Training puppy to be handled

[MN GSD Fan]

This may be an odd question and probably just depends on the dog, but we currently have a high drive GSD. We love her, but after 5-10 seconds of petting her when she is laying down she has to jump up and grab a toy. We are getting a new GSD puppy (male American Show line) and would like to begin training him to be able to relax a bit and be held/petted. Is that something that can be trained or is it just dependent on the dogs mentality? We plan to work on the puppy as soon as we get it just by holding, petting, and touching ears, tail, teeth, etc to get it used to it, but maybe there are other ideas as well. Any tips/suggestions welcome.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Dr. Ian Dunbar's book After You Get Your Puppy talks about handling desensitization. A digital download of the book is available here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/files/do...Your_Puppy.pdf

There's also some good bite inhibition and basic training stuff in the book.