As I said before, I seem to keep bumping into so many more Danes here in Australia! After I posted about not being able to find nice dog parks in Brisbane, I got a lovely message from Lupe, a big blue Great Dane boy – telling me about some dog-friendly places and inviting me to meet up for a playdate! 
So a couple of weeks ago, my humans took me to the Kedron Brook Dog Off-leash Area to meet Lupe & his humans for a playdate….and we had a fantastic time!
It was so nice to finally meet another doggie big enough that I didn’t have to worry about squashing him by mistake when I was running & wrestling – and who wasn’t afraid to play with a rough tomboy like me! 
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It was also great to have a big buddy along for my walk…
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We did lots of exploring together…
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And also exchanged sniffs with a couple of other doggies…
I always see lots of Ridgebacks - like my blog friend, Nala – whenever I go to the parks…they must be a really popular doggie here in Australia!
Then I introduced Lupe to one of my favourite toys: my ‘Udder Tug’ that I brought with me from NZ!
(For anyone who missed my 1st post about these, they are the rubber things that attach to cows’ teats for milking.
When the farmers are done with them, in NZ, they sell them in pet stores as dog toys and every doggie I know goes mad for them!
They are lovely and soft to chew on but strong at the same time – and smell deliciously of cow! 
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Lupe’s humans said he hadn’t really learnt how to play Tug properly yet – he was such a gentleman, he wouldn’t really pull!
So I decided to step in and show him how it’s done!
Yeah! Grrrrrrr!
(Hsin-Yi says I’m a terrible rough tomboy and why can’t I be dainty, gentle & ladylike, like all the other girl Danes? Bah! Who wants to be ladylike? How boring! 
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Lupe REALLY liked my ’Udder Tug’ - but was too polite to come and take it off me! Such a gentleman! So I kept teasing him to come and get it:
Cooooome on, Lupe! You know you want it…
Aw, come on, Lupe! The whole metro-dog thing is very nice but sometimes a girl wants a bit of ‘alpha-male’!!
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Ooh, he got it!
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Awwwww…give it back…
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Hah! Just to remind you that girl dogs are ALWAYS the boss!
Of course, am older too – I’m 6 & 1/2 and Lupe is only 2, so maybe he was respecting his elders – hee! hee!
Actually, my humans thought I did very well for a ‘middle-aged gal’ – galloping and jumping around like a maniac puppy, chasing Lupe, chasing my tug toy, leaping over the water pipes, running through the long grass, jumping down the river bank, clambering up again…they said it was embarrassing that Lupe was calmer than me!
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On the way back, I decided to go for a cooling dip in the water. Lupe wasn’t very sure about going in the brook so I had to show him…
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Come on in, Lupe! The water’s lovely!
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Yeah – you see?
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OK – come on! How about one last play?
It was starting to get dark by then so the humans said it was time to go home…such a shame! I could have gone on forever!
(Hsin-Yi says: Actually, Honey was walking a bit funny the next day and we were horrified that she might be starting to develop hip problems but she didn’t seem to be in any pain and didn’t mind her legs being manipulated in any direction, was eating fine, could get up from lying down very quickly & with no problems, etc…so we decided to just rest her & see. No mad running for a few days – just gentle, pavement walks. Well, she was fine & normal again within a day. Guess she must have just overdone it on the playdate and was a bit stiff - at her age, she can’t hoon around endlessly anymore without paying for it the next day! 
When she was young, we would often have several playdates like this in succession but now I think she is going to be rationed to one every couple of weeks and TRY to get her to slow down and take it a bit easier! There ARE gentle ways to play too, you know! 
*sigh* I know it’s only a matter of time before my crazy, rough, tomboy girl will succumb to arthritis – she is practically asking for it, the way she plays and chases balls and does everything so “violently” and of course, all giant breeds are prone to it – but I do hope it holds off for as long as possible so she can continue her exhuberant enjoyment of life – you just can’t help but smile when you watch her )
Well, I had a great time with Lupe and I can’t wait for our next playdate!
