NoDogNow, you ARE brilliant! I'll have to file that one away for future reference! The future will be upon me sooner than I know.
SoftHug, I think that having the dog come after the kids will help a lot. Our first batch of dogs came before the kids and there really is a huge difference between those (now all gone with the passing of Piper) and the dogs that have come after the kids came. It just seems to work that way for some reason. Pup will be a lot more fun than the old dog too and will just naturally lead to more play, more bonding with the kids. I think everything will work out just fine, except that they'll miss the pup when they're at their mother's hous.
