A few weeks ago I bought the Petsafe Wireless Fence system for our house. The system includes a 18 kHz radio transmitter that mounts on the wall in the house and monitors the signal from the dog's reciever collar. When the transmitter loses the signal (when the collar crosses the owner-defined boundary) the reciever "corrects" the dog with an electric pulse. The receiver comes with two different length sets of contact points for short or long-haired dogsI had serious doubts about the effectiveness of the wireless system because my Savage is very sensitive and the corrections might scare him too much. I also know that it has been absolutely impossible to even slow him down when he sees the fox outside the house, and I didn't believe even an electric shock could stop him from chasing it. Installing the system was made difficult by the fact that the full 180 foot diameter of the "safe zone" passes through the thick woods behind our house, as well as around the yard and driveway, so I had to crawl through the brush to mark the boundaries. Also, the boundary flags included with the system were useless on snow-covered ground. Being white, they are almost invisible, and the thin wire just sunk into the snow. I solved that problem by buying an inverted can of orange spray paint and actually marking a continuous line on the snow. After shocking myself to see how strong the corrections were, I adjusted the collar to the #2 level (there are five levels of correction, plus beep-only mode), filled my pockets with treats, and set out to teach Savvy his new boundaries. In the beginning he was frightened, but easily learned that the uncomfortable shock is always preceded by beeping noises, and it took him only a couple hours over two days to fully understand the meaning of the orange line, and the consequences of stepping over it. In the following weeks, he has only attempted to cross the line twice when there are people in the yard beyond the safe zone. Each time he has gotten shocked and quickly turned back. We have had no fox sightings yet, so that may be a different story. For the first few days after he learned the boundaries, he stayed right next to me when we were in the yard, assuming that wherever I walked must be safe. Day by day he increased his roaming area, and now I think he's comfortable knowing where he is and is not allowed to go. His safe zone includes the yard, the porch, our trucks and snowmobiles, the grassy hill he uses as a bathroom, his designated "bone-chewing" area, and the woods behind the house.
So far the system has worked very well, and wasn't too time-consuming to install. Because we live on R.'s mother's property, and will be moving into our new house this summer (hopefully) I can't really put up a physical fence, and would reccommend the Petsafe Wireless Fence to anyone in a similar position. The transmitter is completely portable so I can set it up at the new place when we move. The second level of correction controls my 150 lb dog fine, and I feel comfortable letting him roam outside without watching him constantly, though I would never leave the house with him outside unattended. It gives both Savage and I a little more freedom, without putting him in danger. The entire system cost me about $270.00 and I feel that it's been worth it in only the short time we've been using it.
The only thing that bothers me is that the collar only comes in one color: red. And I was so hoping for purple. LOL.

At 14 months old, my baby dog has finally taken a real interest in the opposite sex, in the form of a friend's unspayed female foster dane. My friends took Savage out to play on the lake while I did some chores at home and after about 10 minutes I got a phone call from Sarah telling me to come back and pick up my dog. She said Savvy was almost uncontrollable as soon as he realized the female was in heat. The girl was very receptive to him and they had to be separated immediately. He has been around a few females in heat before and has never shown much interest so this is a brand new thing.
I have been putting off neutering Savage until I'm confident that he has reached his full height and weight. Since he hadn't had any hint of a sex drive before this incident and because I watch him so closely around other dogs, it has not been a problem at all. Now I'm going to have to be even more careful and may even consider having him fixed sooner. One more thing to worry over. *sigh*

I've decided that my puppy is now old enough to run alongside my snowmobile for exercise, and for the last week we've been going out for brief runs on the frozen lake while the weather is favorable. I'm being careful not to push him too hard and we take breaks often to let him calm down. He's discovered a new love of running, and even when I'm idling along slowly he's racing up ahead. After we stop to rest and I start the engine again, he goes nuts barking and whining for the snowmobile to move. I keep the exercise sessions as short as 5-10 minutes, and afterward he doesn't seem the least bit exhausted.
My Savage looks absolutely breath-taking running full speed alongside me, with his long legs and powerful muscles working so efficiently. And I think he really enjoys running. Who would have guessed my lazy pup is such an athlete?
By the way, the backdrop of snow makes it more difficult for me to get really nice outdoor pictures of the dogs so I'm not posting a lot of photos lately. Also, look for an upcoming blog post which will explain more about the wireless fence system and how it's working out for Savage and I.