OK – before I go, I must tell you about this fun thing I am doing called the “Slow Dane Challenge“. It is to help support doggies like me who are – ahem - a bit slow in training sometimes, not like those super clever and fast breeds like Border Collies - and to encourage our humans to do more training with us, without feeling embarrassed that we’re taking a while to learn things. (You might think I know a lot of tricks but it usually takes me MONTHS to learn them! )
The Slow Dane Challenge was started by a Great Dane here in Australia called Dante and his human, to encourage more Danes to do more training – ‘coz most Danes just grow up into couch potatoes and their humans think potatoes aren’t trainable. Now, it has been expanded to include non-Dane doggies too. You can join Dante & his human – and lots of other Danes (& non-Danes) at the Dogz Online Forum – Dane Thread (http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=188608 )
We all get a set time to learn a new trick (eg. 2 weeks) and we all have to do lots of training in that time and post our videos to the forum to show each other – and then at the end of the time, everybody votes for the winner of the challenge!
They have had 2 challenges so far: the 1st was learning to Pivot and the 2nd was the Bomb-proof Down Stay. You can see the videos of these past challenges here: http://www.dmantugs.com.au/challenges.htm
I am joining the 3rd challenge now – which is learning to jump over my human’s arms and here is a video of my training so far! (I actually started learning this many months ago back in Auckland but only had 1 session, then had my 2nd session last week.)
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So how do you think I’m doing so far? Hsin-Yi says she is not sure her arms will survive the challenge! 
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I’m so glad you’ve made lots of new dane friends and you’re getting to paly rough tomboy games with them
Looks like you had a fantastic time at the park with Lupe!
Hehe and don’t worry, I’m not very lady like either, so your not the only one!
Licks,
Lexi
cooool
the slow dane challenge looks like fun!
we are working on dance move’s
sanne had try it with hauwii and he love’s it.
Well still miss agility but she find someting new
it’s called BREITENSPORT, its like agility but diverent and it look like realy funn. you find clips on youtube if you wanna have an idea
but we dont give up on our dance moves!
Kissslobbers
El’bow & Hauwii
Wow Honey ! looks like you have a fun playdate ! & well done on jumping over your humans hand. & did Hsin Yi called you an i-d-i-o-t? BOL !
Way to go Honey !
hey honey!
Luke seems really fun to play with! 
you 2 look like you had lot’s of fun!
big licks
pu
Careful Honey! You are not as limber as that youngster. Sometimes I overdo it too and momma gives me special medicine to keep me from getting inflammation. Not easy getting old, huh.
Stupid PeeWee has been jumping over momma’s arm. I am sticking to more sedate trainings.
Slobbers,
Mango
It was so nice to look at the photos of you playing with another great dane. How nice to find playmates your own size.
I truly enjoy reading this post. Honey you’re lovely as ever and your playdate Lupe is a gorgeous blue Dane that I have not seen one before.
You had a wonderful and memorable play with Lupe, didn’t you Honey?
I hope the arthritis will never have a playdate with you or it just come to visit your joins much much later in a very slow motion step.
I remembered when Hsin-Yi mentioned about Great Dane’s life expectancy and said that when you left New Zealand, it might be the last time you saw it, immediately tears filled my eyes.
Gosh, I’ve been absent too long, I’m bad but I’m back!
I miss you so much, I want to promise that I visit your blog at least once a week and blog more frequently.
I’ll come back to see you soon.
(You don’t notice that I have been out a long while, do you? (choking back tears! sob sob!)
Love ya lots!
hi Honey! our human is always worried about our play time too--we are already 3 and halfway done our life. arthritis is going to get us both in the end…
Lupe looks like a great buddy for you -- glad you had so much fun playing with him but be careful not to overdo it next time!
Mom was laughing so hard at your mom trying to get you to jump over her arm! Very cute and you are doing well at it too!
