Sorry – last reminder ‘coz the deadline is TOMORROW! (Wed 9th May 5pm Australian NSW time)  I know most of you have already voted – thank you so much! But if you haven’t yet, please hurry! I’m on the 2nd page (F ~ K) – tick the box next to “Honey the Great Dane” and make sure you click “Finish” at the end!

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Now that Autumn is here, me & Muesli are helping our humans with one of the most important jobs in the household: sweeping the dead leaves!

Yeah – that’s really Paul using a brush & dustpan! Coz my humans haven’t got many garden tools and they don’t want to buy anything else to add to all our “stuff” already – (especially since we’ll be packing again in about 6 months!!) – so they are just making do with what we’ve got. It’s the same dustpan & brush that Hsin-Yi used to scoop all the earth to fill in that huge hole I dug back in the garden of our house in Newcastle! Hee! Hee!

This is actually Mueli’s first time helping with sweeping dead leaves – coz it’s her first proper Autumn – last year, she was sort of too young to get involved properly…

…but this year, she’s following nicely in the pawsteps of my first kitty sister, Lemon!

Sweeping autumn leaves back in our house in Auckland, NZ... (2007)

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The other sign that winter is coming is that our humans have brought the heater machines into the house. Muesli – like a typical kitty – LOVES the heater machines! Whenever they are on, she spends all her time curled up next to it – sometimes sticking her nose right on it – my humans wonder how she doesn’t burn herself!

So after dinner now, we have a nice little routine where Muesli curls up by the heater machine and I lie down for a nice chew of my Nylabone…

…well, actually, this one isn’t a Nylabone – it’s from another company called Fido Nylon Tuff+ but it’s the same kind of thing: a hard, plastic chew bone to help us doggies clean our teeth. My humans were really happy to find this brand in the pet shops ‘coz it’s cheaper than the Nylabones, which cost a LOT of money paper. And since they have to throw these plastic bones away when they get too chewed up (which for me is about every 2 months) – then it’s a terrible waste of money paper. So it’s good to find cheaper versions.

I used to get lots of big, raw knuckle bones to chew – at least once a week – to help keep my teeth clean. Especially when we lived back in NZ and had that lovely, peaceful, private garden (see in the picture above?) to lie on the soft grass and chew for as long as I like…

…but since moving to Australia, most of the rented homes that we’ve lived in haven’t had very good set-ups for chewing raw bones – and our house now in Sydney is the worst. Although we have a garden, it’s down some steps, at the back of the house – with no door leading directly out to it from the back (you have to go out the front door and walk round the side of the house to get to it) and plus, I get a bit stressy in the garden because of – ahem, neighbour doggies and things – so the garden isn’t a nice place to be and my humans don’t like to leave me alone out there, with a bone or not.

I do have a nice balcony where I can sunbake – but it’s very small and my humans don’t want to mess that up with raw bones…so in the end, they decided that a plastic chew bone would be “a good compromise” for this year. So now I get it every other night, after dinner, and I chew it for about 20mins and it’s a great way to keep my teeth clean – plus keep me busy after dinner, when I usually get a “sugar rush” and start wanting to run & jump around or look for naughty things to do. By the time I’ve finished chewing on my bone, I’m pretty ready to take myself to bed!

(by the way, my humans smear a bit of peanut butter on the ends of the bone to “encourage” me to start chewing – especially in the beginning, when the bone is new and smooth and not that interesting…They also always pick the bone up and hide it away when I’m done chewing, so that it always remains ‘fresh’ and interesting to me and is a special treat every time they give it to me. Plus they need to wash off all the yucky slobber and leftover peanut butter on it too! )

Anyway, that’s our nice cosy routine usually…except that in the last few days, things have started to change! One night, I got up, stretched and went to my bed, ready to settle down for the night and look what I found!!

Muesli! All smug and stretchy in MY bed – and she wouldn’t get off!! As if it wasn’t bad enough that she was stealing my lovely Mango Minster prize blanket…now she’s stealing my bed as well!

Oh! But you know what was the worst thing? I thought my humans would feel sorry for me and help me – but no, they were just standing there laughing!!!

They told me not to be ridiculous and just to tell Muesli to get off my bed…

…but how? How do I make her get off??

I tried staring at her but she just ignored me. I tried pawing the bed but she just ignored me. I even tried getting on it and walking around, “moshing it” like I usually do before curling up – I thought she would definitely get out of the way then – but no! She just kept lying there in the middle of the bed, with a smug look on her little face, and I nearly tripped over myself, ‘coz I was trying not to step on her. My humans were still laughing at me but I didn’t find it funny at all! Humph!

In the end, I gave up. I mean, unless I sat on her and splatted her flat…what’s a doggie to do??

Hsin-Yi kept laughing at me, until she finally picked Muesli up off the bed so I could get on.

But she wasn’t laughing later at 3am in the morning, when I started getting very stressy and pacing up and down the house, waking everyone up because…Muesli was in my bed again!!!! I kept walking up to my humans’ bedroom door and crying and walking away and then back again. Finally, Hsin-Yi had to get up to help me get Muesli off my bed and she was very grumpy!

She said it’s ridiculous that I can be so bossy and tough with big, strange doggies that I meet outside – and then be so useless with a teeny kitty cat…but oh, she doesn’t understand! Kitties are the best proof that “size doesn’t matter” – they always get their own way and I’m too scared to argue!

The thing is – now Muesli has decided she really likes my bed for some reason and so now this is happening almost every night and Hsin-Yi is starting to get very grumpy at being woken up in the middle of the night every day…you know what a Big Grump she is when she is woken up in the mornings (Ahem. Talk about not being a “morning person!!”) – well, you try waking her up in the middle of the night. Yikes!! It’s just as well that Paul is the Human Vet – if Hsin-Yi was a Human Vet and had to do On-Call, she’d probably tell the patient to go and die if she got woken up for an emergency in the middle of the night!

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(note from Hsin-Yi: this is turning into a bit of a farce – except it’s not funny when you’re being sleep-deprived several nights in a row because your big 70kg (155lbs) dog is being bullied by the 4kg (9lbs) cat!!

I really don’t understand how Honey can be so ‘dominant’ with aggressive dogs outside – and then be so pathetic with a little cat and get so distressed over such a simple thing. Surely she can give Muesli a  nudge with her head or something and push her out of the bed? I’ve even watched her try to get on the bed with Muesli in it and she is so worried about stepping on Muesli, wobbling so carefully around her (and you know how unstable beanbags are) that she really tripped & fell over…it was heart-breaking to watch.

But it’s just ridiculous that I or Paul have to keep “coming to the rescue”. I’m dreading it now when I go to sleep – I know that at some point in the middle of the night, Honey will probably get off the bed to stretch & shake, like she usually does, before she resettles on her bed – and that’s when Muesli immediately dives in. And then Honey is stumped.

Sigh. Why is Muesli suddenly starting this?? She never showed much interest in Honey’s bed before – whereas now she seems to have suddenly decided it’s HERS! If anybody has any suggestions (other than shut Muesli in another room, which we can’t really do given the tiny size & layout of our house – the animals sleep in the living room together) – I’d be very grateful!!

Edited To Add: Thank you so much everybody for your suggestions! Muesli DOES actually have her own bed already (in fact, several beds throughout the house!) – a very soft, “cave-type” bed which is warmed by a heat pad at night and is placed high up, at the top of her cat tree, next to the sofas by Honey’s bed…and she is happy to sleep in it most of the time, so it is not as if she hasn’t got somewhere nice of her own!

The problem seems to be when Honey gets up in the middle of the night – which she usually does at least once to shake & resettle – that Muesli then leaves her own bed and dives into the middle of Honey’s – I think because Honey leaves this lovely warm “hollow” in the middle of the beanbag when she gets up. Unfortunately, we just don’t have space in this tiny sardine can we’re living in this year to put another similar beanbag bed in the living room – and I suspect Muesli would always want the one that Honey is on anyway – although it would at least give Honey a 2nd option, whereas at the moment, when she is “kicked off”, she ends up sleeping on the cold, draughty floor which is really bad for her joints!!