This morning it was -15 degrees outside, and windy. Therefore we skipped our morning walk. As usual when he doesn't get exercise early in the day, Savvy busied himself with tearing up cardboard boxes and charging around the house and basically being a pain in the butt. I know he's bored but he doesn't even want to go outside for a few minutes when it's cold, so R.'s son and I tried to entertain him indoors.
Around noon, with temperatures climbing to 20 degrees, I loaded him in my new (to me) truck and drove to my place of work to meet some snowmobile customers, and I left Savage in the truck for about an hour and a half. Usually he's a perfect angel and has never torn the seatcovers, or chewed on the belts or anything. Except for a few pawprints and short grey hairs, the truck was spotless... But not anymore. Now the back seat upholstery is shredded, and torn blobs of foam are scattered all over the cab. And Savvy's daddy and mama are pretty pissed off.
But it's hard to be mad at him when I know that I should have spent some time in the morning doing something, anything with him to alleviate his boredom and exhaust some of his energy. Tomorrow we will take a morning walk (even if it has to be brief) and I will begin to patch up my back seat as much as possible. Ugh.

Over the holiday season our family has been really busy and Savvy has done a wonderful job dealing with strangers (to him) stopping by and the interruption of his normal routines. This was his first Christmas with R. and I! We had no Christmas tree, so no worries there about my puppy eating tinsel or anything. From his "grandma" he got a big stocking filled with puppy toys, which he proceeded to scatter gleefully around the house and yard. My present to him may be less appreciated but it's become a necessity. I am ordering a "radio fence" for our yard, which is an transmitter that allows him to run free while being confined to a pre-determined area. It involves an electronic shock collar that will warn him with beeping as he approaches the perimeter, and before he actually gets a "correction". I can no longer assume my pup will always come when he's called, and with the road and the snowmobile trail being so close I've realized that he's got to be better controlled. I now know that I should have done this months ago.
Savvy's foot pads are still sensitive to the ice and snow, but I think they'll toughen up with more brief periods of exposure. He enjoys playing in the snow (what little snow we have) and if I find it necessary to buy him booties I will. It's still not cold enough that we need to limit our walks, and he hasn't needed to wear a coat yet. My friend knitted him a thick, soft neck-warmer that I can pull over his ears, since they are the first part of his body to get cold, and that will help tremendously when we snowmobile up the lake to my parents' place. With the first snowmobilers out and about, and R. and I preparing our three sleds, I can tell Savvy is excited about riding again. He gets startled when the engines start, but then wants to crawl right up on the seat. I hate to think it might be impossible for him to ride this year, but he is getting huge. Next I'll probably be buying him a sled to tow behind the snowmobile!
I continue to apply udder balm to his elbow callouses daily and it seems to be softening them up a little. I'd like to prevent them from getting bigger and becoming cracked, both for his comfort and for looks. His ear tips are still floppy when he runs and I'm sure I should have continued taping a bit longer. In any case, he looks magnificent standing still, so I'm probably going to leave them alone and stop being a perfectionist, at least regarding my dog's ears...
By the way, as you can see in the picture, Savage has finally made peace with the new couch.
Happy Holidays, Dane lovers!!

This is Savvy's little blonde girlfriend. She is a 6 month old fawn female that Sarah (Ted's mom) is now fostering. She is recovering from HOD (hypertrophic osteodystrophy), and our hope is that she will finally find her home up here on the Trail. In the short time that Sava and I got to meet her, she made a wonderful impression, having a sweet, well-adjusted personality, and of course, she is very beautiful, delicate and feminine. We are both simply in love with this girl.

