my dalmatian often jumps at my finger after i stroke him on his face and give him some good scratch...

i tried teaching him several times.. he obeys depending on his mood.
If he is in a playful mood, i can expect fingers full of salivas.

Nope.. no dog is easy to train.. Are you ready to face the consequences when things go down south...?

imagine man handling a dog the size of GSD, Rottweiler and dobermann against a little pug or poodle.. thats the magnitude of ineffective training on GSD againt a pug or toy poodle..

Hmm, you need to know what is your main intention when you get a dog.

- Family pet?
- Watch Dog?
- Security Dog?
- Hunting Dog?
- Therapy and help dog?

Then do a research on dogs that fit that category. Based on what you state, a dog you would like to have most is a family dog of smaller size and one that barks and alert you of any strange happenings.

In that case, most dog can do reasonable watchdog duty as long as they are alert enough.

You may want a smaller breed if you are a first time owner, which I suspect you are based on the question you asked.

Big dogs comes with bigger responsibilities, not just from you, but your entire family.

What cliffang83 say is right, first time owner are more likely to make mistakes. So to say that you can train any dog to suit your need is not impossible. But over optimistic, especially when no sufficient prior research has been done.

A puppy of a boxer or dobermann may look cute when they are 3 months old, u may tolerate their antiques then - such as jumping and mouthing, fast forward 2 years later, you probably wouldnt like it.

What are your options if such situation happens?

In a nutshell, what would you rather face, a large angry dog or a small angry dog?

I ve read that applying lemon water on the body helps too.
Boil a pint of water and let it steep with a whole lemon sliced (*With the skin intact).

After 1 day, use it to rinse(*sponge) ur dog after a shampoo shower. It doesn't kill the fleas, but it makes the dog unpleasant for fleas. Maybe u can try it and see. Its harmless for the dog as long as it doesnt get into the eye and ear.

Btw, check out the online comparison of tick and fleas. You might be having a flea problem instead.