At Grandma's

We were not sure how my mom would like Gunther since he is so big and she has trouble walking. But she likes so well she let him in her room. LOL.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

My Sweetie

When we moved into our apartment, I had a lot of concerns for Gunther's needs. I'd done a lot of research and talked to people who had great danes and had made the move to smaller living space and done really well. So I had an idea about how things would go. BUT, no two danes are a like and in the back of my mind I still worried.

Gunther has always been great in the car, and he did exceptional on the trip. When we arrived I thought his nose would fall off from all the sniffing he was doing. While he was doing his potty thing Sara and GT went up to the apartment and opened it up so that we could start unloading the big truck. With them not in sight, Gunther sniffed his way right to them. (My little tracker).

I wanted Gun to get to know our new space and find a place in the apartment where he was comfortable. He did, he actually has two spaces. The one that surprises me is the balconies. I have two balconies here and he LOVES them. The pictures are of him discovering the first one. I personally think he feels like he can rule from up above everyone. ;-)

Gunther really loves going out on the balcony and watching everyone. So many people go by and give him compliments and are amazed because they have never seen a big dog like him. There has been a few times where other dane owners have fell in love with him and that's been nice. I am sure that Gunther knows when they are talking about him and saying nice things because he'll stand a little taller and look so majestic.

My sweetie is doing well.

Boo Boo Nose

I know that it's been WAY too long since I posted anything about my Gun-man. Shame on me. So I thought to make up for it I'd post a few pictures of my sweetie. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think that he is the most wonderful dog in the world. Even with his boo boo nose that you'll see in the pictures. He was showing me he had split his nose a little. I'm glad to say that his nose is all healed up and is not drying out any more.

Hug you Dane today!

Santa was here early

Here in Georgia we've been experiencing our typical super hot and extremely cold back and forth weather. Since we get up pretty early Santa knew that the boys get cold when we're out before the sun comes up so he delivered a couple of coats for the boys.

As you can see Gunther is pretty proud of his "snug" fitting coat. He was so excited when I put it on him. He pranced around like he had gotten a new toy. He's a smart boy and knows that when there is a change in the collar or he gets to wear something, he is getting to go for a ride. The first time he had the coat on he headed straight for the front door.

This is the first time Truman had ever worn anything. So I was pretty surprised when he didn't try to get it off of him. He's still getting use to it, but since we are making it a lot of fun for him to wear he's getting to be more comfortable with it.

I hope that you and your family have the best holiday season ever.

The Gun-man has a new friend and I have some sad news

The good news. This evening Gunther got a wonderful comment from a new friend. Here is her website. http://www.bighoneydog.com/ . She is a beautiful girl. What is really strange is that a few weeks back I seen her on you tube and sent that link to several of my friends. So we are really excited that she found Gunther's blog and posted a comment. You can find Honey's comment under the post It's True.

The sad news. Today I found out that Truman's father has been missing since November 17th. Because I get so upset with the details about it, I won't share all of it, but will ask that you please, PLEASE keep Royale (AM/INT'L/NAT CHAMPION "STONE VALLEY'S ROCKY RACCOON" CGC,TT,RN,RA,RE,HIT.), his son Zulu, and his human friends and family in your prayers.

It's true

The Gun-man's bed time.

For a long time many of my friends and some fellow dane owners have thought I was totally crazy for some of the "perks" that my dogs get. For example I have always covered Gunther up at night with a blanket. This started the night that he came home with me and he was cold and I covered him up with a blanket next to me. By the way, Truman hates blankets and feels that they are something that he must destroy, while the Gun-man sees his blanket and immediately gets on their couch, and lays down to nap. The following picture tell it all. LOL.

Short and sweet

It's been awhile, actually a long, long time since I've posted anything. So much has happened and I guess as the weeks pass bits and pieces of the past year will come flowing out once in awhile. But the important thing is that "the boys" are doing good.

