Bobbie, What a sweet, wonderful message. Kate, also from Minnesota.

Thanks guys, for letting me talk out this thing out about the dog. I know it is not really about veggie gardening, but it is sort of. I go out to garden and he helps me. He knows that I am the one that goes out all the time, which is why he can't understand when I don't do out with him. Your comments helped too. Typing out the progress we have made with him, and with you guy's encouragement, I am being more assertive with EIN. I am being more consistent too. I know I can't let one thing go or it is back to square one with him. I think that is what happened. I was making great progress with him, then I got a bit tired and depressed, probably due to lack of sleep. I got lax with him and he took the leadership role since I was not taking it. Being leader is out of character for me. The worse problem, I am working on every time we go outside. I make him lay down and stop jumping all over the door when it is time to go out. I probably don't wait long enough because, once I open the door, I have to make him lay down again before I open the screen door. Then we go through he door. I hate this part. He turns around and wants to herd me outside. Gee whiz, I am coming out, just be patient. I point my finger at him and sternly say no. He moves away from the door. Once outside, he comes back over to me. I say go and point away from me. Or say, no herd, or no! I end up making him lay down and say settle! For settle down. The most effective thing is making him lay down. He does not bark and act like a nut when he is on the ground. He can't seem to calm down when on his feet. He definitely has very strong herding instincts. He did the minute we brought him home. I read that if you bring a puppy home much after 8 weeks it is harder to break them out of the role they played in the litter. Either, leader, or submissive or some place in between. He was 4 months old when he joined the family. He was the last pup of the litter. He might have been acting bossy, which is why he was the last to go. No matter, he is what he is. He gives the cat a hard time when she wants to go outside. I make the dog lay down, say stay. I call the cat over and let her out. This works, just have to keep it up. The dog would so love to play with the cat, but the cat hates him and hisses at him at every opportunity. Sometimes, the cat starts hissing with no reason, so I scold her instead. He is still not good at come, but he will come better than he once did. When we are stern with the word come, he will mosey on inside (most of the time). I have been not letting him lay at my feet. I think it is cute and love to have his furriness, next to my bare feet, but if I let him do that, he thinks he is leader, then I will have problems with him later. Right now, he is a bit confused why I am suddenly making him not lay there. He always has before. He is a very quick learner. I just have to be more consistent and more firm. He thinks he is my dog. He follows me around and comes right up to me when my husband lets him out. When my husband lets him in, the first thing he does is finds me and touches me with his nose. I am sure this means something, just not sure what. It is probably a bad thing in dog language. I need to get a book on dog behavior to be able to read him better. We had a book like that for cats, and it was neat to know why the cats did what they did. The dog is only 2. Adolescence has been a big problem. We were doing quite well, then he hit 6 months. He got more corgi like. He definitely thought he was the boss. We had to get even more stern with him. Yes, he is fixed. I think that helped somewhat. I read they are teenagers till three. So we have about 6 more months to go till he is an adult dog. If someone would ask me if they should get I corgi. I would say no. They are cute as buttons, very friendly, and smart, too smart. But they do test your patience and take constant attention to discipline. I would not get one if you work all day. They are not the type that likes long periods alone. They are definitely people dogs. They have way too much energy to be cooped up in the house all day. If you life in an apartment, this would not be a good choice for a dog. The love to run. They have to run off their energy. I read, that this kind of dog is not really meant to be a pet. They are working dogs. If you have one, they say they need a job. They need to herd or you need to take them to agility training. We have to get him special food since he has a sensitive stomach. We have to be very careful what scraps we feed him. He can't digest fat at all. He can't deal with wheat. I think pure bred dogs just have more physical problems due to having many common ancestors. I read with corgis becoming more popular that they are having problems with poor breeders, breeding them with close relatives. His knees are knocked due to being so dang short. I thought he needed to go to to the vet, but all the pictures I see of corgis have that same problem. All that being said, I will miss Ein after my kid takes him to live with her. I think he will miss me too. He only sees my daughter about 10 minutes a day when she graces us with her presence. I know this is not a dog forum, so thanks for your patience with my silly post. Sometimes when I want peace when I garden, I make him stay inside. I think that is a big part of the problem with him. I want to enjoy my gardening without saying no, lay down, quiet, so I just ignored his behavior. So, I guess he thought i it OK. thanks nc-crn for the vote of confidence. I know I am not a perfect dog trainer, but I am trying. flor_uk - I will read the link. It is obvious that my kid did not research this dog before getting him. Anyone in Texas should not by choice ever get a dog with long think fur especially double coats like he has. When I am comfortable he is hot. When I am hot he, is miserable. When I am sweating up a storm, it is just too dangerous to let him outside, for much loner than to do what he needs to do. Even when he is hot, he rarely volunteers to want to come inside. I have to go get him for his own good. He is a happy dog in January. I think the heat makes his behaviors worse. I know it is time for him to go in by the pitch of his barks.

Hmm...these post are so encouraging and make me feel so good inside. I can't do everything I want (what else is new?) but I have been able to make it through about 90% of my plant collection and separate, repot, groom, dismantle, trash, and perhaps most importantly - downsize to several of you on this board (mostly confessed lurkers) and *that* made me feel the best. I appreciate the prompt (and in some cases, generous) reimbursements for postage and plant material. I like what I see when I look at my plant stand, I feel good about my collection, I feel on top of their care and those kinds of feelings are enough compensation right now for those things that I can't control or feel a bit helpless with. You guys/gals are great! Dora

Leftwood, After talking with Bors about these previous experiments at Sask grafting high I found out it applied only to using less than 2 year old pie cherry seedlings as scions. Apparently such seedlings when less than 2 years old grow out of sync. and often winter kill (when left growing that way) where as the more mature bigger trees work in sync. (stop growing soon enough). Using these young scions when grafting high to mature trees makes them change to act more mature... thus the act of grafting high saves tender seedling types from otherwise freezing to death. In light of these facts it now appears that maybe grafting high tender varieties on a hardy rootstock no longer applies the way I used to think because it applies to making seedlings cold hardier which in itself might have nothing to do with how hardy the rootstock your grafting to is... Notice I said might. So I'm going to give it a shot using sweet cherries high on the hardy Amur cherry anyways. Who knows. Grafting on Amur cherry is good anyways for vole prevention. Has anyone seen a moose eat Amur cherry? I havn't. Neither has Dr. Bors seen it. He's tasted them and says the reason must be that the wood is too tart. He's also pulled opened freezers with his hybrid pie cherries inside and says the whole freezer smells really great (ie. compelling to herbivores) as of sweet cherries.