The thing is, I don’t mind Muesli on Honey’s bed and I like them cuddling together (which they do sometimes)- as long as they SHARE. The problem is that Muesli won’t move aside to make room for Honey – she just hogs the middle of the bed and Honey doesn’t seem to know how to shift her aside – there is more than enough space for BOTH of them on the bed but Honey just needs to learn to make Muesli SHARE!!! )

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Still – Muesli did sort of try to make it up to me. After I finally managed to get back onto my own bed, she came up to me and gave me little ‘goodnight kisses’. Sigh. I can’t really stay mad at her then…

And my human, Hsin-Yi, has found a great new doggie school for us to join. It’s called the Sydney All Breeds Dog Training Club and the people are very nice and don’t “take things too seriously” – for example, although there are classes for competitions and trials, nobody is very strict & serious about things and they don’t push you to be a perfect doggie or do things over & over until it gets really boring…everybody is very relaxed and smiley and friendly and they say the training is for fun (well, you know lots of humans always say that but they don’t always behave like it! )

And of course, I love meeting lots of new, different doggie friends in my classes!

Now, you might be wondering why I’m going back to doggie school at my – ahem, senior age. In fact, lots of people are always asking Hsin-Yi why she bothers to keep taking me to training class when I already know all the basic (and even some advanced!) stuff really well and she can pretty much do all the training herself with me at home.

Well, the answer is: we’re training class junkies!

No, seriously, me & Hsin-Yi just love the feeling of learning & doing things together – you’re never too old to stop learning!

It’s my favourite time in the world – when me & Hsin-Yi are working as a team together. And it’s this teamwork – some people call it the “bond” – that makes it so easy for Hsin-Yi to take me anywhere and do lots of different and sometimes difficult things with me – because I trust her and we have worked together lots and we understand each other really well.

But you can’t buy that kind of feeling with all the money paper in the world – it’s something that takes time to grow and you only get it by doing things, especially learning things, together.

Of course, all doggies love their humans – but to really have a strong ‘bond’ – the kind that makes us keep looking up into our human’s eyes, always come when called, want to try anything to please them and pay attention & obey commands, even in the most distracting situations…that kind of bond only comes with lots of time spent training & playing together.

That’s why training is so important and good for us doggies, even if we’re all grown up now and know all our puppy manners – that doesn’t mean that we can’t still keep learning & challenging our brains! Otherwise, Hsin-Yi says, it would be like adult humans never reading a book again, just because they already know their ABC’s.

Hsin-Yi doesn’t take me to training because she wants to “fix” me – I’ll never be perfect, no doggie can be, but that doesn’t matter – it’s not like once we manage to learn all the exercises or get a title or whatever, then that’s it…we do it just for the experience itself. Hsin-Yi says “the fun is in the journey, not the destination.”

I’m sure that continuing to go to training classes all my life has helped to keep me fit both in my body & in my mind – and is one of the reasons why I’m still such a sexy cougar-doggie – er, in good condition for my age!

We also love going to class for the social side of things – we think it’s one of the best ways to make new doggie friends in a safe environment. Hsin-Yi prefers to choose our doggie friends from training classes ‘coz she thinks that the humans who take their doggies to classes are usually more responsible and care about their doggies’ behaviours (and usually have more control over their doggies too) so they share her attitudes & beliefs and she likes them better…

…of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t make a good friend in a random dog park or that you don’t get psycho doggies in training classes – but we have had so many bad experiences now that Hsin-Yi has become much more “selective” about which doggies (& their owners) we’ll spend time with. It doesn’t mean they have to be perfect obedience champions – just that their owners are responsible and care about their doggies’ manners – and enjoy spending time working with their doggies too.

* Look – isn’t it cool to see a Basenji in class? That’s one of the breeds that’s supposed to be “impossible to train” – so it’s so wonderful to see a “difficult” breed like that in training class. It means that his owner really believes in him and doesn’t just give in to the breed stereotype.

Speaking of friends, my friend, Boo the Black Dane decided that he would like to come to these classes too – so we’ve been meeting up in class every Sun morning!

And at the end of classes, we do a bit of “fun agility” – where they put out some agility equipment and we can all have a go. But it’s all very relaxed and you can skip any obstacles that you don’t want to do – like in my case, I don’t do the tunnels ‘coz they are just too small and even if I could squeeze in, it would be very bad for my old joints to crouch & crawl for so long inside – it’s not like I can zoom through like the smaller doggies!

I had also never done the A-frame before but my humans asked the vet and he said that at my age, it was better not to risk going up such a steep thing – even if I didn’t fall, again, it would probably be very bad for my joints.

I did give the see-saw a try though…boy, did I get a SHOCK!! You can see it in the little movie here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv1Fg9UNKEo

* You’ll notice that when I got scared on the seesaw, Hsin-Yi hardly reacted at all. She didn’t rush to reassure me or cuddle me or anything – she was just very calm & matter-of-fact about it all: “Oops! Oh well…well done, good girl, here’s a treat – let’s move on”. That’s because Hsin-Yi believes that it’s very important when us doggies get spooked by something, for our humans not to make a big deal about it or rush to fuss us / reassure us. It often just confirms to us that we were right to be scared and makes us even more scared for next time. We take our cues from our humans and so if they act like it’s no big deal, we’ll also just shrug and move on…whereas if they make a huge fuss, we’ll be rewarded for showing fearful behaviour.

Of course, there are some things that us doggies can get a ‘genuine’ phobia about – such as thunder phobia – and in those situations, then it’s different – ‘coz even with reassurance or not, we just can’t help feeling scared. But Hsin-Yi still believes that for the little, everyday things – when us doggies meet something new and are just a bit unsure/get a bit spooked – then our humans acting calmly & not reacting is the best way they can help us. This is how she has raised me and this is how she has helped me grow up to be such a confident, calm, secure doggie.

Well, I’m really enjoying my new classes and I hope I’ll have lots more fun things from it to tell you & show you in the next few months (and maybe even learn to do the see-saw?? )

Oh – before I go – I must say a big thank you to Minna Krebs for my Mango Minster 2012 Adventure Animals 3rd Place Award, which finally arrived in the post last week!

It’s the most beautiful, soft, pink blanket (towel?) and we love it! It’s even got my award details and my name sewn on it – what a great souvenir! I love snuggling in it…

…But Oh! Someone else seems to like snuggling with it too!

GO AWAY, Muesli! You win your own blanket!

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In fact, Muesli liked it so much, she wanted to snatch it all for herself!

Why do kitties always end up getting their way in the end??

It's mine...ALL MINE!

I’ll let my human, Hsin-Yi tell the story:

We had a nasty shock when we woke up yesterday morning – well, at first, we didn’t notice anything different: I was busy making Paul’s packed lunch and he was busy getting ready for work…but when he went into our bedroom after his shower, he suddenly called to me, asking what the blood stains were on the side of the bed…

Blood stains?

Abandoning Paul’s sandwich, I hurried to take a look. Sure enough, there smeared along the edge of the mattress were streaks of blood…

What on earth was going on? Muesli had been let out into the garden for her ‘morning ablutions’ but Paul had noticed nothing wrong with her when he opened the door…which only left Honey…

…who was actually curled up on our bedroom floor – this was nothing unusual in itself: she often moves from her bed to our bedroom once we wake up in the mornings – but she did look very sorry for herself…and what had happened to her nose??

On closer examination, I was horrified to discover the muzzle/bridge of her nose really swollen and covered in what looked like open, bleeding sores!

Had she scratched or caught her nose against something sharp? But what? There was nothing new in the house…Did Muesli claw her? But surely we would have heard a commotion and besides – Muesli came in at this point (looking for her breakfast!) and I scooped her up and checked her claws for blood: clean. Plus Honey didn’t flinch when I placed Muesli next to her face (which you would have expected her to, if she’d suffered bad injuries from Muesli). 

I looked at her nose again and realised that it was actually covered in lots of little bumps. Had she been stung or bitten by something? An insect?

I had gone to bed unusually late the night before – around midnight – and Honey had been perfectly normal and fine when I’d left her then…so something had happened in the 6hrs since!

It was a complete mystery…Then I went back into the living room and noticed the sofas…the house was beginning to resemble the set of ‘CSI Miami’!

Well, it seemed that the blood was actually Honey’s own doing: she had obviously been rubbing her nose against the sofa (and then against our mattress when she went into the bedroom) – probably because the bumps were itching & bothering her – and rubbed so hard that she’d broken the skin, causing those open, bloody sores. Which made me wonder – was it an allergic reaction? But to what?

No matter, the first thing was to get her seen by a vet as soon as possible. She didn’t look distressed and wasn’t showing any of the symptoms of severe Anaphylactic Shock/Anaphylaxis in Dogs (which can be a life-threatening emergency):

• Diarrhea
• Defecation
• Urination
•  Vomiting
• Itchiness (pruritis)
• Development of hives (urticaria)

And then:

• Weakness
• Lethargy
• Drooling (hypersalivation)
• Shallow, rapid and difficult breathing (respiratory distress; dyspnea)
• Pale gums and other mucous membranes
• Elevated heart rate (tachycardia)
• Weak pulses
• Cold limbs
• Changes in mental clarity (excitement or depression)

If she hadn’t had an anaphylactic reaction already, she was unlikely to now – it is something that is immediate, so the danger was over. She was probably having a milder, delayed allergic reaction to something.

