Re:  Discipline
I was having a problem with Grover (female, albino, 3y) biting.  She
would lick a spot (usually a high salt area) then biting, hard.  At first
I would give a strong NO, then I tried nose flicking.  Someone else on
the FML suggested grabbing her by the scruff and giving a stern NO.  I
tried it and it seems to work.  She's not biting nearly as much now and
when she does, I will grab her and she won't do it again (as opposed to
before she would keep doing it.  We're trying this method with their
begging as well.  I don't think they like the new food we gave them and
they are begging unmercilessly.  Before it would only take two NO's and
and spank and they would give up.  Now they just keep coming and coming.
We obviously were giving them too many treats which is bad for them and
they got use to it.  A happen we WILL break!
 
Re: names We used to have a boa which was named Bert.  Then we got our
first male and named him Ernie.  Keeping with the names, we then got our
female and named her Grover (after having a dream that Bert attacked
Grover, we soon got rid of Bert!!).  A year ago we added a second male to
our family and named him Elmo.  If we get another one we will probably
name him Oscar (if it's a female I will have to watch Sesame Street or
reruns of the Muppets and find a female name [NO Miss Piggy!]).  We (I)
have also given them middle names.  Ernie's middle name is basically a "T"
after Ernest T. Bass of Andy Griffith fame.  Grover's is Jane, don't know
why just sounded good.  Elmo's is Sherman after the tank since he's so
husky.  I grew up having dogs but we didn't have a theme just standard dog
names (Princess, Butch [aka Pooh Bear], Snoopy, Lucky and Clyde).
 
Pamela Barber and Ernie, Grover, and Elmo
Flagstaff, AZ
[Posted in FML issue 1109]