Most doggies I meet for the first time react a bit like this – which is why my humans are always careful about me meeting strange doggies. ‘Coz if they’re confident & sociable, they’ll recover quickly and start inviting me to play (like Kaos did) but if they’re a bit more timid or nervous, they might lash out and then there might be a dog fight…

So it’s always important when strange doggies are meeting for the first time to give them lots of personal space, keep the leashes LOOSE if they’re on lead (although ideally meet off-leash if possible) and watch their body language carefully – if either doggie looks like it’s feeling overwhelmed (licking lips nervously, turning head away, yawning lots, cowering, rolling eyes…or worst of all, suddenly VERY STIFF body) – then quickly but calmly separate them. Better to split them up for a “break” and then let them back together for more sniffing – several short sessions like this – rather than one long meeting where they might get too “intense”. And never let leashes get tangled and tight!!

Of course, this is much more for adult doggies – puppies usually love everything and haven’t really understood the concept of “personal space” yet – ha! ha!   Although you can still get timid, shy puppies and it’s easy for them to get overwhelmed when meeting strange doggies and have a bad experience – so even with puppies, it’s better to be careful!

Also, you can see in the movie that I wasn’t behaving very nicely either when we first met – because me & my humans had already slept 1 night in the batch, so I was already a bit territorial about the place and suddenly there was a strange doggie there, so I was being a bit intimidating – can you see that in my body language when I first went out of the batch? That’s why I got a Telling-Off from Hsin-Yi…and why she quickly moved us to a bigger, open space so that nobody feels “cornered”.

But soon, you see that we started playing and our body language becomes very different – lots of bouncy playbows and bouncy, happy running (relaxed, not predatory). And of course, when I get really happy, I start to do ZOOMIES!!

* For more great information & pictures of doggie bodie language, check out the fantastic Lili Chin website: http://doggiedrawings.net/post/842176625

(Oh, there’s also a really sad bit in the middle when I went into the batch for a rest & break from Kaos – very important for us senior doggies to have breaks from puppies, so that we don’t get grumpy – and he was outside the windows crying. We would have let him in with us but his humans were very strict about him not being inside the guest batch so we had to follow their rules.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg86Q6mRaaw

If the movie doesn’t play, try here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg86Q6mRaaw

Hsin-Yi actually also got some other video footage of her doing some training with Kaos: teaching him to take treats gently and also teaching him to walk nicely on loose leash…so we’ll be doing posts about them soon!

Before I go, I must tell you about another excitement this week when I received one of my Mango Minster 2012 prizes!! This was my Readers’ Choice Award for the Adventure Animals category, sponsored by Jack & Moo the Cyber-Sibes. It was a lovely portrait painted by their human (PAWS Painter Pet Portraits) – there were lots of different kinds we could choose from but my human really loved the idea of an ‘ATC’ – “artist trading card” – a mini-portrait that she could carry around in her bag or something…

…and so it arrived this morning! Isn’t it cute? And wow – Hsin-Yi’s done a bit of drawing & painting herself – so she thinks Jack & Moo’s human is so talented to be able to paint on something so small, coz it’s really difficult!

Thank you so much, Jack & Moo, for my great prize!

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ps. If you have a chance today, please don’t forget to pop over and vote for me in the Charlotte Reeves Bark Stars Photography Contest on Facebook! If I win, I will be donating the prize to Great Dane Rescue Australia.

Remember – You can vote once every 24hrs and the doggie with the most votes by next Wed is the winner!

Thanks to all my wonderful blog friends & fans, I am now in 1st place!! But the doggies behind me are panting at my heels so I need the votes to keep coming! Just another 2 days – the contest ends at noon Wed 28th Mar (Australian time). Thank you so much!!

Here is the link: http://bit.ly/FOWsCV

Me & my human, Hsin-Yi, have joined this great Facebook group called ‘Danes Downunder‘ which has lots of lovely Danes and their humans, living all over Australia. And we have also joined the smaller sub-group, called Sydney Great Dane Owners – which organises walks & get-togethers for Danes living in Sydney & around.

So we went to our first Dane Walk a couple of weekends ago! We all met up in Callan Park – the deserted grounds of the old mental hospital, which is huge and doggies can run around free if they like…

Here we are all arriving and saying hello:

There were all the usual suspects, such as my friend, Boo…

…and Boo’s brother, Mowgli, with his new adopted sister, a blue Dane called Meka…

…and then there was a lovely merle girl called Jemma…

…and a handsome young 8-month old boy called Harris…

…and the very pretty Sparkles!

And look! My lovely friend, Carmel, had come to join the walk too!

It was very exciting meeting new friends…and even more exciting for some, meeting up with old ones!