Aside from how horrible her nose looked (it had swollen so much, it completely deformed her face. Honey normally has a classic Dane head profile, with a very distinct ‘stop’ and a straight bridge down to her nose – but now she looked like some kind of cartoon caricature, poor thing!) – but she was behaving pretty much as normal – she was alert, breathing normally, not panting or drooling (well, more than usual! ), ate her breakfast with relish, pooed & wee-d no problem…

But it was still best to get her checked over as soon as possible and get some treatment for her poor nose – particularly, Paul pointed out, antibiotics to stop a secondary infection, since she had broken skin and caused open wounds.

In the meantime, I cleaned up & disinfected the open sores with antiseptic wipes and then applied some Neocort cream, which – on the advice of our vet back in Auckland – we always keep a tube of in the house: it’s an antiseptic, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory cream which works well on a variety of everyday wounds.

And an hour later found us sitting, waiting, in the emergency clinic at the Sydney University Veterinary Hospital, which luckily is very close to where we live…

(and I’ll let Honey tell you the rest of the story…)

Oh! My nose was really ouchie!   There were nasty itchy bumps all over it and oozy blood and it felt 4 times bigger than normal…but I was a very brave girl and I sat and waited with Hsin-Yi in a big, shiny room until the vet could come and see me…

Then finally, they called my name! And we went in to another room and a nice young Vet Student looked at my nose. She said I was a very beautiful girl and I was very good and held very still for her, even though she was pressing and prodding the bumps on my nose and making it even more ouchie!

And then she checked me all over to make sure that I didn’t have any swellings or funny lumps or rashes anywhere else – and listened to my heart & my breathing – and took my temperature to make sure that I didn’t have a fever…

And then she called a Senior Vet, who came and looked at me as well – and then did lots of talking with Hsin-Yi. He kept asking if my humans had seen any ants or spiders in the house near me…or if there were any detergents or other chemicals left out…or had we done anything new & different yesterday?

Yesterday? GULP. I suddenly remembered what I had been doing on my walk yesterday – I glanced at Hsin-Yi guiltily – maybe she wouldn’t remember?

But oh no! Mean Hsin-Yi snitched on me! She told the Senior Vet that when we were in Victoria Park yesterday, I got really excited when we passed the freshly raked flowerbeds. They had just taken away all the old flowers and were getting ready to plant new ones…and they’d put something in the soil which smelled WONDERFUL!! So I had jumped in and was snuffling around in the earth with my nose, trying to eat some of that wonderful stinky smell. Hsin-Yi had called me very sharply and told me “OUT!” but I was naughty and didn’t listen to her – well, not immediately anyway. I did eventually get out of the flowerbeds but not before I’d got the lovely stinky soil all over my nose…

Well, the Senior Vet said that the Lovely, Stinky Soil was actually Evil Soil because it had something called ‘fertiliser’ in it – which has lots of chemicals and that’s probably what made my nose puff up and gave me all these nasty, itchy bumps!

He gave me a big injection of Anti-Histamine, which he said will make my nose stop being puffy and also stop the itchy-ness -

- and then he gave my human lots of medicines for me to take in the next few days: antibiotics and more anti-histamine tablets every day, plus he said it was very good thinking of Hsin-Yi to have put Neocort cream on my nose at home, because that had helped to bring down the swelling immediately – so he gave us a fresh tube of Neocort cream for my humans to put on my nose every morning & evening…

Yay! Finally, we were finished and could go home. It had been a looooong morning.

The Senior Vet said that the Anti-Histamine injection might make me sleepy so Hsin-Yi decided that we wouldn’t do a walk that day but just have a quiet day resting at home.

And I guess maybe Hsin-Yi’s heart is not made completely of stone ‘coz although she said the whole thing was my own fault – on the way home, when she stopped at PETstock to stock up on my BARF patties, she felt sorry for me and said that I had been a very good, brave girl that morning – and so I could pick out a treat for myself!

Hmm…what should I get? Pig’s ear? Lamb rack? Pork trotter? Oooh…how about a Roo Tail? They look delicious!!

I had to spend the rest of the day yesterday sleeping off my big morning – but when I finally woke up in the evening, my nose felt much better and was a lot less puffy already – and although I didn’t get my usual walk, I had a great time munching on my Roo Tail!

And today, my nose is almost back to its normal size again and although you can still see the little bumps all over it, they aren’t itching me anymore. I still have to take lots of tablets every day – morning & evening – but I don’t mind ‘coz I get them covered in peanut butter – YUMMY!

But if any of you doggies are out in parks, please be careful and don’t go sniffing & snuffling in flower beds – even if they smell really good to you! – keep out! Otherwise you might end up like me…or even worse! And also when your humans are gardening at home, make sure you don’t go anywhere near any fertilisers – ‘coz they have lots of strong chemicals which can make you really sickie or give you a nasty Allergy Ouchie like mine!

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Oh – before I go – I have something quite exciting to tell you and a question I wanted to ask you: guess what? My blog is going to be enterd in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition!!

It’s very exciting and I’ll tell you more about it soon – but what I wanted to ask you was – one of the categories we can enter is “Funniest Post” – and I wasn’t sure which one to put for that…so I was wondering if you could help us by telling us which of my posts you think is the funniest?

It can just be any post that you can remember off the top of your head, that was really FUNNY (it has to be the writing that’s funny, rather than say, a video – coz they’ll be judging it mainly based on the writing). This way if we can hear what my readers think, it’ll be easier for us to decide which one to submit. Thank you!

Whew! WARNING: this is a huge post! It’s taken Hsin-Yi days to put this all together…but she thought it would be entertaining – and maybe even helpful to other puppy owners – so worth posting on my blog. Hope you enjoy the trip down Memory Lane with me!

Well, many of you seem to think that my human, Hsin-Yi, knows a lot about doggies & training & behaviour and stuff…but really, I am the first doggie she has ever owned and she has had to learn a LOT from scratch since getting me!

Hsin-Yi & me (8yrs old)

In fact, one of the reasons Hsin-Yi started my blog was because she wanted to share with other doggie owners all the good stuff she’s learnt along the way – so that hopefully they won’t make the same mistakes she did with me. (And she made a lot! )

But Hsin-Yi never tried to set herself up as some kind of training expert and she gets very upset when we see nasty comments on some online forums, saying things like, “Well, really, I would have expected her to know better, given that she is such an authority on dog behaviour…” etc, etc…Sheesh, Hsin-Yi never said she is an authority on anything! She isn’t some professional dog trainer making videos on Youtube or writing on my blog to try and boost her business…she is just a pet owner who is trying her best, and she wishes people wouldn’t jump on her like that.

Yes, of course, there are things that Hsin-Yi believes in strongly and would do a certain way – but she never says that her way is the only way or the best way. It is just the way she does it and thinks best – but you can take it or leave it. She shares it on my blog – but nobody is forced to read my blog or follow what Hsin-Yi says. Besides, Hsin-Yi doesn’t always know best, and she gets scared that people seem to expect her to have answers for everything.

Hsin-Yi says that the one thing her university education has taught her is to be like Fox Mulder in The X-Files:

…well, OK, not really – but basically, to question everything. So she would never just take everything on 1 person’s word. No matter how experienced or expert that person is – whether they are your mother, your breeder, your trainer, your best friend, your online guru…you should never just slavishly follow what one person says without checking & double-checking; get a 2nd opinion, a 3rd opinion, a 4th opinion…gather all the information you can find and then use your OWN brain to work out what would be the best for YOUR situation. Nobody can know everything about everything. And you shouldn’t just expect 1 person to give you the easy answer.

Hsin-Yi & me (4 weeks)

So just to show you that Hsin-Yi started out just like everybody else (and because I thought you’d get a good giggle! ) – here are some emails she found when she was sorting through her old Inbox archives recently. They tell you what it was really like – and you know we always believe it’s really important to be *honest* on my blog and show the ugly stuff as well as the good stuff! They’re from when she first got me as a baby puppy and was emailing my lovely breeders, Kim & John Wylie of Yacanto Great Danes NZ,  constantly with all her questions…

…as you can see, Hsin-Yi was a Big Worrywart!!

