Brian and I have a dog.

(Matt, you may think you had something to do with this, but you didn't. I like dogs better than cats though!)

Brian and I have a dog.

It's actually not our dog--we're dogsitting for Brian's dad.

Brian, who never had a dog growing up, was really excited. He kept playing with Titus and calling him when he got more than six feet away. I was doing homework in the study while Brian was watching TV and Titus kept coming into the office. Brian yelled at me from the other room, "Everytime you make noise, he comes to you!" I shut the office door so he could enjoy "our" new dog.

My one gripe with little dogs is that they bark (or yelp). As we went to bed, Titus started barking.

Brian went up to him and said, "Titus, you need to be quiet." I told Brian that he needed to be firm with the dog and not coddle him.

When he got back into bed, Titus barked again. Since I told Brian to yell at Titus saying, "No!", Brian did just that. And then started talking to him saying he needed to be quiet. "Brian," I said, "Titus can't speak English."

When Titus barked for the third time, Brian finally got it right and just firmly yelled "No!" I was actually surprised when Titus didn't make a noise after that. He actually obeyed us. I'm glad my advice actually worked!