We have a less than delightful rug downstairs in the family room (the rest of the first floor is Pergo) and decent carpeting upstairs that was put in two years ago. Crash is not supposed to be upstairs unless I know his bodily functions are current. And he has still slipped a couple of streams past me. Like you say, they seem to have a radar for knowing exactly when to strike.

You may be right about names as well. I just said, "Cole, come here" and he trotted right over.

The vet and her assistant had some terrific advice on Saturday. One thing I didn't know and wouldn't have guessed is that at this age 30-45 minutes out of the crate is about what they can take at a time without getting tired and/or cranky. "Like babies," Dr. Barcus said. Another is that most dogs reach about half their adult size at four months. That's early September for us. It will be interesting to see if he takes after his father, who is the larger breed of Lab, or his mother, who is the smaller breed. He isn't going to be a wraith, that's for sure. His paws are already bigger than Sydne's.

Re the camping trip, do you see now what I meant about a dog being sort of a trial run for having a baby? <g>


>Mine's about the same. I thought she was responding to her name, but then it turns out I would call for different dog names and she would respond the same... oh well.
>
>We took her camping this weekend and I think she realized that it wasn't home, and we couldn't just ignore her if she started barking in her crate because of other people around. The little twerp.
>
>We try to watch our's constantly when she is out of the crate, or she makes us pay. She seems to know the exact second we are not watching and attempts to go potty on the rug. We have laminate flooring in our kitchen and carpet in our living room, and she knows she is not to go on the carpet. The other morning I was kind of drowsy, and she ran to the carpet and squatted. I yelled NO and grabbed her at the last second and got her outside. I was lucky too, because my wife would have killed me.
>
>>Mutt? MUTT?!?! Who you calling a mutt, bud? <g>
>>
>>He is doing well and learning quickly. He now knows his name and responds to a few commands (primarily "No" <g>). The housebreaking is also coming along although still evolving. I took him for his first vet appointment on Saturday and everyone there was swooning over him. Even Dr. Barcus (that's really her name -- talk about destiny), who recommended against getting a lab.
>>
>>In about four months he is going to have a vet appointment he won't enjoy as much -- the Big Snip.
>>
>>I am putting in about as much effort training my daughters as training Crash. They still take their eye off him sometimes. I told them to put him in his crate or out back if they couldn't supervise him but they get a phone call or something and forget. On two consecutive days last week I came home from work to find a Sopranos box set and a windowsill chewed up. Not good.
>>
>>How is yours doing?
>>
>>
>>>How's the mutt doing?
>>>
>>>>It's worth a try. I will give that a shot tonight.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Mike,
>>>>>
>>>>>Could you create a XP boot disk, or download one from the Internet, and boot from it, then run the XP CD to install it?
>>>>>
>>>>>Tommy
>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks for the tips. I downloaded DBAN and was able to create a bootable flash drive. Unfortunately it boots to a Linux command prompt, about which I know squat, so I was at sea again. I spent a couple of hours messing around with it and "progressed" to the point that the flash drive is no longer bootable <g>. Oh well. The laptop running Vista is usable, just not as well integrated with the two XP boxes as I would like. We'll get by.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi Mike,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>See http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?forumID=133&threadID=238817&messageID=2487295#2487295
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I tried that but Vista wouldn't let me format the system drive. Is there a switch or something I can use? I looked at the FORMAT options and didn't see what I was looking for.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Maybe FREEMAN C: would do it <g>.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>(Speaking of whom, I guess Dan was serious about skipping the UT for a while).