Thank you for so much info.....I noticed though that your high energy dogs eats alot more than two cups per day while the low energy dogs eat as much as toots. Tootsie while a bulldog which is known for their low energy is actually quite energetic.....we have to walk her everyday and play with her for several hours otherwise she goes crazy...you can actually see the pent up energy in her when she sits still too long....she is also a jumper (just not on command)and while she runs around the yard she also jumps up on the chairs and tables. (she's allowed). People at the bullympics this weekend said they had never seen a bully run like her before. I do agree with you though...there probably is not much difference between a four star and six star for most dogs....bullies are known as medical nightmares though so we are trying to do the absolute best for her and since we can afford it we do. Toots is actually quite funny to watch as she takes her toys and throw them herself sometime to go after...she is also one of the few bullies from what I've heard who will play fetch.....her breeder actually said we should train her for agility competitions....but we're not show people. I'd be curious to see how much she eats when she slows down a bit.

Hounds are definitely a different type of dog. For roughly the first year of her life, Coda wanted nothing to do with physical attention. She struggle away to smell your hand, and if you didn't smell edible, BUH BYE! She is a big suck now, but you're definitely right with the 'smell first, please later'. They like to please themselves first, and if they've got time for you in their busy little lives, they'll do what you want! The cutest thing (and one of the worst, manners wise) Coda ever did was when she was about one year, still kind of puppyish. We'd bought her one of those long, rubber tug toys with the two handles. I came home, opened it, put it on the kitchen table and finished putting other things away. Didn't show the dogs the toy, didn't even realise they were up and about yet. Turn around And Coda is sitting on the kitchen chair, ever so daintily pulling this toy off the table, trying not to let her face or body touch the table. She'd never even looked at the table before, but somehow she KNEW that was hers, and she wanted it. She got it, took it to bed, and slept on it. What a goober!

One of our dogs, Tatya, graces us with her presence when she so desires. She is very good and stays at the foot of the bed and doesn't move all night. She has her own bed next to ours, as do the other 3 dogs. Most nights she sleeps in her bed, but sometimes she wants to sleep with us. She's our smallest dog, a ~35# Husky. The other 3 can't get up into our super-tall bed, but the height is no problem for our jumping bean! It's a king sized bed, otherwise I don't think it would work. And she absolutely would instantly and permanently lose all bed privledges if she gave even a squeak of protest to the OFF command.

This is a great thread! Years ago, when our oldest son was only 2 1/2, we were looking out his open bedroom window, watching our downstairs neighbour wash his van in the driveway below. As the neighbour was finishing up, our son yelled down to him, "Sandy, your forgot to wash the roof!" Sandy replied "Oh, that's okay, I don't have to look at the roof" Son responded, "Well, I do!" A couple of years ago, my DH was making homemade pizza with our two young grandsons, aged 3 and 5. While he was stretching the dough, his hands covered in flour, he playfully touched the nose of the youngest grandson. The older grandson looked on horrified at what grampa had done to his little brother, so grampa asked if he would like flour on his nose, too. Older grandson backed away, spread his hands, and exclaimed "what is WRONG with you!" Another time, my DH was getting ready to go over to our oldest sons' house. He came in to the room wearing a rather odd looking fake suede vest over his shirt, that he had bought himself years ago. I mentioned that it made him look a bit like a cowboy in it. He didn't agree, and thought he looked quite dapper. Shortly after arriving at our sons house, four year old grandson entered the room, and asked "Grampa? Where's your horse?" And other one, out of the mouth of our oldest son. When he was four years old, he was hospitalized with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and had to have daily bloodwork to test his platelet counts. On about the sixth day of this, he marched up the nursing station and stated quite forcefully to his doctor that was sitting at the desk writing in a chart, "I am going home today and I don't care WHAT my bloodwork says!" Fortunately, his results were finally good, and he did come home that day.