Teen Angel?

When have words been so separately different , yet together so true? I have a teen now- not a human, but an adolescent dog, a 120 lb Newf, and boy is it a of work I didn't expect. Funny thing is, that I raised not one other TeenNewf, but three others, including two littermates, and I don't remember having this much trouble with them. It must have been so painful that I blocked it out of my memory, is all I can figure. 

Don't get me wrong, I am having a blast with Rudder - when I am not holding my lumbar region after two walks, a game of fetch, watching Rudder like a hawk in the house so he doesn't surreptitiously lift his leg on everything vertical, taking 25 minutes to get him in the car, which he hates, and splitting up tiffs between Rudder and my 11-year-old Newf, Dulse.

Generally, I like to leave new dogs to work out dominance issues on their own. Here is the exception: Rudder is still intact, although he still respects neutered Dulse most of the time. When he gets a bit of rambunctious teen testosterone, or youthful enthusiasm, however, he "forgets" and challenges and jumps on top of my old resident Newf, and fights have ensued that I have had to break up, lest my old boy gets hurt. I don't want Dulse's last years to be a big struggle.

Training this boy is also a challenge. He wants to please, which is good, but he is easily distracted and I have to pull out my rusty dog training hat to figure out how best to get him to do what I want. He is not food motivated at all. He sits nicely, and is learning to heel slowly, and he does a reasonably good down (with the prerequisite, "Oh did you want me "down" like THIS?" - and then gets down on his side, four feet flailing, with a toothy Newfy smile that I can't resist.

All in all, I am doing pretty well with him until I can get him into some professional obedience training, and, of course, get the "nuggies" (as we call them in the vet world) snipped off.le is getting him into the car