My friend, Lupe the blue Dane, had invited me for a playdate with him on Nudgee Beach but because of my back ouchie and the vet saying I’m not allowed to play for 2 weeks, my humans had to call his humans and cancel at the last minute. Lupe lives far away from me and his humans had to drive a long way in the car machine to come to the beach…so my humans felt very bad but then Hsin-Yi had a great idea: maybe Lupe could stop at our house on their way back from the beach and we could have pizza together! I still wasn’t allowed to play with him but hanging out together would still be fun! 
I was very excited when they arrived – I had never had a doggie visitor in the house before! As soon as I heard the knocking on the door, I ran to grab a toy – every doggie knows that the correct way to welcome guests is with a stuffie!
Oooh, there was so much wagging tails and waving paws and twirling bodies…two excited Great Danes in a small room is like a doggie tornado! 
(Note: male humans should stay away from our tails – or cover their trouser fronts with their hands!)
Actually, although I was very excited and happy to see Lupe, I was also a little stressy and unsure. Can you see all my hackle hairs standing up in the photo above? Hee! Hee! Even though I knew Lupe well, it was still a bit stressy having a strange doggie in MY house. I wasn’t sure I liked him walking around sniffing MY things and playing with MY toys!
Usually when 2 stranger doggies are meeting for the first time, it is always best to let us meet on neutral territory – for example, in the park or in training class – this makes it less likely that we will feel stressy or grumpy towards each other. Even if the stranger doggie is coming to visit, it is best to always meet on the street outside first and then come into the house together.
It is also always best to let stranger doggies meet off-leash if possible, so that we can decide ourselves what personal space we need and say hello in the natural doggie way, without humans interfering. When humans are holding our leashes, sometimes they get stressy and then they pull the leashes tight, which makes us doggies start to feel worried and stressy too – this is why many doggies that meet on leash end up getting grumpy with each other. If humans must keep us on leash, then they must try to keep our leashes loose all the time.
In my case, though, it was OK because I have met Lupe lots of times before and played with him before – plus my humans know me really well and they know that I am quite good with strange doggies coming to my house, even if I feel a bit stressy about it. Back in Auckland, I had Cinnamon & Lexi and of course my boyfriend, Ombre, come to visit me – and even our neighbour’s Boxer, Lester, just turned up on our doorstep one day asking for a playdate (Hsin-Yi says: that was a very ignorant owner – you do not show up on a strange dog’s doorstep with your dog and just walk in when they open the door! She meant well and she was lucky that Lester was still quite young and Honey is very tolerant – otherwise, things could have got a bit ugly! But I can tell you, when he ran in and started jumping on Honey’s face, her growls were for real! )
Well, so I followed Lupe around the house and gave him little growls to make sure that he knew who was boss…
That's MY toy!
.
...and that's MY bed!
.
Lupe was very polite and submissive to me…well, we all know that girl doggies are always the boss!
But then Hsin-Yi gave me a Telling-Off for growling and being rude to guests and said that I had to be a good doggie host and share my things with Lupe. She even said I had to let him try out my beanbag bed! 
WHAT?!*@#!!
.
Humph! 
Sometimes being a “good” doggie is so hard!
FINE! You can have the ball - I don't want it anyway - so there!
.
Well, at least I got good cuddles from Lupe’s humans to make up for it…
Lupe’s house has wooden floors so he has been used to them since he was a baby puppy – and so he wasn’t scared of walking on them at all – he was just running around all over the house!
Lupe also hadn’t learnt the “Not-Allowed-In-The-Kitchen” rule but Hsin-Yi said that the rule didn’t really apply to doggie guests (huh?! ) although she was strict about the “Not-Allowed-On-The-Furniture” rule – Lupe is allowed on the sofas in his home so he kept trying to make himself comfortable here too! Hee! Hee!
.
Don’t worry - Lupe’s humans had brought one of his beds for him so we were soon both quite comfortable on our beds together…
.
Then we both heard a word we understood…
Did somebody say...PIZZA?!
.
But oh! The humans said the pizza was not for us! It was only for them! Mean, greedy, piggy humans! But Lupe’s humans were very nice – they brought a big beefy hide chew for us each to have while the humans were having their pizza…
..mmmm…yummy…
These were really good chews – usually when my humans buy me anything from the pet stores, it is gone in 5 seconds – even bully sticks! With our big jaws, us Danes can crunch through anything easily. But this chew last ages…my humans were very impressed!
