I’ve got loads to catch up on so I h0pe you’ll forgive an extra-long post, because otherwise I’ll never catch up, as I seem to keep doing exciting new things every week that I want to tell you about! So anyway, here are some of the things that I have been doing in the last few weeks:
I know all of you are keen to know how I’m getting on with my swimming lessons at Club K9…well, my humans did take me back for a 2nd session in the canine hydroptherapy pool a couple of weeks after my 1st swimming lesson and this time, Paul came in the pool with me…
I wasn’t so scared this time although I still wasn’t sure I really wanted to get in the water. Paul tried to trick me by getting me all excited about a tug toy so that he could pull me in the water but I turned the tables on him by pulling him out of the water – Ha! Ha! 
I’m pretty strong, you know! 
In the end, with a bit of help, I did get in…
…and actually, it was really nice! 
Paul swam with me for a bit…
…and then I actually swam all by myself! Woohoo! I went solo! 
Afterwards, the nice Hydrotherapist Lady gave me a bath again…
…and then – the best part! – as we were leaving, Paul bought me my very first bully stick! I have heard a lot about bully sticks from all my blog friends in the faraway place called United States but I have never seen them in the pet shops here in Auckland…but Club K9 had some in stock! Yum!
Hsin-Yi was a bit doubtful - she says most expensive chew treats are a big waste for me because I practically inhale them in 30 seconds! The nice Reception Lady reassured my humans that bully sticks last a really long time and that I should be enjoying mine for at least 1/2 hr…well, it had turned into a big mass of foamy drool before our car had barely left the street that Club K9 was on…but don’t worry, I certainly DID enjoy it!
Well, in between all my activities and hectic social schedule in the last few weeks, I did find some time to chill out in our garden. One of the nicest things about Spring arriving is all the beautiful flowers that pop up in our garden…
My human isn’t very good with flowers and plants (unlike the Army of Four’s human who seems to know the name of every flower under the sun!) and so I’m afraid I won’t be able to tell you what these flowers are (maybe you can tell me?) but I wanted to share them with you just the same ‘coz I think they’re really pretty! 
Well, these I know are some kind of lily - Hsin-Yi thinks they’re called “flame lilies” -
And these I know are some kind of jasmine…they do smell awfully nice, especially at night!
They’re a bit scary though coz they grow really fast and climb over anything they can find in the garden!
But Hsin-Yi really likes them so she got me to lie down and pose by them…
Are you sure they won't start growing on ME??
By the way, before any of you start thinking what wonderful gardeners my humans are, let me tell you that all these flowers are just growing wild in our garden…my humans are useless gardeners. In fact, I think Hsin-Yi has a “black thumb” – she can pretty much kill anything she tries to look after, including plastic pot plants!
When we moved to this house, the humans who lived here before us had made this lovely garden and thank goodness, they planted mostly things that seem to grow fine with just the Auckland rainy weather and lots of sunshine! So my humans leave the garden alone – except for cutting the grass and scooping up the dead leaves – and the lovely flowers all just come and go by themselves!
And finally – just when I was recovering from babysitting that little monster, Raffy, I met another Great Dane pup! She is called Lexi and she actually found me through my blog!
She and her human sent us a message through the Contact Honey page and asked if we could meet up sometime – so one Sunday a couple of weekends ago, my human arranged a playdate for us in Newmarket Park.
Lexi was 13 weeks old at the time and very different from Raffy!
She was a slightly shy, very gentle pup – nothing like the bold, bombastic, bouncy Raffy!
Look at this great action shot Hsin-Yi got of Lexi with her ears flying! Hee! Hee!
In fact, she was a bit scared of me and my rough play – she squealed and ran away when I tried to wrestle with her and Hsin-Yi got really annoyed with me. She said not all Danes are rough tomboys like me and Raffy and I had to learn to play gently!
(Look at Lexi's expression in this picture - HA! HA! HA!)
Well, I was only trying to play – humph! 
Anyway, Hsin-Yi said that Great Dane pups grow faster than weeds and the next time we meet Lexi, she will definitely be a LOT bigger so I had better watch out!
* Thank you for all your good wishes for Hsin-Yi’s arms and hands. Her RSI is better now but she is still being very careful and trying not to type too much if it’s not necessary. It’s really hard when I visit your blogs ‘coz I always like to leave comments but I’m having to enjoy your posts silently for the moment – please forgive us!