I think my breeders must have been saints to put up with her long rambling emails (er…that bit about the colour & texture of my poo probably comes under the category of ‘Too Much Information’!! ) and endless questions – and answer them all so patiently.

A good breeder is supposed to always be there for their puppy owners, to help & support them…I think mine went above & beyond the call of duty – hee! hee! (The first couple of weeks, my humans were emailing or calling them almost every day!) My poor breeders probably regretted the day they gave Hsin-Yi one of their pups…they probably never had such a neurotic new puppy owner!!

* Note from Hsin-Yi: I hope it won’t bore you to death but I’ve purposefully pasted these emails in “complete & unabridged” – long & rambling as they are – as I think it shows just how naive & silly I was about so many things! (Ha! Ha! Read the bit where I was complaining about 10 week old Honey not being a “keen walker”! Poor thing! And the bit where I thought 60kg was too high an estimate as her final weight…er, yeah right!! Her adult weight was around 70kg! Plus I was raving about busy dog parks, not realising what a bad idea they can be…it took until Honey was attacked twice at that dog park, needing several stitches, before I started to learn that crowded dog parks can be dangerous places… ) Plus I had all the usual “first-time giant breed puppy owner’s” obsessions with whether they are growing properly and putting on enough weight…well, for all Honey’s “eating issues” & criticism I got from others for her being too thin as a pup, she’s certainly turned out OK in the end! )

I have to admit – although I’m sure our breeders probably cursed me (hee! hee!) – I’m actually really pleased that I was such a rambling neurotic because these emails are a wonderful, detailed record of the early days as a 1st time puppy owner. How quickly you forget things – and how easily your memory plays tricks on you! For example,we always think back of Honey & Lemon with a fuzzy glow, remembering how they were “instant best friends” and how good & gentle Honey always was with her…er, it wasn’t until I re-read these emails that I realised the reality was very different! In fact, we had a lot of stress about Honey & Lemon, how Honey was being too rough with Lemon, supervising them together, etc, etc…it’s funny how you always only remember the “nice bits”!

Dear Kim & John,

Hello – I hope you might remember me! We’ve met a couple of times at Great Dane events in Auckland, in particular at the NZKC Show in July last year. My husband is English and I was the Chinese girl who kept asking to take pictures with Jake and Blade! (I have attached one of the photos I took).

The reason I am writing is that we will be returning to Auckland at the end of this year (we are currently in Sydney) and plan to buy a house and settle in NZ. Although I have wanted a dog all my life, my parents did not allow pets and so I decided that I would have to wait until I was settled in my own home with a garden. Five years ago, I decided that the breed I would like to have is the Great Dane and since then, I have been doing extensive research on the breed. I have bought all the books on the breed and have also been to Crufts in the UK, several times. I have also looked after a friend’s Dane over a 4-day weekend, to see what it is like to live with the breed and I regularly visit 2 Great Dane internet forums to learn more about the breed.

For a while, I had been unsure which colour Dane to go for and also hadn’t really thought about the “type” but when I met Blade, I was smitten. I realised that the kind of Dane I like is the old English/German type with the majestic head and solid body that Blade displays so beautifully. But most of all, I had never met a dog with such a wonderful temperament. I decided then that I would love to have one of your puppies, especially if Blade or Jake (who was also wonderful) could be the sire.

So I was really writing to ask whether you are planning any litters – hopefully by Blade? (I would be looking for a pet/companion bitch. The most important thing to me would be temperament, particularly as I would like to do Pet Therapy work.)

This is the most exciting email I’ve ever written as I can’t believe that I am finally asking a breeder about litters and seriously planning for a puppy!

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Hsin-Yi meeting my Daddy, Blade, and big brother, Jake...

Hi Hsin-Yi,

I do remember you very well and was wondering where you were! Firstly thank you for wanting one of our Danes, it is always a very satisfying thing for us to know that our Danes are liked and people want one….

We have just mated Jake’s parents (Blade& Brenna) again and are expecting the litter in mid-Oct. Next year we plan a litter from Jarrah to more frozen semen this time from Eng CH. Yacanto Top Gun (UK). So we can offer you plenty of opportunity to own a ‘real’ English type Dane and of course we guarantee our dogs temperaments. We really liked you when we first met and know you will make fabulous Dane owner, the love for the breed is there for you. Are you interested in showing at all? Not that it matters.

I will keep in touch and look forward to hearing from you again. I have attached a pic of two of the pups from our last litter sired by Jake.

Kim

Hi Kim,

That’s one of the most exciting emails I’ve ever received! Thank you so much for getting in touch. We would LOVE to have one of the puppies from the Blade and Brenna litter and would like to put our names down on the waiting list. The only thing is, we haven’t got permanent accommodation in Auckland yet but we are arriving back in Auckland in mid-Oct and will start house-hunting immediately, so we are really hoping to be in our new home by Dec. I hope this is OK with you? – we’re happy to put down a deposit for a puppy if you like.

If we haven’t managed to buy a house in time for the first litter, then we would definitely like a puppy from the second litter next year – but I will do EVERY thing I can to be ready in time for one of Blade’s pups!!

Thank you also for the hip scores. That’s really put my mind at rest, as I was always told that it is one of the most important things to check with a breeder.

Congratulations on all those amazing wins! I’m not very familiar with the show side of things but it’s still incredibly impressive and I’m honoured to be getting a puppy from such an amazing background.

We would really like to come and visit you after we get back – maybe when the first litter is about 4 weeks old? We will call you once we’re back in Auckland.

Oh, and can I ask your advice about two things? One is – we would like to get a kitten and weren’t sure if we should get it before or after the puppy (it would be from a rescue shelter). I thought “before” would be better so that the kitten has “established” itself before a big puppy comes through the door! But I noticed on your website that you seem to have cats at home, so maybe the puppies will already be socialised with cats already? And therefore it doesn’t matter? Someone suggested that I should get them at the same time, so that they will grow up together. I would really appreciate your advice on all this.

The second things is – how high a fence do we need for our new house? And would we need to know of any other special features for a Dane? This would really help us when we’re looking at houses.

I really can’t believe I’m so close to getting a Dane puppy at last. My dream was to get a dog before I turned 30… I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight!

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

.

Hi All,
We have 7 lovely big babies. 5 boys, 2 girls.
Weights from 540g to 800g. Mum and pups all fine.

Kim

 

 

Hi Hsin-Yi,

Here are a couple of photos of Honey for you.
Good luck with the house!

Kim

 ******

When I was 4 & half weeks old, my humans made a special trip to come & see me! It was a long drive (8hrs!) from Auckland to Palmerston North in the south end of the North Island, where my breeders lived…but it was worth it!

My humans were so impressed with my breeders. Of course, they knew that I had an ‘illustrious background’, with lots of my family being top winners at dog shows (my Daddy’s sister had even won ‘Best of Breed’ at Crufts, the biggest dog show in the world, 2 years ago!) – but what really impressed my humans was how much my breeders had done to socialise us puppies: like running the lawnmower near us when we were outside in the garden or the vacuum monster right outside our room (maybe this is why I’ve always been such a confident pup and never scared of loud noises! ), having the radio on loud near us, having lots of different people come to visit every day…

They even taught us to start doing our wees & poos on grass, so that by the time we were ready for our new homes, we were already half-housetrained! If I had access to grass, I would always go on that. They also knew that my humans wanted to name me “Honey” and so had already started calling me that, so that I would learn my name – and they took a stuffie from my humans and kept it with me – and then gave it back when I went to my new home, so that I would have something with me that smelled of my mummy & littermates.

And they were so patient with all Hsin-Yi’s questions – and took up all their free time spending hours with the new puppy owners, letting them visit for as long as they like. Finding a good breeder is like finding treasure and I would not be the doggie I am today without the wonderful start I had from my fantastic breeders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3B-eJWy7DM

If the movie doesn’t play, try it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3B-eJWy7DM

*Note from Hsin-Yi: it was very interesting for me watching this again after so many years (I only dug this footage out for this post!) – and I realised that so much of Honey’s personality was already showing even at 4 weeks! Like when she takes herself off to have a little sleep in the corner – that is just like her now and one of the things I love about her is that she is such an independent girl. Regular readers will know that I like my “personal space” and I admire independence. I couldn’t live with a clingy, needy, anxious dog who is constantly needing attention. I love the fact that Honey is comfortable in her own company and confident in doing her own thing. It’s not a judgement on the other types of dogs – different dogs suit different people (just as some men like women who need “looking after” and other men like fiesty, independent women! ) – but I’m really glad that Honey’s personality suits mine so well!

