I think saying I'm "waiting for him to calm down" was a poor choice of words. I'm actively training him, with the adult dogs we know and the ones we meet on walks, to be less hyper when he meets another dog. He has a very good sit stay when alone, but is less good with other dogs, so I'm working on that at the moment. He's just learned "Watch me" to keep his attention on me, rather than getting distracted by what's going on around him, but being a new command he's not 100% with it.
We've done a lot of training together and he's generally very well behaved at home. He is very calm in the house (other than the morning greeting) and knows that the living room is for being calm in.
He gets too excited when meeting guests, so we've been getting some friends to come over and completely ignore him until he stops, then treating him, and it's going well, so far.
You're right....I need to take him to puppy classes just so he gets used to doing the commands when around other dogs. That's his only downfall in my eyes. (and is completely my fault.) We found a fantastic APDT trainer but she'd just gone though a terrible grievance so was taking a small break. As far as I know she's training again so I'll call tomorrow and book him in.
We only know adult dogs, bar one, and he sees them regularly. I dog-sit for a lovely lab girl, Jess, who puts Howard in his place if he gets too much. He listens to her and backs off (but with no fear, just acceptance that she doesn't want to play.) He can relax in a room with another dog in it, providing that dog is also being calm.
When meeting dogs on walks he wants to meet them, but is very submissive when they say hello, generally rolling onto his tummy and staying still. After that he wants to play with them. I'm not sure if that's fear or just submission, but he only does it with small dogs and after they've greeted him he gets back up and has a sniff himself.
Everyone does comment that he's a well behaved little man, he just is very hyper.
lol: I've gone very far away from the original topic, but oh well, I was going to ask all those questions anyway.) I was originally wondering when he'd lose his "puppyness", but was probably not very clear. Thank you for all your advice!! I welcome anything that will help with training.