there is inconsistent training where I try to train him and my wife just lets him do what he wants

I don't know if that's better or worse than J inadvertently but very consistently untraining all our dogs! Like I always have the most problems with "heel" (where they walk nicely beside you, our current dog will do that in anticipation of head scratches and if we don't have far to go she will literally walk with her head pressed against my leg because she's tall enough that I can just give her as much head scratches as she wants while we're walking like that) so will usually settle for them walking wherever but NOT PULLING. But J is too impatient for the pulling discouragement (which basically requires stopping and sitting for a few seconds and then trying again which can be a very slow process if the dog is particularly stupid or it becomes a battle of wills). And despite knowing that the dog herds chickens and having watched her doing it with me he has yelled at her for helping get the chickens in and I'm having to try to retrain her now -_-

Sounds like he's at the annoying adolescent stage now so have fun with that XD He is a very good dog who will be a very great dog in a year or two when he starts being an adult :)