.
And then after dinner, the humans took out a big box and said they were going to play a game called Cranium.
.
Hsin-Yi said this is like a ‘brain game’ for humans – although as far as I could see, it was not like our doggie ‘brain games’ at all because there were no treats to be found anywhere in this game!
Do you see any treats, Lupe? No, neither do I. This is a stupid game...
.
There were just little plastic bits and lots of cards which made the humans do very silly things…ooh, until they took out a tub of soft purple stuff which looked like it might be a yummy!
But the humans didn’t eat it – they just kept trying to make funny shapes with it and laughing a lot…
These silly humans! And I thought they were supposed to be the smartest of all animals? Don’t they realise they are supposed to EAT it, not make shapes with it? But when I tried to show them, Hsin-Yi gave a yelp and snatched it away from me…I didn’t even get a lick! And it smelt so yummy too! I’ll bet it was delicious…mean, greedy, piggy Hsin-Yi was probably just keeping it all for herself! Humph!
By this time, it was getting really late…in fact, Lupe was so worn out from all the excitement, he had already gone to sleep!
Time for one last group photo with the self-timer before the guests leave…I’m quite good at posing for photos when my human is holding the camera machine but I still need a bit of practice when it is on self-timer…still, I was better than Lupe, though. Look at the silly boy – shaking his head just when the camera machine clicked – that is definitely not his best angle! 
.
Well, I had a great time with my doggie visitor and Lupe says next time, me and my humans can go to his house for dinner…I can’t wait!
******
Hsin-Yi says: For those interested, here is a very good page about raised hackles and what they mean in a dog. Just like mounting is not always about sex or even dominance - and a wagging tail does not always mean a friendly, happy dog - raised hackles is not always about aggression. It is a sign of arousal, triggered by adrenalin, and is a “fight or flight” response. Although the most common reasons are fear or hostility, many dogs raise their hackles simply because they are feeling unsure about their environment or they are simply over-excited (Honey is one of these). Hackling can also be like us humans getting goosebumps. As with all dog body language signals, it is important to read the whole dog to get the full picture (ears, posture, tail position, mouth tight or open and relaxed, stiffness of body, etc) and not just one part of the body.
Lovely story once again, thanks. I just love the photo of Honey in between the visitors at the table. She looks like she is following the progress of the game!
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You did great welcoming a canine visitor into your home.
Honey I really enjoy all of your updates and all of the pictures of you. They are soooo cute! You are such a good girl to be such a gracious hostess to your friend. I know that it’s very hard to have to share your favorite things with your friends. You did an ecellent job! I love you Honey!
Hi Honey, you are a very good hostess. Our FH says we’re quite good at meeting other doggies but we know it’s because we always do it on neutral ground first and always off-lead. One of our puppy sitters has a miniature doxie who often comes round, even though we really enjoy him coming round we always meet in our back garden first and not in the house. We remember the very first time he came into our house and FH insisted he try our beds too -- humph!
Anyway, it looks like you had a GREAT visit, what a great idea of Hsin-Yi’s! Hmm, we don’t understand the ‘not for doggies’ comment either. What’s all that about? FH and MH often say ‘not for puppies’ when they’re eating yummies -- we can’t wait until we’re 2 and then we won’t BE puppies any more -- we figure we’ll be able to partake of these forbidden foodables when that happens… (FH -- erm, perhaps I’d better start to change the phrase we tell the boys -- he he he!)
We loved that last photo of you all -- even though Lupe is moving we think these photos are always the best, he looks reallly funny and cute!
Schnauzer snuggles -- JD and Max.
Very wise, Honey, for the warning about a swinging Dane tail! My, does it sting!
I’m glad you had a fun play date… Wait patiently. You will get to the park again soon! And remember: Not all things fun are edible!
What an interesting day with Lupe and his humans. Tell Hsin Yi it’s not fair to have double standards with guest dogs
Gotta agree with you abt humans. A game can’t be good without treats.
How fun to have a doggie visitor! You looked like a Ridgeback with your hackles all raised! Darwin gets like that when we go the park and she’s really excited…. or if we’re outside at night and she hears something and gets scared.
