So yes, to those who know - we setup another appt. with the trainer that no showed - he got back in touch, he had gone to the emergency room and his associate never called us like he asked. He arrived promptly and Ari was in semi-bratty mode. I liked watching his interaction with her and took many mental notes, because Ari RESPONDED to it and settled down. We worked on jumping, since I don't like that behavior nor does my SO and I find it rude in other dogs. We'll be positioning ourselves so when she jumps she lands in our paws and we hold her there in an up position till she stops whining, then rewarding her with attention when she's in a sit since that's our preference. It's already working, this morning she was a kanagroo with me, so I did that a couple of time and then twice she went to jump, barely got her two feet off the floor - stared at me, went to do it again then put herself in a sit, which then I rewarded her once all four were settled on the floor. I got what I want (a dog in a sit for attention) and she got the attention she wanted! For her biting, we'll be doing a loud OW (which we already do, b/c well it hurts) but making it even more dramatic and putting her in an isolated room for a few minutes. I should have thought of this in the beginning this is what we did with my Mom's dog when she was a pup and it worked wonders, she definitively not scared from the experience and she learned how to interact with us appropiately since as a pack animal being isolated alone is not fun. I know some here won't agree with this, but I'm comfortable with it, my SO is an it makes sense to me. Her biting has gotten better as is, and she's quick to learn when something is NOT fun for her so I doubt this will take very long for her to get it.
He also showed us how to begin to teach her to retrieve which I appreciate since I wasn't quite sure a method to go about teaching the retrieve so it's a new thing we can work on with her!
We also expressed our concerns with recall with my SO and we all got a good chuckle when his advice was for my SO to act "more like a girl" (high pitched very excited voice and be more animated). My SO is all for it, if it will help matters! I just want to video tape him squeeling for Ari to come. Also for my SO to do more fun outdoors stuff with her.
Ari took a shine to him, and I really liked his methods. He's treat training based which is what we've been doing with Ari since well she'll do anything for food! Sticks right now are a hot item so we may work on retrieve using sticks in lieu of her tennis balls. He gave us some other good ideas for yummy chew stuff (never thought to soak a rope toy in chicken stock and then freeze!)
All in all I feel better having met with a trainer. Ari is getting better and yesterday's session will only help. It's nice too he has 90 days after a training session unlimited email and phone support.
Oh and I have an emergency call for Ari now that she responds to without fail and gets all excited to do so....I yell out in a very happy tone for my "disobedient puppy" and she comes charging for me every time! My neighbors probably think I'm weird, but that's ok :) I had a couple neighbors who were cracking up watching me run away from Ari saying "bye bye" when she was getting too far away from me. So hey if I make a person laugh AND Ari listens to me - well that doesn't sound like too bad of a day!