Yup -- they are going to the place where Hsin-Yi was born -- it is a tiny island in the sea next to China, called Taiwan -- also known as ‘Ilha Formosa’ (“Beautiful Island”) which is what the Portuguese breed of humans called it when they found it a long, long time ago.

The people who live on Taiwan are mostly Chinese -- like Hsin-Yi -- their great, great, great, great-grandparents were Fishing Humans and Farming Humans who came from South China a long time ago to live in Taiwan. But there are also a small group of Aboriginals who came from Polynesia even longer before that, to live in Taiwan…in fact, some of the Aboriginals from Taiwan then went sailing again and found another beautiful island in the Pacific Ocean called New Zealand and they became the Maori people of NZ!

(Maybe this is why Hsin-Yi instantly fell in love with NZ when she went there -- ‘coz it is a little volcanic island just like Taiwan…and even the Maori people were originally from Taiwan!)

Although Hsin-Yi is “Chinese” - to be Taiwanese Chinese is very different from being Chinese from China or Singapore or Hong Kong…and Hsin-Yi is very proud to be Taiwanese! 

There is probably no other place in the world where you can find so much squashed into such a little island (it is about 1/7 th the size of the UK).  You can climb huge mountains covered in clouds in the morning and surf on the beach in the afternoon; sit in a natural hot spring one day or trek through bamboo forests the next…it is full of such different, beautiful places. Taiwan is also famous for having some of the best food in Asia (you can find restaurants from all the different provinces in China, just in 1 city!) and some of the most amazing carvings and statues and paintings in the museums, which were all rescued from China when the Communist Humans were destroying everything during a scary time called the Cultural Revolution. Most of all, the Taiwanese people are known for being very friendly and helpful -- and always smiling!

Here is a little movie from the  Taiwan Tourism Board to show you what a beautiful place Taiwan is:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEucUi0I3nM

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My humans are SO excited about going to Taiwan as they haven’t been back there in a long, long time…in fact, Paul hasn’t been back to Taiwan since their wedding, over 10yrs ago!

They will be meeting Hsin-Yi’s mummy there and stuffing their faces spending some time with her -- and then they are all going together to Shanghai to see the Expo, and also meet Hsin-Yi’s brother there.  It’s going to be a big family reunion! Hsin-Yi is also very excited about seeing her best friend from school who lives in Taiwan now.

As for me? Well, I’m going to stay with my lovely pet-sitter and her Great Dane, Charlie! Remember Charlie? He was the gentleman who let me sleep on his bed when I was staying at his house last time -- hee! hee! But Hsin-Yi said I can take my own giant beanbag bed this time so I won’t hog poor Charlie’s bed!

Me hogging Harley's bed!

I am so happy my humans have found my lovely pet-sitter because now I get to stay with a family in a “home” while my humans are away (instead of in a kennel-jail!) and they take me out for walks every evening together with Charlie. They even come to my house to pick me up and drop me off again -- aren’t they amazing?

My personal Great Dane chauffeur service!

So by the time you’re reading this, my humans will already be on the Big Flying Machine and I will probably be having a snooze with Charlie. But don’t worry -- I won’t be leaving my blog silent for the next few weeks while my humans are on holiday -- what if you all forget about me? -- I have made Hsin-Yi help me do some posts that I can show you while she’s away -- like “Here’s one I made earlier!”

But I won’t be able to come round and visit my blog friends at all for the next few weeks until my humans get back from holiday -- so please forgive me -- and please don’t forget about me -- okay?

Some of you may remember that last year, when Hsin-Yi’s daddy got very sickie and died, Paul’s daddy also got a very bad sickie called “pancreatic cancer”. My humans said this is one of the scariest sickies you can get because it eats up your body really fast and by the time you find out, it is usually too late. 

Well, Paul’s daddy had a big operation to try and cut out the cancer and then he had some special yucky medicine called “chemotherapy” to try and kill the rest of his cancer sickie…he was very brave and kept fighting his cancer sickie for over a year…but a couple of months ago, the Human Vets said that the chemo wasn’t working anymore and so Paul’s daddy started to get really sickie. And then a few weeks ago, they had to take Paul’s daddy to a special hospital for dying people – and they called Paul and told him it was time to go back and say goodbye. 

So Paul quickly came home from work and packed his bags and gave me a goodbye cuddle – and then Hsin-Yi took him away to the place where the Big Flying Machines live – and he got on one and flew away to the faraway city called London. Paul was luckier than Hsin-Yi because he got back in time to see his Daddy and say goodbye – and then he helped with the funeral and stayed with his mummy for a while so that she would not be alone. 

So me and Hsin-Yi have been having a sad, lonely time by ourselves for the last few weeks. 

I’ve had no one to give me extra cuddles or do my grooming or sneak me extra cookies after dinner (Hsin-Yi is a meanie and only ever gives me 1 cookie after dinner – sometimes she doesn’t even give me that if she thinks I’ve had lots of leftover goodies in my dinner already – but Paul always sneaks me extra cookies! ) 

Hsin-Yi has been very busy doing all the house stuff and looking after me and dealing with our computer sickie problems and then learning how to move my blog to its new home - and of course, also doing her writing work – all by herself, in the last few weeks.

So I’m really sorry but she hasn’t had much time or energy to help me visit my blog friends – so please forgive me for not coming round much or leaving any comments! 

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But now Paul’s finally back home! Yay! I was so happy to see him!

He gave me LOTS of extra cuddles and not just cookies but even a whole slice of bread with my dinner!  

So I am happy now and I feel much less stressy now that my pack is all together again! 

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Now – I am ashamed to say that I have been very naughty recently and keep forgetting to post about all the wonderful awards that my blog friends have given me. So thank you to all of you who have given me awards and I am very sorry if I didn’t mention it – I know that there are some awards from so long ago that I can’t remember who they’re from now! But recently – first there was Sprinkles with her 2 Chihuahuas, Chico & Shiver, who gave me the Sunshine Award (and my blog friends, Darwin the Dane and Teal’c in Sydney also gave me this award a while back and I’d never gotten around to thanking them!) … 

…and then Sammy the Cavalier and Lucille the Italian Dane both gave me the Versatile Blogger Award – where I have to share 7 things about myself… 

Well, I thought since you probably all know lots about ‘me now’ from reading my blog, you might like to know 7 Things About Me When I Was A Puppy: 

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1) I wasn’t a very good eater when I first came to live with my humans – if there was any small noise or distraction when I eating, I would stop and wander off and leave my food.  My humans got very worried and stressy and started standing frozen on the spot, holding their breaths, the minute they put my food bowl down – too scared to do anything in case it “spoiled” my appetite!  

