Originally Posted by Jasper's Bloke

There is some truly excellent advice in this thread and I would hope that for the sake of your dog's future you take the time to put it into practice.

Your young lab really doesn't sound any different to my own, but I quickly learned that his general behavior was entirely dependent on his energy level and the amount of stimulation he has had.

Labradors have masses of energy and so of course need plenty of exercise but you need to bear in mind that they are also extremely intelligent animals that need lots of mental stimulation too. Jasper tends to have a daily session with me as well as a shorter one with my son. When I take him out I try to keep it as varied as possible, one day he'll be rooting through the undergrowth in a forrest and the next day we will just be playing fetch on the field next to the house. In order for him to 'earn' these privileges though he has to work for them, if he wants to carry on running through the trees he has to demonstrate how good his recall is or if he wants the ball thrown for him again he has to walk close to me etc. Training in itself can be a great reward.

This is a great way of training because it uses his most favorite things (apart from food!) as positive reinforcement for responding to his given commands. The only thing he loves more than play is attention, which includes just being close to me and so this is the only negative training tool that I use. By that I mean I withdraw that attention when he is not doing what he is told, or is doing something he shouldn't be. If he won't give up the ball for me to throw then I walk away, I stop the game. If he wants to be close and have a cuddle then he knows not to lick my face because as soon as he does, the cuddle is over.

Give your dog constructive exercise, give him a job to do and something to think about and I am sure you will soon start to get along just fine.