lalabee

I took in a stray, purebred Miniature Pinscher just over 2 months ago. I found her on the street and she was scared, cold, hungry, growling, defensive, covered with fleas and dropping worms out of her bottom. (Swell.)

After a few hours she was calm and seemed very sweet. The second night, however, she had decided to cuddle in my lap; I was crying and sad; my boyfriend came over to hug me, and she jumped up, growled, and tried to bite him in the face.

I corrected her, putting her down on the ground in a submissive position. For the past 2+ months she has steadily improved. She's sweet, cuddly, funny and friendly. I take her for walks and she behaves very well around strangers (dogs and people.) She seems to love my boyfriend (who is very, very wary of her and took until just recently to warm up to her.) She's taken to snuggling in his lap as well as mine, and follows both of us around all the time. But because of her behavior that one time at the very beginning, he wanted to give her up, and it took much negotiating and pleading to keep her at all.

So, 2 months later, well fed, de wormed, clean and happy, in our living room with her toys and seemingly happy, she does almost the exact same thing - AGAIN. She's on my lap, I'm petting her, boyfriend's next to me, I lean over to kiss him and here comes snarly biting machine.

He's furious and to make matters worse he responded horribly, throwing an item at her and acting like he was going to kick her. I tried the same thing with putting her down and reprimanding her but I truthfully don't know what to do. My boyfriend is furious and says she'll "never change" and "never stop" and I'm choosing her over him. In the meantime she's terrified to go back in the room with him and spent an hour cowering in a back room under a table.

Can anyone help put us on the right track? I love my boyfriend but this is so driving a wedge between us; he won't meet me halfway with working with the dog or rehabilitating her, taking the tack of "your dog=your responsibility. Not to mention I don't know where to start with fixing this behavior with the little mini pin.

PS We did find her original owner thanks to a microchip, and he signed her over to us. We know from that she's about 4.5, and that she was mostly kept outside with her old owner.

hey Chiefs fans... I've never been to an away game - b/f got tix to the Dec 17th showdown with the Chargers in San Diego. Would love to know if there's any advice, etiquette, ways to prevent Chargers fans from hurting me... etc? (just kidding Chargers fans, love ya our AFC west rivals!) Our tix are on the visiting team side field level which we were told was good and likely to have other Chiefs fans around, but what do we know.

I am looking into a humanistic jewish organization for Yom Kippur and I'm wondering what to expect...my background is Reform Jewish, I'm interested in the humanistic philosophy but just don't know what the actual practice is like. Thanks!