We are having puppies!

 It's been many, many years but we are finally expecting a litter here at Casa Symmetry.  One of the original reasons I started this blog was to document what it's like to live with Great Danes, and also to document what it's like to be a Dane breeder, to let people know what goes into this.

 Our breeding plans have hit roadblocks for a variety of reasons, but finally we have been successful!

This is Ellie's first litter, although we did breed her last January using frozen semen from Keeper, a dog born in our last litter.  Unfortunately that didn't work.  

So this time we picked a gorgeous young dog so we were able to do a natural breeding.  He's a wonderful dog who belongs to people in Louisiana, but at the time we needed to do the breeding he was at a show in Kansas.  So I drove up there with Ellie, and we were successful!!

To say we are excited is an understatement.  This should be a very special litter, since not only are both parents AKC champions, but they have physical traits that really should complement each other.  

I may post more about the parents here later, but in the meantime if you want to see pictures, pedigree, health testing info etc you can find them on our website.

In the meantime, Ellie is just baking those pups:

You know you've got a big dog when....

... you're brushing your teeth and your dog wants you to move over so she can get a drink!*

Dakota is 10 months old now, and just started doing this. Her uncle Teddy will sometimes drink out of the sink, but she's the only Dane we have who wants to do it all the time. Her father Keeper does it too, and so did his dad Hammer.

Hammer used to go stand in the guest bathroom and look out the door at his owner, waiting for her to come turn the water on for him!

*Credit goes to Ginnie Saunders of DaDane - check out The Dane Owner's Checklist!

Lapful of Stripes!

I love this picture:
It's Dakota's daddy Keeper sitting on a friend's lap. The camera perspective is hilarious - he's a big dog but not THAT big!! But this is a very typical Dane behavior - they are tall enough that they can just sit on a chair or couch while the front feet stay on the ground.

Our dogs do this sort of thing all the time... so much so that I have thought about changing our answering machine message to "Barb and Ronnie are home, but have giant dogs in their laps right now and can't get up to get the phone. We will call you back when the dogs decide to move."

Snip, Snip

Well, Topper is going under the knife tomorrow morning. I am a little sad about it...she is a WONDERFUL dog - smart and friendly. She's beautiful too, although that is somewhat less important than other factors.

When we bred her mother Kinsey, my main hope was that we would get a nice brindle girl. And we did! Topper is a lovely girl. But we have decided not to breed her.

I know that no dog is perfect... but it has become evident that there are too many reproductive problems with the females in this family. Kinsey had to have a C-section to have her puppies - although thanks to careful monitoring we were alerted to that fact long before either Kinsey or her puppies were in any distress, so everyone survived just fine. Later Kinsey had an open pyometra which was successfully treated, but then after she recovered from that we had her spayed.

Since then, Topper's grandmother, aunt and a couple of other female relatives have had pyometra, and some of them died. Although any intact female can develop a uterine infection, it is actually not that common and most intact bitches live their whole lives without any problems. But it seems to be more common than the norm with this family. A LOT more common. And pyometra can be a killer.

So although Topper herself has never had pyo, she is getting spayed in the morning. I am a little sad that we won't be breeding her... but I will be relieved that I won't have to worry about her developing a dangerous infection.

This is what responsible breeders do - we try to only breed the very best dogs that we can. Getting titles and championships, and getting health clearances is only part (although a very important part) of the puzzle. You also have to do some detective work to see what problems there are in the pedigree - and there will always be something. It might be something "fixable" by carefully selecting future mates. Or it might be something so catastrophic that the only solution is to scrap your entire breeding program. This is somewhere in between - important enough to decide to never breed Topper.

But the males in the bloodline produce daughters that do NOT have these problems, which is why we got Dakota. She is the daughter of Topper's brother Keeper. I don't want to make it sound like we got Dakota just to breed her... we got her because it was time for us to start the next generation and we needed to have a puppy in training. Besides, it is too early to tell if she will be worthy of being bred. It all depends on how she grows up, if she passes all the health tests, etc. etc. etc.

But we are hopeful!

And in the meantime, send good thoughts for Topper. She's gonna need a LOT of TLC in the next few days! Poor baby...