BOL! Mom thinks I need to join in that challenge! Looks like Mom will need to get a video camera first though, and a tripod!
Well done Honey!
wags, wiggles & slobbers
Murphydog
That’s great that you’ve made such a nice new friend
I love the idea of Udder Tugs, I’ve never heard of that before. We have lots and lots of dairy farmers in Ontario -- I wonder if I can talk some into giving their used ones to a good cause bol
Hahaha that video cracked my mum up no end -- she says -- “I love seeing you train Honey, so much laughter and fun! It’s great to laugh when you’re trying to teach your dog something new, too often I see humans get really frustrated and grumpy and grumbly with their dogs, but its not the dogs fault that they don’t understand the ridiculous thing we are trying to make them do! Training is all about FUN after all!”
I’ll have to get Emily to put up a video of me learning “Paws Up” (you inspired us to learn after your video from Doggie Dauncing camp) But Emily thinks I look a bit ridiculous when I do it. I think I look clever like a small monkey hehe
Pepper
Looks like you’ve been making lots of friends! I’m so glad you were able to arrange a playdate with Lupe and hope that you can have many more. He seems like a real gentleman and he’s very handsome too!
I’ve never heard of udder tuggs, I bet my big chihuahua would love to play with one! My little one doesn’t play with toys all that much, probably because he knows my other chi will just take it from him anyways!
Disappointed that I still can’t watch videos online anymore.
Yes, I’ve tried clicking on the square and it doesn’t work. Someone suggested I download a new version of flash which I did and that doesn’t seem to work either. Very frustrating because I used to be able to watch them all the time!
Wonderful photos of you and your new pal, Lupe!
Hope you get to meet up with him soon again.
take care
Clive and the NSLM
Your playdate looks wonderful! I’m so happy you met someone who can play with you and keep up and be so NICE!!!
He’s also VERY handsome!
Love,
Ammy
Such a fun post to read, Honey. We are so happy to see you find another Dane for a friend. Just take it easy so you can have more run dates. The video was great. Just listening to your Hsin-Yi laugh made us want to laugh too. We can’t wait to see the next challenge.
Woos, Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Ehy guys!!!
We’re back and we missed you tons!!!!!!
How are you sweet Honey????
How is doing your leg????
Hope is doing better…..you need rest and calm walkie on soft floor not jumping too much!!!!
Sure you had great time with your new pal Lupe…he looks gorgeous but you’re more and more beautiful!!!!!
We love your photos with your humans and we read your wonderful post about the new beach you found…..it looks sooooooooooooo beautiful…lots of Mangroves…low tides….mud….
But we’re soooo sorry for your mommy mosquitos bites!!!!
How is she now????
Pleaseeeeeeeeee……remember her to use the right cream ok????
And our mommy wants to thanks you and your mommy for the sweet words about her smile!!!!!!!!!!
She LOVES LOVES LOVES LIFE!!!!!!!!!!
Joie de vivre is her life maxim!!!!!!!!!!
She loves smiling all day long…and even if life sometimes isn’t sooooooooooooooo beautiful she give us a big big big smile…ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!
Pay attention to our next post…you’ll see others wonderful places we visited!!!
And remember……when you would like to come here in Italy again we will be honored to have you here with us as our super special guests!!!!
We’re waiting you ok???!!!!!!!
You’re one of our first friends and you have a special place in our hearts!!!!!!
WE LOVE YOU GUYS And hope to meet you in the future!!!!!
TAke care of you all!!!!!!
We send you tons of love and sweet kisses and hugs!!!!
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dear Hsin-yi……let us know how Honey’s leg is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MUAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Wow it looks like Honey really outdid herself!!! What a blast!
Oh Honey you are so clever, I stare off ito space all the time when my Mum is trying to teach me. I get a little distracted with my little people, the chooks, duck and furry critters around here.
I didn’t get any cake at the party last weekend but Mum saved me some chicken from lunch and it was delicious!