Some of the Danes had brought their other doggie family members to join in the fun too – and me & Hsin-Yi instantly fell in love with this cheeky little chap!

His name is Little Man and he is a Labrador-cross rescue doggie. Well, actually – he’s a “foster fail” (not surprised – ha! ha!) – and he was rescued by the lady who looks after the NSW part of Great Dane Rescue & Rehoming Australia. Little Man lives with a big Harlequin boy Dane called Dante (who couldn’t come that day) and a beautiful, old Dane girl called Leila.

Leila is 11yrs old – can you believe it? That’s an incredible age for a Dane! I hope I get to be as old as Leila – and look as good!

Well, time to set off on our walk!

Aren't we an impressive sight?!

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It was great fun exploring the park together as a pack. Some of the other Danes don’t live close to this park, like me & Boo do, so it was all new to them and very exciting. In fact, some had come from quite far away to join us – as far as the Central Coast!

Of course, there was also lots of time for play!

I didn’t play that much, though, ‘coz it was quite hot already (even though it was only about 9:30am in the morning…) – also, my human thinks that when doggies play, “Two’s company, three’s a crowd” – meaning when 2 doggies are playing really excitedly with each other, when a 3rd one (or more!) joins in, that’s often when trouble starts.

A pile of doggies can hurt each other by mistake much more easily and get grumpy with each other – plus, many doggies instinctively don’t like it when they see other doggies being very “aroused” and over-excited. They will want to calm things down – so they try to break up the 2 playing doggies. They usually end up being labelled “the fun police” although this is actually quite natural behaviour. I can be like that, especially if I see young ‘uns playing a bit too rough and excitedly, I will try to go in and tell them off, make them calm down a bit. But Hsin-Yi says I should just mind my own business! And she doesn’t let me interfere with other doggies playing.

So unless all the doggies know each other very well, for a long time (like I did with my doggie friends back in Auckland) it’s usually safer & better to just have doggies playing in pairs.

Well, you know Callan Park runs down to the waterfront, next to Iron Cove, so we headed down towards the water. As usual, Boo knew all the best places and he told us that there was a little beach where we could all cool off!

Hee! Hee! Hsin-Yi asked Boo's human to take this picture, just to prove that she DID come on the walk too!

Yay! At last! We found the beach!

It was only a small beach and very crowded at that time of the day with lots of other strange doggies – so we mainly stayed at one end of the beach, away from the “big clump”…

…Jemma was with me and she does this cutest thing: she likes to splash water with her paws and then try to catch it in her mouth – it was so funny to watch!

Hsin-Yi went into the water to play with me and Carmel came over and took the camera machine and got some lovely pictures me & Hsin-Yi together.  It was so nice of her to do that!

Hsin-Yi was so happy because she is usually the one taking the photos at these kinds of events and so she misses out on being in photos with her own doggie, me!   (unless we do a special photoshoot or something, when Paul is free) – so it was lovely to have some pictures together…

Well, all us doggies were tired now so it was time to start walking back…

Oh! But first…Group Photo!!!   (you can click on the picture to biggify)

It was actually impossible to get us all staying still and looking in the same direction at the same time! This picture was the best of a bad lot – and we missed out Harris (who was busy sniffing something behind me…) – poor thing – but Hsin-Yi said we would have been there all week if we kept trying!

She did manage to get some smaller group ones…

Getting to know Harris better... (Hsin-Yi says that at 8 months, he's MUCH too young to be even my toyboy and that it would be like litterbox-snatching! )

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Three Dane colours: Fawn, Black, Harlequin…although Hsin-Yi says it should really be Caramel, Chocolate & Nougat!

And finally, we started back. Thank goodness there are lots of shady areas to walk through in Callan Park, ‘coz the sun was really blazing down now and us doggies were getting really hot!!

Halfway back, we decided to stop for a rest. Well, us oldies – er, mature Danes had a rest – the younger ones just kept right on at it!

Here is me & Leila – the 2 senior ladies – enjoying a bit of peace & quiet together…!

And finally we were back at our car machines…one last drink and rest…

…and then it was time to say goodbye…I had such a great time and made so many wonderful new friends!

 See you all next time! 

ps. My longtime blog friends, Jed & Abby in Merryland, have started a new blog – together with Zoolatry & Da Weenies of Florida – called Our Rainbow Friends. It’s a lovely idea – to remember all those who are gone but not forgotten.

