Last week my son trimmed Balon's nails with little to no problem. Just now he went to do it again and Balon growled and put his teeth on my sons arm (Son is 20 btw) so son raised his voice some and said "No Balon, No bites" but did not let go of his paw, then he resumed trimming, Balon again voiced his displeasure and turned around to put teeth on skin again, Son again told him "NO Balon, no bite" waited without releasing paw, and begin cutting again. Every few minutes my son would say "good boy Balon" while he relaxed. He never backed down from cutting the nails, and remained calm throughout, I was so proud lol. Now my question is at what age do males begin to "feel their oats" or "test the waters" so to speak, Balon will be neutered as soon as possible which will be around 5 months. Balon has never liked to be picked up, he always gets very vocal, barking, whining, some nipping, but I never put him back down until he is calm. So in other words he does not get his way around here. I just want to be sure this is all normal behavior at his age, about 3.5 months. And is there anything else I should be doing to remind him who is the boss? Thanks.

Well, what I'd recommend is not "teaching him who's boss" but instead working with him to tolerate nail trimming. Faolan hates having his nails trimmed, he gets very nervous and usually tries to run away, so what we've been doing is this training method as illustrated by kikopup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgBvnQ71ss

I don't think it really has to do with hormones. My girls will growl if I pull too hard while brushing their hair and Siku who is the mouthier one will mouth me. I do like your son did and just tell them that's not allowed and keep going. After a while they get used to it. Nails can be a pain. Elara used to scream bloody murder when I would trim her nails as a little puppy. But I kept doing it every week and now she's great with nail trimming.

Thanks Sara, I was really proud of my son, he is a very calm person, and got his Momma's love of animals. He has way better eyesight then me, which is why nail trimming goes to him lol. He can actually see the quick, I can't anymore, ahh age lol.

You son handle the matter very I believe.

As for picking them up Blaze does not like it at all of course we got him as a 9 month old not a puppy so I have not tried to pick him up I figure he is over 50 lbs now and 19 months and we probably have not business picking him up.

Thanks Linda I think he did too Yes this is the first puppy I have ever had that didn't like being picked up lol.

Kale still tests me and he's 2! Haha just this morning he growled when i got out his brush lol Not an aggressive one, just a general dislike growl. I dont let him decide, he got brushed anyway. I usually give him a reward for sitting through it tho. Its something for him to look forward to.

lol I hear you, I don't really think Balon's grown is totally aggressive, but more like you said general dislike lol