It sounds to be like you have hit the nail on the head, he is behaving like a stroppy 2 yr old, this is NOT aggression, I don't think you have anything to worry about, you say he is not like his litter mates , did you breed him, what are his parents like, ? these things will influence his behaviour.

Its unlikely to see real aggression in a pup so young, when you see a litter play together, it can be quite unnerving to see (what we may mistake as aggression) how they go at each other, its normal puppy behaviour, its how they learn what is and is not acceptable.

I think your boy is simply telling you "do not disturb"..... obviously this is not acceptable for you, for the reasons you have stated, but the question is , why would you want to pick him up while he is sleeping? I would protest too, if you woke me from a sleep in such a manner.

Allow him to sleep when is is sleeping, and if you want to get him used to being picked up, implement some exercises when he is "awake".

I did not breed them, my in laws however did. The parents are both mentally and physically fit. You right, I probably misread the action because it was directed at me. Once I got him up he was licked my face and was no longer upset. Watching the puppies play with each other is like watching a battle sometimes, they really get rough.

I wouldn't normally awaken a sleeping dog, but again he needed to be placed in his crate for bed time.

Next try doing it with a really smelly treat,gently call him and once his eyes are open show him something really really stinky and he'll be pretty sure to follow you.

It's highly unlikely he is being aggressive. Puppies do also have tantrums, my staffie pup used to have the biggest tantrums when she was tiny, especially if she was picked up when she didn't want to be. She sounded like a Tasmanian devil! Snarling, growling, snapping...trying to nip every little bit of you she could get to! I used to hold her in my arms gentle but firmly looking the other way and once she had relaxed I'd praise her calmly and put her down. She is the most docile, tolerant dog you could meet now. Had I met her tantrums in a challenging like people often do...it may be a different story today.

Catrinsparkles,

You description of what your staffie pup used to do sounds exactly like what my pup did. Im glad I did not try to fight back, I just held on for the ride! Your story makes me feel allot better about my situation. Thank you

They can have pretty spectacular tantrums!

Well, the way I see it, if he's going to be an 80+ dog then he will NOT be getting picked up much and you can simply train him commands to move such as pointing and saying "go" like I used to do with my previous dog.

Most certainly no cause for alarm, IMO.

Why not teach him to go to bed ?

Working on it =D

I'm probably missing something having read thro' this quickly but WHY do you NEED to disturb him and move him or pick him up when he is resting or sleeping?

I agree with what most people have already said. 12 week old puppies don't show what we see is aggression. They just express themselves in a way they've learned (look at babies that age, they don't cry because they are 'sad' or 'angry' the way we are but because it's the only way they know to express something because they feel uncomfortable/scared/tired etc.)
If you have to wake your puppy do it in a way he'll enjoy it.. with a treat and not with picking him up. Make sure he's fully awake before picking him up after he was sleeping, and do some picking up training when he's awake.
We had a Landseer ECT and we lived on the first floor in our house, so I had to carry him up and down the stairs for the first months.. He got really used to this, however he grew really big very fast so we only had him in the downstairs flat in the end. Carrying him up and down the stairs at 5 months was virtually impossible