Me at 7 weeks!

It got really ridiculous until Hsin-Yi re-read one of her favourite books, ‘Your First Great Dane’ by Angela Mitchell, which is not written by a vet or dog trainer but Hsin-Yi loves it because it is a real-life, honest story by a normal pet owner who has a Great Dane for the first time. In the book, Angela says her Dane, Hovis, was also a very fussy eater when he was a puppy and they were doing all sorts of crazy things to get him to eat – until their sensible Vet told them the puppy was just playing a game with them to get the extra fuss and attention. He told them to only put the food bowl down for 5-10mins and then take it away, no matter what was left in it, until the next meal time – and not make a big fuss. No animal would let itself starve and it doesn’t matter if us doggies miss a meal or two  – it won’t harm us (unlike kitties, who mustn’t go over 24hrs without food). It will just make us more hungry for the next meal and teach us to eat our food when we get it!  

So that is what my humans did with me too and – hey! It worked immediately! Since then, I have been a very good eater – I always have great appetite, I eat anything that is put in my bowl, including vegetables and fruits (I will chase the last pea around my bowl for ages! ) and I eat it all up quickly and am not fussy about anything (well, except when the scary Upside-Down Bowl Monster appears! ) 

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2) I was quite a skinny puppy and my ribs always showed – even though I had enormous knuckles and paws. When she took me out as a puppy, Hsin-Yi got nasty comments from people out on the streets telling her she didn’t know how to look after me and was starving me, which made her very upset. 

Me & Lemon when we were 10 weeks old...look at all my ribs showing!

Look at the big girl I've become - from that skinny puppy!

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But now that she knows more about doggies and Great Danes in particular, Hsin-Yi knows that those people just didn’t understand anything about giant breeds. 

It is quite normal for us to be skinny puppies and in fact, it is much better for us to be on the skinny side than on the fat side ‘coz we are growing so fast as puppies.  

Anyway, my humans have never been obsessed with measuring my height and weight constantly - like some Dane owners are (Hsin-Yi was always more obsessed with my behaviour than my looks! She thinks “pretty is as pretty does”) - and I’ve still grown into a really big, tall, solid, healthy girl! In fact, my humans have often been told that I am big for a Dane girl. 

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3) I’ve always had a very soft mouth (I can carry a cherry tomato around in my mouth for ages and never pop it! ) and I don’t like chewing on anything really hard or heavy. 

Before my humans brought me home, they went shopping in the pet store and when they said they were getting a “Great Dane”, everybody told them to buy the EXTRA-JUMBO, EXTRA-TOUGH (EXTRA-EXPENSIVE!) versions of everything – like the Giant Black Kong and the Giant Rubber Tyre Tug-Toy and Giant Extra-Hard Nylabone…well, I wouldn’t touch any of them! I hated them and didn’t want to put those nasty huge, hard things in my mouth at all and I just wouldn’t play with them. 

Hsin-Yi got really grumpy because she said it was such a waste of money paper! She had to go back to the pet store and buy all the softer ”smaller doggie” versions for me to play with…and all those extra-tough toys are now sitting in a box waiting for the next puppy my humans get, who might be less wimpy than me!  

Me with my replacement "small dog" Kong - hee! hee!

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4) I had “pano” when I was about 5-6 months old. This is a kind of sickie that a lot of giant & large breed puppies get ( similar to something called “growing pains” in human pups). They usually get it between 6 – 18 months and usually boys more often than girls. It gives us leg ouchies and makes us lame for a short time (sometimes even moving from leg to leg) - and then it just goes away by itself again. The proper name is Panosteitis and nobody really knows why it happens although some people think it may be because of the bones and joints and tendons and muscles growing so fast that it can cause inflammation. There is no treatment for it – other than medicines to make the pain better – and it just goes away by itself after 2-3 weeks. 

Anyway, of all the really serious, scary bone sickies that giant & large breed puppies can get (like HOD and OCD ) - ”pano” is the best one to get if you have to get something, because it is not really serious and doesn’t need treatment and will go away by itself.   

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5) I never destroyed anything as a puppy! Yes, that’s true. Not one shoe or cushion or table leg or anything. I’m not lying. My humans couldn’t really believe it either. They were bracing themselves because everyone kept telling them about the “teething period” when puppies chew up everything and anything and so they kept waiting and waiting for that to happen…and waiting…and waiting…but I just never seemed to get ‘crazy-chewy’ at all. All that happened was that my ears went funny when I was about 4-5 months – they pointed forward in a weird way! – but then they went back to normal and I got all my adult teeth and that was that! 

Of course, my humans did give me lots of chew toys and I did chew those – but I never chewed any furniture or shoes or anything like that. 

Although this might also be because Hsin-Yi always supervised me ALL THE TIME whenever I was loose in the house and if I ever showed any interest in any furniture, she would quickly give me a chew toy and lots of praise for chewing on that instead. 

So after a while, I just always went to find my toys whenever I wanted to chew on something and I never even thought of the furniture as something to chew. 

* Remember – The best way to train good behaviour in us doggies is to never let us learn bad habits in the first place!  This means putting us away in a safe place (like a crate) when we can’t be supervised – but also making time to let us loose to explore under supervision, so that we have a chance to learn the rules. BUT – the key is not just to correct us for doing the wrong thing but also to show us the right alternative and praise us for doing that instead. Lots of humans only punish without also showing their doggies the right thing to do and rewarding them for doing that instead – that is why their doggies never learn. Correction must always be balanced with rewarding the right alternative behaviour. 

But wait – the story isn’t finished! I’m not an angel puppy, you see, because later – when I was 2 & half yrs old – I DID chew up one of Hsin-Yi’s favourite shoes! I also chewed up one of her photo albums. And a corner of the coffee table. She got really grumpy and said she couldn’t believe how I was doing all the destructive chewing now that I was grown up when I didn’t do it as a puppy! Anyway, she went back to supervising me for a week and giving me a Telling-Off whenever I tried to chew anything I shouldn’t – and then giving me a chew toy and praising me for chewing that instead…and I soon (re-)learned my lesson. Since then I haven’t chewed anything I shouldn’t!  