******

Hi Kim,

Thought you’d like to see some photos of Honey in her new home. She had a bit of trouble settling in but is now doing well. She has the most gorgeous little face! And she has already learned “Sit” (isn’t she clever?) – on her 2nd day!

We had a bit of a nightmare “first night” – we followed all advice on hot water bottles, ticking clock, blanket with scent, etc, etc – but after we left her in her room, she nearly screamed the place down! She was yelping and crying for nearly half an hour but we really restrained ourselves and didn’t go to her. She finally stopped around 12:30am and we fell into bed in relief – only to be woken up again at 1:30am when she started up again! It was so loud and heart-rending. Paul started getting really stressed as he is due to do a 14 hr on-call shift and was worried about lack of sleep and also worried about the neighbours complaining, so finally – although I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do – I went out and took her into the living room and slept on the couch to keep her company. She didn’t really settle at all – she wanted to play! – and I think I got barely 2 hours sleep. She finally settled around 5am but I lay there, too stressed to sleep! I finally gave up at 7am and got up when she woke up again. It was a real nightmare night and I felt like bursting into tears! We had planned everything so carefully but everything seemed to go wrong. I knew I shouldn’t have rewarded her crying but at 2am, with a very mad husband on one side and a screaming puppy on the other side, I didn’t know what to do! She also made a little puddle on the living room floor, which of course could have been avoided if she had stayed in her own room with newspapers!

Anyway, things got a bit better in the daytime and I started putting her in her room for a bit of time, even though we were in the house, just so she would get used to being in that room alone. We did it once in the morning and then again in the afternoon – always after a busy play session, when we knew she would be tired. She normally just flops asleep on the duvet in the living room but those two times, we put her in her room with the baby gate up…anyway, by the afternoon session, she was crying a bit less. And so last night – her 2nd night – was the real test – and I’m glad to say that it was a lot better. I think spending time in that room in the daytime helped and she seemed more “accepting” of being on her own. She cried a bit but soon stopped and although she woke up several times in the night to cry a bit and whimper, each time, she stopped after a bit…and so we managed to get a bit of sleep in between. I’m hoping that tonight she will be better again…!

Other than that, she has been doing very well. The first day she was a bit lost and kept walking around whining but by the second day (yesterday) she was starting to play with her toys. She is also quite good about the housetraining – we’ve had a few accidents in the house (of course, to be expected) and sometimes it feels a bit like 1 step forward, two steps back! Like getting her out in time to go on the grass and praising her for going, only to come in with her and find her do a puddle (again!) on the living room floor two minutes later! But overall, she has been very good and starting to show us when she needs to go out. Her poo was quite firm to start with but then started getting very runny – which they still are at the moment. Do you think the runny poo is something we have to worry about?

I feel quite sorry for her as she keeps trying to make friends with Lemon – who is fascinated by her but quite wary of her. They seem to have a communication problem! Honey keeps inviting her to play by jumping and play-bowing and barking and this just makes Lemon hiss and swipe at her! I was hoping that they might be friends and play with each other but it doesn’t look like it!

I also feel bad because I have to keep saying “No” to her for so many things but Les (President of Auckland Great Dane Club) said that it’s important for her to learn her boundaries. We are trying to do it so that we tell her off and then give her her toys and praise her but – typical – her toys are never as interesting as chewing the door or sofa or whatever!

I have to say – I feel totally exhausted! It’s like having a small baby around – you can never take your eyes off her for one second as you never know what she might put in her mouth next! The only time I get my life back is when she is asleep – like now!!

Oh, I had a few other questions:

• Honey loves to chew newspaper and bits of cardboard…is this OK?
• She also likes to eat/chew dandelions and grass and stuff in the garden – it this OK?
• Also – although she is eating, she doesn’t seem to eat much. She always leave stuff in her bowl (maybe I’m giving too much!) but I have been taking the bowl up after short time as the books say not to let her think there is food there all the time.

I’m sure I had other questions but can’t think of it now!

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Hsin-Yi,

Honey is just being a normal upset puppy. Imagine a baby being taken away from her family and that is exactly what Honey is. She will never progress beyond a 3-4 year old. They are very time consuming I agree!

Don’t be afraid to try her in your room on her bed with some newspaper for a few nights. She is upset and afraid at being alone and needs reassurance. We have done this many times until they settle in properly and then they are happy to sleep any where. Have her beside the bed so you can reach down and touch her if she needs its, but do not have her on the bed.  She will settle down I promise.

The runny stools are also a result of all she is going through at the moment. Change of food, different water and the stress of leaving home. They will come right in a week or so.

Just like babies everything goes into their mouths. Dandelions and grass are fine, but watch that she does not eat stones or bulbs. Ask Les to check the gardens for you to make sure there is nothing toxic that she may eat.

Cardboard is fine for her to chew on, not too much newspaper though as the ink may make her sick. The middle of toilet rolls are wonderful toys and cardboard boxes provide hours of fun.

You are doing fine. I must admit your letter brought a big smile to my face as it made me remember my first puppy and all that I now take for granted, Thank you for that.

Call me anytime you need me.
Kisses for Honey
Kim

******

Hi Kim,

Just thought you’d like to see some more photos of Honey -

Things are going well – she is now quiet all through the night, from about 10pm when we “put her to bed” to around 6am, when I go to let her out. I don’t think she sleeps through but as long as she is quiet! She is always lying in her bed, quietly waiting for me when I go in at 6am. Unfortunately, she still pees & poos a lot on the newspaper and I think this is slowing the housetraining as it confuses her where to go – in the daytime, there are no accidents as I watch her like a hawk and always take her out if she starts “sniffing around” (the door to the garden is open all the time but she needs “encouragement” to go out!). But obviously at night, I can’t get up every 2hrs to let her out -  so she has to go on the paper. I hope when she starts to be able to hold it through the night, it’ll make the toilet training easier. I think once she is housetrained, it’ll make life easier in general as I won’t have to watch her constantly so much when she is indoors and I can relax and do other things a bit.

Yesterday (after my momentous trip out to the supermarket the day before) I felt brave enough to venture out for 2 hours with Paul – we had to do some necessary chores, etc…and when we returned, Honey was fast asleep in the garden, unpreturbed, so I felt better about leaving her. Today, I spent some time with her in the car, in our driveway, just to get her used to it as a nice place and tomorrow, I plan to take her out into Remuera village and park in the supermarket car-park and just sit in the car with her and let her get used to all the noises & people, etc.

It’s also great that I can put her in the garden for an hour or two now, when I need some peace and time to myself, either to cook dinner or do cleaning or make phone calls or whatever. Honey seems to have accepted that quite well – she isn’t throwing herself at the door anymore – she might whine a bit, then she either goes off and chews something or more usually, goes on her daybed and sleeps.

We had a great visit to the vet yesterday. Paul starts a week of nights from last night until Boxing Day (so no Christmas for him this year…) and so he had Fri daytime off, which was good as he’d really wanted to come to the vets and be a bit more involved. Unfortunately, because he works such long hours and is seldom home, he doesn’t get as much chance to bond with Honey & Lemon as I do. But anyway, we had a great time at the vets. They absolutely adored Honey and kept carrying her around showing her to everybody – even barging in on another vet who was in theatre! The vet we saw was really nice – so gentle with her and really took his time talking to me about my (many!) concerns.

He said she looked really well – neither too thin nor too fat – and she weighed 9.8kg. Apparently, the clinic has a couple of Danes as clients, so that’s good to know. Lemon went at the same time for her 2nd vaccinations and they both had worming tablets. Honey will go back next week for her 2nd vaccinations – and then we’ll be back there in Jan for the last set of shots – plus puppy school, which starts in the 2nd week of Jan. Yesterday was really just an initial check to familiarise her with the clinic and let her think that it’s a lovely place where everyone makes a fuss of her.

Honey is still not eating very much – always leaves food in her bowl, although she always initially attacks it with gusto. I am feeding her at around 7:30am, 1-2pm (depending on if she is sleeping, I don’t wake her up) and around 7pm in the evening. I am trying not to get neurotic about it and reminding myself that dogs won’t starve themselves but I do worry that I can see her ribs quite easily and maybe even her hipbones a little, so maybe she is too thin? And yet the vet thought she looked good yesterday! She is very playful and alert and seems very relaxed and happy (tail wagging) most of the time, so I don’t think she is ill. Her poos went a bit more solid yesterday (not hard lumps, still soft and yellow but just not liquidy and she only went on the evening) but then last night, she was back to being very runny again, which was disappointing. I think it may have been the Tux bone I gave her yesterday evening. Anyway, I’m now sticking to just her food and chicken necks and hope she settles down on that.

