Your best weapon is to be a firm pack leader. In the face of a strong, intelligent leadership, less problems will crop up. Your very attitude will prevent most of them. Understanding the puppy's inability to behave as an adult, yet curbing excessive flack even while he's learning.
Knowing that you have the right and duty to be in charge is a good beginning when it comes to dog problem prevention. Your puppy is built to look to a strong, loving leader for direction and guidance. You just have to step into his shoes and continue on - loving, protecting, making rules and setting limits.
One type of behavior problem that needs to be stopped is the unpleasant habit of stool eating. Some puppies indulge in this habit out of boredom. Some get the habit after being punished for a housebreaking accident. They seem to be trying to get rid of the evidence of wrongdoing. And while most people find this habit unnatural, it isn't really.
When your dog was a little puppy, his mother kept the den clean by ingesting the feces of all her puppies. Still, when you pick up your little puppy to kiss him, you'd prefer his breath to smell like milk. In addition, by ingesting feces, he can reinfest himself with the very parasites you have been battling to get rid of. If he does this with the stools of other dogs, he can infest himself with whatever worms they might have.
The only way to break this habit is to clean up immediately after your dog evacuates. When he's outside, keep him on leash and do not let him sniff the droppings of other dogs. This habit may take a few weeks to break, especially if your puppy is using papers while you are out to work. But by keeping things as clean as possible, you will end the habit soon enough. Try not to freak out when your pup "cleans up" by himself. This too shall pass.
In all training, particularly in problem prevention and correction, it's important to examine the activity from the dog's side, too. Sometimes you will feel that what your dog wants is not acceptable, as in the case with biting. Other times you'll feel that what he wants to do would be fine if you had some control over it, as in the case with barking. By pausing to look at life momentarily through dog-colored glasses you will see which activities you should stop cold and which you can redirect. That is the intelligent and humane way to train you dog.
