Reuben however you want to pick out pups is fine with me, everyone does it a little different and if it works go for it.
But I just don't think using food to teach a 12 week old puppy basic commands like load up or kennel up has anything to do with what kind of hogdog it will make. Any animal that gets hungry will look for food.
And as far as thinking outside the box, I really don't think it's a big time secret or takes much thinking outside the box to teach a dog basic commands that are taught in every dog training book you will ever see and is pretty much common knowledge.
I agree with your grandfather , you need to be smarter than the dog and I'm sure you're smarter than any 12 week old pup..
But now I've seen some pretty smart dogs..