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6) My first toy was a bone stuffie with a smiley face. It was almost as big as me when I first arrived in my new home with my humans and I could barely carry it around…but I soon grew!

It had a squeaky in it and I used to carry it around with me everywhere. 

Me at 10 weeks with my smiley bone stuffie

Then one day I discovered that there was a hole in it where a wonderful white fluffy thing could be pulled out…ooh, STUFFING! After that, the bone stuffie was no more… 

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7) I got carsick and vomited every time I went in the car machine, until I was 6 months old. Yup – I was not a good passenger. Every time my humans took me for a drive in the car machine, I would feel sickie and puke. Hsin-Yi spent a lot of her time cleaning out and shampooing the inside of the car machine!   And she said it never smelled the same again afterwards…YUCK!

Getting carsick happens to a lot of puppies and our humans can help us by only taking us  for very short rides at first until we get used to things – and also not giving us anything to eat a few hours before our car ride. But most puppies will grow out of it naturally.

The vet suggested that my humans give me a bit of “Sea Legs” – a kind of special medicine to help humans stop feeling car sick – but actually, Hsin-Yi found that the thing which helped the most was teaching me to always lie down in the car machine. Because then my “centre of gravity” would be low down and I wouldn’t get thrown around so much when the car machine moved and turned – and then I wouldn’t feel sickie. It is also a much safer way for doggies to travel. (The worst is to let doggies stand up at the back with no dog guard or climbing all over the seats and sticking their faces out the window! )

So Hsin-Yi started teaching me to do a Down Stay whenever I was in the car machine and ever since then, I have been a very good traveller and I always lie down calmly when I’m in the car machine.

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…OK – and finally Happy the Silky Terrier gave me a different Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you very much, Happy! 

For this version, I had to share 7 Things About My Human: 

1) Hsin-Yi’s name is Chinese – “Hsin” means ‘heart’ and “Yi” means ‘wishes’ – so together her name means “Heart’s Wishes“. When Chinese people give names to their human pups, they like to choose something which gives good luck to the owner of the name (like “Get Rich” – ha! ha!) – so Hsin-Yi’s name is supposed to help her get whatever her heart wishes for. 

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2) Hsin-Yi is very good with words and writing – but she is TERRIBLE at maths. Anytime she has to do maths with numbers that are double digits, her brain goes blurry and she starts panicking. She never checks the change she gets in shops or supermarkets ‘coz she can’t work it out and she is too embarrassed if people realise!  Paul thinks it is very funny that Hsin-Yi can’t work out percentages or anything and always has to have a calculator. 

Hsin-Yi can also never remember anything to do with numbers. Sometimes Paul asks her how much or how many something was and she will say, “Oh, it was 300 or 3,000 something…” and he’ll say, “Which one? There’s quite a big difference, you know!” and Hsin-Yi will say, “Oh, I don’t know – it was a number and there was a ’3′ at the front of it…!” 

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3) Hsin-Yi has had the same hairstyle since she was 6yrs old – long, straight hair with a middle parting. She is very boring and has never changed her hairstyle like lots of other humans do (well, except once when she cut it really short like a boy – and then she hated it and wished she never did it – and it took her ages to grow her hair back long again!) She has always desperately wanted curly hair but her hair is very thick, very heavy and very straight – so it doesn’t curl at all, even when she sleeps all night in rollers! 

Then a few years ago, she finally got brave and went to the hair salon where they did something to her hair called a “perm” which made her hair curly all the time – and she loved it! So now she says she will always get her hair permed – although she usually waits 1 yr in between so that she doesn’t hurt her hair too much. (It is now nearly one year so Hsin-Yi’s hair is nearly straight again – so she can’t wait for her next perm! ) 

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4) Hsin-Yi LOVES spicy food – she puts chillis in everything that she is cooking and always orders the dish with chillis from the menu in restaurants. She always let me taste some of it ever since I was a puppy - so now I quite like spicy food too! A dog trainer once told Hsin-Yi that covering stuff with chilli sauce was a good way to stop doggies chewing something (if ‘bitter apple’ didn’t work) but that would never work with me – ha! ha! I like chillis! 

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5) Hsin-Yi loves books like a drug. She always has her nose buried in a book – from the moment she wakes up until the moment she goes to bed.

She carries her book around with her all the time and reads when she is eating, when she’s watching TV, when she is doing anything (well, except maybe driving the car machine!)…if it’s a very exciting story, she’ll even take the book into the shower sometimes and has worked out how to shampoo her hair with one hand and hold the book with the other!  

If she doesn’t have new books, she will just re-read all her favourite old ones but she can’t ever not be reading a book. Her favourite books are mysteries and crime stories and stories about animals. She can read really fast and can usually finish a 500-page book in a day or two. 

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6) Hsin-Yi is a scaredy-cat and doesn’t like going on anything very fast or very high. She hates amusements parks with the scary rides which go looping around very fast or swing around and make your stomach sickie. She had to hold her 3yr-old baby sister in front of her when they went on rides in Disneyland!  She also doesn’t like going very fast in the car or on a boat – and when she learnt horse-riding, she never wanted to go faster than a trot!  

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7) Hsin-Yi is a useless cook. She never has the patience to measure and follow the instructions in recipe books and always just guesses how much when she is mixing things together and adding sauces and oils and things…that’s why everything always taste funny! She once baked a birthday cake for her daddy and used salt instead of sugar by mistake  - and then couldn’t understand why everybody was making funny faces when they were eating it!  

She is also really forgetful when she is cooking and so often leaves things on the fire or in the oven for too long… 

…for example, here is a roast pork belly that she tried to make because she got very excited after she watched Jamie Oliver in the TV box cooking a very yummy pork belly. She spent ages putting it in a special sauce called a ‘marinade’ and rubbing things on it – and then she put it in the oven and forgot all about it! By the time she remembered, this is what it looked like: 

It was supposed to be a special dinner for Paul and he managed to dig a bit of meat out from the middle which wasn’t burnt black! But he was very nice about it – Paul is always a gentleman and never complains about Hsin-Yi’s cooking. He just says he’s not very hungry…and then later goes to the pantry and sneaks out some cereal! Since they have been married for nearly 13 years now, Paul has eaten a LOT of cereal!  

