Julie, is your intent to raise him as a "working" or "pet" dog?

That information may help folks target their advice . . .

This may be a stupid question, but what does a "working" dog do?

Kind of a broad description for dogs from police k-9's to dogs trained in sports like schutzhund or mondio.

He will be my pet. I just want him well trained.

I would start working on leave it, and playing the food shell game with your pup. This is a fun way to start teaching impulse control and will help teach him to leave the Chi alone later.
http://leerburg.com/playem.htm?name=flv/shellgame.flv

For pulling on walking my first step is to change directions every time they start to pull, this means I end up walking almost in circles at first but it tends to help make them pay more attention to me.

If that doesn't work I try stopping and refusing to move as long as they are pulling. As soon as the leash goes slack I count to 2 then start moving again.

It was only after both of those things failed with my Husky and he was about 5 months old did I start to use the prong collar on walks. But even with the prong you have to train them, otherwise they just learn to pull through it and end up with way too many corrections.

I wasn't using marker training when Falcon was this young, but wonder how this would work...

The marker has been charged and the pup knows "YES!" (or whatever) means goodies...

You start walking and before the dog gets the leash taught, you say "yes!" and lure him toward you, stepping a few steps away - reward.

Start again, reward when the leash is not taught - etc...

Let the pup get the leash taught at some point (after several rewards of not pulling) and then "nope" when the leash is pulled and change direction - then reward again when slack.

Does this #1 - make sense what i'm trying to explain and #2 - does it sound like it might be useful?

Once the pup gets the hang you could introduce a word like "walk" for a simple casual walk on leash. ???

Thank you for the link Jennifer. I will try that today with Maximus.

Barbara I need to write this down so I make sure to have it all! Yes, it does make sense!

I am starting to grasp the meaning of "marker training" How many people use a clicker? I just make the clicker sound with my mouth. He responds to that every time. Just wondering if the clicker would be better??

I have to say the people on this forum are wonderful! Thank you so much!

You can use a clicker, or any word or sound that you like. Most people here probably use "Yes!", because it is short and natural to the human. It's easy to use with consistency.

Clickers are fine, too. But the thing is that you have to have them all the time. Eventually you can teach the pup that both the click and the word are a marker if you would like.

You start out by doing short sessions of marking any desirable behavior that he offers and giving him a treat.

For example, most pups at this age already know to sit when a treat is in hand. When he sits you mark and give him a treat. Then he might lift a paw, you mark and treat. He might get up, circle away and then look at you, mark and treat.

The important part of teaching it is that you don't give him a command. These sessions are only for him to learn what the marker means. You will most likely find that he learns it really quick., maybe even after the first session. If I say "Yes!" my dog looks at me no matter what she is doing!

There are lots of good articles about marker training on this site. There are probably a million threads on the forum too.

Basic Dog Obedience and The Power of Training Dogs with Markers DVD's are great. I have also heard wonderful things about Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months, although I have not watched it myself.

The only thing to keep in mind is that The Basic Dog Obedience DVD includes info about corrections, your dog is still too young for that kind of work. But it wouldn't hurt to start learning and stay ahead of the game.