Hi Cayter,

Really sorry to hear about this. I wish I'd known about this 2 weeks ago. I just put down a deposit on a puppy or I'd seriously ask you about taking Ozzy. Although, I do think it's best that you give it a shot this summer, before you make that final decision.

You said he was a handful. Can I ask exactly what the issues are? Maybe we all can give you some advice to help. I know with Oz, he went through a stage around 10-14 months, where he was really rambunctious. Driving all of us nuts. I know Maddie yanked out quite a bit of his hair, during that time frame.

A tired dog is definitely a better behaved dog. It didn't take a huge time committment on my part, but I was pretty consistent about exercising Oz everyday. I'd head outside with him, armed with several balls and frisbees and then I'd just keep him running non-stop for about 5-10 mins chasing'em, until his tongue was hanging out. I didn't even need to barely move and I didn't care if he brought'em back or not. Only goal was to keep him running, until he was pooped. Then when we went back inside, he was nice and calm and ready to hang out on the bed with the rest of the crew. I usually did that in the morning, at lunch, right after work and once before bedtime. So that's only about 30-40 mins of the day. He also got time outs for pestering Murph and Maddie or if he got too rambunctious in the house in general. The house rule was and still is, if you wanna run around like a wild banshee, take it outside. Anyway, maybe if we know what the specific problems are, we can give you some tips.

Hope everything works out.
Les...