I'm a Grandma!!

... at least in the sense that one of my "puppies" has become a Father!!

Keeper was chosen by Kinsey's breeder Vicki to sire a litter for her lovely girl Jazz - you can see photos and other details of both parents (including health information) on our web site.

Keeper is pretty pleased with himself!!

But for now, puppy pictures!!
They were born July 22. 3 brindle boys, 1 fawn boy, 2 fawn girls and 1 brindle girl.

Here they are 4 days old - the fawn boy is on the left next to his two fawn sisters and a brindle boy. If you look very closely you can see another brindle puppy under the pig rail* on the far left - you can just see his or her leg sticking out.


Here are 3 of the brindles - the girl is at the bottom of the picture and two of the brindle boys are in the top part of the photo.

*A "pig rail" is a shelf built into the sides of a whelping box used for large breeds - the puppies are so small in relation to the size of the mother that it would be easy for her to squash one so the rail gives the pups a safe space around the edges.

Sorting things out

I just added some photos of our "kids" to the sidebar, hopefully to help you all sort out who is who, and so when I write about one or another of our dogs I won't have to re-explain the relationships each time. They don't all live with us, of course - Gus, Keeper and Buck all have marvelous, wonderful homes with terrific people. But we are fortunate enough to see them all pretty regularly, and I write about them often enough that they needed to be listed here, too.

Random shots

Since the planets have aligned, and our computer AND external hard drive AND scanners are all working and talking to each other, I thought I'd better take the opportunity to post some photos that have been taken over the past few months. Enjoy!

First, some photos of our stripey girl Topper since she's had to take a back seat to her brothers lately:

Here she is in the ring last March. The lovely fawn girl behind her is "Jazz", aka Calypso's Born to Hand Jive, owned and handled by our mentor Vicki Monson.

Here's a side view:

On the more casual side, here's a photo of Gus relaxing at his home - Topper does this same thing, lying on her right hip but with the left side of her head on the bed, or vice versa.

Here Ronnie is getting some sugar from Teddy while they wait with Gus for their Brace class in Tulsa last fall.

And here are some pictures of Keeper...

Front,

Side,

... and airborne! This is a still from my video camera. I have no idea what he was looking at, but he is a very springy dog!

Catching up

The house remodeling continues, but I think we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I think it's time for another pet-related post!! Enough of the stupid house (except... House, if you're listening, I am just kidding! Hahahaha).

We're focusing on Agility with the dogs this summer - which may not be the most brilliant thing to do this time of year, given our blistering Texas summers. But Teddy and Kinsey's classes are at night, and Topper's is early in the morning so we're all good. Topper has just finished Beginner Agility and she's doing great. And - as I fully expected - she LOVES loves loves climbing on things. The A-frame, the dogwalk... we haven't trained on the big teeter yet but she's eyeing it too. Actually, when they were little bitty I set a tiny teeter out for the pups to play on, and they loved to just walk down the length of it and make it tip - then they'd turn around and walk to the other end. Back and forth - the therapist in me was thinking "that vestibular stimulation must be good for them!" But Topper has always been a climber.

On the other hand, her brother Teddy is a RUNNER. By Golly that dog is fast... he probably honed his speed trying to get away from his mom and his sister who pick on him constantly. He's got a really long stride too. Ronnie is working with him - no way I can keep up with THAT! - and even he is having to really think 2 or 3 obstacles ahead or else Teddy just gets past him. Teddy seems to really enjoy Agility - but then again he's always been a happy boy.

Speaking of Teddy, he tried to follow in his big brother Keeper's footsteps by injuring himself the day we were leaving for the Oklahoma City shows (see this). Nothing nearly so drastic though - but it was equally puzzling. He was outside for literally no more than 10 or 15 minutes, and came in with a small puncture/tear just behind his right shoulder. It looked like he caught himself on a nail somewhere, but we don't have any protruding nails out there. Anyway, a quick trip to the vet, some surgical glue and antibiotics and he was good to go. Hopefully anyway - there was always the possibility that he'd be a bit sore there and wouldn't be able to be shown. But he's doing fine! In fact, today he went Winner's Dog for his first Major!