Dane tails are serious weapons! Good advice you give for male humans! hehehe
What a fun night! Maybe not as fun as a beach play date for you but still looks like a fun night! I was once and ignorant person about dog meetings. I was dogsitting one dog and went to pick up a second dog I was going to start dogsitting. Both dogs had met a few times with their respective owners so I thought it would be fine. Well I show up with Maddie at Bailey’s house to pick her up after her parents had already left. I had the Key and let myself and Maddie in. Huh? Seriously what did I expect? Poor Bailey expecting her parents to walk in and instead it is a lady and a dog she knows but has never seen the two together and never in her house! Ohhh she was not a happy girl! I managed to diffuse the situation and learned a whole lot in the process! These were both friendly dogs so I just thought that was that… not so! Phew! I have now brought a few unknown to Moose dogs into my house and think he is an exceptionally tolerant doggie or it would be a lot harder. It is always a tense moment though. New doggie want to explore the house and getting followed by a big goofy boy!
The pics of your night were great too. Lupe reminds me a little of Moose (except that bounding up the slippery stairs photo- show off! Moose would never!) so they made me smile and of course you with your hackles up was kinda funny too!
Hi Honey!
What a great post! Loved the pictures, too.
You are a great storyteller!
Lady
Having two great danes in the same room must be so much fun! Lupe is a beautiful dog and you’re lucky to have him for a friend!
Wow. that looks like so much fun honey. having a puppy guest must be a blast! i dunno if i would be able to share my toys and bed like that. but im sure kaj would make me. we still haven’t found any other doggie friends. i know lots of doggies at the dog park, but kaj don’t like their humans. unlike me, he’s pretty picky about his friends.. lol. o well
Thanks for the info about the Hackles and the link i always wondered why harley had that when we went to places we have been before..
Honey, I am so sorry to hear about your back ouchie. Glad you had a fun play date with your friend Lupe.
Cool photos. You seemed to get along quite well. Loved the one at the end with everybody in it…Lupe was making a very funny face!! BOL.
Congrats on winning at the PawDance Film Festival. A very good video!!
Smooches from pooches,
BabyRocketDog and Hootie
Hey Honey & Hsin-Yi!!!!
Sorry we havn’t commented on any of your posts lately -- we’ve been having super annoying computer & internet problems since moving into our cool new house and I’ve been busy with my new job (12 hour shifts -- blarrrrg) Just spent ages entertaining myself by reading through all your recent posts, loved the doggie dancing camp one, the video was great! I’m hanging out to post all about Auckland but its gonna have to wait even longer grrrr so FRUSTRATING!!!!
Hope your back is feeling better, you need to stop getting in the wars you silly sausage! Peppers going in for bladder surgery tomorow, she’s really not been right since we moved up, so wish us luck, no-one has any idea whats wrong
Em & Pep
Hey Honey & Hsin-Yi!!!!
Sorry we havn’t commented on any of your posts lately -- we’ve been having super annoying computer & internet problems since moving into our cool new house and I’ve been busy with my new job (12 hour shifts -- blarrrrg) Just spent ages entertaining myself by reading through all your recent posts, loved the doggie dancing camp one, the video was great! I’m hanging out to post all about Auckland but its gonna have to wait even longer grrrr so FRUSTRATING!!!!
Hope your back is feeling better, you need to stop getting in the wars you silly sausage! Peppers going in for bladder surgery tomorow, she’s really not been right since we moved up, so wish us luck, no-one has any idea whats wrong
Em & Pep
PS -- yay for winning at the film festival!!
Hello Honey,
You’re so nice sharing your things with Lupe. I can’t wait to see you visiting his place and I’m sure Lupe will be glad to welcome you.
We love coming over to your blog because we learn so many things!! Yes one thing is for sure, a wagging tail does not necessarily mean a happy/ friendly dog! Hershey wags her tail when she’s scrowling.. LOL!!
Your tip about what the male humans should do to protect themselves is hilarious!!! Turbo tail(s) in action!!
Oh, Honey, I miss you…reading this post… I still remember that I found a bone in your garden and you didn’t mind me having it. What a great hostess you were! You were a great guest too when you came to our house.
I am glad to hear that you got to meet your canine boyfriend Lupe in your house. I hope your back will heal soon and you can have a playdate with Luke at the beach again soon!
