Sounds like very rational behavior to me ! very sensible, in fact i have been seen doing the very same thing only I manage to get my ratty old bathrobe on first and the folks walking their doggies down the street have something to stare at besides dog-poop, of couse they always look the other way when the doggie does poop and I am doing them a favor... sally

OK I tried a couple of things suggested. Tried standing and ignoring Kate Moss while she jumed on me, lost my pateince at 15 minutes. So that plan is out. Kate loves to dance too. One of the first things I did with her is get her used to having a good physical exam, nail trimming, etc. So she couldn't care less about me holding her feet. Any attention is good for her. Tried hooking the leash up before putting Kate's collar on. THAT worked! What I do is when I come home, I take the free-range dogs out first. Then I go upstairs in my office where Tatya and Kate Moss are crated. I take Tatya out first, and she runs downstairs and waits by the door to go out. I make Kate Moss sit at the front of her cage so I can put her training collar on (no collars in cages of course). Then I give the OK to release the sit, and what used to happen is that I'd get jumped on, a lot. Well, with the leash hooked up, she got in about 1/2 of a jump and I corrected her, told her to sit, and her butt plopped down on the floor FAST. She was still pretty excited, so she tried a couple more jumps but was not successful. Before when I didn't have the leash on, she would ignore my voice commands to sit. Now she has a bit more incentive to sit with the correction collar on. So I think for now my plan is to make sure she is leashed for anything that she has gotten excited about in the past so I can correct her. It isn't going to work all the time, as I can't leash her and take the other dogs out at the same time. But when DH is home, he's going to be the enforcer while I take care of the other dogs. We leashed her up before dinner last night so she wouldn't have the 5+ minutes of jumping before settling into her sit so I could get the food prepared. Oh, I do NOT feed them in the crate. The dogs have to sit in front of their bowls while I gather the dishes, prepare the food, and until I place their dinner in front of them and release them from the sit. That's the rule. I do train Kate Moss about 15-20 minutes a day, outside on a leash without the other dogs. My neighbors think Kate is perfect. And without some sort of inciting factor (food, greeting me, potty breaks) she is a very good dog. She's good natured, friendly, obedient, and calm. She's impossible to work with in the presence of food or treats. Kate Moss was about 20 pounds underweight when I got her, and food is the light of her life (unlike her human namesake). I simply cannot work with her using treats. She is a typical Rottie who loves to please, so she isn't hard to train. It's just when she's excited about something it's like she becomes a deaf jumping insane spazz-head; a totally different dog. There doesn't seem to be anything practical for the Max issue. I'm not going to take a 7 year old dog that has been allowed on sofas all his life and change the rules on him. I'm also not going to make Kate Moss a less-desirable pet by allowing her on the furniture. If her new home wants her on the sofa, that's fine; I'm sure she'll love it. But if they don't I certainly don't want that to be a reason that someone wouldn't adopt her. I think most of the problem is that Max is not a dog-socialized dog. He grew up as an only dog and got lots of interaction with his family, but not so much playing with other dogs. In fact he doesn't know how to play with other dogs at all. So when Kate Moss stares at him, Max reacts by looking away and barking, but not relinquishing his place on the sofa. I think Kate is confused because he acts submissive (looking away), but won't relinquish his treasured spot to her. Kate totally understands her place with my other dogs, and is fine with that. I think she keeps challenging Max because she can't get a straight answer from him. Unfortunately I think he is incapable of providing a straight answer. So that's what the plan is for now- leashing her for excitement so I can correct her. So far so good, but we'll see. Oh, here's a recent picture of the pretty girl And thank you all for the suggestions! Kate thanks you too, so just doesn't know it yet.

Thanks guys. Well, yesterday's people came back again today. Again - over an hour late. Again, the buyer's agent called the office notify us of the delay, and again.. I wasn't notified. Oh well. They spent about 25 minutes in the house, and raced off to other appointments they were also late for. Haven't heard anything back yet, but I'm not obsessing over it either. We have 2 more showings tomorrow evening, and if these people come back for a 3rd time, it's all good. We replaced the screen on the slider door tonight, and I got a quote and hired someone to refinish the deck.. that will be done this week. The previous owners painted it with latex and it's peeling off. It's not hideous, but a bit of an eyesore compared to the rest of the house. I think it will be $700 well spent. I was out weeding my gardens and had to trim the grass growing around my For Sale sign. That kinda made me sad. jy_md - I have no problem with the amount of showings we're getting, and I do think our home is adequately marketed. My only issue is the lack of communication, and him not being reachable half the time. Of course, at this point I'm sure he considers me a colossal PITA and can't wait to sell it just to be rid of me ;) marys1000 mentioned "If now that you've lowered your price you still don't get a nibble I'd wonder if he's not working with the other agents well? " Which brings me to a new issue, and I think there may be some truth to that. Our neighbours across the court (ones who started out FSBO then listed with an agent, and subsequently sold 5 days later) were over talking to us (they're rooting us on big time, bless their hearts) was telling us their agent (from a different realtor) knows of our agent, and knows a few people who have closed deals with him - and he's apparently not very good to work with. Again, unreachable, and when the going gets tough, he shoves things off onto other people. Not sure how much truth there is in that, but it might explain why, out of 30+ showings and 30+ agents, the agents are for some reason pushing their clients to other houses. This is a question HE'S also pondered, but didn't have an answer for. If there's any truth to what we've heard, that may be our answer. I don't know, but I just have that sinking feeling in my stomach that we made a very bad choice, and it's a lesson well learned. Anyway, tomorrow is a new week. Onward.....