And last but not least, it appears that our catless days are over. I have had cats literally all my life, even before my first dog. But my last cat passed away a few years ago at the age of 20 or so, and since then we've just been really busy with the dogs. I knew the right cat would come along at some point - and I knew Ronnie would have to really be in on it too. He will tell you that he's not really a cat person but he can sure fall in love with "the right cat". So a month or so ago he started making friends with a pretty little black and white cat outside. I hadn't seen her before, and she's in very good shape and very friendly - I wouldn't be surprised if someone had moved away and abandoned her. She obviously hasn't been a stray for long. We're introducing her to the dogs slowly - they're doing OK but Teddy and Topper in particular have never lived with a cat, and they are FASCINATED. Fortunately she is very calm around the dogs. She's still living mostly outside, but as soon as we're sure we can keep her safely away from the dogs when we're not here to supervise we'll move her permanently indoors.

Oh, and her name? Ronnie started calling her "Zeebee" and I asked what that meant. He said "what animal is black and white?" I said, "a zebra". He grinned sheepishly and said, well, "Z.B. stands for zebra". For some reason I think that's hilarious. It probably loses something in the translation though. But anyway, I'll post some pics of the Danes and Zeebee (ZB? ZiBi? How the hell do I spell that?) soon.

Where has the time gone?

Aaaaak! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted here! Between the computer finally, well and truly, turning-its-toes-up-and-REALLY dying and a lot of work related stuff I've just been away too long.

But boy oh boy do I have NEWS!! We have our first two home-bred AKC Champions! Keeper finished his Championship on January 5 and his brother Gus finished his just a week later, on January 13. It's amazing to finish two dogs in one year - but for it to happen within a few days of each other, and to LITTERMATES is just overwhelming.

I'm still grinning from ear to ear, as you can imagine... photos will appear ASAP.

Tulsa!!

We got back from a 3-day show weekend in Tulsa late Sunday night, and I'm still playing catch-up.

But what a weekend it was!! We took our two "pups" Topper and Teddy, along with their brother Gus who belongs to some dear friends of ours. And their other brother Keeper was there with his owner. All 4 were entered in conformation classes all 3 days, plus Keeper was entered in obedience. PLUS, Gus and Teddy (who are practically identical fawn boys) were entered in a special Brace class that was offered all 3 days. In Brace, you have 2 dogs with one handler - the dogs should work side by side, on the handler's left. I thought my hubby was pretty brave to attempt this with two young male Danes - who together weigh over 300 lbs. and could probably pull a beer wagon.

But it all worked out great! Keeper was the star, he got his second Major win on Saturday and a Reserve (no points, it's basically a runner-up thing) on Sunday. Best of all, he finished his Companion Dog obedience title! Now he is:

Symmetry's No Vrroom At the Inn, RN, CD

Topper didn't get any points, but got two Reserves. Her turn will come soon, I'm sure.

And Gus and Ted were a HUGE hit!! It is very impressive to see a Great Dane brace - they were a crowd favorite for sure. One day the judge even applauded them as they came into the ring! And all the judges had funny comments along the line of "You are a brave man" or "It's sure a good thing they get along!" :-) And they won BEST BRACE IN SHOW Friday and Saturday!! (And yes, they did have competition for it!)

I did get lots of photos and videos, fear not. But I'm leaving town again Thursday to visit some dear-but-far-away friends and I may not have time to upload them before I leave. If not, I'll have lots to post when I get back!

I've got a new toy!

Slowly but surely we (meaning me) are entering the DIGITAL AGE, and I got me a new camcorder! Do I hear collective groans from the audience? Well, you probably should be groaning because...

TAA-DAA!

Here is my first attempt at posting a video:

This is Keeper opening our patio door.

Breathtaking video, isn't it? :-)

He learned this trick from his mother Kinsey (or possibly he learned it the same way she did, from watching us open it). But whereas Kinsey gently noses it just far enough open to let her through, Keeper opens it much faster and he usually gives the door a giant push that opens it about halfway. The only reason he's more cautious here is that I'm standing right there, telling him not to come out!