Hi Honey & Hsin-Yi,
We love to see you and your swimming classes. My mom actually looked into swimming here in the Chicagoland area. She thought it would be good for my old dane bones. But you know what she found out?? They won’t let my human in the pool here (something about liability issues) with me so she’s not happy and won’t take me. She says that swimming with me would be part of the fun plus she doesn’t think I would go into the water without her and she is probably correct.
You have such a lovely garden that you get to relax in. We love all the flowers. It is fall here so everything is turning colors and getting colder and colder…finally had to turn the heat on this past weekend. But mom did get me a new coat for the winter so I’ll be styling. I’ll have to send your mom some pics.
Have a great rest of your week.
AARF Ms. Kasha and Denise
Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate you sharing your experiences even though your arm is hurting. I think that its just amazing about the dancing with no vocal cues!! Amazing! I do the same thing though when I get frustrated with him and my voice turns ugly, so I think I’m going to work on not talking (except to praise) while working with him. He doesn’t know many of the vocals anyway.
Lexi is soooo cute! I love black dogs and her expressions are just adorable. Honey would probably scare Jackal a little bit at first too. Only when he gets scared his hackles go up and he whines, but he won’t run away. It’s really funny when we go on walks around the neighborhood and he meets other dogs. Most of them he’s okay with, but one Catahoula makes him really nervous.
The garden pictures are so beautiful. I’m the same about plants. Don’t know the names and about the only thing I can keep alive is a cactus. I sure wish I could come to NZ for spring. It’s already starting to turn to winter here and I hate it. Don’t like the cold, rain or mud. Ick!
Keep on resting up. I know how painful those kind of arm conditions can be and they seem to take sooo long to get better. Jackal and Stormy send lots of slobbery get well kisses.
picture 10 and picture 2nd to last are fantastic! we loved the entire post!!! more more more!!!
OMG! You had a bully stick in the car? Stink-a-roo! I am no longer even allowed them in doors at all due to the enormous slobbers and cow pee pee stink they make.
Your garden is very pretty. I don’t know anything about flowers either, but I like looking at them.
I was gratified to see the look on little Lexi’s face with you all charging after her. SQUEEEE! Puppies are just dopes, huh? Some of them are all in your face cracker dogs and some don’t know how to just play.
Slobbers,
Mango
hello big honey dog its dennis the vizsla dog hay raffy luks verry sweet i am shoor yoo wil git more playing dun nekst time!!! we hav those saym lilleez owt frunt of owr howse and we yoozd to hav jasmin but it died on akkownt of the drowt ennyway i hope yore moms rsi feels better soon maybe she needs to hire a typist to tayk diktayshun for her comments!!! ok bye
Oh my goodness Honey You look like a Cougar coming out of the brush after a poor defenseless pup in the 2nd to last pic! That is a great shot! She (and OF COURSE you too) are a beautiful dane!
Yay for swimming! I really want to take Moose to a place like that just to show him that he can swim. He loves water but will only get in when things are just so! Even then he really only walks in as far as he can with his paws on the ground. Very un-lablike and more dane like dontcha think? Everytime I watch Honey videos (other than dancing) I think it is amazing how similar some of her mannerisms are to Moose and I think it must come down to subtle similarities in their build. I think I have left comments to that effrect before but thought I was a little crazy for thinking it so it is interesting that you see it too. He does not have a dane tail but he has 2 distinct wags and one is normal labbie from the base but the other is with his tail lower and curved up a little about halfway down which to me is more dane like (hard to describe though). I am really convinced he has some dane in him and have to say it is an awesome mix!
As for the food, we have definitely considered raw (you have given us a lot of helpful advice in the past!) but when I looked into it I found that the cost and inconvenience (very little freezer space) make it less appealing given that he seems to have no trouble with his kibble. I would re-think that in a heartbeat if I saw some sign that he was having allergies or other problems that could be solved by going raw. I am certain he would benefit from it though so have not ruled it out forever, just for the time being.
