He's been like this since he's a puppy. We LOVE our dog and want to raise him to be the best companion he can be. For obedience training to proceed smoothly, your dog must consider you its alpha leader. This means that it considers YOU the boss. There are a number of exercises you can to to establish and maintain dominance over your dog.
Individual dogs vary in submissiveness.
A very few dogs may be dominant and continually challenge you for dominance, in which case you will actively need to assert and establish your position, but this last is exceedingly rare. More often, people will misinterpret adolescent high energy or bratty behavior as ploys for dominance when they are not. Think of a two year human child testing her parents. Puppies and young dogs do exactly the same thing. Returning to the toddler analogy, the most you might do is a sharp word or a small swat on the rear.