Reply #14: I got a 5 year old Yellow Lab from a shelter in August.

[Bonhomme Richard]

He is a great dog but we do have to constantly work with him. Never had that issue with the Labs we had in the past but we got them young. His background was not supposed to be traumatic but he does have issues. It seems to us that he was beat in the past just by the way he tends to cower like he is going to get hit. I suspect he will get over that. We also have some pack leader issues that we are working on. He knows all his commands and listens 90% of the time but when his brain goes click he pays no attention at all and sometimes a 95 lb. dog can be a handful. Won't even take a treat if he is focused. He doesn't do stairs (don't have a clue what that is about as they said he did before) and seems nervous about a lot of things like when one of us isn't home. He won't relax until the pack is together. I think he is stressing because he feels responsible until they get back. That's another leader issue I think. I decided all this will take time.
Most importantly we chuckle all the time at his antics and he is a real pleasure. We wouldn't trade him for anything. Definitely worth the work.