The only other thing I’m really worried about is her and Lemon. They play a lot together – but Honey is really rough with Lemon. She keeps chasing her and lunging at her, play-biting. Often, she gets Lemon in her mouth (whole body or neck) and although I know it’s all in play, I’m really worried that there might be an accident. I mean, even if Honey has no malicious intent, if she just bites a bit too hard in excitement and her teeth punctures Lemon’s stomach, then it’s too late, isn’t it? I’m so worried but I don’t know what to do because I don’t feel it’s fair to tell her off when she is only playing. Lemon keeps coming up to tease her as well, which doesn’t help things. Lemon doesn’t seem too worried most of the time, lying on her back and pawing at Honey’s face, so I assume that she must not feel threatened by Honey – although occasionally, when Honey chases her too hard and steps on her or grabs her in her jaws, then Lemon gets really upset and may hiss & spit and scratch. A lot of people say that cats can take care of themselves and I try not to interfere but because there is such a size difference between them , I’m really scared that there will be a terrible accident. At the moment, I don’t dare leave them alone together and when they are together, I have to watch them constantly and tell Honey off if she gets too rough. But again, I can’t watch them all the time! As if it’s not bad enough watching Honey all the time for puddles! Anyway, I’d be very grateful for any thoughts you may have. I know you have cats with your Danes but they are all grown-up cats, which I have no doubt can look after themselves. I’m just not sure about Lemon, being only an 8 week old kitten.

Anyway, I’ll shut up now! Here are the photos. Hope you enjoy them.

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Dear Kim & John,

Hope you had a lovely Christmas break.

We are all fine here – Honey is settling in nicely and although we still have quite a few hiccups – mainly to do with house-training – overall, she is a really good puppy and everyone who meets her thinks she is gorgeous! (she’s got her own fan club at the vets) She is still a very fussy eater and there will be days when she will eat almost nothing – and then other days where she eats quite well. She looks alright, although no real “puppy fat” but she seems very alert and playful and happy, so we’re not worrying too much about the eating. Everyone tells me it is better that she is on the thin side than fat, anyway.

She seemed to have a regression with the sleeping arrangements – started crying and yelping again and trying to break down the babygate! I noticed, though, that she always seemed really happy to sleep on her outside bed, which is in the outside laundry room, with the door open and access to grass – and everytime she fell asleep there, if I brought her into the house, into her “bedroom” at night, she would get really upset – so one night last week, I thought I’d just leave her out and see what happens…and bingo! Quiet night all the way through. So she has been sleeping “outside” ever since – and seems far happier. There is also no confusion now with newspaper Vs. grass and it also means that when I put her out for a bit of “time-out”, she very happily goes to sleep in her bed. I did feel a bit cruel at first letting her sleep “outside” in the laundry room but as she seems much happier with this arrangement and it’s mostly very warm at night, it seems a good solution. It is very sheltered, anyway, and on colder nights, we give her 2 hot water bottles – plus of-course, she has her feather duvet and her fleece blanket.

Our biggest problem is still with the kitten – Honey keeps chasing her and trying to bite her. I’m really at my wit’s end over what to do – I can’t restrain Honey all the time. It started out OK but now, she’s getting more excitable and biting harder. She doesn’t really respond when I tell her off for chasing/biting the kitten. I know it’s just in play but it is quite dangerous as she is so big and once or twice, she got the kitten in her mouth and was trying to shake her around!

We took Honey with us to visit some doctor friends of Paul’s who have a Border Collie/Weimeraner cross (you won’t BELIEVE the energy there!) and after she got over her initial timidity, Honey loved Fergus and played with him like mad. I’m pleased that he is a very large dog so he’ll still be a good playmate when she’s grown up. She really needs some dog playmates, rather than just chasing the kitten! There’s a photo of them playing.

Anyway, here are some more recent photos – hope you enjoy them.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year -

Hsin-Yi

Dear Kim & John,

Just wanted to say thanks for your message and your great advice, which has been working a treat.

We started doing what you suggested for Honey’s food and she was been licking her bowl clean every time! It’s a real pleasure to see her eat properly and although I want to keep her on the lean side, I think it’ll be nice to have her put on a bit more fat. Having said that, she doesn’t seem to have a problem with weight – she is now 13kg – and she was only 11kg last week – she’s put on 2kg in one week!! But at least if she isn’t all ribs, I won’t have everyone we meet telling me that I’m starving my dog!

We met a horrible woman out in Remuera the other day who gave me a lecture for feeding Honey wrong and accusing me of starving my puppy! I tried to explain that Great Danes grow so rapidly that it’s important to try & slow their growth but she just wasn’t interested. I felt a bit resentful that she obviously had no knowledge of giant breeds but felt able to criticise and lecture me about how to look after my dog! Personally, I think Honey looks lovely – even if she is slightly on the thin side. Maybe I’m biased but Paul and I both agreed that Honey has a beautiful rich colour to her coat and a lovely expressive face and big eyes…even if her ribs do stick out a bit!! Anyway, thank you again for giving us such a beautiful puppy. You should see the attention we get everywhere we go – everyone comes up and tells me how beautiful/gorgeous/cute/adorable, etc, etc… she is – nobody can resist her face, with all its worry wrinkles and droopy lips and sad eyes and quizzical expression!

Last night, she started having a bit of a problem – weeing constantly – I suspected she had cystits but Paul got really worried about things like an ascending kidney infection (whatever that is!) and although it was probably overreacting, we decided to take her to an emergency after-hours vet rather than wait to take her to her normal vet today. They thought it *was* cystitis and she is now on a course of antibiotics. Frightening how much things cost for a Great Dane as all medication is done by weight. Well, at least we’ve already earned back our pet insurance premiums!

Oh, and your other advice about Lemon is sort of working as well. I’m being much more strict with Honey when she goes for Lemon and keeps trying to bite her – and using a deterrent to interrupt her behaviour. She is still trying it on but she is being a bit more restrained now as she seems to realise that she’s not supposed to do that – I’m hoping that if we continue with the telling off, she might eventually stop and the two of them can be in a room together with no problems. We did manage to have a couple of evenings where both she and Lemon were in the house – NOT playing – : Honey asleep at our feet and Lemon purring on our laps – whilst we watched TV – and Paul and I looked at each other and said, “There is hope!”

She has had her 2nd set of shots now and the vet said that we can take her for short walks, just on our street in front of our house – as it is a dead-end street and Remuera is a very upmarket area with all the dogs there vaccinated. I’m quite surprised though that Honey is very reluctant to come out for walks – she’ll leave the garden quite happily but then after a few steps, sit down and refuse to go any further. You practically have to drag her down the path! But the minute we turn around and head for home, she’ll trot along happily – and quickly! I just don’t understand – I thought all dogs loved walks and usually, it’s a problem persuading them to go home – not the other way around! Of course, we’re not taking her very far at the moment – just 5 mins down the street and back – but as both Paul and I enjoy walking a lot, we’re keen for Honey to eventually be able to join us for big walks. I hope she grows out of this behaviour and starts to show enthusiasm for walks, otherwise it’ll be very frustrating!!

We’ve been making a great effort with Honey’s socialisation – the books say that 8-12 weeks is crucial and so we’re keen to expose her to as much as possible during this time – meet lots of different people, animals, dogs, situations, etc. It’s difficult, though, as she’s still got her last set of vaccinations to come, and so can’t really be put down on the ground. With Honey now weighing 13kg, it’s practically impossible to carry her more than a few steps! But we have been taking her in the car to busy supermarket carparks to get her used to cars and shopping trolleys and people and also to the beach and park, just parked next to the Bar-B-Q sites, where she can watch the bustling and smoke and cooking and children on bicycles and kicking balls and yelling, etc. We are also trying to take her to visit friends with vaccinated dogs as I feel that she needs to spend more time with other dogs to play with. That’s the problem with being an “only dog” – whose only playmate is a kitten!

One of the Auckland breeders invited us over for a “puppy party” last weekend – a lot of her puppies came back to visit with their new owners, plus the 4 that she still has with her – so it was great fun (and mayhem!). They are all 6 weeks older than Honey (and look enormous!) but that didn’t seem to faze Honey when she was over there – she was playing really roughly and being very “full-on” with them! I think it’s really good for her as a couple of times, she overdid it and got disciplined by the older puppies – and I hope that’ll teach her to inhibit her bite and play more gently…it might even help with Lemon, who knows?

