I've not been around in a while. Carrie I don't wait in the drive for her to calm down before I leave. She's quite alright with my leaving it's when I return that she goes nuts. She runs to the window jumping and barking like a maddog....ok just a little crazy. She's gotten much better now that I've gotten the kids to ignore her before we leave, we just ignore her, get our stuff, and leave. No big productions. She's fine with that. Yes, she does have the big sad aren't-you-gonna-take-me-with eyes but we don't cave. It's our return that we have a problem with. So we wait until she calms down a bit before we enter the house. Then we ignore her until she's calmed down. I usually wait until I see her lying down before I say "hi, good girl", again no big production.

The barking on the other hand, when it's at the gardeners while she's in the house is a very protective bark. Deep gutteral sounds with a bit of growling. This is the only time I hear this type of bark from her. At the dog park it's just a high pitched yippy kind of bark. And she just looks SO SO excited to see a new doggie. She doesn't even have a problem with me greeting and talking to other dogs. She will come by and investigate at times but seems quite happy just to have others to play with.

She's very well behaved in every other area. She only gets up on stuff if we're not around or if she's invited. She does like to be up...but what dog doesn't the sites are just better when you're up.

I agree with you on the about the lady at the dog park. I was more than willing to have to dogs work it out but she was spazing (is that even a word?) so I figured it was best to just leave. Duchess, admittedly, likes to be top dog and rarely is submissive at the park. I just wish she weren't so excited.

I am working on the "quiet no bark" but she so rarely barks while in a more controlled situation. Usually it's at the gardeners, the doorbell and at the dog park. With the doorbell I just tell her no bark and she stops. She seems to feel threatened by the gardeners and it's much harder to keep her calm. I use lots of praise with her and she seems to respond to that more than she does treats. The dog park I feel is like a losing battle. But I'm taking it one day at a time.

Cindy