Meet our new puppy!

As some of you know, we lost our Bernese Mtn Dog, Gus in November.  He left a great big hole in our hearts, the house was too quiet and our other Bernese, one of Gus' puppies, Ruxton was very sad without him.

We made it about a month before we decided to start thinking about another dog. Mostly because Ruxton was home alone all day and he was sad. That's my story and anyone who says anything different has their pants on fire.

We tried a couple of the local adoption days at the pet stores but all they had were little pocket dogs. If those are your thing then go for it but we like proper sized dogs.

The local shelter had two big dogs available. One was a senior German Shepherd with some health issues that needed to be an only dog, The other was a Labrador cross who seemed completely disinterested in us and had only been there a couple days. The shelter was having a free adoption day the next weekend and being right before Christmas, we figured they would both be ok.

We found an ad for some puppies, only two left so we went and had a look. The owner was a nice fellow whose name was completely unpronounceable due to him being from Uzbekistan of all places.

This is Stella, our 5 month old house horse.

Here she is with our 5 year old Bernese.

She's a Great Dane, Caucasian Ovcharka cross. 

She's 5 months old and she weighs 68lbs.

Not really sure what I've gotten myself into but she's calm, quiet and cuddly. 

Aww, congratulations!!

She looks like a bestest girl!  How is Ruxton getting along so far?

Danes are great dogs. Be careful letting them up on couches though they have no concept of personal space as they get older and think nothing of sleeping on top of you. Or my favorite behavior of laying on your feet so you have to pet them.

In reply to Duke :

We were a bit worried about that because he was used to wrestling with a full grown dog and she is a pup but he was surprisingly gentle with her when we brought her home.

They're best buddies now. When they're home together, they're never far apart.

In reply to wearymicrobe :

Yes, we've figured that out. Lol.

We have a Great Dane/Boxer mix named Enzo and he is a great dog, gentle, kind, loving, good with kids, cats, other dogs etc.

He was a perfect angel until about month 7, when he decided to do every "naughty" thing a puppy can do, at ONCE. Chewed up $100's of dollars worth of DVDs, CDs, shoes, hats, pants, bras, etc.

He now has a "Dude" cave with a baby-gate that we put him in (during the day) when we can't take him with us (he often goes with me for work)...two big comfy chairs and a big picture window to look out of, basket of toys, big bowl of water, rugs on the hardwood floor, etc. He's so used to the arrangement that he'll put himself in there when the wife is ready to go to work.

He's a huge scaredy-cat when it comes to weird noises, weird movements (ours and others) and new, exciting, random phobias. But he's put himself in charge of the pack (2 other dogs, Boxer and Pitbull/Jack Russell mix), and is surprisingly brave when it comes to watching over the family.

I hope yours brings you as much joy as ours has...he is definitely the baby of the family and doesn't have a clue how large he actually is. Just be aware that they can have joint issues, even when they are mixed-breed...Great Dane genes tend to be dominant for all the worst stuff like cancers, heart issues, joint issues, and dying young. Sorry to throw the buzzkill moment in, but keeping on eye on stuff and being prepared can help you deal with issues as they arise, rather than being blindsided.

Awesome! Before we got Milo (and Frosty, RIP) we used to dog watch for our friends Great Danes. Actually just hung out with them yesterday too. My only advice that you may not yet know, and this is only applicable to males between 5’6” and 6’4”, is watch out for their tails. I seriously considered wearing a jockstrap around the house when we would watch them. 

mtn said:

Awesome! Before we got Milo (and Frosty, RIP) we used to dog watch for our friends Great Danes. Actually just hung out with them yesterday too. My only advice that you may not yet know, and this is only applicable to males between 5’6” and 6’4”, is watch out for their tails. I seriously considered wearing a jockstrap around the house when we would watch them. 

Yeah, those whip tails are something else. We call it the "table clearer" at our house.

Full tails also mean you have to watch out for "happy tail"...they'll split the tip of their tail, causing interesting splatter patterns on the walls and carpet...eventually it can lead to needing amputation if they aren't monitored to prevent infection or bleed-out. But I wouldn't trade that big, goofy, happy tail wag for anything in the world!

wearymicrobe said:

Danes are great dogs. Be careful letting them up on couches though they have no concept of personal space as they get older and think nothing of sleeping on top of you. Or my favorite behavior of laying on your feet so you have to pet them.

It's not even an older dog thing.  My sister and BIL have a Dane named Ollie, who is maybe 4-5 years old.  If you sit on the couch he will sidle up to you like the Staten Island Ferry docking and just park his ass right on your lap, with his front feet on the ground.  He doesn't even have to lift his haunches; he just folds the rear legs off to the side and collapses onto you.

Bubba:

Along with a lot of other things, passed last September.   RIP fella.

This is Meisje on the ride home:

Here she is today, on her 6th month birthday:

I'll weigh her today, but last week, she was 66 lbs. She was growing a pound a day, but she's slowed down to around a pound a week now.

I have a 90lb lap dog And she's awesome. That puppy is cute!

ShawnG said

This is Stella, our 5 month old house horse.

Hey, we have a Stella too!  She was in the Puppy Bowl and we adopted her.

Congrats on the new pup! Great Danes are awesome dogs. We used to do walks with a training club when we first got our dog Holly, and there was a 1 year old Great Dane pup that would walk with us. He was hilarious! He didn't understand that he was around 5x bigger than all the other dogs, and would run around like a doofus with the rest of them. He'd be tripping over himself to chase them all!

Gingerbeardman said:

mtn said:

Awesome! Before we got Milo (and Frosty, RIP) we used to dog watch for our friends Great Danes. Actually just hung out with them yesterday too. My only advice that you may not yet know, and this is only applicable to males between 5’6” and 6’4”, is watch out for their tails. I seriously considered wearing a jockstrap around the house when we would watch them. 

Yeah, those whip tails are something else. We call it the "table clearer" at our house.

Full tails also mean you have to watch out for "happy tail"...they'll split the tip of their tail, causing interesting splatter patterns on the walls and carpet...eventually it can lead to needing amputation if they aren't monitored to prevent infection or bleed-out. But I wouldn't trade that big, goofy, happy tail wag for anything in the world!

Our pit/lab mix did this for the first 6 months or so after we brought her home from the pound (she had been returned once). We still occasionally find a random spot of blood like 7ft up on a wall or something. 

Gingerbeardman said:

Pitbull/Jack Russell mix

This dog must get CRAZY cases of the "zoomies!"

So looks like we need a "please dont post pictures of your new puppy" thread? 
this is louise/weezy. Got her saturday. Staffordshire terrier mix.  

Awesome dogs!

Glad I'm not the only one.

In reply to Dr. Hess :

Those are some good lookin' dogs, but that was a handsome boy!

In reply to z31maniac :

She does! Sweetest 55lb. lap dog, but sooo much terrier in one wee body. She's hell on rabbits and squirrels. Never caught a squirrel yet, but she's had them cornered on the porch when they were stealing chicken feed. You can't imagine the mess!

In reply to TJL :

She looks like trouble.