And next week, Honey will be starting puppy kindergarten at the local vet’s, which I’m really looking forward to. I think it’ll help me as well to hear how other people are getting on with their puppies and their frustrations and problems!

Honey is really a very good puppy, overall. She hasn’t really had an accident indoors now for a couple of days and doesn’t chew things excessively; is very responsive to being told off; respects rules like not going in the kitchen or on the sofa; will actually take herself off to bed at around 9pm, when she is feeling very tired – and is generally very placid – doesn’t jump up on you or anything like that (not that I would allow it!) – and already knows to “sit”, “shake paws”, “drop it” – and I’m trying to teach “down” at the moment.

When you consider that she is only 10 weeks old and I have seen older puppies behaving worse, it’s amazing really! I suppose it’s all do to with your expectations and standards – and poor dog, she’s got me for an owner – ha! ha! I’m the world’s worst perfectionst – and I’m really strict on good behaviour. But I do really believe that dogs that are well-behaved have a richer life as it means they get to accompany their owners to more places and more people enjoy meeting them and they are involved in things more because they are a pleasure to have around! And I want to take Honey with me to as many places as possible and I want her to be a good ambassador for her breed and for large dogs in general!

More photos attached…

Best wishes,

Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim & John,

I started back at work on Tue and so we’ve got a “pet nanny” coming in at lunchtimes for Honey, to give her her lunch and a bit of play/cuddles! When do you think she will be old enough to go onto 2 meals a day? Do I just start feeding her more in the mornings, in the hopes that she will leave her lunchtime feed?

She is continuing to eat really well and has put on some fat – and is looking beautiful now. We took her to Cornwall Park the other day and socialised her with the cows, sheep and chickens. I also took her into our local petshop to see the birds & rabbits, etc. She is wonderful with people and children and cars & buses and loud noises, etc, now – dogs are the only things she is still very wary of (she is terrified if they bark at her!) but starting from this week, she’ll be going to puppy classes at the vets on Tue nights and “puppy playcentre” on Thur nights – for a month – so she’ll meet lots of different breeds/colours/sizes of dogs and hopefully, get much more confident with them.

Also, thought you’d like to see the latest crop of photos – Honey really has the most adorable face – everyone who meets her says so! She is like a local celebrity when we go out. Paul said that she’s the best “babe magnet” he’s ever had as every woman in Auckland wants to stop and talk to him when he’s out with her!

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim & John,

Just wanted to ask you a question about Honey’s ears – in the last couple of days, they’ve started to go a bit funny – sort of flopping over the front of her head or sticking out at the sides. We weren’t too bothered and just thought that they’d grown faster than the rest of her and that things would sort themselves out. They’re not bothering her at all – she doesn’t shake her head or paw them or anything – she just looks very funny! But then today, we took her to the NZKC Discover Dogs event and a couple of the other dog owners commented on her ears and said that they were “abnormal”. Someone else suggested that she might be teething, which is why the ears sit funny, although I thought 3 months is a bit young to start teething! Anyway, they suggested that I check with you to make sure that everything is OK.

Someone said that if they remained funny, I should get them taped down but I’d be very reluctant to do that if it’s just for cosmetic reasons. We got Honey for a pet and we really don’t care what she looks like – we just love her for her lovely temperament. Of course, we’d like her to look as nice a Dane as possible (and we think she does – everywhere we go, everyone comments on how beautiful she is) – but I wouldn’t want to subject her to anything just for cosmetic reasons.

Anyway, would be very interested to hear what you think. Am attaching a few recent photos of her.

Am also attaching some of her at puppy class, which you can see she is really enjoying! One of the exercises each week is to pass our puppies around, so that everyone can hold them in their laps – the idea being to socialise them more to different people. Except, at the rate that Honey’s growing, I don’t think we’ll be able to pass her around much longer…she seems to have doubled in size since we joined the class and is towering now over the other puppies!

She’s now had her last set of vaccinations which is great as now we can take her everywhere!! She is doing wonderfully and is a lovely confident, outgoing, friendly puppy (still going for the kitten, though!)

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim,

Thanks very much for putting my mind at rest about Honey’s ears! How long does the teething phase usually last for? And isn’t 3 months a little young to start teething? I thought puppies don’t usuallystart teething until about 5-6 months? Does this mean that Honey will do everything earlier? (like come into season? we want to make sure that she is spayed before her 1st season).

Also, would you mind telling me Blade & Brenna’s weight? It would really help with deciding how much to feed Honey, as at the moment, I am following the chart suggested on the back of the kibble bag. I know this is just a general guide and every dog varies but as I have no experience… the amounts are quite different depending on the final adult weight of the dog. For example, at 3 months, if the final weight is around 50kg, then it’s about 500g a day but if the final weight is around 60kg, then it should be about 550g a day…so if I could have a rough idea what Honey’s final weight is likely to be, that would be really helpful! At the moment, I am following the 60kg recommendations but I don’t know if this is too much?

The last couple of days, I’d upped the amount we feed her because I thought she would need more now that she is 3 months. But she is leaving a bit in her bowl everytime – so I thought maybe I’m feeding her too much? Maybe it’s because I’m following the 60kg adult weight recommendations – but maybe she just needs the 50kg adult weight recommendation – and that’s why she’s leaving food in her bowl? I know it’s better for her to be on the lean side and I do think she is looking much better than before – but I’m also worried that she is not getting enough food for her age! Would really appreciate your thoughts?

She is still quite sensitive about her food – she can get very easily distracted and then just refuse to eat. When we feed her now, we put her outside with her raised bowl and shut the door – and then everyone in the house stands still and makes no noise for 10 mins so as not to disturb her and make sure that she finishes the food in her bowl!! It’s ironic as everyone we meet keeps going on about her “eating us out of house and home” – and yet the reality is that we have to beg her to eat!!

We took her to one of the beaches in on the West Coast last weekend and she had a fantastic time – didn’t want to come home! I was really impressed with her as the water was quite “fresh” and Danes being such wimps, I didn’t think she would go in but she followed me in gamely and really seemed to enjoy splashing around.
Thanks,
Hsin-Yi

 

Hi Kim,

Thanks very much for your quick reply! It was really helpful.

We weighed Honey on Tue at the vet’s and she was 20kg (she is now 14 weeks) – so I guess she is a bit light compared to her littermates but I suppose it’s still OK? She looks good overall – not as bad as she was a couple of weeks ago when you could see all her ribs all the time! She is still definitely on the thin side, though, but you said that she looked OK in the photos, so I’m glad. I suppose every puppy is different. She is always full of energy and playful and alert – she is just not very interested in food!

I’m giving her two 500mg Vit C tablets a day – and also the chicken necks. However, I stopped the sunflower oil as I noticed that she always had runny poo whenever I added it – should I just persevere until her poo becomes solid again? Her coat seems lovely as it is – everyone always comments on it wherever we go – but of course, I want to make sure I do the right thing.

Thanks again,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim & John,

You’re probably sick and tired of seeing photos of Honey by now but I thought you might like to see what she’s been up to recently. Do tell me if you’re fed-up and want me to stop sending them!! I think she is the most photographed puppy in Auckland

She’s doing really well – just graduated from puppy class this week and we are so proud of her. She is growing into a really lovely dog and attracts admiration wherever she goes. Although occasionally, we do meet the odd owner who is really neurotic and scoops their dog up the minute they see Honey coming because they’re terrified of her size…but then hardly surprising when Honey’s just plonked her great foot down and squashed their Chihuahua pup!

Her weight gain seems to have levelled off slightly – last week she put on 4kg but this week, she only put on about 2kg. I was a bit worried but Paul pointed out that she couldn’t keep up a rate of 4kg per week otherwise she’d be over 200kg by the time she was fully grown! Plus the vet said that it was very normal and that puppies tend to grow in spurts, so she may not put on much weight for a week or so and then shoot up suddenly. She is currently 24kg and as you can see in the photos, she looks very well, I think.

She and the kitten still play very roughly and we have to tell her off quite often still for biting Lemon but they never seem to really hurt each other and Lemon keeps going back for more, so I guess it must be OK. She often has Lemon’s head or body in her mouth and it looks really scary but most of the time, she just seems to be mouthing Lemon gently. I hope they will eventually settle down and be able to do things like cuddle together, instead of always charging around the house like a pair of maniacs. When Honey is doing her “zoomies”, the whole house shakes!

Anyway, hope you’re having fun with the new litter. The photos are absolutely gorgeous. It was a real shock to think that Honey looked liked that only 10 weeks ago! We can’t believe how much she has grown – you don’t really notice when you see them everyday – but gosh, she really isn’t a little puppy anymore but turning into a miniature Dane!

