M3D's, this is the first time I've seen a pic of your bathroom. How beautiful and charming it is! I especially love your wall sconces, medicine cabinet and all your lovely transferware. The Queensway fabric looks like it'll work wonderfully with your loveseat for Spring. Just how close are you to Spring up there in Maine, anyway? I've heard it comes June-late there. I've always been taken with your Winter mantle. With the metal wreath, it looks like it could easily grace any magazine cover. BTW, did you make that wreath?!? I don't recall ever seeing another one like it. It's elegantly simple and I love it. And then the lamps . . . I am SUCH a lampaholic that I literally drool over your beautiful ones! Your newest find is such fun. It'll certainly brighten up your study when it arrives. Don't forget to post pics when you get it. And it looks as though you've finished the barley twist ones. What a great idea that was! As for the Chinoiserie, I can see from your picture that they're terribly jealous and upset that they're being replaced by the barley twists. I think what they need is a respite away from those little upstarts for a while, don't you? To New Mexico, perhaps? Lynn ;^P

Sammy, you are an educator and deal with various types of children each and every day. Relate your experiences with them to your situation with your dog. If you have a bright but bored child, keeping him in with the "regular" group is a recipe for behavior problems. Instead, you put him in some gifted classes to challenge him and don't expect him to just go along with everyone else at the pace of everyone else and not offer any behavioral problems. You, as an educator, try to determine which method will reach each individual child in the most optimum fashion. You don't teach only history and accounting because it's what you like to teach. You teach a balanced curriculum tailored to a wide variety of needs because that is what the children need. Dogs are very much like very bright 2 year old humans. THey understand much about the adult human world, but they aren't part of it. And, they will be dangerous to themselves unless you constantly supervise them, or contain them, or train them to be reliable. You're choosing to not properly train your dog because it's an inconvenience to you, not because your dog doesn't need the training. Love isn't enough. You must also be responsible. You are ignoring that responsiblity because you choose to. You, and your dog, will be the worse for it. Perhaps it's been so long since you've had a puppy that you don't remember what a tremendous amount of work it is. If this isn't work you are willing to do, then your dog will not be an adult good citizen. You're already seeing the consequences of much of your inaction, but refuse to see it as a call to action, and you'd rather bury your head in the sand. Please, no one here means you or your dog any ill will. We're just frustrated by an all to common occurrance. Dog owners somehow are convinced that their dogs will raise themselves and turn out to be problem free with very little of their own time invested. It's no more true of dogs than it is of children.

I want to say this one thing because I have witnessed it and been a part of it my whole life: You can't make up for what one kid lacks by spoiling them or spoiling another child. Example #1: When I was pregnant(about 6 months), we found out that my 15 y/o sister was pregnant. Supposedly it was her first and only sexual experience. Well the father disappeared and wanted nothing to do with the baby. My sister was bulemic before she got pregnant so her body wasn't really heathy to begin with. My son was born in January a healthy 7 lbs. 3 oz and 8 days late to a two-parent home. No complications with delivery (rather boring actually). Her child wasn't due until July. She had a strong support group of friends and family and we all pitched in to help. In May (6 weeks early), my sister developed toxemia and was going into seizures. They had to take my niece(already gestationally small due to my sister's unhealthy body) by c-section in an emergency operation. She was born 3 lbs. 11 oz and lost down to 3 lbs. She was so tiny, but ate well and was generally healthy. She had to be in the NICU for 2 weeks until she gained weight to 4 lbs. I think my parents tried to compensate for my niece's rather tumultuous arrival into this world by babying her. As the kids grew up together (just 4 months apart), the babies became almost like siblings. If they ever got into trouble, my son would be punished and not my niece. She learned this and her behavior got worse. Finally, when the kids were about 2, they were playing in our bay window and they both pulled the curtain rod out of the wall and onto themselves. My son got swatted by my father, but nothing happened to my niece. I had had enough and I told my parents that I was tired of them showing favorites and that they can't compensate for her lack of a father by not punishing her and making my son take all the blame. They were hurt at first, but soon realized they had been doing exactly what I said. They apologized and we haven't had the problem again. Example #2: My FDH has a son from a previous relationship. His mom got pregnant because he was breaking up with her and she wanted him to marry her. So she lied and said she was taking the pill, but really had been off it for a while. When he refused to marry her, she went on a tirade. She kept the baby from him for a year until she filed for CS. So FDH went and had visitation drawn up and started seeing him. During that time, he was dating his future ex-wife (FSD's BM). She was great with the boy and FDH thought things would go well. They moved because of her job and that left FDH several hundred miles away from his son. The day of their wedding, the SF brought the son to town to be in the wedding. SF let it slip that FDH had told the mom to have an abortion. Not the case at all. Then SF asked FDH to give up his rights because he and the mom couldn't have kids of their own and he wanted to adopt the boy. FDH was like no way. So after that, the mom started slowly making the son unavailable for visitation. Then FSD was born. FDH's X basically told FDH that the only child that mattered was FSD and that she would not allow the son to come anymore. She would also grill him every time he talked to his son on the phone. FDH (I do not agree with how he handled this situation) kind of let both moms have their way and went several years (like 4) go by without seeing his son. In the meantime, his guilt was causing him to over-indulge FSD. He spent so much time with her that BM actually wrote a letter telling him that she feels that the only person in his life anymore is FSD. Later she divorced him and FSD was indulged even more. FDH told me that he felt that if he spent more time with FSD that it would make up for what happened with his son. I told him it doesn't transfer like that and that FSD causes jealousy because she is a symbol of what the son didn't have. Holy cow! That got long! Sorry bout that! *blushes*

Ours were the arms & legs toys. Although they are thinner than the booda, they weren't so thin that a normal dog would destroy as quickly as old gal. I did ask about the booda bone because they are very sturdy, and vet says no. I guess you have to make a judgment call as to whether your dog will gently chew the toy vs. my old gal who destroys anything you give her. I think his concern for me is that should old gal have an obstruction at any point, there would be no surgery option. We have found only 5 toys in 12 years that she hasn't destroyed. The Kongs are great, but there are only a couple of styles, we have balls that look like a world, a very hard rubber bone and the "chill pill" which was a Christmas present from my parents (they have 2 labs and know the potential for destruction by my old gal). The feed store where I buy their food will give me a call now and then when they want to try out a toy, the litmus test is old gal. LOL The real treat is a marrow bone, cooked 10 minutes in the microwave, marrow removed and rinsed. All three each get one during the summer months when they can be outside to chew on them. They are a real mess. The dogs go nuts. They know what they are when they are on the counter and then cooking in the microwave the group is circling. I will say they are very oily,and from the stains that they've made on my deck, I wouldn't want that on my carpet in the cold months. I also wouldn't give it to a puppy under 6 mos. since it may upset their young stomach. I have a great number of those old marrow bones in the "toy bin" that are now licked clean and they seem to be what my guys will pick out rather than a toy. There are times where I see chipping and at that point I take them away. I try to buy the thickest marrow bones offered at the meat department. If there are no really thick ones, I take a pass. I definitely don't keep bathroom or any other area rugs with fringe. They would be gone!