Sounds as if the pup is left outside alone? What bred is the dog? If this is so then you'll have a very hard time keeping him/her from chewing on plants without putting up a fence either around the plants or making a pen for the pup. If you choice to pen the pup up please make sure it's in shade and has a place to get out of the rain. It will need lot's of attention an unattended dog makes for an unhappy dog. My two dogs stay with me all the time. If I go outside they go outside if I come in they come in. Lacy the younger dog knows my moves and if I start to head outside and she's in the bedroom she'll come running to go out with me. If I'm outside and the older dog doesn't want to come out he stay's with DH. The only time the dog's are alone is if we go somewhere and it's not for very long half a day at the most. Both dog's know when it's time for DH to get home and they both start listening for him to come threw the garage door and when they here it both jump up and wait for him at the kitchen door, then as soon as he comes in they both welcome him home like he's been gone for a week LOL. Fact is I can't get to him for the dog's till they get their welcome in then I get to kiss him and ask how his day was. Dog's live in packs and you are the leader or should be the leader, they need the social life. You can leave it in a dog crate inside to help the pup get use to what is acceptable behavior, Do not close the pup in the crate just teach it to stay in the crate and in time the crate will be it's safety place to go. I don't remember where I learned about potty training a pup but this is what I'd learn. Put a collar and leash on the pup and keep him/her with you at all times while your up. Take the pup outside every hour. After a meal or drinking take him/her out within 30 minutes. This way the pup is with you and you can know when he/she needs to go outside. It does not take all that long, depends on the dog though some take longer to train. Maybe someone knows of a good book to help train a pup or you can go to petsmart training class. All that said any animal you have needs love, care, training and lot's of patience.

Hi, Mikie. Thanks. I guess I will look for a 1.5TB drive (unless I don't find any with very good reviews - I know I've seen some 1 TB drives that get great reviews for around $100). I know I have one open sata port (I did have my computer open last week to take my Tivo original hard drive and copy it to a new 1TB hard drive - with all the snafus this 1- 1/2 hr. project took 8 hours on Saturday - and on and off all Sunday to complete). There is definitely a bay for a second hard drive. I had 2 sata ports but just added an esata cable so I'm using one of those now. I definitely don't have such huge files (maybe 10-15GB at most for a long high-def movie), so I'll look into partitioning the drive (which is an intimidating idea now, but I'll work up to it). I'm not sure what you mean by break-away covers. But this computer comes with an empty slot in front where a firewire port can be. I think this is what you mean by does the faceplate have provisions for it. I've looked through Dell forums. I'm copying the link here: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/18748278.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=04&s=bsd&PageIndex=1 It's amazing that for over a year folks have been trying to add this front firewire port after the face - and most of them cannot get a straight answer from Dell. The variety of responses - including it can't be done, it can only be added to the rear, a suggestion of different needed parts - and then perhaps one answer that seems right - but they got the part number wrong and it took the woman 30 minutes to find the information out. Anyway, I've read through it several times bc. it all seems to unclear. I wish I could have read that several people did the same thing and it worked. But people had different solutions. I think I'll call Dell parts and ask about this one: Part #J4975 ($32.99): * IEEE 1394 PCI Card (all internal cables included) for Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop * One end has FireWire port that will be accessible on front of computer (i.e., via the existing slot) * The other end is the PCI Card (which connects to the motherboard) and also has three additional FireWire ports accessible on back of computer. * Internal cables (included with purchase) connect the two ends. * All four FireWire ports have 6-pin heads. But even that part number is wrong - it's supposed to be Y4975. It sounds like the right thing to me. Then I can just plug in my Lego parts. Dell support is just so uninformed. Back to the hard drive, do I need to get cables as well as the drive? I'm sure I need 1 or 2 cables to connect the drive to my computer - and I'm asking in case that answer is more clear. Thanks. Lynn. PS - I'm not mechanical - but I'm determined to learn.

I think you are doing excellent and exactly what needs doing. This is not a normal case of a dog not eating as you know, I would ask the vet if he has a good formula food you can give her with a syringe, I have had to do this with one of mine and it worked well. Dehydration is a huge concern, I was able to give my cat with kidney disease IV fluids at home, it's relatively painless and helps so much. I know it's difficult but you will know that you did everything possible for her. Keep up the good work and I will say a little prayer for her.

Isn't she a sweetie! My three dogs were all adult 'rescue' dogs so I didn't go through the puppy stage with them. But I did keep them in individual kennels (at home) while I was working for the first few weeks. Then I restricted them to a couple of rooms using a pet gate (similar to what you'd use for a human toddler). I walked them before work, then came home for a late lunch and walked them again, then walked them after work and then once more at bedtime. Now I work full time from home and they spend most of the day in the office with me. They make great foot warmers in the winter :-) We still walk (no fenced in yard) three times a day. Before work (about 7 am), early to mid afternoon (2-4 pm), and before bed (any time from 7 to 10 pm). I think it would be very hard potty training a puppy when you can't stay home with him/her. A rule of thumb is that a puppy can handle one hour per month of age. So a 4 month old puppy should be able to go up to 4 hours without having to go out. A six month old puppy can go up to six hours, and so on. One thing I wouldn't recommend is using puppy pads in the house. I had a dog once, that was trained with puppy pads from the time she was tiny. It was an awful process re-training her, and she would still potty in the house years afterward, if the notion struck her.