I debated back and forth with myself whether I should even post this story in my blog, but something happened this morning that finally made me do it. It began last week, when Savi and I were driving to Grand Marais and I decided to stop and take him hiking along the way. We did a short, steep hike to a view overlooking a lake, and he got to charge up and down the trail, sniff around, and get some exercise. When I made my way back to the truck parked at the trailhead, he detoured into the brush. As I called him to get into the truck, I heard a chain rattle on the ground, and immediately dashed over to save him. Sure enough, he started crying loudly, and when I got to him he had a trap stuck on his muzzle. He was surprised and shocked more than hurt, and I quickly released it's grip on him, and got him into the vehicle, but not before grabbing the trap and tossing it into the truck bed. Luckily, the trap was a small one, a #1 longspring with a jaw spread of about 4", so it didn't do much damage. It actually sprung on the front of his upper lip, and after a little bleeding, his upper lip (right under his nose) has a bare, pink spot.
At this point, let me explain that I am not opposed to fur-trapping. My family (living remotely in the bush) has done it to support themselves for many generations, and I was raised running traplines with my parents. I know there are ways to trap animals as sustainably and humanely as possible. Also, where my family traps there are absolutely no domestic pets, so a dog getting caught in a trap is unheard of. However, my puppy did get trapped, and this set was literally 3 feet off of a state hiking trail! Savage was off-leash that day, only because there were no other cars parked at the trailhead, and I knew there were no hikers he might disturb. But even on leash, he could have found the trap, and so could a child wandering along the edge of the trail. Because I grew up trapping, I automatically knew how to release the trap, but that's not something every hiker knows. Until now, I had the silly idea that trappers in our area might have enough ambition to actually walk even a few yards into the woods to set their traps, but apparently that is not the case. When I called one of our local conservation officers about the incident, he explained that the location of the set was completely legal, and all he could do was try to explain my concern to the trapper (whose trap I had to return, incidentally). The CO was sympathetic to my complaint, but could do little about it, and also told me that my dog was not the first caught in a trap this season. I remain pissed off that the trapper was so lazy and irresponsible to set his trap so close to a trail used by hundreds of tourists, their kids, and their pets each summer. Though it's late in the fall, obviously people (like me) still use that hiking trail. From now until the end of trapping season, I resolved to keep walking Sava on our normal route (Co. Rd 92 and Poplar Lake Access Rd.) because we haven't noticed any vehicle activity there except a couple of people that live along the road, and I assume it's safe.
This morning a friend that lives about 4 miles or so from me came over to show me the trap his dog got caught in. Apparently, one of his basset hounds got loose and was gone all night long. He had stopped by my house last night looking for her. This morning another friend heard a dog whining in the woods, and they found her with her nose stuck in a conibear-style body trap, baited with a chunk of deer meat (presumably Savvy ate the bait from "his" trap). The trap (size 220, designed for catching pine marten or mink) has a jaw spread of 7", making it the perfect size for basset noses. The dog is probably seriously injured, I'm thinking that it probably broke her nose, but I don't yet know the extent. My friend's wife was on her way to the vet with her dog, and I hope everything works out fine. I do know that this trap was set legally, and the dog was indeed running loose, so nothing else can be done about it. It just makes me disappointed that I will have to keep Savvy on a tight leash (no pun intended) when we walk anywhere there might be trapping activity. It also bears mentioning that while beaver, mink, marten, otter, etc. trapping seasons come and go, our coyote trapping season runs year-round.

This post is to commemorate my friend's wonderful blue dane, Ted, who died on October 26th, 2006 at 14 months old, as the result of complications from blastomycosis.
Ted was Sarah's first dane, and he arrived at the time when I was desperately searching for my Savvy. Our hope was that they would grow up together as best friends, and best friends they were. I first met Teddy Bear when he was 9 weeks old and immediately fell in love, as most people did when this little gray puppy turned on the charm. We introduced him to Savage about a week after I got him, and since then they had been quite a pair. Their personalities were amazingly similar, even if their coat colors, sizes, and overall "looks" were somewhat different. When a group of us would get together and take all the dogs swimming or walking, everyone else would be playing with eachother and having fun, but the two danes were off together in their own little world, just genuinely enjoying eachother's company.
Ted grew up quickly from the clumsy little baby he was into a tall, sleek, handsome boy. Yet he still retained the goofy puppy characteristics and joie-de-vivre that young dogs have. Before his illness started wearing on him, he weighed in excess of 140lbs and was on his way to being a huge dane, already the biggest pup from his litter. In typical dane fashion, he was truly a gentle giant. At a young age, he was already a therapy dog of sorts, visiting with the elderly residents in the care center weekly. He drew stares and comments wherever he went, being the first blue great dane most people up here have seen, and I can't even begin to count how many times people have called my puppy "Ted". I end up explaining that yes, there are two of them, and one's ears stand up and the other's don't. Watching Savi and Ted play together was fascinating, and it became somewhat of a spectator sport among the customers at Sarah's store down the Trail from our place. We both realized as they grew that no enclosed area is big enough to contain the antics of the two danes, but that didn't stop them, and they left a trail of tipped-over displays and empty shelves in their wake.
When Teddy died, Sarah lost her baby dog, and Savage also lost his best friend. Ted was there from the very beginning of Sava's life with me, and was a constant companion to Sarah, sharing her affection with her beloved rottweiler, Roger, and various foster dogs. He will be missed terribly.
The Story Of Savage contains numerous posts with stories and pictures of Ted, beginning in November of 2005. Any blue dane pictured with natural ears in this blog is Teddy Bear.

