I've read this, that and the other thing by so-called experts on Great Danes ALL over the web. Most of these individuals are nothing more than what I am: a person that owns a dog or dogs that are of the Great Dane breed.
I have 2 pure-breds and 1 mix. They all have very, VERY different personalities. They are wonderful, awesome dogs!! But, like any dog, they also have their peculiarities and sometimes even annoyances.
One of my Danes must follow me everywhere. His feelings are visibly hurt if I want him to go lay down instead of his face in my face constantly. The dog knows no limits to his loyalty to be at my side, either. Yesterday, I crawled under my house to get at some electrical wiring. When I say crawl, I mean I was on my belly sliding underneath pipes and conduit and such.
Who was RIGHT behind me? Yup, Prince, the black Great Dane. I didn't call him to come follow me under there, the first time I went under the house I had no idea a dog that large could even FIT underneath all of that. Not Prince. He was on his belly, pushing himself along with giant and rather powerful rear legs and followed me right along. When I got to where I needed top be under there, he came right up beside me, took a comfortable position and just laid there, staring at me. I couldn't, of course, help but pet him for a bit and then, back to work.
Meanwhile, Duke, my other Dane, was up there, whining away. He desperately WANTED to be with us, but he wasn't even going to try crawling under there. The Dane mix? Wanted nothing to do with it. She went about her business, but, then again, she isn't a pure Dane, so I'll keep this conversation to the purebred Danes.
I do agree, just from my experience with these 2 Danes and another Dane we had when I was a teenager: they want to be with you - people - all the time, as much as possible. People tell me when I leave, Prince, makes horse like noises and trots and prances back and forth for hours. Leave for work, that is. When I come home? He is RIGHT there, waiting for me. So are the other 2, to be fair.
Danes want attention, that's the jist of it. They want a lot of attention. They are nothing but big, giant babies. I'm quite serious, that's just what it is. If they don't get enough attention, from my perspective, they get their feelings hurt. Prince will start making his horse noises in my house when I tell him to lay down. It isn't barking, it isn't loud, it's an objection. I object to you telling me to lay down when I want you to pet me, continously, the entire time you are here.
Oh, btw, I have a doggy door in my house. When I am gone, I am told they do NOT come in here much. Yup, they are out there, waiting for me to come home. Umm, but now it's getting cold outside and I suspect that if I ask again, they're going to say they are coming inside. Why? They simply cannot handle cold weather. I just ordered some sweatshirts for them on a Cyber Monday Walmart sale, it's going to be in the 20's tonight, very cold. My dogs NEVER sleep outside unless they are sick, ie: throwing up or diarhea. They sleep in my bedroom and yes, they have their own bed. Actually, I have a bed and pillows on the floor. One bed does not fit all of them.
They are heavy dogs, they really should not be left to sleeping on hard floors. Duke is 143 pounds and Prince is 132 pounds. Hey, do YOU want to sleep on the "raw" floor all the time? Didn't think so.
Food? Yup, they eat. No, they are not fat or obese. I never have and never will allow my dogs to get fat. I do go through a lot of dog food, but, I have 4 dogs, 2 of them VERY large. The Dane mix would be considered large, not very large. about 40 pounds of dog food per week plus scraps. Oh, and btw, be prepared to clean up some giant dung in the back yard.
I could go on, but 1, it is my bedtime and 2, it's only a surface scratch at what it's like to live with Great Danes. I will write again about what it's like actually living with Great Danes versus "professional" sites that just give overviews. Not that those are bad sites, just don't give an up and close, personal reality of what it is to live with them day in and day out.
4 comments:
Tuesday
Yesterday, after getting home from work, I put the turtles in "storage". Pulled them out of that cold water, one of them was quite upset about it and hissed at me. Well, whatever, turtle, according to the experts you'll be far happier in a box with padding than in freezing cold water. And so it is, they are in the storage shed as I type this.
There is a freeze warning in effect right now as well, but, the temp outside is 37 degrees. I'm not worried about my plants as this isn't cold enough to damage to any of them that I know of. I guess I'll find out later on when I get home from work.
Unfortunately, the cold weather means the dogs are going to have to have access to the house while I'm at work. No choice in the matter, large, short-haired dogs in almost freezing weather? Gotta be able to get into some warmth.
The house is much warmer than it is outside and that without even running central heat. I turned it on for a few minutes this morning to bring the temp up a little, but, it's about 30 degrees warmer in the house than it is outside.