And yeah… prescriptions diets… pooey! I was so annoyed once I hung up the phone and realized what she was hinting at! She is the lead vet at the clinic but not the one Moose has been seeing for the past year and after that I called back to try to subtly switch appointment times to get our other vet (the subtle part did not work out but whatever!) who I don’t think would have ever said that! This kind of malarkey is one of the reasons we left the last vet. I really resent manipulative attempts to guilt you into spending money- and that they imply because I am concerned about the cost, I don’t love my dog. I really wish they did not sell things at the vet because I think it clouds their judgment. I don’t feel I could get an accurate assessment of the benefits of a raw diet as long as I walk into a lobby with bags of ‘prescription’ kibble piled to the ceiling! The usual vet we see at that clinic has never pushed anything on us and does not bat an eye when we want a prescription to get meds online where they are cheaper and I really value that. Sorry for the rambling comment!
p.s. I use the jug to feed him because it slows him down. If I put his kibble in his bowl it is gone in less than 30 seconds (not exaggerating!) and he loves it as you can see!
p.p.s. I wonder if the nail thing is another dane trait? His seem much harder to deal with than a typical lab but maybe that is just a size thing?
p.p.p.s Yes blue thing is nice when it works which is only when the incision is close to his head. That is the biggest size they make and if it needed to keep him away from his back end (as in knee surgery) it is just not big enough! Much nicer for everyone when it works though, he does not run into everything and when he does he sort of bounces off LOL!
Darwin LOVES bully sticks, Jason hates the smell of them in the house! Even when we try to keep them outside, she manages to bring them in and stink up the place. Let us know if you want more, we could probably mail some to you.
Still loving the whole swimming thing. I don’t know how keen Darwin would be on it, but it seems like it could be fun.
Little Lexi is so cute! You got some great pictures of the two of them. Even the ones of Honey in the garden! So pretty!
The flowers in your garden are lovely and we don’t care about the names we just like to look at them. Over where we are we have already had some snow. Momma wasn’t too happy ’bout that but we ♥ winter. Wait until we show you our snow mountain that we climb. We can see our whole neighborhood from up there!
Wish we had a place to swim like you. Our town is so small so a lot of the really fancy stuff for dogs isn’t around but we love to see you swim with your coach.
Take good care of that lil’ pup. You don’t want it to be fearful of you…
Honey,
Tell Hsin-Yi not to worry, my mom comes from a family of gardeners and has managed to kill all the “unkillable” plants.
Aren’t bully sticks wonderful? They don’t last super long in our house if we are really going to town, but Mom says she enjoys the peace and quiet.
You swim place looks excellent! I wish I had a place like that here (because it got way too cold all of a sudden for me to go in my grandparents’ pool outside).
Hopefully Lexi will be less scared and more excited next time!
Hugs and Tail Wags,
Dixie
hope you enjoyed your bully stick – they are our favorites
your new buddy is so cute – but you are just like sweetie such a tomboy you have to learn how to to gentle
Woodrow – Sweetie – MJ
ps – our mommy says to tell your mommy to feel better very soon
We are glad to hear that Hsin-Yi is doing better – repetitive injuries are no fun at all.
The flowers in your garden are so beautiful! That orange lily is gorgeous! Mom is jealous that you are having spring now – here it is 40 degrees, windy, and cloudy/rainy. Yuck!
Good job on your 2nd swimming lesson! You are so brave!
Cute, cute dane puppy!
Wow! Honey, you are doing SO GREAT with the swimming! Hsin-Yi and Paul must be so proud of you – I know we are!!!
Glad Hsin-Yi is healing – that’s great news!
We love the flowers! That flame lily is amazing!
And wooooo, look at you and Lexi! Those are all such GREAT photos!
Luv,
DAve
OH love all the pics. The swimming looks like sooo much fun!!
Love your garden. Im like Hsin-Yi, my potted plants pretty much survive on their own. Im waaayyy better at keeping pets alive lol.
Ohhh Lexi is toooo cute! I know she will grow into those legs eventually LOL.
Thanks for the update and tell Hsin-Yi to not overdo it!
Hey there Honey & Hsin-Yi.
Thanks for an interesting post (as always!). We are glad your hand is more comfortable now…don’t go overdoing it again!
We love your garden! Those orange flowers look very much like the Clivias here…perhaps they are the same?
As for the swimming and playing: Beautiful pictures again and lots of fun. Thanks for sharing!
Lotsalicks
MAXDOG IN SOUTH AFRICA
Bully sticks are the best! Mom has a tough time spending that much money on something just for it to disappear so quickly, but every once in a while she splurges. I like em much better than rawhides, as rawhides tend to get too goopy and yucky.