Hope your leg isnt playing up too much. xx Maj
Honey, how cool that you are finding other great friends. Lupe is very handsome! Is there any romance in the air? You sure look happy.
ps: A “stool pigeon” or “stoolie” is someone who tattles on others, especially like to the police.
You and Lupe make quite a lovely couple and he looks like loads of fun! As for soreness I am no expert but two things I leaned when Moose had knee troubles was that when you let them rest and it gets back to normal still give it extra time because doggies ‘lie’ about being healed so they can play again (ok not exactly but you get my point!). And the second piece of advice (maybe more opinion than the first) is that I think doing things less often can actually lead to injuries because the specific muscles they use for park type play (as opposed to walkies or dancing or arm jumping
) aren’t as strong and I think they are stay more coordinated if they do these things often and the key is to do them for shorter time each time you do them. Back when I would take Moose to the Park we would stay quite a while because it was a 15min drive to get there and we both had park pals to pass the time with. But I think if we went 4 days a week for 20-30 min it would have been easier on the joints. I think as the muscles get tired they do not do as well at supporting the joint and the doggie gets sloppy. Again, I am not sure I can point to hard facts to support this but it makes sense to me! Sorry if that sounds know it all since I know your mom knows your limitations quite well!
Yes, I do think your mom and I AND you and Moose have some shocking similarities in mannerisms. Moose is a brute who would totally try to crash through my arm if I tried that! And I have to laugh at the way your mom talks to you during training. When I am recording I tend to keep quiet (I am kinda shy) but when I am not recording that is exactly the stuff I would say and how I would say it. There are lots of ‘well, sort of’ and telling him in plain english what he has to do. Pretty funny! And I cracked up to hear that you and your mom do the wheelie chair thing too! I wish I had video of the first time we did it because I was squealing like crazy and Moose was totally shocked that I was moving like that but did not want to let go of his stuffie and of course I squealed more and he got even goofier!. It is shocking how much fun that is! My house is long and narrow and one of these days I am going to roll up the rugs and see if he will just keep going! hee hee!
p.s. As for the mangrove post, I can’t recall if I commented on that or not but I was about to leave a comment that it looked exactly like one of the places I tried to take Moose then I went to my blog so I could show you pics but when I found them they really did not show it very well and I guess I did not end up commenting about it. But yes, that is exactly like what we have here in the keys!I found a place with a clear easy entry to the water but there were loads of upside down jellyfish on the bottom and if humans step on them they can really hurt so I did not want to try it. Do you have those there? I know Oz has loads of jellyfish and the swimming kind I might not be worried about but these upside down ones sit on the bottom and have their tentacles pointing upward. So Moose did not get to go in there.
I haven’t read this post yet, but I will first thing tomorrow morning. I’m just dropping by to leave you a comment about Jackal’s walk before I have to go. I think the reason this method worked is because have done clicker sessions on the heel position, so he knows that being in that spot is a good thing. When he would walk behind my leg I would immediately start walking again and that was his reward. He would immediately surge to the end of the leash again, but after a few repetitions he figured out what I wanted. Maybe the old hound dog is smarter than I give him credit for.
I do have a tendency to get down on myself. I don’t know why I do it. I just don’t recognize achievements and accomplishments sometimes. I think I learned my negative frame of mind from my mom. She’s a serious dooms-day-er type of person who doesn’t trust anyone and always expects the worse of people. It’s sad really. She’s even told me before that having friends isn’t worth the trouble!! I don’t understand that at all because I’m a people person normally. Anyway I’m getting totally off topic.
I do think going for a walk would help me deal with my stress, but I do know I absolutely can not train after going to work! I have to train in the morning. My work environment is so high stress that I get extremely tired and short tempered and I would never intentionally go into a training session feeling like that. Maybe if I walked first and then do a training session that might work better.
Thanks for believing in me and encouraging me to keep at it. It means a lot to me.
You have such a fun life, Honey.
Re your comment: We posted about Crystal being a boy a number of times. You just forgot. Jan forgets everything, so don’t worry.