Brindle snobs

Have you ever noticed that dogs that look alike, tend to want to hang out together? For example, if you're out with your dog and you meet another dog of the same breed, your dog is likely to be more attracted to that dog than to a dog of another breed. This holds true (in my experience at least) even if you don't have other dogs of that same breed at home. Which has always made me wonder, how do they know? I mean, it's not like they spend a lot of time looking at themselves in the mirror.

With our crew, it goes beyond that into - I'm ashamed to admit - color prejudice. When Gus or Buck (both are fawn colored) are here they play with Teddy all the time:

But when Keeper is here, after a while he and Topper start playing together (they're both brindle) and they leave poor Teddy to his own devices:

Teddy wants to play with them...

"Look guys, I've got a big ball!"

Poor Ted gives up - you can see him behind Keeper chewing on a bully stick.

Leaving Topper and Keeper to play to their hearts' content!

Visitor!

See? I told you, five Danes. Because Keeper is back to visit! He's #4 in the picture (in case you're wondering, #1 is Kinsey, #2 is Aeryn, #3 is Teddy and #5 is Topper).

Everything is fine this time - his owner is out of town for a few days so he's here at Camp Symmetry. We are always glad to see the big goober - and as I've said before, we firmly believe that having frequent visitors is good for our crew. I really think that is one of the reasons they get along with other dogs so well. For example, remember that both Teddy and Keeper are intact males - and although I still think of them as "puppies", they are over two years old so are fully mature sexually. We're careful about introducing them when they haven't seen each other in a while, and we do keep an eye on them to prevent minor incidents from escalating into anything major - but really everything is very peaceful.

Well, "peaceful" in between all the running around:

But you gotta admit, they are having a good time!

Dane totem

As we were preparing to leave the show in Monroe a couple of weeks ago, we had once again to deal with the logistics of traveling with a lot of big dogs. Once you take the crates down, you have to have somewhere to put the dogs while you're packing them into the van. In our van, it's MUCH easier to load stuff like that while the dogs are not present. Keeper's owner had come to the show too, and had her own van which CAN be loaded with dogs inside. So now we've got a system - since we had 4 Danes there between us, we put Keeper and his sister Topper in her van, and I held Teddy and Gus while she and Ronnie loaded the vans. Don't worry - she had her AC running so Topper and Keeper were comfortable.

Anyway, she went to the side door of her van and opened it to get something, and the two dogs poked their heads out as she started to open the door with Keeper's head on top.

My favorite part of the story is, she had the presence of mind to shut the door, go get her camera and then open the door again to take the picture! And it was worth it:

Doesn't Topper look pleased????

Newsflash, more show dog abuse!!

I'm still catching up on emails and such since the computer was down for so long... and realize that Keeper's owner had sent us some expose' photos she took in the Houston hotel that reveal more of the dark, tormented world of the typical show dog.

Oh, the horror!! (the silver thing is the bandage on his foot, that we replaced each afternoon to be sure he didn't hurt it again. There is normal bandage material underneath, but - you guessed it - good ol' duct tape works best to save the bandage from wearing through, and resists minor removal attempts.)

I can't bear to watch...make it stop!!

I will blast you with my laser eyes if you try to make me get off the bed.

Now We Are Two!

And once again, I'm late with the birthday wishes for our pups - I'm such a bad "grandma". They were two on August 27. And it also goes to show what a bad blogger I am, that their first birthday post was just a few messages ago. I'm going to try to post regularly here, and also try to NOT just post about show results. I'll put those on our web site at http://symmetrydanes.freeservers.com/index.html

But this is a better venue for stories, opinions, and just the funny stuff that happens pretty regularly when you live with Danes.

Last year I posted a birthday picture of Keeper that his owner sent me. She sent me a very similar picture this year:

Keeper Age 2

He's wearing the same hat, look how much smaller the hat looks this year than it did last year:

Keeper Age 1



And Buck's owner sent me a birthday picture too:

She said he was waiting for his birthday doughnut!

So happy, happy birthday to Topper, Teddy, Keeper, Gus and Buck - we love you all!

But where will I sleep?

Every now and then you hear or read some piece of nonsense from PETA talking about how poorly show dogs are treated. The truth is, people who show dogs are like most pet owners - or rather, like a slice from the top two-thirds or so of the general pet owning population. Some will inevitably care more than others, some will be more personally invested in the dog's welfare than others.