Satine - Thanks so much for your thoughts. I'm happy you had a chance to talk to your friends. That's a great big hug for sure. Just be sure that the male friend won't try to burn the candle at both ends - if you know what I mean. Also, make sure you don't get sucked into that as well. Go ahead and enjoy the new relationships though - sound like loads of fun still to be had. RE my daughter - she was a passenger (in my car!!!!!, believe it or not, but I'm not going there!!!). The idiot driving wasn't familiar with the narrow back roads in D'wood and I think tried to pass someone on a 2-lane road that started winding. When he did that, he probably saw an on-coming car and slammed on the breaks. My car didn't have anti-lock breaks, and of course they locked up, and the car veered right into a HUGE tree, on the edge of the road. That tree no longer stands - they cut it down because there were several accidents there within a few weeks of each other(even 2 days later) and decided to widen the road - DUH! Even though the car veered right, and up an embankment, the wheels were tured as though the car was trying to go straight, on the road. OK, that's the accident part - as most people believe, including me. Witnesses pretty much said the same thing, but it was dark and basically, in the woods, so you never know. They were about a mile from the house. The first responders were about a half-mile away, and a friend who knows the fire station, gave us a copy of the report (which we aren't allowed to have, BTW), so I know they were there pretty quickly. The report says w/i 4 minutes of the call, and the call was right away. They were taken by land to different hospitals because his injury was supposedly worse than Cheryl's. He has a ruptured pelvis; Cheryl, for the moment only had dislocated shoulder and leg fracture. He also was on suicide watch (friend was nurse at "his" hospital). Since Cheryl was 18, they could do stuff w/o my permission (thank goodness because again, I was in MB). She did call my sister, who went to the hospital. They joked about who was going to be the one to tell me about my car (almost paid off) being totaled - actually blown up!! My sister was an almost RN and knew some stuff when they put in a catheter and the fluid was a very slight pink. That's when they realized she had internal injuries - a nicked aorta!! They did an angiogram and then medi-flighted her to a major trauma center in DC. My sister saw the chopper land, but it was about 5-6 hours before she saw them take her into surgery - YIKES! No one said anything to my sister. I happened to call "home" to check on things and a friend told me about the accident. I knew Cheryl was a good driver and wasn't worried. BUT, why was my sister's friend answering her phone - he never does. Also, he told me to catch a flight home. Another friend paid for my plane ticket home and I went directly to the hospital. When I got there, they were wheeling her into an elevator for the 2nd surgery, and the Dr. in charge just looked at me, and shook his head - basically saying there was no hope. Good news after the 2nd surgery - they even set the fracture this time. After about a day, some friends and I were looking at her - still wouldn't wake up, and noticed her face began to change. Basically she went from OK looking except from a scratch over her eye, to a pie-faced look. To me, that meant she probably wouldn't be OK even if she survived. The next day we were called to the hospital early in the AM (DD's guidance counselor's boyfriend was a nurse at the hospital and would tell her all the details they wouldn't / couldn't tell us, which she relayed to us). When we got there they told us that she was brain-dead (sorry, don't mean to be gorry). We had to decide to turn off the machines. We told them to wait until visiting hours were over since a lot of her classmates were on the way. At 8:00 that night they shut everything down and she "went" about 45 min. later. The nurse told me that we would know if we made the right decision if that happened. Still, ya kinda never get over not knowing if you did. But, that's my long story about my DD, the bicentenneial baby - 10 lbs, born on the first holiday of '76, and died on Memorial Day - 18 yrs later. Hopefully everyone understands the detail here. I'm OK with it - believe me. We all just question her care when they transferred her. The Dr. at the 1st hospital was SHOCKED that she didn't pull through. He told me that if he had any idea that things would have ended this way, he would have done the surgery there. He just didn't want anything to happen and they not have the truama experience to handle it. The 2nd hospital handles lots of gunshot traumas and he thougth they would beter equipped if anything went wrong. Ya never know. It was good she lived long enough for us to see her alive. Dr. said only 10% with that injury make it to the hospital; only 1% make it after that. I just believe in Malichi 3:17 - she is now a jewel in God's crown (the gathering of the jewels). The driver - he has a permanent injury/limp. I met someone three years after the accident that knows him well. She said he was still sufering from Cheryl's death. That did give me some closure because we never knew him - won't go into that either! BUT, DD was a good kid, and unfortunately, things happen. He had an alchohol problem but was very different and respectable when he wasn't drinkng. So... One thing - WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS! She wasn't, although we had JUST had that conversation the day before. Dr. said DD's injury was typical in accidens w/o seat belts - blunt force trauma. Enough of me - but there is a message for everyone here. Have faith, and you can get through anything!! I'm not Bible-toting, but know that without that faith, I coulnd't have gotten through it - even now. Thanks for listening! Wishing all of you well - sunny side up :)