Thank you so much for the replies. I didn't sleep too good last night, and the whole ordeal was the first thing I thought about this morning.

Micki, Malone sleeps in his own bed (across the room from our bed) about 90% of the time. Once every couple of weeks he is allowed up on the bed. (Not any more until we get through this problem) Oh, and he also must wait for us to "invite him"

As far as eating...in the morning we eat before him, but at night we feed him as soon as we come home from work. I just talked to Mark about this, and we are going to try to make sure that WE eat first from now on.

He's not allowed on furniture, and when we are walking up/down the stairs he has to go "NICE" which means no charging ahead. When I stop, he stops, and when I go, he goes.

We have never really "hit" him, though when he is *reallly* nawtee, Mark will grab him by the neck, and growl at him. (Yea, that's a sight to see ) But I get kinda confused on the positive reinforcement, because it sometimes feels like Malone will be bad for 5 minutes, good for 10 seconds and then is rewarded; and really he feels that he is getting rewarded for the 5 minutes of badness.

Amy, that's a really good idea about starting back slowly. I'm thinking about going to see the trainer on my lunch break today. That way I can talk to her in person instead of just calling.