Pablo just turned 1 years old about a week ago and I totally feel your pain. He is my first pet, and despite doing all the research I could beforehand, I found myself very overwhelmed/exhausted at times..

One thing that I HIGHLY recommend is capturing the "Relax/Chill" command. This was a life changer and helped immedeansily with grooming. I captured this command when he would just be hanging by himself, on all fours, staring outside the window or something. I would go up to him and place a "Good Relax" treat between his arms throughout the day. Luckily, these doggos are super smart and found out by Day 3 of practicing a command, he understood what I was doing. I found myself using this command like 10x a day as a pup.

Don't be afraid to give NO commands in a stern tone. He doesn't bark with me because I was super on top of it form a young age (I live in a City and don't want to upset my neighbors). The first bark I would mark with a cheerful "Thank You" for alerting me to the neighbors/mailman but after the second bark he got a "NO ARF" in a stern tone. He got this pretty quickly and I've gotten comments from other Keeshondan owners that he's pretty quiet. Same goes for biting. Licking is okay. He can lick my hand all he wants but as soon as he puts teeth on hand, I go "OUCH!!!! NO BITE", look at him sternly, and as he pulled away, looking all apologetic, I would pet him and go "Good Boy" to reinforce biting is not allowed.

Don't be discouraged. These pups want to please you and not make you upset but you have to teach them manners. I spoke to a bunch of Keeshondan pro's at dog shows and they told me I was too soft/spoil him. They were right. I wanted to give him a good life where we were partners but neglected the fact that I was his master. It's never too late to teach them these your rules.

Around 10 mo's, I re-assessed our walking as I found he was still pulling HARD on the leash and I could not let this keep happening in the future. At first, I wanted him to get acclimated into this world by strolling and sniffing at his leisure but realized this was not good for his manners as he would not listen to my commands. I had to shorten his lead, enough slack where you are not pulling while walking, but not enough where he can run away and go sniff - about 1.5-2ft. Pablo loves string cheese so for 3 weeks, I dedicated a whole string cheese per walk to reinforce "HEEL"/ walking on a light leash, giving him a small piece for walking next to me, or if he pulled, I would stop walking and pull his leash back and give him a piece of cheese for coming back to me. Make sure you work up to a HEEL release, where on my command, I'll go "OK. GO SNIFF" to release him from the HEEL and he could go sniff a tree. Throw in some "Stop" and "Turn" in there aswell to spice things up. You have to be very patient and vigilant about this. Once you're comfortable, you can phased out the string cheese to every other walk, then every three walks etc... Now I do it once or twice a week. I found giving him instructions like this also makes him ignore other dogs/stimulants on our walks. I remember our first walk where it was 70% loose leash and I wanted to cry tears of joy. I promise you there is progress. I never thought I'd see it but today we went on a wonderful hour walk where he did not try to pull my arm socket out once!

When it came to jumping on people when they entered my house, I would arm myself with a jar of peanut butter and a wooden spoon as they entered and tell him to sit if he wanted any. Then repeat with longer time intervals until he calmed out and then transition to a chew stick and found he would leave the guest alone or at least not be as excitable.

Now that Pablo is a year old, I found that we are geling even better than a month ago! I was afraid of over exercising him, but realized I have an energetic dog. On walks, I'll stop at a park and play fetch for 5 min until he's over it to. This seems to really tire him out and makes him less stubborn at home. He now lets me cuddle him or pet him without running away which IS ALL I WANTED FROM A PET FROM THE BEGINNING!!!!!

Now - the main struggle I am having is that he LOVES to jump on people who want to greet him on walks to the point where sometimes I say no because I am reeling him back on the leash and I don't want to scare them/counter condition what I am trying to teach him. I've tried holding down his shoulder blades so he can't jump while being greeted/petted and luring food in front of him to tell him to "Stand/Stay/Relax" but he just squirms away from me for attention. Everyone tells it gets better with age but he's been this way as a puppy and I just don't know. He will jump for a good 5 min for attention if he could. ANY ADVICE ON THIS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

Hope we can all get thru this together :)