Well, all I can say is thank goodness I’m on the Raw diet! 

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about my human and about me as a puppy. I know most of you will have gotten these awards by now but if you haven’t, you’re welcome to take them! And I would love to hear you tell me 7 things about yourself as a puppy – or 7 things about your human!

*Giggle!*

 Now, you know one of the nice things about having my blog is that it’s helped me make so many new friends since moving to Australia. I get lots of messages coming through the Contact Honey page every week and some of them have been from doggies right here in Brisbane, who have invited me to meet up for a playdate!

That’s how I met my good friend, Lupe the blue Dane…and the other day, I got a message from another blue Dane living in Brisbane.

His name is Earnest and he still only 6 months old. Actually, it was his human pup who helped him write to me. Her name is Zali and I think she is amazing because she is only 10yrs old but she already has her own blog!

She said that she loves reading my blog and would love to meet me – and Earnest would love to have a playdate!

So a couple of weeks ago, my human talked to Zali’s mummy and we arranged to meet up. Hsin-Yi suggested that we meet at the Kedron Brook dog off-leash area but not at the busy afternoon times because she hates it when it gets really crowded with lots of strange doggies and people – so we met just after lunch, when there was hardly anybody there.  Luckily it is still winter here - otherwise it would be much too hot to meet at that time of the day! 

 Hello Earnest! Nice to meet you!

Photo courtesy of Zali's mummy, Hailey Bartholomew (www.youcantbeserious.com.au)

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Earnest had brought his whole family to meet me! There was Zali and her little sister, Poppy…

…and their mummy and daddy, who are both amazing Camera Humans and have their own company, You Can’t Be Serious!  They take photos and movies for people and their pictures are not like traditional ones but are really different & fun!

Earnest was really bouncy and excited and kept doing zoomies around me. I think he wanted to play but to be honest, this was usually my ‘nap time’ so I wasn’t feeling very energetic…

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Oh- alright, then! You wanna play? Come and get it!

But when I really started galloping after him, Earnest started looking scared! I could hear Hsin-Yi yelling something at me like “BE GENTLE WITH THE PUPPY!” – but I was too excited by then to slow down…and then – oh no! I smacked into Earnest as I was jumping over a stream after him and rolled him over! He yelped and cried and everybody was very upset. Hsin-Yi was REALLY grumpy with me for being so rough…what does she mean? I always play like that! Anyway, Earnest wasn’t hurt – just a bit stunned – but after that, he was a bit too scared to come near me anymore!

I tried to get him to play Tug with me but he didn’t seem to dare to grab the other end of the tug toy…

Hsin-Yi said it was all my fault ‘coz I was too rough with him – and this is why nobody ever wants to play with me… She was very grumpy because she has been trying to teach me to play more gently ever since I was a puppy – she says other Danes can play nice and gently – why do I have to thunder around like a drunk rhino?

Anyway, Zali and her family were very nice about it and said it wasn’t my fault and that when Earnest gets bigger, he will be able to play more roughly with me. Hsin-Yi said it would serve me right if Earnest had doubled in size by the next time we met – so that he could really wallop me (Huh! As if!)

Well, we had a nice walk back to the car anyway and Earnest followed me everywhere like a shadow! Hsin-Yi helped Zali’s mummy & daddy with some training advice for Earnest – and I helped by showing the best way to shake your head and throw your drool as far as possible. Hmm…that pup’s got a lot to learn!

When we said goodbye, Zali said that they would love to meet up with us again and Hsin-Yi have me a dirty look and made me promise to play more gently next time!

Well, talking about messages from doggies – I got a really lovely message the other day from Drake the Great Dane. Drake is a regular reader of my blog – he lives with his human family and his doggie sister, Sasha, who is a rescue herding doggie. Drake’s human, Nikki, is really good about doing training with them and she had been trying to help Drake learn how to use a ramp, although they weren’t having much success. Well, do you remember I did a post about me learning to use the ramp a while back? After Nikki watched my video, she decided to start again with Drake – right from the beginning – and take it really slowly in baby steps, ‘coz you know how us Danes just cannot be rushed! She emailed Hsin-Yi for some help and Hsin-Yi gave her lots of tips…and then a few weeks later, I got this message from Drake!

Hi  Honey,

Look at me!!  I’m Drake and I finally did it.  Although, I was a bit scared coming down the first time and still a bit tentative.   But look at me!!  My human drove the truck half way down the drive so the angle was almost the same as for getting in the back seat!  Now we just need to put my crate into the back and on a coolish day, we can all go walking on the trails near Lake Hefner.  Anyway, thanks again for all your help with my human!!  We are both so incredibly thankful… now I won’t always get left at home when the whole family goes on an outing!! I really don’t like that at all!!

Lots of slobbers and thanks,

Drake

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Hi Hsin-Yi,

I am pretty proud of him!  It feels more rewarding because he’s not a “super smart breed”.  And next year, I hope to be able to take the dogs with us on vacation and trips instead of boarding.  You and Honey have helped us so much!  Not just with the emailed advice, it really is nice to talk with someone who has trained a Dane before!!  I watch the training videos (just yesterday I was watching the taking a bow training), the dancing videos (you are very brave), and (when I need a good laugh) the first agility and swimming videos.  Not to mention getting to see some great pictures of New Zealand and Australia.  So thank you very much, and please don’t let those rude people bother you.  For everyone of them, there are 10 of the people like me.

So thank you very much!!

Best Wishes,

Nicki

I was so happy to get that message! It is the best feeling when I can help another doggie. When Hsin-Yi helped me start my blog, she always wanted it to be more than just a doggie diary – but also a website with information to help other doggies, especially with training stuff. So it’s so nice to know that we have made a difference!

They were drums!

My humans on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands

But a special kind of drums. Hsin-Yi had heard them before -- when she and Paul had gone to a nearby place called the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean, for a holiday a few years ago.

Hsin-Yi got very excited and we started rushing towards the noise. It was coming from the Melange Cafe - which I had been to before when we met my friend, Loki the Great Dane and her humans for breakfast. Now there were lots of people there and pretty ribbons on the chairs and flowers on the tables and sparkly things on the windows…Hsin-Yi said there was a wedding party going on!