There will be posts each month to remember those recently lost – and anybody can contact the Our Rainbow Friends, to have their special pet remembered. (It doesn’t have to be a doggie or kitty – all pets are welcome!)

http://www.ourrainbowfriends.blogspot.com.au/p/be-part-of-our-rainbow-friends.html

Mango Minster – one of the biggest events in Blogland – is here! For those of my readers who were confused about the name – it is named in honour of my blog friend, Mango the Mastiff (who hosts the competition) and a play on the word, Westminster, which is the biggest dog show in America, right? Except Mango’s version has much more interesting groups than just boring old ‘Hound’, ‘Working’, ‘Terrier’, etc, etc…

And as you probably know, I’m entering in the Adventure Animals category…with my Mission Impossible movie, to show just what an adventurous girl I am!

If you missed it, here is my movie again:

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

Tom Cruise...eat your heart out!

If you can’t watch it, try here: http://youtu.be/jrXP_pwJdOc

Here is the link to all the Adventure Animals entries - you vote by leaving a comment THERE on THAT page.

* Voting for the Adventure Animals category closes at 5pm EST (USA & Canada) Tue 14th Feb - (this is 9am Wed 15th  Australian NSW time) – so please get your votes in before polls close!

Oh! And a couple of you were asking me how we got that cool picture of Muesli with the speech bubble coming out of her mouth, in the movie…it’s really easy! Just go to this website and upload any of your photos and you can add a speech bubble (or thought bubble) to them!   http://www.superlame.com/

OK - now I want to show you some pictures from another fun outing I had with my friend, Boo the black Dane, a couple of weekends ago…we did ‘Beach & Brunch’!

Hsin-Yi said I was being a “lazy bully” ‘coz I was just letting Boo do all the hard work of going into the water to get the stick…and then as soon as he was on dry land, I’d snatch it off him! Hee! Hee!

And here’s me & Boo competing to see who can pull the scariest Crazy Face while running – ha! ha! ha!

OK – time to get some yummies in our tummies! Boo’s human, Sarah, took us to a very nice cafe she’d found, called Double Roasters, in Marrackville, Sydney. They have a little courtyard garden space around the side of the building and doggies can sit there outside with their families!

Me & Boo were both being very good and lying politely while our humans were stuffing their faces…

…although I did keep a hopeful eye out for any crumbs which might fall my way!

Actually, Hsin-Yi got a whole blueberry muffin for me & Boo to share! And I also got to taste some of her Mixed Berry Frappe..mm-mmm! She got a ‘Roast Pork Belly Sandwich’ for herself but she forgot to take a picture of it…although you can sort of see it in this picture:

After a while, Boo got a bit bored of lying still and decided that he wanted to liven things up a bit!

 Oi! That’s no way to treat a lady!!

 Well, he does do a very nice apology!

After that, the humans decided it was easier for Boo’s ‘self-control’ if we were moved a bit further apart – hee! hee!

So I got to go lie down next to Hsin-Yi…in my favourite position: my chin on her knee! (And yup, look at all the slobber! Her trousers were half soaked by the time we were leaving! )

What a great morning!

This was how I made lots of friends back in Brisbane…it didn’t work so well in Newcastle (‘coz I think Newcastle is so small that not many people were reading my blog) – although I did meet Miyuki the Maremma through my blog and she introduced me to the best walk there: the Stockton sand dunes…but I knew even before we moved to Sydney that I had several readers here and I was really excited about meeting them in person and making new friends!

Well, we’d barely been here a couple of weeks when I got a message from a handsome black boy Dane named Boo!

Boo & his human actually happen to live quite near us…isn’t that a great coincidence? And they were so nice and offered to be our personal guides in the neighbourhood and show us all the best doggie spots – from the best parks for doggies to run free to the best dogfriendly cafes and pet stores!

So last week, Boo invited me to a playdate for us to get to know each other better – and also to show me one of the best dog parks in the area…

It’s a big piece of land next to Callan Park, which used to be part of an old mental hospital and some other government buildings…but now they are all empty and the grounds are all free for doggies to roam around as they like!

It is HUGE. It takes at least 1hr to walk around it properly and it is wonderful because it is not just a boring, flat field – there are woods & trees and little streams and hills and bushes and cliffs and rocks and old buildings to explore…

Hsin-Yi told me there was an easier way up the bank & around the bridge...but I decided I wanted to go THIS way!

…and guess what? This park has free Kitty TV as well! What more could a doggie ask for??

Yup – there is a part of the park where a ‘feral cat colony’ lives in one of the old, empty buildings…and you can see all the kitties sunning themselves on the roof!

I got so excited when I saw the kitties – I could just stand and STARE at them for hours!