But what I meant by that "top two-thirds" crack is that you really don't see the TOTAL deadbeats in the dog show world. Whether you truly love your show dogs or mostly see them as a means to an end, the bottom line is that the dog has to be reasonably healthy, in a good weight, good coat etc. or you are wasting a LOT of money going to dog shows.

But many of us regard our show dogs first and foremost as family members.

I know Ronnie and I do. Our dogs live with us in our home, and when we travel with them to shows they get pretty good accommodations.

As a result, our dogs rather enjoy going to shows.

Teddy certainly does.

(This was taken Memorial Day weekend 2007 in Monroe Louisiana with my cell phone - excuse the poor photo. Teddy didn't win anything other than a ginormous share of the bed. But his brothers Gus and Keeper each won one day!)

Can't stop smiling!

Well I guess the crossed fingers worked!

The show last weekend was in Houston. We drove down pretty late Thursday evening, and our show time was first thing Friday morning. Keeper's foot was still bandaged - we left it on to protect the pad. Half an hour before we were due to show, we were taking the bandage off and cleaning the tape residue off his leg.

Or trying to - thank Goodness he's a stripey boy and the stripes hide a LOT of stuff!! Like, specifically, tape residue.

This was Keeper's first show since February - he was going through a growth spurt and just needed to mature a little. WE thought he was ready to show now, and ready to do well but, then... we're predjudiced.

Guess what?

He WON!! His foot was fine, he absolutely floated around the ring! And got not only Winner's Dog but also Best of Winners - which gave him his first Major! (In the AKC, dogs need at least 2 wins at Major shows - which are 3 to 5 points each depending on how many dogs are exhibited - with a total of 15 points to become a Champion. Smaller shows might award just one or two points.)

And then the next day he won again!! Didn't get Best of Winners that time, so he "only" got 2 points.

But 5 points for 2 days!! Woooooo-hoooooooo!! Hooray Keeper!

And we didn't have to pay for his owner's hotel room after all :-P

PS: Here's the win photo:

Bad Timing

Keeper was entered in a show the last weekend in June. Just as his owner, K., was packing up to leave for the show she let him out one more time. When he came back in, there was blood ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

He had badly cut his foot on something.

Which knocked him out of showing not only those 3 days, but 4 days of shows the following weekend - including our home club specialty.

SEVEN DAYS of entries - some of which were not only entries in conformation classes, but also obedience classes since she is MUCH MUCH better than I have been lately about getting to classes and really working with her dog.

It wasn't a life-threatening injury, or even a career threatening one... Keeper will be fine.

But boy did his timing suck! Those were the first shows he's been entered in for MONTHS since he's had a lot of growing to do. It just means it's one of the most expensive pad cuts I've ever heard of!

To make matters worse, then he started taking the bandage off while she was at work and licking the foot, which hinders the healing. So we decided to keep him here for a few weeks since either Ronnie or I can usually manage to be home to keep an eye on him. He's entered in 3 more days of shows this weekend, and we all would REALLY like for him not to miss those too!

But we knew K would miss the big goober! However we had a great plan...
Keeper would do fine here with all the other dogs - he's been here before and they all get along. But Teddy, who has always had a tendency to be a bit clingy, was getting worse (sometimes destructive when both Ronnie and I leave the house) and needed to go stay with someone else for a while. So he could get a refresher that the big, wide world is NOT a scary place, and that he'll be fine no matter who he is with.

So we traded. Keeper came here, and Teddy went there.

It's worked out great - Keeper has kept his bandage on, the foot is healing well and he enjoys playing with his sister Topper:



And Teddy has done just fine at Auntie K's house.

The tricky part will be if Keeper's foot is, indeed, well enough healed for him to show this weekend. It's looking good but he is one BIG dog and we don't want it to tear open or anything while he's trotting along in the ring.

I told her tonight on the phone that he'd be fine and we were good to go (crossing my fingers all the while). She's already paid the entry fees, those are gone whether he shows or not. But this is an out-of-town show so there isn't any point in her paying for a hotel room if she can't show her dog.


