Carolyn...1st ...Happy Birthday! I'm a newbie here and have been a member for about a year now. I just want to thank you and Dave for your contributions here. It has been priceless to me. I just began growing tomatoes as a hobby. It is a lot of fun and very rewarding. Each year I will be growing new varieties using organic methods. I might add that I do save many of your responses to questions and your humor is priceless. In closing I'd be the 1st in line to purchase a book that you wrote on all of your gardening experiences. I realize it might not be your cup of tea but I just wanted to plant the seed..LOL You see this is the 1st year that I started growing my toms from seed and I just had to plant that thought and share it with you! ..Take care God Bless and thank you soooo much!

Hi Everyone! Thanks all for your concern. I'm not sure what to post, except, I'm quite certain it's MUCH better. He hasn't shown any aggression towards my son in several weeks. He didn't show any aggression towards my daughter either for about 3 weeks but then just recently, he snapped at her. We do take him running. He runs several miles a few times a day. We all run at different times during the day, so he goes on 2-3 runs per day. I take him at around 6a.m., at least one of my kids takes him after school and/or plays fetch with him and then my husband takes him in the evening. He gets PLENTY of exercise. I run the least, which is about 3-4 miles in the morning and on occasion 5 or more miles. I also took him to the vet. The vet is concerned, so he has a dog trainer that is planning to come by. I also contacted the local dog training school, who has not yet returned my phone call or email. BUT, my dog is doing better. I just don't have the heart to take him back to the shelter. He came from a shelter near by, which I believe is VERY good and everyone cares about the animals. They told me he won't get along with other dogs but were sure he would get along well with people. And by all accounts, he did until we brought him home. Remember, we visited him a few times at the shelter and he as great. I am sure that if we take him back,he will be euthanized and that idea is just too heartbreaking. My dog has some very loving qualities and such great charm.

You can use a squirt bottle. Whenever the puppy goes beyond what you want, squirt her. She won't even know where it came from, but it usually makes them stop because they are so surprised. I have an 8 year old dog with lymphoma and just brought in 2 new male dogs. I've done it to the boys and I even did it when the female started teasing one of the boys. She is not healthy enough for him to fight back with all of his energy, so before he could retaliate, I squirted both of them in one shot. I'd never tried this on the female because she arrived pretty well trained at 11 months old. Her reaction appeared to be "What?? That was spooky! Lets go in the other room - this one leaks." And she forgot all about teasing the younger dog with the toy she had.

I have decades of experience in retail as both a business owner and employee. I fully understand the frustrations of shoplifting. But there are a lot of misconceptions. It's very difficult to sue for holding a suspected shoplifter, if it wasn't, there'd be a lot more lawsuits! But they can ask for proof on a suspicion with reasonable cause. The best thing is of course to get a cop out. A frustration on prosecution isn't the misconception that you MUST actually SEE them, that they walk out the door, get in a car, etc. That essentially comes down to the laziness of the prosecuting attorneys in the area and the laziness of the cops. They can successfully prosecute on only circumstantial evidence. Yes it can be more difficult to prove, but often it's more airtight than an eyewitness since it's easier to crumble an eyewitness than a series of circ ev. Many don't want to spend the time on it if they are politically motivated. The biggest frustration I have, though, is the people who refuse to get involved. To me they're lazy, unpatriotic and doing what they can to contribute to higher prices and increased crime. It's my opinion, flame me for it if you want, but when the good won't help the victims then they're no better than the criminals. And actually, considering that if you drive a getaway car without knowledge that a crime was committed you can be prosecuted, even for 1st degree murder if a death results so why shouldn't a bystander who won't stop the crime be so charged? Aren't they an accomplice if they impede the prosecution and/or prevention of crime? Something to consider. Fly all the flags you want, sit in the front row of church, or whatever else I see people do in the name of doing right, but to me, there's duties and responsibilities that come with the ri, er privileges of living in the country and enjoying the benefits and privileges offered. I view it this way, if you go AWOL from military service or AWOL from civilian duty, it's no real difference. If someone is truly so paranoid, they should arm themselves, put a moat and razor wire around their dwelling and buy everything off the internet. Not long ago, there was a high speed chase going on and I can't remember too many of the details, but the issue is that a bunch of motorists on the road, blocked the road off so the offender couldn't get past them and allowed the cops to catch the criminal. I stand and applaud them! Kudos for getting involved when it would be easier to not. But they felt a duty and if more people would, we'd be a lot better off. There's a lot of issues that retailers face, but to me, assisted shoplifting should not have to be one of them. To modernize the 300 year old quote, the only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. There. Enough of my rant! :) An interesting side note. A friend worked for a large retailer for a while and would see shoplifters and turn them in. He was told not to anymore. The policy of that store was to let them shoplift if it wasn't at least thousands of dollars. Why? No, they weren't afraid of weapons. They weren't afraid of being sued. They were afraid of losing their business! They felt the shoplifters would come back and buy stuff. I won't shop at that place and hope all the shoplifters go there.