Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring has sprung! It's been a mild winter and an early spring in Northeastern Minnesota. The snow has all but completely disappeared, and the ice on the area lakes is getting thinner every day. Still, we are finding opportunities to go ice-fishing, and Savage finds it fun to run alongside the snowmobile, though the fishing itself doesn't impress him much. He licks the freshly caught trout and eelpout, but will only eat them if they are filleted and preferably lightly steamed. He does enjoy being around my family, where I spend most of my ice-fishing time, and climbing on me and Randy if he thinks we're not paying enough attention to our Baby Dog.
Last weekend we three ended up helping a friend and her husband with some construction on their new house, and I brought along the Great Dane. We spent the whole day working in the sun while Savage ranged around following squirrels and such. Of course, I was apprehensive about bringing him when I knew there would be another dog around, but he got along fine with their miniature dachshund, which was a great relief to me. I've been (perhaps overly) concerned about aggression since Sav had his scary mood swings when he was on steroids. Since then, whenever he meets another dog I'm quite anxious, even though I try to tell myself to calm down because I'm no doubt making the situation worse.
Anyway, after working for awhile, another friend showed up to help, bringing along his black Lab/Great Dane mix. Then another couple of friends arrived with a yellow Lab (both dogs are male, but neutered). I busied myself with work and hoped for the best, and before I knew it, all three "big" dogs were charging around the house, playing and tearing up grass! When we took a break for lunch, I did my best to keep the dogs separated and they laid down in the sand and simply watched the humans eat barbecued burgers on the deck. No fights, and not even a close call!
Lately I'm finding more and more reasons to be proud of my big doggie. I tend to think that at 4 years and 4 months old, he's becoming more mature, even though he still has his silly puppy behaviors and idiosyncrasies. I did fall in love with Savage as a little 8-week-old puppy, and I hope he keeps that loveable "puppiness" for the rest of his life.
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Since my goal is to find other Dane people,I'm so happy to have found your blog. Having multiple Danes myself, dog aggression has always been a concern of mine. We've stuck by some basic rules since day one and, while not completely eliminating some issues, we haven't had any major problems. We'll be bringing home another baby in two weeks and I've never introduced a puppy before--so I'm a little nervous. Hopefully I'll have as pleasant a surprise as Savage gave you in this post.