Gunther is now 3 years old and the light of my life. I've been away from him and the "T" for 2 months taking care of my mom in Tennessee and it was the best thing in the world seeing them. Gunther hasn't let me out of his sight since I've been home. There is nothing on earth that can replace that kind of love.

Truman, is doing good. From his last check up the vet said that some of his growth problems are the result of the antibiotics he was on last year. But, other than that he is a happy boy. He loves my son and my X more than life it's self. (the way Gunther loves me) and that's good. Unfortunately Truman didn't bond with me like he has the men.

I have a few pictures of Gunther, sorry no pictures of Truman because he won't let me take his picture. I'll try to get some post though.

How about some pictures?

Since it's been a week or so since I posted I thought I would catch you up with some pictures.

Gunther is doing the slow grow up thing now. He's starting to settle down a little. His chest is developing and he is starting to look more like his dad. But, don't let that grown up face fool you. He's still a crazy puppy and can out run Truman any day. LOL.

This picture of Gunther I totally love. It shows how muscular his is and how he is developing.






Now here are a couple of partner's in crime. When these guys get going look out. It's really wonderful that Truman is recovering more and more everyday. He is full of so much life. The 11th he goes back to the doctor and hopefully will be released and off the meds.

One of Truman's favorite things like all danes is to lean. I think they like to lean because they know they will get their sides rubbed and lots of lovin'. How do you like that right ear? We call it the "magical mystery ear" because it has a mind of it's own. LOL. (thank heavens it's not on the show side.)

Truman's Follow Up & Gypsy

Tuesday was Truman's follow up visit to the vet. I had hoped that he would be released from the vet's care, but that wasn't the case. Though his fever is gone, he still has tenderness in his back. So we are on another 2 weeks of antibiotics. He will be ok in the end, but this is seriously putting us behind in his show training. And the other part to it is, that he is showing signs in his back legs of straddling. Walking like you have one foot on either side of something. I don't know if this will go away as his back gets better or not. If not he will not be able to show.

The vet once again reminded me of how serious this infection was and is. And I am so glad that we caught it in time.

Gunther is doing great. He's growing like a weed. I need to get some of the pictures I have of him posted. It's been a couple of weeks since I weighed him so I will do that and then update the blog.

Several times in this year I have written about Noel Clarke. He is Ivan's handler and he will hopefully be helping me with Truman in the show ring. Well, Tuesday his lost one of his beautiful girls. Her name is Gypsy and she would have been 5 years old this November. She was the perfect Great Dane bitch. Here are a couple of pictures of her. This was an extremely sudden and unexpected passing. I know that Noel and Walter are hurting so much and that their other two Danes, Max and Violet are missing her too. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers

Gunther is 2 years old. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

What a day we had. Ok, so he doesn't really know it's his birthday, but he did know we were doing special things. It was a super fun day. We took Gunther and T to Starbucks to see his friends and then to the pet store to get "goodies". Sara made Scooby Do cup cakes for the the humans and he got special birthday food. In his new bowl.

This bowl was a surprise gift. I was really shocked when it arrived and Gunther loves it. I wasn't sure if he would eat out of it, but he did. One of the things I like about it, is that I've been breaking his feedings down into smaller portions and feeding him 3 times a day. This smaller bowl helps do that. It doesn't look so empty with the food in it and he isn't giving me that look like I'm starving him. ;-)

Here's a picture of the cup cakes Sara made. You can't see the actual baking cups but they have Scooby Do on them also. LOL. As you can see there are two missing. It's a Scooby mystery who stole the first 2 cup cakes before I got the photo. No one around here will admit to it. So no one gets the wrong idea, I want to again mention that these were for us humans. My boys were no where near this chocolate icing.

Gunther was playing with his new toys and T was laying in bed sleeping. LOL. He got wore out with all the traveling around town and playing with Gunther. LOL.