Lexi sure is a pretty pup! I especially love the picture of you jumpin over the bushes to chase her (and her expression of concern!). Mom thinks Hsin-Yi should crop the picture so it just shows you…what a great action shot that would be!
wags, wiggles & slobbers
Murphydog
Honey!
OMDog!! That picture of you jumping out at Lexi! That is HILARIOUS!!!
I hope you have a grrrrEAT day ahead, my friend!
Sparky
Hi Honey – woo-hoo, a long post from you, wonderful!!
We’re pleased to hear that Hsin-Yi’s RSI is getting better, but we hope she does take it easy still and not be too sneaky about typing when she shouldn’t be!!
We’re so pleased to hear about your second swimming lesson – you looked like such a professional in this series of photos Honey, we were seriously impressed. Glad you got a yummy treat too – very well deserved we thought!
Lexi is CUTE!! Is it just the photographs or does she not seem to have as large a set of paws as most Great Dane puppies seem to have? She’s gorgeous though – we want one – he he he!!
And finally – our human is really quite envious of just how great a photographer Hsin-Yi is – those photos of you in the garden Honey are wonderful. We especially liked the one of you looking over the flame lillies. You sure do have a beautiful garden.
Big schnauzer snuggles to you – JD and Max.
Bully sticks don’t last long in this house either.
You have been a busy dog. Love the photos of you with the puppy. And your garden is gorgeous!
so miss honey, was the bully stick good?? our mummy has heard of them too, but we dont think they are available in Aus.
Our mummy hasnt posted on our blog for a while, so soo busy lookin after other doggy and kitty friends @ her work, but she promises she will take pics of us soon for the blog.
Hey, even if it didn’t last long, you ENJOYED the bully stick, so that’s all the counts, right?!? Beautiful garden pictures! (And don’t feel bad, my Mom barely knows a rose from a daisy, even though HER mom is just about a Master Gardener!) And you actually make swimming look fun. I may have to talk to Mom about this swimming stuff…. I hope your Mom starts feeling better soon!
*kissey face*
-Fiona
Woo hoo a bully stik!! I luv them too but yah I wish they lasted a little bit longer! Mummy sez she is very very jellus bout yer loverly garden.
Yer pal Dozer
What a grrrreat post!
Swimming with Paul!
BULLYSTIKHKS!
BeaWOOtiful flowers (we don’t khare what woo khall ‘em fur they are BEAWOOTIFUL)!
AND playing with a new furiend!
WOW!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: We are glad to see the RIS is improving – GREAT pikhs of Honey again!
Hello Hsin-Yi and Honey,
Hope your hands/arms are on the mend Hsin-Yi, thats not a very nice thing to get
Loving all the beautiful photo’s of you in the garden, and your 2nd swimming lesson looked fun, loved how you turned the tables and pulled paul out! hehe.
O and that toy you have in the pool is fantastic!!! I have one as well, Laura brought it back from America with her!
I’m off for my first swimming lesson on Saturday, and hopefully I get to go to Waiatarua Wetlands Reserve again tomorrow, I’m so glad you told me about that place!
I hope to meet up with you again soon, and thanks for putting me in you blog and thank you everyone for the compliments on my cuteness
Lexi and Laura
P.S. If you ge the chance tonight watch 20/20 on TV2 at 9:30. Mobility Dogs is the first feature!
Honey,
I’m so excited you got to have a bully stick, they are my favorite! YUMMMMM! Also, your garden is very pretty do you ever help dig in it? I like to dig up Momma’s new grass and she gets grouchy with me. I also dug up one of her shrubs so she moved it outside the fence. Hmph…
woof – Tucker
A life jacket for a big girl…how nice they had one! I hope you enjoy your swimming as much as you enjoy your dancing.
Well Honey you are one social girl, you are also spoiled just a bit I think! Your parents love you!
WOW! what a cool blog. you are so active. sorry to hear about Lemon.
honey is a beautiful dog!
Hi Honey,
We think that swimming is good for Paul’s back as well. Our female human wants to take us to a swimming pool, but our male human is not sure if it does anything better than regular walks and occasional baths. To be honest we are not keen on swimming especially because it’s been chilly these days. But, when summer comes we might want to give it a try.