Then just as we got there, we heard the most amazing loud call -- the kind that gives you goosey bumps in your fur. Hsin-Yi got even more excited because it sounded just like the call from the famous Maori war dance, called the “haka“, which she had heard many times back in NZ -- and it made her feel very homesick.

Then she realised it was not actually Maori music but one of the Pacific Islands -- maybe Cook Islands -- or Tonga or Samoa or even Tahiti -- she wasn’t sure which. But it did sound like the music she had heard when she visited the Cook Islands. It was a wonderful sound and she got so excited she even climbed up a wall to see better! Humph -- I couldn’t climb up on the wall with her so I had to do a Sit Stay and wait for her.

After a while, we tried to leave to go home but then we walked round into the back of the party by mistake! So we watched some more dancing -- this time by a beautiful girl wearing a grass skirt. And then we got a Telling-Off by the cafe people for being in their wedding!   So we quickly sneaked out the back and went home.

Hsin-Yi was so happy because back in NZ, there are a lot of Pacific Islander humans living there and so you get to see a lot of their culture -- like their music and their clothes and their food. And the Maori too -- they have similar music and food and stuff -- which my humans always really loved. But here in Australia, there isn’t any of this and their own ‘original’ people -- called the Aboriginals -- aren’t as mixed in and as welcomed and as respected - as the Maori are in NZ. So you don’t really see much of their culture unless you go and do the touristy things. It is a bit sad

Anyway, it was lovely to get a little taste of our ‘old home’ again!

Here is a short movie of me crashing the wedding…(sorry the video is a bit fuzzy but Hsin-Yi only had her mobile phone with her so she had to use that to take the video!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0pw3wzZdAk

You see, since I have been getting older, I seem to have been getting more and more bony. I used to always have a nice round, curvy bum but in the past year, my bum seems to have been getting pointier and pointier!

Hsin-Yi thinks that as us ladies get older, we either become round and fat, like Elizabeth Taylor -- or thin and haggard, like Teri Hatcher. Well, I guess I’m a Teri Hatcher doggie, then. No matter how much my humans try to feed me up, I just can’t seem to get my curves back. (sigh)

So lately, every time I sit down, the bony part of my bum is rubbing and rubbing on the floor, until all the fur and skin on that part of my bottom has rubbed away! And now I’ve got a sore pink ouchie there!

Well, actually, to be honest, it isn’t really bothering me that much.  In fact, I didn’t even know that I had it until Hsin-Yi noticed it!

But she’s worried that if the skin breaks and I get a nastie sickie called an “infection” there, then it will become a big problem because it’ll take forever to get better again, ‘coz it will always be rubbing on the floor every time I sit and never get the chance to heal.

My blog friend, Mango the Mastiff, recently had an ouchie like this but on his back leg and he got the nasty infection sickie which made yucky yellow pus come out of his leg and he had to go to the vet…ugh! I don’t want that to happen to me!

Hsin-Yi is trying to make the ouchie get better by putting some special medicine cream on it. My vet back in Auckland gave my humans this cream because I’m such a rough tomboy when I play that I’m always hurting myself and getting cuts and bruises…so my vet gave my humans a whole tube of this special cream so that they wouldn’t have to keep taking me back to the clinic every time I got a cut or a graze!

So Hsin-Yi has been rubbing some of the special cream on my ouchie…but unfortunately, it’s not working very well so far ‘coz it keeps rubbing off every time I sit or lie down (which is most of the time -- my motto is ‘Why stand when you can sit? Why sit when you can lie down?’)

So now Hsin-Yi is just hoping that I might grow some thick scabby skin over that part of my bum, to cover up the ouchie. These ouchies are called “pressure sores” and they happen to us giant doggies a lot.

Most of us giant doggies also have thick scabby skin on our elbows and backs of our legs -- called calluses - where we lie or sit down, especially if we’re lying on hard ground. It’s because we’re so heavy. Smaller dogs don’t have this problem -- it’s just one of those things that happens to giant doggies, especially if we’re lucky to live many years.

My humans have tried to always have soft things for me to lie on -- I even have my own special square of carpet that they put down in the garden every morning, so that I don’t have to lie on the concrete -- but even with all their efforts, I still have a little bit of scabby skin under my elbows and at the backs of my legs. But not too much…so I guess I’m not doing badly for a nearly 7-yr old giant doggie!

OK - now, as promised -- here is a movie of me at my new Obedience class!

You remember I told you that I’ve started going to a new class at the Metro Dog Obedience Club? It’s ‘coz those Rally-O & Tricks classes at the RSPCA Animal Training Centre finished and Hsin-Yi wanted to find something else that we could do together once a week -- so now we’re doing this on Mon nights!

Although Hsin-Yi does lots of training with me all the time -- and of course, we do our dancing practice -- we haven’t been in a proper Obedience class for a long time, so we weren’t sure how we would do….well, they assessed me on the first day and told Hsin-Yi that I could go straight into the Advanced Class!  

So here’s a peek at what I get up to in class -- as well as Heeling both on and off-leash past distractions, we also do lots of Down Stays (Yuck! I HATE those!), Sit Stays, Stand Stays and Recall past the other doggies -- and they do that touchy-feely thing too where I have to stand while someone comes and gives me a weird massage. Most doggies find that exercise very hard although I don’t mind -- hey, who can complain about a free massage, even if it’s a bit weird?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YObNIBIEyCE

Well, can you believe it -- we have only been in the class 3 weeks and this Monday, at the end of class, they told Hsin-Yi that I’m good enough to be promoted out of the class! Since this is already Advanced, the only next level we can go up to is the Instructors’ Class. (GULP).  Yikes. I wonder what that’s going to be like.

They were also telling Hsin-Yi that she should do Obedience competitions with me but Hsin-Yi is still thinking about that. She doesn’t care much about getting ribbons and titles -- the most important thing for her is that we are having fun, so she says she doesn’t want to make me do something which might be stressy for me, especially as now that I’m supposed to be a “senior doggie” and heading for my retirement. With dancing, the competitions have always been so stressy…but I find this Obedience stuff much easier to do than the dancing. So maybe we’ll give competitions a try…

Anyway, my humans were so proud of me! When I first walked in, all the other people in class looked at me a bit funny and I could tell that they were laughing inside and thinking that a giant doggie could never do much…well, I soon showed them! Hsin-Yi says I was one of the best doggies in class  -- better even than a lot of the working breed doggies -- and I really showed everybody what Great Danes could do! 