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim & John,

Hope you are both well and the dogs as well. Has the new litter all gone to their new homes by now?

I sent you some nice photos of Honey by post last weekend – hope you got them. She is growing up into such a beautiful girl and we get so much attention wherever we go. We weighed her at the vet’s last Sat and she was 38kg. Last Monday, we started Obedience classes at a local dog club and the trainer specially came up to us afterwards to say what a lovely temperament Honey has. She has pretty much finished teething now and has all her adult teeth. She is also starting to bark sometimes – a very deep, impressive bark (!) although she is still a wuss and scared of plastic bags!!

I just wanted to ask your advice about her food (again!) as we’re a bit unsure as to what to do. She is looking very well and I think is carrying a nice weight – lean but not thin. However, the problem is that she is pooing an awful lot! She is going about 4-5 times, sometimes 6 times a day and the vet feels that this is too much for a puppy her age (he said that she should be going about 3 times max) – and that maybe she is not digesting her food as well as she could, so maybe we should switch her onto something else. She is bouncy and playful and has great appetite and the vet checked her and said that she is in perfect health (we always keep her quiet before and after meals).  It is not diarrhoea but firm, dark stools mostly (sometimes a lighter brown) but it does seem to be excessive. Anyway, the vet is keen for us to switch her onto Hills Science Diet as that is a “premium food” but we’re not sure as the ingredients seem to be mostly grains and chicken by-products. How can that be better for her? We had a look around the other brands but everything is very confusing! Royal Canin have a special range for “giant breeds” but that has 36% protein – how can that be correct for Great Danes when I’ve always been told by Dane people that the protein should be 24% or less?? The other brand which looked good was Nutrience, which doesn’t have a Giant breed puppy version but its Large Breed puppy version has low protein and good ingredients. But Nutrience is not considered a “premium” food, is it?

We’re so confused now as to what to do and would really appreciate your thoughts. How many times a day do her littermates poo? I remember John telling me that Blade goes once a day – is that what Honey will do when she is an adult? So how many times is normal at 5 months?

Thanks,
Hsin-Yi

Hi Kim & John,

Hope you’re having a good Easter! Sorry to bother you again but I just had another quick question about Honey’s food – we had been soaking it in water before we feed it to her, as a lot of  advice from Dane people said that this should be done to help prevent bloat. On the other hand, some books say that it is better to feed the food dry & hard, as it is better for their teeth.

Now that we’re switching her onto Nutrience, I was wondering if we should still soak the food? We would like to feed it to her dry if we can but obviously, we want to do what is best for her.

So just wondering if you soak your dogs’ food in water?

Thanks,
Hsin-Yi

 

Hi Guys,

You have just solved the runny frequent poo problem, it was the soaked food. We only soak their dry food during the weaning phase, Honey had been on dry food two weeks before she left. That probably also explains her picky eating originally. Dry food helps keep their teeth clean – an added benefit of not soaking.

None of the questions bother us, we love to hear from you. We are here to help – that was part of the bargain. People all have their own ideas on feeding and some work while others don’t. We tend to stick with what has proven best for our particular bloodlines over a number of years. Some lines have dicky tummies and food allergies which run through the generations.

Cheers
John

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“Am I getting big or what?”

Here are some latest photos of Honey at 5 & 6 months – she is now officially taller than me when we sit next to each other!

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(2 months later…)

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Hi Kim & John,

Hope all is well. I sent you a few emails recently with some photos of Honey – hope you got them!

She is doing very well: walking like an angel now on the leash and getting better at meeting dogs – she still gets very excitable and lunges a bit but I’ve got better control now and she is starting to show a bit more restraint, for example, practising sitting and waiting calmly until I say “OK” for her to go up to say hello.

I think it’s really helped that we’ve discovered this big off-leash park near us which is amazing: like a massive dog playground with enough different breeds to rival Crufts and all of them running freely, playing together every evening. The owners are all quite relaxed and there are lots of big dogs for Honey to play with. Since we’ve been going there, she is really improving with her canine social manners and also with being less hyper when she sees another dog as they are not such a novelty anymore because she has more opportunities to play with them and let off steam.

We have just finished an 8-week course of basic Puppy Obedience and we are now starting on the Canine Good Citizen Scheme, where we will try for the Bronze, Silver and Gold medals. This isn’t formal Obedience but focuses more on the skills needed for a well-behaved pet, like walking nicely & calmly past distractions such as joggers or fearful things like loud noises & crowds; meeting other dogs calmly, riding quietly in the car, going to their bed when told and reliable Stays in strange environments, etc. I was thinking of trying proper Obedience but I think we will try the CGC first as Honey isn’t really mature yet. We can always go onto Obedience afterwards if she seems to be enjoying it. I’m also planning to do Pet Therapy work with her  and she just needs her CGC for that.

She does brilliantly in class and everyone is so impressed as most people think Danes are useless at Obedience. She is learning things as fast and doing them as well as the Border Collies in her class.The trainer often calls us out to demonstrate an exercise and they all love her…she is such a star in class!   I have also taught her to play Fetch, which she LOVES – and again, everyone at the Dane Club was so impressed that she will actually fetch something back and drop it in my hands! Her latest thing is waiting for me to kick a football, for her to chase after and bring back. I am also teaching her some tricks – she now knows to bark when I ask her (in Chinese!) to “speak”.

Two weekends ago, we went to the Auckland Great Dane Club Ribbon Parade and we took part in some of the classes (a Puppy class, a Fawn class and Novice Handler class). It was very serious for some people – I suppose because they want to show and this was the training ground – but we were just having a bit of fun! And I think Honey did brilliantly, for a puppy with no ringcraft training. I only taught her the “Stand” command the day before and she was already standing beautifully for the judge to look at her. We came home with 2 ribbons for 2nd place…not bad for a puppy with no show aspirations!! (Having said that, a lot of people were commenting on how “natural” Honey is and how she automatically fell into a “stack” when she was standing. They also said that she had a natural ‘attitude’ and spark which was great for the ring – although she was much more “full on” than most of the other puppies, who were more gentle and mild-mannered. Honey is a lot more “in-your-face” with a very strong personality. But they all complimented me on my handling of her and said that I had done very well with a very confident dog, who was quite a handful! )

Oh, and we also met Honey’s brother, Cruise, with his owners. Gosh, I thought Honey was big until I saw her brother! He was the only other puppy bigger than her! He is lovely though and has a even wrinklier face than she does.

Everyone thinks Honey is enormous! Especially for a bitch and for her age – she was bigger than some other puppies there who are a month and a half older than her. We weighed her at the vet’s yesterday and she is currently 47kg and 29″ at the shoulders. I would be quite happy if she stopped growing now (!) – she is nearly outweighing me now – but I suppose she’ll keep on growing, especially as Brenna is so big too!

Anyway, I thought you’d like to see some photos from the Ribbon Parade and also some other recent ones.

Best wishes,
Hsin-Yi

 

Well done team, great results all round. The biggest improvement is that you are relaxing with her yourself, always remember that a dog senses you feelings of unease down the lead like an electric current.

cheers,
John

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(1 year later…)

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Hi Kim,

The Dane Club people told me that you’ve taken over as editor of the Great Dane Club magazine – and they thought you’d be interested in an article from me about Honey’s work for the SPCA Outreach Therapy Pets programme? We visit rest homes and rehabilitation centres and it’s very rewarding, seeing how the patients light up when they see her. She is so gentle and good with them too.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the current issue of the SPCA magazine “Animals’ Voice” but there’s a photo of us in there (and on the front page, next to a photo of Peter Jackson!) – and did you ever see the article about Honey in Next magazine? She’s becoming quite the celebrity!

Anyway, hope you are both well – and all the dogs too. How’s your back?

We are fine – and Honey’s wonderful. We really can’t imagine life without her – she is so loved by everyone wherever she goes. She has a packed life, what with training classes and playdates with friends and hikes with us and therapy work and I’m still always trying to take her to new places each week, to continue her socialisation & give her new experiences…not to mention, living with Lemon, of course! I’m attaching some pictures of some adventures she’s had recently…

It’s weird – we go out in the streets and strangers come up to me and say, “That’s Honey, isn’t it?” – and I don’t know how they know her!

Take care,
Hsin-Yi

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* ps. Sorry! We have fallen behind again on our Google Reader and visiting blog friends…Hsin-Yi is very busy at the moment making Dead Lines and any free time she has had, she has been working on this post (!) – but we will be catching up as soon as we can!