When I first picked out Gunther. It felt like it would be forever before he turned 2. But, it's flown by. My life in those two years have had a lot of rough spots, some I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to get through them. But I did, and a lot of it was because of my relationship with Gunther. He's the best buddy I think I've ever had. There's a book out, and I forget the title of it right now, but it's something about learning about handling life's lessons through the eyes of a dog. I can say that Gunther has been a wonderful teacher.

I messed up. LOL.

Now I can laugh about it. But at the show I messed up the Rally routine so we didn't do too good. But, we did have a good time. Gunther at first wasn't really fond of the hotel room, he sniffed every inch of it. But before long he made it home. Here are some pictures.

Here we are beginning the Rally course. This is right before my mistake.

This is a great picture of Gunther. He was tired and had a long day. The boy was ready for a long rest.

Our friends that were at the show too, did really well. Congrats to Noel and boy Max for getting their first 4 point win on Friday. They are still at the show today so hopefully we'll have more good news coming from Noel.

Jay and Barbara were there with Ivan. He came in 3rd on Saturday in his group. He would have done better if another dog hadn't have been aggressive toward him and distracted him. This same aggressive dog about 30 minutes earlier went after Gunther and tried to bite his muzzle. Needless to say I was pissed that someone with a dog with that temperament was even showing.

I haven't looked at the schedule but I believe our next show will be in August here in Atlanta. It will be a lot of fun. This show we may skip Rally and take T to start getting use to the "show" atmosphere. When shows are inside, they are load, crowded and at times insane. ;-)

Speaking of T. He is now 54.5 lbs. I am so glad that he is gaining a little weight. He's a little taller too. He has just the sweetest disposition and just loves doing things with us. There isn't a mean bone in his body.

Gunther's First Offical Rally Obedience Competition

We have been working hard getting everything together for our trip Thursday. Of course I'm going to over pack. I wouldn't be me, if I didn't. hahaha. I'm really going to over pack for Gunther. Yup, it's his first official Rally Competition. It's in Greenville, SC. We're staying in a Quality Inn and I have to make sure that Gunther is comfortable. So we are deciding what toys to take, his favorite blanket and of course his food, treats and water. Lots of pictures will be taken so I'll have lots to post when we get back Sunday.

We are also going to be there with Jay (Gunther's breeder), Barbara, Noel and Walter. It's going to be a lot of fun hanging with them at the show and watching all their dogs in the conformation rings. Great Dane people are some of the best.

T will be staying home with the rest of the family. I will miss him a lot, but before I know it, I'll be taking two Danes to the shows. That will be amazing.

Gunther has a brother

Yup, Gunther has a little brother now. We call him "T" but his AKC name is Sir Hagan Tru, son of Shockin. The explanation of his name is the Sir is a reference to his father, Royale, Hagen is the mythological brother to Gunther, Tru is a reference to what the breeder called him, Truman, and the son of Shockin is the acknowledgement of the breeder's kennel name. But, we just call him "T". Here is a link to his sire CH Stone Valley's Rocky Raccoon CD, RE, CGC, TT, HIT and a link to his mom, Shannon's Shockin You Again.

T, is 16 weeks old and will be in his first dog show in October of this year. He weighs 45 lbs as of yesterday (Friday). He's a cutie and we're so excited about having him in the family. He does some of the funniest things and he's like an older dane in a little puppy. We are going to have some funny stories about him and Gunther soon enough. LOL. T's own blog is in the works, I'll post the link when it's ready.

News

On Saturday June 16, Gunther and I got to spend a wonderful day with friends from the Great Dane Club of the Mid South. We all took our dogs to the Griffin Kennel Clubs Match. It was like a practice for show dogs and the dog sport of Rally.

OMG we had a wonderful time in the heat. LOL. Thank heavens for those trees. Anyway, everyone from the Griffin Kennel Club was so nice and made the day a lot of fun for us.