You can achieve anything if you believe in yourself and work hard!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l1gi4uLF5I

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My friend, Loki the Great Dane and her humans started a group called BrisDanes so that all Danes living in and around Brisbane can meet up and play together. They usually meet on a weekend once a month at The Spit, which is a dog-friendly beach on the Gold Coast.

Me & my friend, Loki... (who is a girl, by the way)

We have been trying to go for many months but either I’ve got a dancing camp or my humans have some other things planned or Paul is on-call that weekend and Hsin-Yi HATES driving long distances by herself in the car machine, especially to a new place…but finally Hsin-Yi said we can’t keep waiting for Paul otherwise we’ll never go - so a couple of weeks ago, me and Hsin-Yi went to the August meet-up by ourselves!  

Of course, since it was Hsin-Yi in charge, we were LATE. Hsin-Yi is always late for everything. She always thinks she still has lots of time and then suddenly she’s rushing around panicking! All the clocks in our house have been set so that they are 10mins faster than real time, to try and make Hsin-Yi be more on-time, but she’s still always late! And especially if it’s anything early in the morning…well, you know, Hsin-Yi is just not a morning person…and I’m definitely not a morning doggie!

Everyone was supposed to meet at 8:30am -- but we didn’t manage to even  leave the house until nearly 8:30! It is a 1hr drive to The Spit so by the time we got there, all the other Danes had already started their walk on the beach. So we had to really hurry to catch up with them.

We had heard a lot of other doggie owners raving about The Spit but to be honest, it was not really our kind of beach. It was so CROWDED!  Hsin-Yi was shocked when she saw it -- she had never expected a beach like this. There were so many people and dogs, it was like a multi-lane doggie-highway.

This made Hsin-Yi very stressy because she doesn’t like places which are crowded with many strange doggies meeting each other constantly (like small, fenced-in dog parks) - she says it’s OK for puppies and younger doggies who still just want to play with everything and quickly back down but as us doggies grow up and become mature, we also become less tolerant and more willing to stand up for ourselves -  so it can be a recipe for disaster.

See, the thing is although I am a pretty sociable doggie and can meet most strange dogs politely, other dogs aren’t so nice to me! A lot of doggies give me dirty looks or yell nasty things at me, even if I haven’t done anything to them!  Like sometimes I have to stand there politely while they sniff my bum but then when I try to turn around and sniff their bums, they whirl on me and snarl and get nasty. I think it’s awfully unfair - how come they want to be able to sniff my bum but won’t let me sniff theirs?  Hsin-Yi thinks maybe because I am such a confident doggie, I make other doggies - that are less confident or less well-socialised -- feel threatened.

And it’s not a size thing, in case any of you are thinking that. Anyone who lives with kitties will know that you don’t have to be big to be boss of everything! It’s about personality. Lots of Danes I know are just as big or even bigger than me but they are much more shy or timid and they don’t make other doggies feel threatened -- in fact, they often get bullied by other doggies, even though they are a lot bigger. And lots of small doggies I know are very confident and boss everyone around -- in fact, my boyfriend, Ombre the Standard Schnauzer was the most bossy, confident doggie I ever met and he was only one-third my size! But everyone listened to him when he walked in the room (or wanted to fight him) !

So Hsin-Yi thinks that very confident doggies give off a “vibe” and sadly, this means most strange doggies I meet don’t react very well to me, unless they are very confident & well-socialised themselves. Some of them even yelp or start crying and whimpering when they see me -- before I’ve even gone anywhere near them!

Of course, Hsin-Yi is always very careful and doesn’t just let me go up to any random dog -- if the other doggie looks even a bit scared or grumpy, she doesn’t let me approach them…but see, it’s unfair again ‘coz a lot of the times, the scaredy/grumpy doggies are the ones who come up to me! THEY run up to me -- and then they scream or get aggressive when they get too close…humph! Well, who told them to come over to me in the first place? And then their owners give me dirty looks because they think I did something bad to their doggies…

I think it’s awfully unfair that I always have to be on my best behaviour but other doggies can behave so rudely to me. But unfortunately, Hsin-Yi says this is one of the Big Unfair Things of being a giant doggie.

Of course, the real problem is if another doggie starts getting aggressive to me and attacks me. See, I’m no pushover. I never start anything but if another doggie gets stroppy with me, I can give as good as I get! I won’t roll over and act submissive or run away like a lot of other doggies will -- if you want a fight, you’ll get one!

Except that Hsin-Yi gets really upset with me when that happens and Tells Me Off. I think that’s awfully unfair again!  If the other doggie gets grumpy at me, why shouldn’t I get grumpy back? But Hsin-Yi says fighting shouldn’t be used to solve anything -- and besides, she says the bigger doggie will always get the blame again, even if we are just defending ourselves…

…so that is why she gets very stressy when we have to go to crowded places with many strange doggies, because she is worried they’ll pick a fight with me and then everyone will blame me. It’s not that she can’t control me -- ‘coz of my training, she can get me to do anything, even with lots of strange doggies around -- but it means that she then has to keep me “on very short rein” all the time - she has to constantly call me back to her and keep giving me directions of where to go and not let me interact much with other doggies…she doesn’t dare just let me be myself and run free…so it’s no fun at all!  That’s why my humans like to take me to less crowded places so they can just relax and let me have fun!

Owners of more timid doggies can’t understand why Hsin-Yi gets so stressy -- ‘coz their doggies always run away and never fight back -- so they never have to worry. So they don’t mind going to very crowded places and they all just think Hsin-Yi is being paranoid. But since we had our very bad experiences back in NZ with people blaming me unfairly, Hsin-Yi has decided it’s better to be safe than sorry -- and if people want to think she is paranoid, she doesn’t care!  It’s more important to keep me safe. Besides, it’s not nice for me to have to keep dealing with grumpy doggies all the time . Lots of doggies have had their nice temperaments ruined because they have been attacked too many times by other doggies and learnt to fight… and Hsin-Yi says she doesn’t want me learning to use aggression as a way to deal with things. It’s our human’s duty to protect us doggies by not putting us in unfair situations where we are forced to get grumpy.

