Use this space to discuss training issues. You know the drill: seek advice from others, brag about successes, lament setbacks. ...

It took about 8 months, but Jillie is finally 100 percent housetrained. She's been perfect for the last month or so. I decided to go ahead and train her to go both outside and inside on a pad. She goes outside when I'm home to let her out, but she'll use the pad when we're not home. I can live with that. It's also good practice for traveling. She knows how to use a pad if we're stuck in airports.

I had hopes of housetraining her in 4-5 months, but it just didn't happen. Still, it's a one-month improvement over the last dog I trained, Eddie.

Eddie's physical therapy is going great. He's up to 18 minutes at up to 1.9 mph on the water treadmill. He doesn't love it, but he deals. They also put him on an inclined treadmill outside of the water, and he had a good 5-minute session on that without many problems.

Rusty had a close call at the neighborhood park yesterday. A neighbor dog jumped its fence and charged after us while he was unleashed. I scooped up Jillie, but Rusty ran right up to him, hackles up. The other dog turned out to be nice, and they finally went their separate ways.