Below are some pictures of the day, and a picture of Gunther's ribbons from being in Rally. There was a large amount of dogs in his category and most of them were search and rescue dogs, just there having fun and practicing with their handlers. Gunther came in third. I was pretty proud of him, for his first time in the Rally competition. Now we have plans to go to Greenville, SC., Huntsville, AL, and then in August do the big show in Atlanta.

One thing that was really interesting, is that the man who won first in the Rally Novice A group, was a man who my son has been trying to track down. GT is wanting to pursue being a K9 handler and Search and Rescue, and there he was with one of his dogs. GT and him talked so much, they caught up on karate and dogs, it was great.

One more thing. I have to tell you about RescueMeTugz. Michele who makes these wonderful tugs, donates all her money from the tugs to Great Dane Rescues. This month she has chosen the Great Dane Club of the Mid South's Rescue to donate to. Here is her links. http://www.rescuemetugz.etsy.com. If you have any questions about her product, email me, she is wonderful about getting back with you.

Ok, enough talk. Check out the pictures of my friends, their dogs and of course the Gun-man.

Water

Ok, I will admit it right up front. I can get a little over the top when it comes to Gunther (and my kids). But, unlike my children who can take care of themselves, Gunther needs to be taken care of.

Now months ago we purchased a water purifier for our drinking water. I can't begin to tell you how bad and nasty smelling our water could be. Some mornings it smelled like a public swimming pool. YUCK! So now we don't have that problem. But Gunther was still drinking that water. Then the other day I filled his water bowl and the smell of the water was horrible. I started giving him bottled water and purified water until today. Now he has his own water system.

As picky as I am about what he eats, I felt I should be picky about his water too. I warned you at the beginning of this post I could be a little over the top! LOL.

Gunther has been being a nut lately. There is a small match coming up in a few weeks and I wanted to actually put him in the conformation part of it, but I don't think I'll be able to. Every time his behind is touched he sits. That isn't good in the show ring. But, they are having Rally so I'll be putting him in that. We have been working and working and his sits are a little faster than before, like maybe a hair or two. LOL. But, it's coming. He tries so hard and enjoys our "play" time. The show is June 16th.

Training and other stuff

Recently I have been on and off the fence about pursuing training other dogs. Though training Gunther can be a joyful handful at times, I love every minutes of it. And helping people with their dogs is an amazing feeling. So with the mentoring of a few trainer friends and TONS of reading, dvd's, etc, I'm going to start working with a few dogs. I joined the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and will be adding their logo to Gunther's blog soon. The areas that I will focus on will be Manners for all ages, Basic Obedience, Rally Obedience, Behavioral Counter-Conditioning and CGC Preparation. These will be private or semi-private lessons.

Gunther has been doing wonderful. He's 127 pounds now and is still such a big ole puppy. There are a few shows around that if things go well, Gun will start competing in Rally. In June there is a fun match not to far from us and I think that will be our start. Then in July there is a Rally match in Savannah. (Beautiful Savannah, GA. any excuse to go there is a good excuse!) So cross your fingers. One of the biggest things that has kept us from competing is just scheduling problems, but I think we will be ok on for these dates.

I'll have some new pictures of the Gum-Man coming soon!

Tall Men= A No Bark Gunther

I am happy to report that today while out Gunther had the opportunity to share his vocal conversation with several tall men while we were out having coffee. But, he didn't in fact it was like they didn't even exist. It was wonderful. It was a lot of work, in taking the time to read his body language, address the issue and keep him exposed to the what was bothering him, But, he did it. It was wonderful to go out and not worry about having to correct him in public or explain his actions.

We also went and got his weight. Big is 126 lbs. He has been going through some "stage" of growth for a few weeks now. This isn't the first time he has done this. It started about 3-4 weeks ago with getting up and wanting to run and play ALL day. He hardly slept except for nights. His appetite increased like all get out. I started feeding him 3 times a day smaller meals because he was so hungry, then things started to change. I noticed toward Tuesday of this week he was napping during the day and only wanted to play in the afternoon. His usual time, then his eating changed. He's almost not eating any meals except for breakfast. When he does this I start adjusting his meal sizes, and even today left about 1.5 cups of food in his bowl. By next week he will be back to normal. LOL. At least Gunther's normal.