…and if you walk through the grounds, right down to the waterfront, you get to Iron Cove, which is part of Sydney Harbour…

There’s a path right alongside the waterfront which is called the Bay Run and lots of humans like to go jogging or cycling along it (or walking their doggies) – the Bay Run is really long and only part of it runs through Callan Park – it follows the waterfront all along Sydney Harbour and has lovely views.

Although the area around Callan Park is dog off-leash, my humans made me come and walk nicely next to them when we were actually walking on the path.

Me doing my leash-free Heeling on the Bay Run path...

See – my humans believe that it’s really important for dog owners to make sure that their doggies don’t “disturb” or bother people – like chasing joggers or blocking cyclists or even just going up to people who are scared of dogs – because otherwise, this will give doggies a bad name and make people very “anti-dog”…and then this means they start to ban us from all the nice places. Lots of people already complain about doggies…you don’t want to give them any more excuses!

My humans believe that if all dog owners could be more responsible about their doggies’ behaviours so that they are always good ambassadors and always pick up their doggies’ poo and show people how well-behaved & under control doggies can be, then people will feel more friendly towards doggies (and also help those scared of doggies to overcome their fears) and this will mean that there will be more places that will welcome doggies.

Hsin-Yi often doesn’t bother to put me back on leash for these “sections” - I can do a very good leash-free Heel so she just calls me to her side and makes me Heel with her – this means I must walk on her left side, with my shoulder in line with her knee, and match her pace, and ignore all distractions around me. My humans only make me do this when we have to pass through crowded places or past big distractions but because we have practised this lots, I’m really good at it. Once we have passed through, I get told to Sit – and then my release word (“OK!”) – and then lots of praise & treats!

* It’s very important to “mark” the end of Heeling with a release word – rather than just letting us drift away, even though we have already passed through to a ‘safe’ area. Otherwise, it’s not clear to us doggies when we should be Heeling and when we can be free…and this means we end up with a very “sloppy” Heel where we’re not doing it properly because we keep thinking we can drift out of it anytime.

It’s the same for other commands – a lot of doggies have a poor Stay because their humans don’t use a release word to show them when the’Stay’ ends – and so they just think they can get up whenever they feel like it (when they’ve had enough!) – that’s why they keep breaking their Stays - whereas I have learnt that I must Stay in position (or keep Heeling or whatever) UNTIL I hear my release word. If I get up before my release word, my humans just put me back into Down Stay or Sit Stay again (and again…and again…as many times as they have to, until I get the message). But if I stay until AFTER I hear my release word, I get lots of praise & treats! (if you’re using a clicker, make sure your humans only click AFTER they say the release word – because otherwise as soon as we hear the click, it signals the end of the exercise)

The key to successful training is helping us doggies not get confused – and so by having a very clear Start & Stop to each command, it keeps things consistent and helps us understand what we must do and when.

And I’m off!

Boo is a really bouncy, energetic doggie – he was running circles around me the whole time! Well, he’s only 3 & 1/2yrs old so he’s still a young ‘un. Even at the end of our long walk, he was still full of beans!

Still, I think I kept up with him pretty well – considering that I’m nearly 5yrs older than him!

Dane slalom!

I think Boo was a bit hurt in the beginning because I was acting a bit snooty and even though he kept trying to invite me to play – licking my jowls, jumping all around me and even on me! – I just wasn’t responding much. Well, you see, when I was younger, I used to play with anything that moved…anytime, anywhere! But now that I’m an older, mature lady, I’m a bit more – ahem – ‘selective’ about who I will play with and when I will play. I have to be in the right mood to play…and I usually take a while to warm up to a new doggie, before I decide that I will play with him/her. So it usually takes me till the 2nd or 3rd playdate before I’ll really play properly…

…still, I did show Boo a few of my signature moves!

"The Big Honey Dog Left Hook - match that, young whippersnapper!"

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And before we said goodbye, I gave him a big slobbery kiss to remember me by! Hee! Hee!

I’m so happy to have made a new friend – and Boo’s told me that he’s got LOTS of other great places to show me (well, since that day, we’ve been on 2 other playdates! I’ll tell you about them soon…) – I can’t wait!!

Hsin-Yi is really happy too because Boo’s human, Sarah, has the same beliefs & attitudes towards doggies - she has done lots of training with Boo and really cares about his manners and is also very careful about supervising interactions with other strange doggies and stuff like that – plus she takes Boo out socialising to lots of different places. Sometimes we meet nice doggies but their owners aren’t very sensible or responsible and then Hsin-Yi finds it a bit frustrating spending time with them because they are always doing things in a very different way to us…so she says it’s really nice to find a friend who is a “like-minded dog owner”!

I think we’re going to have great adventures together!

* You can contact Boo through the FB Sydney Great Dane Owners page as his human, Sarah, is the Administrator!