Your garden looks so pretty. Our humans have done almost nothing with the garden lately, but thank goodness we’ve been having enough rain for the plants to survive!
Lexi is a cute pup! We would love to meet up with her too sometime!
you’re such a good swimmer!
bully sticks are popular here too, but a 12 inch bullystick only lasts about 5 minutes. they have 3 foot long bully sticks, but they’re expensive…$8-12 each online.
Oh Honey, you make those flowers even more beautiful!
I hope little Lexi grows into being your friend. I bet once she is bigger she’ll know what a nice playful girl you are.
That pool looks kind of scary! Miniature schnauzers such as myself are supposed to love the water, but since I’m a rebel I want not part of it. Reminds me too much of a bath!
Awwwwwwwwwwwww…..sure you’re one of our best friends!!!!
Thanks for all your special comments on our blog!!!!
We’re sooooooo sorry for not commenting on your blog a lot during the last days…but mommy wasn’t in very good healthy….but now she’s ok….so we could speack with you a lot again!!!
So dear Honey…you’re a great great swimmer now!!!!!
We love you pics with your dad into the pool!!!!
Awwwwwwww…..how much we would love were with you and swimming together!!!
And mommy said she sould love meet you and your humans!!!
Do you know they are going in US????
They’ll be guest of Joey and Kealany (My boo bear) and Kona (spencer’s mommy and dad)….and Sue with Jack.Jill and Kona (Random ramblings)….
They’re soooooo excited even if mommy is sooooooooo sad because she couldn’t have us close to her!!!
But we’ll stay with our grandmother in our home…..So we think we’ll be ok!!!
We love her a lot and she loves us a lot too!!!!
Soooooooooooooo….maybe in the future they could come to meet you in NZ!!!!!!
WOWOWOOOWOOOOOO!!!!
Mommy said it would be a dream for her….Visit NZ Ad meeting you????
Honey and her super special humans?????
OMDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!
And please Honey….
Tell to your mommy and dad they will be a very very very special guest of us if they want to come back in Italy!!!!
We’ll be very very honored to know them!!!!
Thanks for all your love for us!!!!
WE LOVE YOU TONS TOOO!!!!!!!!
HAve a wonderful day!!!!
Tons of kisses and licks!!!!
Honey, of course even old pictures and costumes are ok! My email is pinkdaisydog (at) gmail (dot) com . Can wit to see you photos!!!
Honey,
Bravo for going back into the water. I’m glad you are enjoying it.
The flowers in your garden are gorgeous! We love flowers, but don’t have a garden here. And back in Australia, because of the drought, we couldn’t grow flowers. (We did have some fab mulberry trees though…)
I don’t know what Bully Sticks are, but in Australia you can buy kangaroo tails and bones to much on. Sometimes they do something to them to harden them. Our labbies still made short work of them though!
Good job swimming and that is funny that you pulled Paul out of the water.
Beautiful flowers….so nice to have flowers that take care of themselves. 
That new pup is so cute! I think we would get along quite well too…our play styles seem very similar.
I am also a rough tomboy!
Kisses,
Nala
Hello Honey! We’re very behind as usual… and we tried to get caugh up all the updates on your blog and just finished saying ahhhh ohhhhh awwwww…. while seeing the photos and the video.
We love the video of the dance session with you and human pups!!! Very cute.. Speaking of ‘cute’, we always think your girl is a model but we guess we’re right!! 
Our paws are crossed for Hsin-Yi’s arms and hands.
No matter what your garden looks very nice! and.. ahhh Swimming… I Pinot is so envy you!!!
Momo & Pinot
Hi Honey, glad you’re having such a good time! LS said the flowers are so pretty. If it’s any comfort to Hsin-Yi, LS has killed many plants too. Poor plants.
Hope Hsin-Yi’s wrists and arms are getting better. Don’t overstrain them now. LS knows as her wrists are still so slow to recover.
Have a great weekend!
Cool on the swimming.. mine wouldnt do it.. the orange flowers are Clivias…
Chels had the same experience with an older Dane who was just too big for her, but as you say she grew fast and they were playing in no time…
great post and so many things to read..
Seriously Honey,
Try those kiddie armbands. They are the right size for you! The life jacket that you had…well, I think it’s a little too small for you!
Love,
Homer