Ok, I have had a few remarks and comments about my rant in my last post about dog self control. I find it interesting in the dog world just how sensitive dog owners can be. First off, I cannot apologise for what I wrote. I truly believe that no matter what kind of dog you have, helping that dog learn self control is a must. Dogs love to learn and they think it's play time. What is wrong with that? you are teaching your dog how you want him or her to behave in your home, and your dog is getting one-on-one attention, play and maybe treats. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

I mentioned that there were some exceptions, and that is because I was talking about a specific situation. When you are dealing with rescue dogs they need to learn trust, confidence and self control, but on a different level because they special circumstances. When you bring a pup home from the breeder you have nothing but time to start teaching good manners, you have a clean slate. A dog who hasn't been abandoned, who hasn't been physically abused, tormented, etc. So my thoughts were and are directed to those who purchase a puppy and then expect the pup to raise himself.

Something to think about. We all know people who's dogs have been in training, and didn't do well. This might bring some light to why. Have you ever tried to talk to someone who is out of control, their attention is everywhere except where it should be? Was the talk successful? More than likely you had to wait till they calmed down and you had their attention. Why wouldn't that same principle work for those dogs who weren't doing so well in training class? Doggie self control, it's a powerful thing.

Too Busy

I've been slack in keeping up with my blogs lately. Things are going on and changes are being made and you wouldn't believe all the decisions I am having to make, BIG ONES. But, I decided over the weekend that I was going to get back to some "me and Gun-man time". So this is the start. LOL.

My daughter and I spent Sunday in Perry, GA. at the Great Dane Club of the Mid South's Spring Specialty. We had a great time. I was the photographer and Sara helped at the trophy table. Of course Ivan was there and came in 2nd in the 6-9 month dog group. It was wonderful being at the show, seeing all the Danes and being around Great Dane people. I always have a great time at dog shows. ;-)

Now for my soap box. I hope not to offend anyone, but I have to share something with you. If you have a Great Dane or are thinking about getting a Great Dane, it should go without saying that your Dane MUST LEARN that he or she is to have manners. And who is going to teach them their manners? YOU. As scary smart as Danes are, there is no reason why a Great Dane cannot learn how you want them to behave in your home. Now there are some exceptions, but I am talking about people who get their Dane from a breeder and bring it home at 8 - 12 weeks and then just let it raise its self. Come on people. If a little dog gets board and chews something up that is one thing, but you are talking about an animal that will grow to weigh over 100 pounds. I'm not even talking about cute little tricks, I am talking about self control, manners and what you want the dog to do or not do in your home. If you have not gotten your Dane yet, please think about this before you pick up your dog. To me your dogs training and behaviour is just as important as hit vet visits and what food you feed them. It's a package deal. Don't leave one area out, you are not only causing your self frustration but you are not doing your dog any favors. Your goal should be a well rounded Great Dane and that's up to you. Ok, I've said my piece and I'll now get off my soap box.

Gunther and his new toy

Ok so maybe I can't resist getting Gunther new toys all the time. But you should see how happy he gets, when I bring one home to him. He got a new spider today and has played with the thing ALL day. Including slept with it when he stopped long enough for a nap. LOL. He even tried to take it outside to potty. With all the other things going on in my families life right now, it's so wonderful having a companion that is happy and can be so thrilled with something as simple as a toy.

In a couple of weeks Gunther's brother Ivan will be in another show. I am really looking forward to it. I love going to dog shows. But I have heard that Ivan has been doing a little growing and so it will be interesting to see how much he has grown and if it helps him in the ring. Will let you know.