I would like to say that it is also possible that the woman who owned the dog before taught the dog to be hostile to men - I think it is wrong to blame men for the problem without knowing the entire history. People very often teach or transfer their own fears/phobias onto their animals, and if a woman shows fear of men when she is walking her dog, the dog will learn that men are not to be trusted. Some women are more paranoid than others, and I have seen this happen in such cases. I think it is more likely that the owner is to blame for the phobia than that the dog was treated badly by a man. If a dog is treated badly by one man, that is not enough to cause a general phobia, but if a woman shows fear of all men that she encounters while walking her dog, then that is a very strong case to make for the phobia coming from the owner. There are lots of dogs who have been trained to be hostile to people of different races, and this is also taught by the owners. I personally think that there are a lot of women who get large dogs primarily because they have a fear of strange men, and this fear may be justified for the women, but when it gets transferred to the dog, it becomes more irrational, since most men are harmless and should not be singled out as untrustworthy people. The men I have known have treated dogs equally as well as women, and yet I have encountered many hostile dogs that were owned by women. My boss has terriers (I forget which type), and one day she asked me to come to her office when she had one of them (I'll call the dog Surrey) in her office and had me wait at the threshold. Surrey barked wildly as I stood at the threshold, but after I entered the office, the barking stopped. Then I took Surrey for a walk. As it turned out, Surrey had a fear of men only at thresholds but was otherwise fine with us. I think this is a fear that could have been learned, but Surrey died a tragic death in the Northridge Earthquake before the dog psychiatrists could determine the cause of the phobia. I think people should be very mindful of what fears and phobia they may unconsciously be transferring to their pets. I also want to say that I think most women do not train their dogs to be hostile to men, but I do strongly believe that there are plenty of women who do. I personally have a phobia of large dogs, due to having been bitten by at least three of them on separate occasions when I was fairly young, but I do appreciate the Great Dane next door that has reduced to squirrel population in my immediate vicinity.

I am sorry to read these alarming reports regarding the loss of your pets. I have used comfortis for over 3 yrs on a monthly basis for my 3 cairn terriers. The flea problem is severe here and where it used to back off in the high humidity of the summer it does not. Cairn Terriers are highly adapt to skin infections from flea, or other bug bites. Miserable for the dogs and costly in fighting with antibiotics. The topical s do nothing and when they did, results were very limited with frequent wet dogs in rain and weather. Reapplication and cost add up and they are not all so safe either Comfortis changed all of the flea problems quickly given about 30 -35 day intervals and it doesn't wash off. It is a powerful drug and I worried about using it. I have had difficultly with vomiting at first . My dogs are 2 (M/F) from the same litter, the other (M) is 2 yrs older from a earlier litter all having the same Mother. Age of these Cairns are 5 and 7 and weight about 15 lbs ea. The only problem I've had as I said thus far in 3 yrs with doses given every month of the yr was spitting it out or one vomiting early on. My dogs are fed once a day with no free range on feed. Directly before the meal I wrap the pill in something such as a treat cheese, meat, or peanut butter and they eat followed directly by their full meal. So they have a full stomach with the pill eaten first. This ceased the earlier vomiting situation and the vet agreed this is a must have medication with a fully belly. While I will research and watch with caution I will continue to use this medication because it is very effective and in this environment the other choices are very poor. I have had good long term results with 3 small cairn terriers and the outcome with skin disease and fleas without it would be more dangerous and problematic for my dogs and my household.

DH is doing all the cooking tonight. DS would help but he is not very good at it. We are having 'Surf n Turf'. He picked up top sirloin steaks which he is cooking on the grill, giant crab claws, fresh asparagras, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and some homemade sourdough bread I made today. For dessert we are having killer Trader JoeÂs Ice Cream Cake. He picked that up yesterday. It is a layer of rich chocolate cake, topped by a layer of the chocolate-est of chocolate ice creams, topped by a layer of crunchy chocolate cookie crumbs, topped by a layer of creamy chocolate chip ice cream, the outside of the cake rolled in more chocolate cookie crumbs, and decorated the top with rosettes of whipped cream. Just hand me a glass of wine and I will be all set. Oh, almost forgot, he made oatmeal pancakes for breakfast this morning. And I got to goof off all day. Clare

Hi all, I did not have Wi-Fi for the last few days as I am helping my mother downsize to a smaller apartment and we have not set up the Wi-Fi yet. I am staying with a friend and he finally found his pass code for his Wi-Fi. Thank you for the information on toothbrushing and treats. I will have to look some of them up as I'm not familiar with a couple varieties. The one puppy class recommended Hot dogs and cheese as well. I gave up hotdogs for myself a few years ago, so we'll have to figure out how not to feel funny feeding the puppy hot dogs. I originally wrote a longer message but accidentally clicked on the link in Gardenweb and it took me off the page and I lost my longer message. Thanks again for all your help. We pick up the puppy next weekend. Stay tuned!