DH is the dog person, but could not decide if he wanted to be the disciplinarian or the play pal. I ended up the disciplinarian with Ranger - a black lab who was a bit of a cement head. He pulled so hard at the lead when excited that I ended up with strained pec muscles. (Thought I was having a heart attack and ended up in emerge for an EKG etc before figuring out the cause. ) I taught him to walk to heel by swinging the lead in a circle in front of me, and him - if he advanced too far, he got a slap on the snout! Very food driven, and once pinched (and ate) an entire banana bread cooling on the kitchen counter. Also got into our neighbor's garage and ate a substantial portion of a bag of dog food that belonged to said neighbor's dogs. Pills were easy - just toss in the air, and gulp! Loved lettuce and apples. Didn't know what to do with carrots. Left my veg garden alone but ate all the gooseberries off DH's bushes.
On the other hand, Ranger never got up on furniture and never snapped or bit - even when crawled or stepped on by young children. He was submissive around our two cats (6 and 8 lbs to his 45-50) as well as other dogs - so never got into trouble. He didn't jump on people, but would push in front of us and wrap,around their legs and roll over on his back for a belly rub. He was a chewer and knawed baseboard corners as a pup, as well as DH's slippers, DH's gloves, DH's belts and some of DH's truck when he was left in the cab alone for like - 5 minutes. Rawhide chews kept him happy as did the occaisional branch or small log. He knew the borders around the kitchen and dining room and was trained not to cross over and beg for food, though he would sometimes sneak under the dining room table before the meal and keep a low profile in anticipation of dropped food. He cleaned up under the baby high chair pretty neatly and saved me the effort.
Sounds like your Bodie is doing very well by you, and you by him.
