comes to work and talks calmly to you and displays his calm and cool nature telling you that this is how it is and that you must deal with it, while at the same time assuring you that he still appreciates you, then you will most likely leave that situation a little humbled but will respect him a little more for not blowing up and slapping the snot out of you. Dog training is easy, it really is. You just need to decide what you want and get a game plan on how to go about getting what you want. But you must always be calm, cool and collected when dealing with dogs. They can sense anger and frustration the very second that it is happening. Some dogs will use it, some dogs will fight it, some dogs will submit to it and some dogs will develop problems from it. Just remember the KISS rule.

KISS = Keep it simple,stupid.

Chris, not sure if you were addressing me (I'm a "dudette" ), but I do know what you're saying about the hectic thing. I have seen that play out at times. I tend to feed off my dog at times and he feeds off me (or the other way around) and you're right about dogs sensing whatever we're feeling at the time, instantly. My leadership is at its best when I'm calm and collected, which I have to say is most of the time. However, there are times when my leadership is not perfect, because I'm under extreme pressure with something or other in my life that day and therefore distracted. This is the first dog I've had whose personality gives me no room to be distracted. He tends to take advantage of my sometimes less than perfect leadership or emotional state.

The actual training to "do" things is easy and have had no problems there (all motivational at this point). The problem comes when training "not" to do things. There's no actual motivation for him NOT to do certain things, and not sure how far to take corrections with him (only 6 months old now) because I don't want to ever take it too far for his age (I'm figuring the motivation to not do something would be a correction, but at what level?). All my other dogs took "no" easily, not this guy. He's happy and proud when I tell him what a good boy he is, gets ticked off when I tell him not to do something.

There is no way that I could ever explain it as easily as Ceaser Milan. I deal with dogs the same way he does only not as good. But the level of correction really depends on the problem and YOU. If I was with you and looking at your dog and you then I could help you, but...... typing on here I can only say that your idea of correction and mine could be totally different. I deal with young dogs alot different than I deal with older dogs. The internet is good that it gets people involved in learning about their dogs behavior. Unfortunately it is very difficult to help people because a good trainer knows that helping someone with their pet, involves seeing what you are talking about. I would have a better idea talking to you on the phone, but I can be 100% sure if I meet you and the family. SO the internet is good for ideas and tips but not for actual problem solving. I might come off a little hot on here sometimes but I am not a writer, I have writing skills. I have a hard conveying my true thoughts in words, but I know dogs. And I will also say that I talk to all my clients on the phone first or some I meet in person, but I have never seen a truly dominant dog from all the clients I have had. Most people mis-concept disobedience for dominance. Well I am rambling so I will just say good luck and keep learning.

 Quote: chris mcmahon

There is no way that I could ever explain it as easily as Ceaser Milan. I deal with dogs the same way he does only not as good. But the level of correction really depends on the problem and YOU. If I was with you and looking at your dog and you then I could help you, but...... typing on here I can only say that your idea of correction and mine could be totally different. I deal with young dogs alot different than I deal with older dogs. The internet is good that it gets people involved in learning about their dogs behavior. Unfortunately it is very difficult to help people because a good trainer knows that helping someone with their pet, involves seeing what you are talking about. I would have a better idea talking to you on the phone, but I can be 100% sure if I meet you and the family. SO the internet is good for ideas and tips but not for actual problem solving. I might come off a little hot on here sometimes but I am not a writer, I have writing skills. I have a hard conveying my true thoughts in words, but I know dogs. And I will also say that I talk to all my clients on the phone first or some I meet in person, but I have never seen a truly dominant dog from all the clients I have had. Most people mis-concept disobedience for dominance. Well I am rambling so I will just say good luck and keep learning.

I have absolutely no problem with how you come across, at all. Sounds like good and sound advice. I appreciate you taking the time and agree about problem solving being difficult over the internet. Too many factors, underlying or not, to be taken into consideration when defining a problem and a "solution" without basis in all the factors may be the wrong solution.