But anyway, back to The Spit -- well, there was nothing to be done since we were already there - so Hsin-Yi took a deep breath and we just had to plough through the crowds. I met lots of doggies but Hsin-Yi just kept me moving on so that they didn’t have time to start getting any funny ideas (!) …until finally, we saw the other Danes!

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Wow -- there were so many of them! Most of them were young pups and teenagers (4 months to 2 yrs) although there were a couple of senior Danes like me. There were blue Danes, black Danes, merlequin Danes, mantle Danes and lots & lots of merle Danes…!

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…and yes, even a fawn Dane like me!

It was nice to meet another fawn Dane at last since every other Dane I have met since coming to Australia has either been a merle or blue or black! My humans were always told that fawn is the most common colour…but I guess not in Queensland!

But wait! What’s this? She told me that her name was ‘Honey’ too!

That’s MY name! How could she be “Honey the Great Dane” too? She’s an imposter!

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Hsin-Yi was laughing and said this was the fresh, young “Honey” whereas I was the old, grey version…humph! How rude!

Well, I’M the original and we all know that the original is always the best! Huh! So there!

The younger Honey sure was bouncy -- she just bounced around everywhere, wrestling with everything and charging through everyone. She was a bit of a terror, to tell you the truth, compared to the other gentler, more timid merle Dane pups…

…but Hsin-Yi says I shouldn’t talk ‘coz the younger Honey reminded her of me when I was that age  -- over-confident, super-bouncy, a total rough tomboy and completely fearless! 

(Er -- actually, Hsin-Yi says she doesn’t think much has changed! )

What does she mean? Humph! I think she is talking rubbish -- I am obviously the older, wiser, calmer Honey!

…Er…well, OK -- maybe sometimes I can get a bit carried away! Don’t they say it’s always good to remain young at heart?

The other Honey is actually from my Mummy’s breeder, who lives here in Queensland, so I guess we’re distant cousins or something! I sure showed her a few new moves to continue terrorising - er, I mean playing with the other pups!

Anyway, it was getting near lunchtime now and quite hot so we all started walking back up the beach to the carpark… The beach was EXTRA crowded right by the carpark so Hsin-Yi put me into “Heel” which means I have to walk next to her, with my shoulder in line with her knee, and ignore everything around me. This keeps me safe. I’m very good at Heeling and I can even do it without the leash -- as you can see in the video!

Oh -- there was a really cool “doggie bar” for thirsty doggies as we came off the beach. I don’t have any pictures but you can see it in the video…weren’t we all so polite, waiting in line for our drink?

Some of the other Danes and their humans were going round to the other side of the peninsula to the bay, where the water is quieter, to have a picnic lunch but me & Hsin-Yi couldn’t join them ‘coz we had to go back to Brisbane, where Paul was waiting for us.

He was on-call that weekend and couldn’t come with us ‘coz he has to stay within 15mins of the hospital when he is on-call and he has to go in and do his “ward rounds” on Sat and Sun mornings…but he would be back home by now so we wanted to go back and spend some time with him.

But Hsin-Yi says maybe next time, if we come to a BrisDanes meetup again, we might just come later and join everybody on the quieter side for the picnic. There will be fewer doggies and nicer calm water to play in (and it’ll also be later which means we might actually get here on time!). Hsin-Yi doesn’t really want to take me to the main Spit beach again ‘coz it was so crowded that she just couldn’t relax and so she didn’t really enjoy herself at all. And I have to say -- I didn’t really get to run and play properly either!

But never mind -- the best part of the day was yet to come! On the way home,  Hsin-Yi stopped in a special Petrol Restaurant to feed our car machine and because it was so hot, she bought me an ice lolly! YUM! I love these!

What flavour?

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Oooh - 'Tropical Crush'...my favourite!

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(slurp! slurp! slurp!)

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Oh no! All gone already!

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Well, between running up the beach, meeting all those new friends, fresh air & sunshine -- and the ice lolly! - I was completely shattered by the time we got home! I quickly found my favourite spot in the afternoon sun and settled down for nice snooze….ahhhh…..it had been a big day!

...zzz...ZZZ...zzz

My pink stretchy fleece vest is actually from DoggieJama – my humans originally got it ‘coz they were worried I’d be cold at night back in NZ ‘coz of my short fur – but in the end it was a bit too small and thin, so they got a bigger one made at the tailor with fleece they found themselves and so now I just use this one as a light coat. It’s great as it is really stretchy and comfortable and unlike most dog coats, there is nothing tying around my middle so I can run and jump and do anything in it comfortably. And I think the pale pink with black accents is very Chanel…thank you very much!

Then for when it’s really cold outside, my humans got me another coat from Greyhounds As Pets (GAP) back in NZ – it is double-sided polar fleece, really lovely and soft and warm – in a beautiful purple and grey leopard skin pattern. I think it’s very ‘French chic’ – n’est-ce pas? My humans were really pleased to find it ‘coz most doggie coats they looked at:  a) don’t come in a big enough size (even in XXL) and b) weren’t made with my body shape in mind – ‘coz I’m very narrow but I have a VERY deep chest and a big “tuck up”. But Greyhounds have a similar body shape so my humans found that a greyhound coat fit me perfectly, as long as they got a custom-made XXXXXL size!

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I think I look gorgeous in both of these – how dare you make fun of me!

Well, if you want to laugh – then take a look at my new pyjamas then!

See – since my Rally-O & Tricks class finished at the Brisbane RSPCA Animal Training Centre, Hsin-Yi has been looking for another thing that we can do together once a week – and so we’ve joined one of the classes at the Metro Dog Obedience Club.

We had been to the Metro Club before just to practise our dancing by ourselves but now we’re joining one of the Obedience classes with lots of other doggies.  Hsin-Yi is very proud of me ‘coz they assessed me and said I can go in the Advanced Class! (I will tell you more about my classes and show you a video in another post…)

…anyway, on the first night we were there to join the class, Hsin-Yi saw another doggie wearing the most amazing fleecy pyjama-type thing which looked so warm and comfy – so she immediately went over to ask the doggie’s human where she got it from. Well, the lady told Hsin-Yi that she had made it herself! And she also said she would make one especially for me – and bring it the following week!