After I hung up, I turned to my husband and said "We may be paying for her hotel room!" If Keeper isn't sound enough to show despite my optimism that he will be fine, that's the least we can do to make it up to her.

Keep those fingers crossed...

The National!

The Great Dane National Specialty. All Great Danes, All the time for 8 days.

Heaven!! :-)

My very favorite part of this is spending an entire week with hundreds of other people who all think that living with giant dogs is perfectly normal. You never once hear witticisms like "Gotta saddle for that thing?"

It's part dog show, part exhibition, part pomp & pageantry, part reunion (seeing friends from other parts of the country that you only see at the National).

It's fun and sometimes breathtaking and sometimes sad and often hilarious and very tiring!

Our kids did GREAT!!
They all made the cut or placed in their classes - but more importantly they handled the whole thing very well. This was by far the longest trip any of them have made and they all traveled well and seemed to enjoy the whole experience. We were on the 9th floor in our hotel so there were a lot of elevator rides every day and other new things. They became quite accustomed to hearing someone shriek when the elevator doors opened - you learn quickly to not let the dog charge out of the elevator when the doors open or you'll give the housekeeping staff heart attacks.

And they ATE!! I feed a raw diet to my dogs - I'll talk about this more in a future post. But just before we left for the National, Gus and his brother Teddy both went through a growth spurt and were looking a little thin. Not unhealthy, but you obviously want your dogs looking their best for something like your National. They were eating well so I fed them a LOT and by the end of the week they'd each put on a few pounds and looked great. This is one of the things I love about a raw diet - what goes in the dog, stays in the dog. The boys were eating probably 5 or 6 lbs of meat a day EACH and yet when it came time to walk them, you could pick up the poop with one hand in a baggie easily.

Here are some photos from the National - these were taken by our dear friends Chantel & Stacey Johnson, Mary Ann Land or Zeli Schulte.





This was the logo and theme for the 2006 National. I love this logo.

This is Ronnie with our girl Topper:

Ronnie and Topper's brother Gus - he's always wagging his tail. Gus, that is - not Ronnie!



Ronnie with their brother Teddy. It may look like Teddy is getting a lecture, but Ronnie is just getting him to focus his attention.



Here are a couple more pictures of Our Boy Teddy:

Here's their brother Keeper with Chantel - he placed third in the huge 12-15 month Futurity class!

The classes at the National can be QUITE large:

Keeping the dogs cool - the square cloths are chamois that when soaked in cold water will stay cold for a long time. Many show dogs learn to drink out of spray bottles - that's what the dog closest to the camera is doing. It's an easy way for the handler to have and carry water at ringside for the dogs. Misting water on their coats also helps keep them cool. This convention center was climate controlled of course, but it got a little warm in the afternoons.

Everyone loves watching the 3 to 5 month class in Futurity. The first entries for these babies are sent in before the litter is even born! Here is Mike Holle with a beautiful little brindle girl:

Kinsey (mother of Topper, Gus, Teddy and Keeper) and Ronnie watching some classes. Well, Ronnie is watching - Kinsey is pouting because he's not allowing her to work the crowd for treats.

Here are two GORGEOUS Black Danes. The one on the right is Tiger who belongs to Chantel. I'm not sure who the pretty girl on the left is.

It's not all just about looking good at the National - there are performance events too. We didn't get any shots of Kinsey in Agility (she won her Novice Jumpers class!) but here is the Sit Stay portion of the Novice Obedience class. Chantel's boy Tiger is second in line (second closest to the camera). Kinsey is on the other side of him.

This lovely picture of Tiger during the Down Stay portion of the Novice Obedience class was taken by Zeli Schulte. Tiger finished his Novice Obedience title at the National! But this picture pretty well sums up how we all felt by the end of the week:

If there is a particular breed of dog you love, chances are that the national club for that breed hosts a National Specialty somewhere in the country each year. I highly recommend attending when you can - even if you aren't especially interested in showing there is NO better place to meet people who love and are knowledgeable about your breed! Plus you get to see dogs from all over the country and even the vendors carry supplies and gifts geared toward that breed. The web site for the national club for each breed will have information about the National Specialties.