Love,
Cinnamon
2 danes in one house
what a party!!!!
keep him in undercontrole honey
Kissslobbers
El’bow & Hauwii
Honey had a date! BOL. It’s too bad you had to share your bean bag bed. Sharing stinks.
woof -- Tucker
Wow, Honey! I think you were a great hostess to Lupe! What fun to get to hang out together — even if you weren’t allowed to have pizza! (My mom’s real mean about stuff like that, too!) Hopefully your back will be all healed up soon and you’ll be doing zoomies on the beach together!
That was very interesting about raising our hackles. Thank you for posting that link!
Play bows,
Zim
Lupe is a very handsome boy! You were a wonderful hostess, I doubt my little dogs would have been nearly as gracious if another dog came to visit! Actually, now that I think about it, I took care of my parent’s really ancient beagle this past fall while they went on vacation. Chico wasn’t so bad but Shiver wanted to make sure everyone knew he was in charge every now and again!
I haven’t ever played Cranium but I’ve seen commercials for it on tv and it looks like a fun game! I’m glad Hsin-Yi didn’t let you eat the purple stuff. It might’ve smelled and even tasted good but I don’t think it would’ve been so good for your digestive system.
It was very nice of you to share your stuffies with Lupe! I play Cranium with my humans, but they never want to listen when I tell them the answers. Still, it’s lots of fun to liven up their game by checking out the pieces or making sure that no one has illicitly moved his pawn, right?
It looks like what could have been a disappointment turned out to be a nice day.
Hmmm -- first time a boy visit your house, uh, Honey ? ( wink, wink) Great pics -- good thing he chose the toy you didn’t want anyway…:o))
BTW -- the vet said my ouchies MAY be growing pain, so we got pain killer drugs for a week and we’ll see how it goes… He talked of options like replacing the hips and stuff, but naaaa! I don’t think so!
Bundy
how fun! you must have a big house for TWO great danes running around. I don’t think you two can fit in our tiny house. at the same time.
that’s a good read about hackles. Mine raise when I am unsure about something I see, a big dog, a kid on skateboard or a funky-looking piece of garbage on the sidewalk, sometimes they do when I am super excited too!
thanks for showing us some doggie etiquette!
wags,
Preston
Wow, Honey, you were a Most Accommodating hostess. And it sure did look like you had the bestest time ever! I was drooling all over the place looking at that most marvelous chew you got! I’m really good at gulping down stuff fast. Mom calls me a “power chewer” so it’s very much impressive to see that there’s something out there that lasts for awhile.
I thinks you are SO lucky to be SO tall. When mom and dad have their furends over, I can’t ever tell what they’re doing on the table or what they’re eating cuz I’m so short. I swear, some day I’m gonna get frozen in the looking up position cuz I’m so curious about what they’re doing up there. But you -- you can just sit on your bottom and see everything! That must be GREAT!
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
PeeS. My mom said to let you know how very much she appreciated Hsin-Yi’s very sweet comment on her postie yesterday. Humans can be so silly just judging us by our jowls or our brindle furs without looking to see who we are underneath. (Oh, and by the way, I thinks your jowls are Most Glorious!)
We have only had visiting pups at our house once and it was with Dakota and Phantom. There were five of us sibes doing zoomies all around the yard. We all stayed outside since the humans weren’t sure how we would behave inside. But we have some furiends coming to visit this summer so hopefully it will all work out.
Mom says Cranium is lots of fun to play.
Woos -- Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Ooh, Honey, that’s what we did when I met my cousins in Queensland last week -- as soon as we arrived we went for a walk, and my cousins met us at the park, and we had a good run-around, and then walked back into their house together. That way it was like they invited me back, rather than me invading their space.
On the way home we stayed overnight at a place called the Million-Bindy Farm (that’s what my human called it when she was pulling bindies out of my fur after we left), and there were a couple of very friendly doggies there when we arrived. One tried to jump into the car when my human opened the door, and I had to be very firm and tell that doggie off -- nobody gets into my car without my permission!
Puppy kisses
Sasha
That’s a beautiful post and shows how our dogs enrich our lives not only by their relationship with us, but also in how they help us to make humans friends.
Yep, Jackal is one of those who raises his hackles when he’s excited.
I figured out a long time ago that he wasn’t being aggressive. Good thing too because he does it all the time hehe.
Look like you guys had a blast! Play dates are so fun! I’m glad you were able to hang out even though you’re injured. Hope you’re feeling better by now.