Now, of course, I do already have a very nice pyjama – well, more like a fleece nightgown really. This is the version of the DoggieJama that my humans got the tailor to make up, extra long and wide, so that it covers me up more when I’m sleeping. I love my nightgown and it’s really soft and warm and comfy – but it does leave my legs uncovered and the neckline is a bit desabillé and draughty, to tell you the truth…

In fact, on really cold nights, my humans would be worried about me and would put my big black fleece blanket on me as well…but of course, I’d always move in the night and the blanket would fall off – and nobody would be there to cover me up again – so they’d find me in the morning curled up into a tight little ball, with my ears really cold!

So when my humans saw these pyjamas that this other doggie at the Metro Club was wearing, they thought it was the perfect solution!! There would be no part of me that would be cold after this…

…Ta Da!

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Whew! I need a nap just to recover from putting that thing on!

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Anyway, I LOVE it!

It is so gorgeous and soft and very stretchy and comfortable. And look – it’s even got a hole at the back so I can do a ‘midnight wee’ without having to take it off! And the lady only charged us $30!

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My humans say I look ADORABLE in it!

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OK – am all ready for bed now!

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Whatcha' looking at?

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Go on - you can laugh all you want – I don’t care – I’m the one who’s warm and snuggly at night…Huh! So there!

Whew! We’re back online!! It was so horrible being down for 2 days while the blog was changing over to its new home…thanks to all those who emailed us in concern – it’s so nice to be missed!

Hi Everybody – I have big news!

First of all – so sorry that I have not been coming around to visit your blogs (I think my Google Reader is over 200! Eeek!) or blogging much in the last few weeks – you see, things have been a bit crazy here and my human, Hsin-Yi, has steam coming out of her head and spirals coming out of her eyes…

…well, first, our computer got very sickie and its ‘hard drive’ died…so we had to send it away to computer hospital for many days and then when it finally came back, it had a completely new hard drive but it was all blank! So Hsin-Yi had to spend a long time putting everything back into the computer (thank goodness she had done something called a “backup” so she didn’t lose any of the MILLIONS of photos of me! ) – and also re-install all the programmes that help her make nice videos and pictures for my blog and lots of other stuff!

…THEN, Hsin-Yi has also been very busy in the last 2 weeks working on my blog! You see, my blog was living with WordPress.com who are very nice but they have started putting ads in my blog and we don’t like that because we can’t decide whose ads suddenly appear and sometimes its a company we don’t like!

Plus it looks wrong for my blog to have ads from pet food kibble companies when I am on the Raw Diet…but we would have to pay WordPress.com some money paper every year for a “no ads” upgrade. This seemed really silly when we have other pet companies contacting us asking to pay US money paper so they can put ads on my blog!

And Hsin-Yi spends so much of her time helping me with my blog, doing all the research for the posts, answering all the messages that we get…it’s almost like a part-time job for her! So it would be nice if my blog can earn some money paper for Hsin-Yi’s time and hard work.

Anyway! So we have decided to move my blog to its very own home and become a “self-hosted website” – like lots of my blog friends have been telling us to do. This way, we can control everything and do whatever we like! So we might have a few ads – but only from companies we approved of! The only problem was – we had no idea how to do it! Hsin-Yi didn’t have the first clue about web design or FTP’s or domains or nameservers or coding or anything like that – it was like learning a scary new language or being lost someplace but not knowing how to read the map! So I must say a big thank you to the humans of Wild Dingo and The Thundering Herd - without them patiently answering all of Hsin-Yi’s questions and holding her hand in the last 2 weeks, we would never have been able to do it.

But hopefully now we have! Hopefully when you read this, you will already be looking at my new blog. The web address (URL) will still be the same ‘coz I got my own domain from the beginning – so it’s still www.bighoneydog.com and my blog is still at www.bighoneydog.com/honeys-blog – but now it should go to my new website. (They say it can take some time after we move for the address to point to the new place so you might not see the change for a while!).

I hope you like the new look. I can do all sorts of cool things now, like have slideshows in my sidebar – and hey, I’ve even got a Translator widget so if you don’t bark English as your 1st language, you can translate my blog into your own woofs!

Unfortunately, Hsin-Yi couldn’t fit that lovely picture of me posing on the beach in front of Rangitoto Island, which was at the top of my old blog – so I’ve got a new header for now. But I love that picture so we will try to find some other place to put it. And I hope all the pictures in posts still work OK because there’s been some problems transferring them all over – so you may see some empty spaces…please bear with us while Hsin-Yi fixes the broken links – it may take a while to go back through all the (200+) posts!

And please bear with me also – I will try my best to come round and visit you as soon as I can but it may still take a while to settle my blog into its new home and fix any problems!

I have been very naughty and haven’t done any Tricky T-Day posts for ages so I’m posting this as one now, even if it’s not a Tuesday or Thursday!

Remember I told you that I learnt some new tricks during my 6-week ‘Rally-O & Tricks’ classes at the Brisbane RSPCA Animal Training Centre? Well, one of the tricks the teacher wanted us to learn was to get a tissue for our humans!

Actually, Hsin-Yi says she thought this was a bit of a silly trick to teach because lots of doggies already like to chew up tissues and so she thought this would just be encouraging a naughty habit! Besides, which human wants to use a tissue after it’s been in a doggie’s mouth? Especially when it’s slobbery like mine!

But we didn’t want to argue with the teacher so we set out to learn the trick like the rest of the class. Like all our tricks, Hsin-Yi taught me using clicker training. It took me a while to get the hang of it…well, it’s not my fault! First, the stupid tissue kept getting stuck to my chin by my slobber…and besides, I really, really HATED the feel of the tissue in my mouth! Although I learnt to pull it out of the box, I always wanted to spit it out again immediately, instead of taking it to Hsin-Yi’s hand. So I showed her a much better way to do the trick – by taking her the tissue BOX instead!

Hsin-Yi thought my idea was MUCH better ‘coz at least then she could have a dry, clean tissue to use and not a soggy lump covered in my drool! Hee! Hee!

Anyway, here is a movie showing you how I learnt my ’tissue trick’ – as you can see, by the end, I was a pretty good helper around the house – eh? Hope you enjoy it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0SNxKXr5pY