you have time. you just have to make the choice to use it that way. It doesn't take *that* much per day, just commitment and consistency.

Get a good book, like the Koehler obedience book, and start there. If you don't hunt, then don't worry about training him for that yet. Just get him to where you're both sane at the end of the day. He needs physical exercise, but he also needs attention and mental stimulation. Training, even obedience training, will give him that. As he gets a bit older, 2-3, he'll start to calm down.

Get that dog in the house for part of the day, every day. Dogs are social creatures. He won't be properly socialized and used to being around people in the house if he spends all of his time locked up in a cage in the back yard. Kennels are good places to have for a dog. When you need to contain them for a period of time, it is a safe environment to leave them in. But, they are not really good places to keep a dog all the time if you want a family pet. I use an indoor crate, rather than an outdoor kennel, and it works well. It is a safe place for her to go lie down when she doesn't want to be around others, it's her space, and she is conditioned to go there on voice command - there is no wrestling involved. Guests over that don't want to be around her? She's being too hyper and needs to calm down? Just send her in there and it's done.

Brittanies like to run. I started my girl on a long line when she was 12 weeks old. By the time she was, oh, 16-20 weeks old, she would recall instantly, and is now (at age 6 years) reliable as far away as she can hear me to come back to the whistle or voice. If she doesn't see me for a few minutes, she comes looking. I was training her for hunting, and love hunting with her, but we actually hike off lead more than we hunt, and she is a pure pleasure to hike with because of it. She's just entertaining.

We also spent a lot of early mornings/late evenings walking around on a lead, and teaching her to walk off lead.

You have a decent patch of ground to work your boy on. Walking around with a dog is a good motivator to get out of your chair, too, which is one of the reasons I got my girl.

Many Thanks to you both! I've been meaning to check in here, and had gotten caught up in something else...

All good thoughts (minus the inside the house)!

Again, Thank You for your consideration, we'll see what happens!

I've raised hunting dogs since I was able to water them. Growing up we usually had 10-15 head at anytime for deer hunting (Blue-tick, Beagle, Walker, etc...). A dog has always been a part of the 'family', for as long as I can remember.

Raising a puppy as a young man never seemed to be a big deal....raising a pup as a father raising 5 kids is where the rub comes in.