As far as we know, Teddy contacted blastomycosis sometime in September or October. In early October, Ted began coughing and his breathing was noticeably more labored. His initial diagnosis was kennel cough, though when his breathing got worse and he started coughing up blood, Sarah immediately rushed him back to the vet for a second opinion.
Understanding the love between danes and their humans, I was worried for both Ted and Sarah, and one of my greatest fears is blastomycosis. A couple of years ago we had a friend on the Gunflint Trail that lost two chocolate labs to the disease, after a lengthy, painful, and expensive treatment. My second cousin's spaniel was successfully treated for blasto, though he still may relapse. I know of two other cases in our immediate area, one being a human infection (successful treatment) and the other being a canine (fatal case). Because of the threat of blasto, Sarah asked her vet if that could be the cause of her dog's illness, but he assured her that it was definately not, and diagnosed Ted with pneumonia.
In that first week, Ted got noticeably weaker and lost quite a bit of weight. His fever was at 105 degrees, and not responding to the antibiotics at all. He refused to eat, and would only drink tiny amounts of water. His breathing was deep and seemed painful, his whole body laboring for each breath. Desperate, Sarah again drove him 150 miles to Duluth. At this point she took him to another vet whom she had dealt with before, and when she got home, sent me an email; "Teddy does have blasto." They began treatment right away, but I think poor Teddy was so weak from the disease and the fever and so dehydrated already that his immune system just couldn't handle the medications. Most blasto treatments involve medicine that is toxic to the liver and/or kidneys, and in the last days of his life, Ted's body was struggling to handle the disease and the medications both. At the end, he was succumbing to complete liver failure.
I went to see Ted maybe a week before he died, after he'd started medication. Weak and shaky, he wagged his tail when I walked in, and struggled off his futon to greet me. I was absolutely shocked at the amount of weight he'd lost, and how this healthy, robust puppy had changed in only a week or so to a dog that looked aged and helpless. He could barely draw breath, and I could hear his lungs rattling even when he was resting. But he wandered outside with Sarah and I and the rottweilers and drank some water, and I started to think that maybe he would make it. He heard Savi whining in my truck and perked up his big floppy ears, and I know he was anticipating playing with his little buddy again. I hugged him and told him he was a good, strong boy, and then I walked back down the driveway to my truck and hugged my own puppy for a very long time. I never saw Teddy again.
Blastomycosis is a horrible, painful disease. It's caused by a fungus in the soil, and dogs contact it by inhaling the mold spores. One of the insidious things about blasto is that it's so often mis-diagnosed (as in Ted's case). If the infection is recognized early on, treatment has a chance of working, but we have to be very alert to behavioral and physical changes in our puppies. We have to be aware of blasto, and know that it exists in our area. We have to force our vets to consider it, even though the diagnosis may be expensive and difficult. There is a great wealth of information on blasto online, and it's possible to find out if there have been reported cases in your geographic region. For example, the Minnesota Department Of Health's blastomycosis page has maps of cases by county of residence AND county of exposure. If you check these out, notice that St. Louis County (including Duluth), has the second highest number of cases on both maps. Savi and I live in Cook County, and Duluth is the closest big city to us. It's scary.
If you are concerned about blasto, simply type in "blastomycosis in dogs" on any search engine. Or visit Canis Major's page on blasto for a easy-to-understand summary. And get to know your dog, body and mind, so you can spot any changes. It may save his/her life.