DR. WALLACE: I am 15 and my parents let me get a dog for my birthday in February. He's a Lhasa Apso, so he's kind of small, but he has a lot of energy and can sure run fast when he wants to.

Everything is good about my dog except for my older brother, who is 20 years old. He goes to college, but he comes home during the summer and hangs out at our house a lot. His new favorite activity is riling up my dog! He somehow figured out how to start running up and down our hallways and getting my dog to follow him.

Then one day, he figured out that after he got the dog to start running in the house, he got down on his hands and knees and started talking to the dog very excitedly. "There he goes, there he goes!" He'll slap his hand on the ground every time the dog runs by, and my dog just runs faster and faster down the hallway and around the corners! It looks like he's running 40 or 50 miles an hour; he's going so fast! The first time I saw that, I was worried he was going to hit his head on the corner of the wall when he made his turns, but my dog never did, not even once! I never knew dogs had such good agility at such high speeds of running.

After 10 minutes of this high-speed running around in the house with my brother agitating my dog, my pup will finally slow down and jog to the kitchen, where he finds his big bowl of water and he'll then drink a lot of it down really fast. Then because he drank so much, he's slobbering the water all over everywhere, and he jumps up on the side couch that he's allowed on, but he's drooling all over the place and my mother gets mad at me because my dog is drooling on the furniture. All of this happens because my brother riled up my dog, but I'm the one who gets in trouble. What can I do about this? It's great that my dog gets this exercise, but it's not fair to me. — Big Brother Riles Up My Dog, via email

BIG BROTHER RILES UP MY DOG: You should tell your brother that, although you appreciate that he provides your dog with great exercise, the aftermath is not good for anyone inside the house. Tell him the next time he wants to play like that with your dog, that once your dog slows down, he needs to put the leash on your dog and walk him out the front door for a short, slow walk.

Tell your brother that when he wants to play with your dog, you'll take his big water bowl and put it outside in the driveway, where your dog can drink it before your brother takes him on a walk on the leash. This way, everybody wins, as your dog has his fun and gets some exercise, your brother is entertained, and the mess of all the drooling can occur outside. The least your brother can do is to take your dog for an outside water break, plus a slow walk after all that high-speed running around!

MY BROTHER LOVED MY NEW CREDIT CARD

DR. WALLACE: I'm the eldest of three siblings and a college graduate at 23. I just started my first career job about four months ago, and on a recent weekend dinner back at my family's home, I showed off my first credit card to everyone. My brother, who's 16, has already decided he's going to be a finance major in college. He's all about business, finance, making money with odd jobs and he regularly builds up his savings accounts. My parents helped him open a brokerage account, and he has most of his savings in U.S. Treasury Bonds. I don't know of too many 16-year-olds currently doing that!

He quizzed me up and down about my credit card and then he ran off to do some research online. He came back to the dinner table and told me that he couldn't get a credit card until he was 18 and could show proof of income. He also mentioned that at age 21, he would be allowed a credit card if the household income was high enough. I'd love to help him, but since I live an hour and a half away, I don't know if it would be a good idea for me to try to get him set up as an authorized user on my credit card account. What do you think about this idea? — He's a Young Financial Savant, via email

HE'S A YOUNG FINANCIAL SAVANT: You're on the right track, but I have what I feel may be a more practical idea for your younger brother. Rather than you volunteering to set him up as an authorized user on your new credit card account, perhaps ask your parents if they could step in and help him.

Your parents likely have a longer, more extensive credit history than you currently do, and they could absolutely set you up with a credit card as an authorized user on one of their accounts. Some credit card companies actually allow this feature for teenagers as young as 15 years old, subject to parental approval. The good news is that your younger brother will start to build his own credit history by responsibly using a credit card that your parents may opt to help him with. If this ends up working out, the proud display of your new credit card may end up benefiting little brother as well.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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