"If lawmakers vote to censure Rangel, he would stand in the well of the chamber as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivers a verbal rebuke" I read this a few minutes ago and thought, gee, this would make great entertainment to see Pelosi rebuking a crooked politician. I'm no fan of Pelosi, yet, somehow, the entire scenario would be fun to watch, I do believe.
Well, there's a lot in the news today, 271 before-unknown-to-exist paintings by Picasso surface; the cable fiasco; North Korea; Obama suddenly deciding it must be a good time to actually try to have a dialogue with the GOP; the teenager that was going to blow up a bomb at a Christmas tree ceremony who has pled not-guilty (good luck with that); and a massive election fraud in Haiti. Gee, we seem to hear a lot of that going on around the world, the biggest of which was Iran's so-called free elections.
Anyway, back to the house, I finally figured out where I might be able to unload the dirt that is going to be dug out if I put a pond in the front of the house. I shut the turtle pond down yesterday and will have to decide what to do with those turtles before the winter is over. Not really there yet. The pond I might put in the front could be a turtle pond, but then, that's all it could be, I'm not really interested in that idea. I want a plant pond with smaller fish out there, not turtles that will mow down every plant I put in there.
Ummm, that's about it for today's writings. The truck routing system is full of pickups for tomorrow - a huge delivery in the system. So large, it will take 2 full semi loads to get it all out there. So, busy today at work picking up the parts for that order plus pulling the stuff we have at our branch for it as well. Haven't driven the semi in what, almost 2 weeks? Lol.
G'day.
ben
They are great dogs but big babies....You are right. Every dog has a different personality. Just like people.
Yes, it's amazing the personalities my dogs have - not one is anywhere close to another or even with dogs I have had in the past.
Wednesday
Got home late yesterday from work. At noon an "emergency" came in and some valves had to be delivered to a water company in Coolidge. That got me home at around 4:30.
Do we need to get deficit spending under control? Obviously. Bring down the national debt? Of course. Should we just ignore the millions of people that are going to be affected by the complete loss of unemployment benefits?
Not so fast. I know people that get those benefits, it's ALL they have. The people that I know aren't sitting home watching soap operas or playing on video gaming consoles during the day, either, they are either hitting the streets putting in applications or online doing the same. There are entitlement programs that need to go entirely, there are others that need to be scaled back, but this?
I can't agree with. The news is saying that jobless benefits begin to run out today. If we're going to bail out banks and become part owners of car dealerships, the least we can do is help those that will have nothing at all if these benefits aren't extended.
This isn't about saving someone's Christmas, if you are on unemployment benefits, I'm sorry, but buying Christmas presents shouldn't even be on the list of things to use that money with. No, it's about keeping the lights on, buying food, pay the water bill, putting gas in the car to go and try to find work. I don't believe that, when we voted a few weeks ago and sent a clear message about runaway spending, it included ending the jobless benefits. GOP prolly should rethink the stance if they are going to oppose it - those that are unemployed might remember it in 2 years and give the same bashing to the GOP as the Dems just got.
Uhh, some pretty bleak news in there. Think I'll give it a pass. I have a lot of driving to do today. Jobsite in Florence - a huge order building a small hospital out in the middle of nowhere, at least that's what I call it. 2 tripper. Well, 3 tripper, really, but I won't be able to get 3 trips done in 1 day. The truck is already loaded and ready to go, get that pipe out there, get back here, load'er up again, back out, and then if there's time, downtown and then back to the yard.
It's a good day when I'm busy at work. Even better that it's the first day of the month and we are already going to be doing an 80k order. That gives a nice jump start for the rest of the month, which it will need, because Christmas time is traditionally very slow even in the best of economic times for our company.
My Cyber Monday scouring didn't result in me getting anything but 2 sweaters for the dogs. It's cold out there - 30 something degrees right now - the Danes are going to have sweaters. Probably arrive sometime next week. I am putting the Windows 7 quest on hold. I have bills to pay and Christmas is approaching. Plus, I was shorted on rent by one tenant - the one who got a job and then lost it because she didn't wake up in time to get there......because........she spent the previous night at the casino.
Well, I got half of it from her. She offeredt to do work around the house for the rest of it - not. I need the money, not work. You want to work, yes, PLEASE go find a job.
G'day.
ben
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