Shannon, I'm thinking of you and your brother. I hope they work out what it is soon.

Sending supportive thoughts, Shannon, as you wait to find out your brother's condition.

Thanks guys. He isn't local to me, he is about two hours away. He's asked us not to come down yet - small town, he's had everyone in the world in and out and he is so not a large crown of people person. He and I have been chatting on hangouts every time he is awake, so I'm going along with not crowding so far. I may override him soon.

Shannon, sending good thoughts for your brother. I hope it's something easily fixed. Michele, hope your daughter's results are nothing serious. Like others mentioned, doctor's like to give non-news in person, too. Maybe a boat payment due?

The dogs and cats we are watching are fun. They have their quirks like most pets (and humans). We have to feed them in odd places like on a certain rug, near the door, on the counter (never let our cats on the counter), and under the bed. Is this weird or do others with multiple pets do this? We just lined up bowls on the floor when we had 4 dogs and 3 cats. Maybe we were the strange ones. . .

Hey Sheila!

Cats like to establish routines and make them into Laws... such as the odd eating places. Owners can modify these, but sometimes it's easier just to go along with the cats. They cloud our minds...

Thanks for the well wishes re: my dd....
The answers were non answers... same results were still off that were off last night. Doc wants to retest in 3 months. Poor dd is frustrated that her entire life has been a struggle with medical mysteries and never any answers. We tried to bolster her that at least they don't know anything is wrong...yet..... but I know she thinks answers are better than non-answers.

My pets have specific eating spots. We set them up but they had reasons and I know the pets wouldn't like to change-- though I'm sure they'd adjust. Speaking of pets-- major pet rant coming....

Ellie just turned 6 months and I think yesterday she lost her mind-- teenage years?!?!? She plays too rough with the dachshund but we are going to have to halt play altogether between them-- we were upstairs briefly and we heard her ring the bell on the backdoor-- indicator she wants to go out but she cries wolf so often we sometimes ignore it-- then we heard a ruckus and went down and she was playing with dachshund but grabbing his neck-- of course he wasn't thrilled. Then, we saw she had wet the dog bed! UGH.... so the bed went in the trash and we are no longer leaving her unsupervised for now... we were starting to leave her out of the kennel for an hour or two if we weren't home but we aren't going to until we are sure she can be trusted with the dachshund.
I was so discouraged.... plus we had the appraiser come and she barked and growled at him.... nice to have a guard dog but she has to know that some strangers are okay-- think we handled that one wrong because I went in the backyard with the dogs while dh was in the house with the appraiser-- Ellie just sees some strange man in the house and freaked out....

I can certainly understand that. Much sympathy.

You need to be totally consistent with animals. The deal was, she rings the bell and you come to let her out. You failed your part of that. So she wet her bed (maybe because she had to go so bad? or maybe because you ignored her?), she knew it was wrong, and took it out on the dachshund. I wouldn't hold it against her.

Michelle A guard dog guards the house. If they see a stranger that you have not identified to them as being OK they will respond appropriately. Ellie is doing what she's genetically programmed to do. it's up to you and the other humans to show her the rules or she'll make her own.

As for playing with Dewey she's a young big dog who plays rough. She needs to socialize with other big young dogs who can take and dish out the same kind of play. You can also teach her to play respectfully with Dewey but she needs an outlet for everything else.

BTW IMO the bells on the door teach the dog to train you to respond to her. I have a client who had to take the bells down because one of the dogs was having a great time summoning her to the door for absolutely no reason except that she figured out she COULD do it. Letting dogs out routinely to eliminate is still the best way to housetrain them. Their bodies get into that routine and stay with it. Ellie should now be able to go 7 hours max without needing to pee.

Dagmar