How khool woo got to have a playdate with one of your kind!
That is furry special!
Thanks fur sharing it with us!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra & Khousin Merdie
It’s great that you’ve made new friends and settling down well in Brisbane (and finding dog parks definitely is a criteria for settling down)!
I thought that training session in NZ was hilarious! I want to tell you that I love all your videos on your activities because you show things how they really are. If I were to only see your lovely tricks and dance routines I’d be disheartened, but I get encouraged because of the other clips that show it’s not easy teaching dogs.
Good grief, I just now discovered your comment on my cross-breed names post. I don’t know why it didn’t come to my email.
Of course you can pass those crazy breeds along. I’m still laughing at the “Schnacks”!
I enjoyed the photos of Honey and her new boy-toy as well as the jumping video--shades of agility class!
Hi Honey,
Oh, Lupe looked like loads of fun but we admit to a stab of jealousy that he got to play with you and we didn’t! How lovely of him to invite you on a playdate! We loved the bit where you were taunting him to take the tug toy off you -- and he finally did, he he he! Such wonderful photos -- you two are going to be the best of friends and we can’t wait to see him in your posts again at some point. But Lupe -- a message for you. You’d better treat Honey like the princess she is or you’ll have US to answer to. (There -- bet THAT scared him….!!)
Thanks for leaving such a lovely long comment on our last post. We do love Cesar Millan as he talks such common sense -- sheesh, some of the humans in the UK really do humanise us doggies, how offensive! We’re far superior -- how dare they?! Actually, FH picked up on what he was saying about exercise during this seminar -- that it needs to be structured and involve brain-work as well as leg-work so she thought that was good. And he ended the show with a demonstration of canine dancing -- he said he’d never be a good enough trainer to teach a dog to do something like that, he would stick with training humans as they were simpler creatures, he he! FH really wanted to leave a comment on the post about that person she’d mentioned to you who keeps on feeding us to say she needed training -- but she chickened out and changed the post just before she published it, he he!
Schnauzer snuggles -- JD and Max.
This looks like it was a wonderful play date. We never see giant dogs around here. I have to be very careful with Thor, too, because he is quite old -- he will be 9 in May -- and I have to make him come inside from the cold before he’s ready. As long as you take it easy between play dates, you will be fine -- like Thor. I think you’re a perfectly dandy girl, and so does Thor!
wow, we just loved that video and we agree with everyone who said that its so great to see the fun in training . much better than than getting grumpy at us. Mum(Jeannette) loves play training with me and now realises that its not her inability more a Dane thing.
AND if you ever in Melbourne we would love to show you the dog beach near our place at Altona
hello honey its dennis the vizsla dog hay that luks like a grate park!!! and check owt that jiant tunnel that luks like ware bilbo baggins yoozd to liv!!! ok bye
Honey I am not sure who made me laugh more you or your mum! Well done!
Honey, take it easy when you play! I have the same new toy. I got it at the dancing summer camp. When my Mum went to Four Seasons, she found that they sold the same ones for about $3 each. I think it’s great recycling!
Lupe is cute! You two make a cute couple.
I wouldn’t be embarrassed by Honey’s energy. I think it’s a testament to her health and your care for her! I can’t believe the difference in Storm since I started feeding her raw. She’s almost become a pest!!! I haven’t seen her with this much energy since she was a pup.
I really liked the video! It was fun watching her trying to figure out what you want. Makes me feel better about the clueless expressions Jackal has sometimes.
Great post! Sorry it took me so long to read it.
What fun Honey, Lupe looks so friendly and a gentleman indeed! I like to play rough too but sometimes I do show my more delicate side. Just depends on who I am playing with.
Your jumping training was so funny…my Mom tried to get me to do this the other day. She was not so successful but maybe some more practice is needed.
Kisses,
Nala
Oh yea, I am TOTALLY telling my Mom that I want to move to Australia…so many Ridgebacks and big doggies to play with…could there be a better place on earth?
Nala