Addendum

One of the reasons we adopted this dog over other possibilities was because of his submissive temperament, which would mesh well and easily in our household. I suppose it goes without saying that if that is lacking, then we've bitten off a lot more by adopting a dog who needs training to learn all the basics, sit, stay, don't pee in the house. The other 'handful' dogs, the Aussie, the lab mixes we saw, all had the basics down already.

We're holding fast, but oh, lordy. We are not all that good at simplifying our lives.

And did I mention that New Dog wants to play with the cats (at top speed)? They hate us right about now. He's friendly and politely interested in the kids, though.My goodness, he looks tiny when curled up in the crate in the living room. This is good, as a small 'footprint' in the house is a good trait in a 60 lb puppy. We've found that he likes mozarella sticks, which will help training immensely, since he turns up his well-fed nose at our usual dog treats.