Barb, have you ever tried a Gentle Leader?

I will wholeheartedly second the rec. Last time I had a dog, it was a rescued Brittany Spaniel mix, and he was intelligent, wily, and headstrong. He always found something more interesting to look at when I was walking him with the collar, but the Gentle Leader made him pay attention to me. (As opposed to the Sheltie that I had before that, who was always right by my side, unless he was attempting to herd the cats.)

Yep. Best thing ever when Sasha was in her young, exuberant, attention span if a gnat phase.

Well, with you and juliana both reccing it, I'd definitely love to give it a go if you don't mind sending it my way, Pix. I'd really love to incorporate walking Jasmine into my newly rediscovered exercise routine. She gets a lot of exercise running around the yard with Pisces, but walks are of a different ilk altogether-- so many new people to see! It makes a Lab happy!

In that pull your arm out of the socket sort of way.

Marley's lovely! Django's a cutie, too, as is his person.

Aww, Gris and ImprobableGirl are both adorable!!!

Wiki's foray into the sell by use by fracas:

[link]

I'm of the "If it says 'sell by' then you've got time after the printed date; if it says 'use by', why, you still might have a bit of time after the printed date, depending on what it is, but it's probably better not to chance it," school of thought. Much to Daniel's dismay, I will throw out anything more than a year past its expiration date without even trying it.

As a non-dog-having person, I always appreciate well-behaved dogs. I like watching Victoria Stillwell and Cesar Milan - especially when they talk about training the humans, and letting the dogs' behavior fall into place. I know a couple people who have out of control little dogs who claim to love watching those shows. It is plain that they cannot see how to apply what they can learn from those shows to their own behavior. Especially when I do the no touch, no talk, no eye contact thing until their dogs calm down, then give the dogs attention - and their dogs mind me. And yep, the retractable leashes are in constant no control, full length mode.

Not that I would take on a dog with an aggression problem, thinking that I can handle it. But I believe that when the time is right for us to have a dog, I will be able to avoid some mistakes that create behavior problems.

I have a Gentle Leader leash, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of putting it on. It makes me feel like an idiot.

I have a box for dog stuff and I'd put some of his toys from Christmas in it to dole out. I was looking for something else and left the box open on the bed. The next thing I knew, the dog had two toys outside and two stashed around the house, plus he'd taken a slipper for good measure.

#2 milk date, chamption sniffer and sniff-recruiter here: "does this smell okay to you?" I draw the line at "taste this--it's awful!" though.

Oh, that's a wonderful looking doggie--and a pretty human he's with!

Nora, Marley is great! Anne's Jeeves is a wonderful example of a gentleman ornjboy, as is our Punkin, who moved in on us from a neglectful neighbor. TC still takes exception to his existence, so one is the upstairs kitty and the other is the downstairs kitty, and they both are very happy. I'm sure though, since almost any cat is less neurotic than TC, that Marley will integrate fine with Taz.

The adorableness of Gris, Girl and dog is amazing.

Marley looks like a great cat. In a few pictures, he has a Garfield-like leer.

Marley looks lovely -- and that scratch pad is his!

Dog, girl....very pretty.

I think you have to know yourself well before you can get a dog. My sister has two eskies. the boy has calmed down quite a bit, but the girl is still very excitable. They bark a lot. Despite the fact that they go to doggie day care a couple times a week, I still think they could use a good walk almost every day. Which was the original plan. I think my sister would have been better off with dogs that were a little more mellow. Of course naming them Luna and Loki, was asking for it.

DH is not a dog person. Overtime I have convinced him that 90% of the dog problems are owner problems. Dogs are work.

A week after use by, 2 weeks after use by -- unless something has been opened for a while then I toss quicker.

Restaurant meals only get about 24 hours ( too much without refrigeration)

My left overs get a week or so depends how easy it is to thoroughly heat them