My wife and I have a 6.5 month old chocolate lab. We wanted this dog as a family pet and not a retriever. I would love to have a retriever to hunt ducks with but all we have locally are wood ducks and a retriever is not necessary.

Anyway, our puppy is not behaving well at all. He bites a lot, barks a lot, harasses house guests, pitches raging fits when we are trying to eat, and generally won't obey any commands to calm down. We have been through the entire obedience training sequence at PetSmart but even the trainer there is flabbergasted by this dog. We are considering sending him to full time obedience camp at Mossy Pond Retrievers but it is a long way away and we don't want to be separated from the puppy for 3 months.

I would be grateful for any advice or information that can help us get our lives in order with this puppy. My wife has done a lot of searching and says there is no place in this area (NW FL / South Alabama) that offers camp-style obedience training. I find that difficult to believe but I don't know of any either. We need help because we are in distress at our house.