Thanks lv4dogs!

Murphy is neutered already. We'll definitely teach him "drop it." He's pretty smart and can learn new commands in one or two days.

Maybe we should've taken him out this morning. (We live in an apartment, so we can't just let him out the back door--we need to walk him outside.) But he's been sleeping through the night fine for two months, so I don't know what his problem was. We really don't want him to get in the habit of going outside at 4:30 in the morning!!!

He gets three 20-30 minute walks a day, plus indoor playtime with us, plus we go to the dog park two or three times a week, so I think he's getting enough exercise--but more could never hurt!

We love him so much and we just don't want him to become aggressive in any way...we NEVER hit him, but sometimes my husband gets so frustrated that he comes close, and I don't want things to get to that point!!