A couple days ago we got our first snowstorm of the year. It's already melting, but Savvy got to go out and play around in it for two days. And he's absolutely in love with snow. Even though last winter his feet got cold and he didn't want to stay outside too long he still took advantage of every minute. Yesterday I (reluctantly) got up in the morning and took him out walking in the cold and windy weather and he had a blast pouncing and darting around in it, though there was only about 5" on the ground. R. started one of the snowmobiles to move it, and Savvy got all excited. I'm not looking forward to getting him to fit on one this winter.I promised to post pictures of Savage's new hooded sweatshirt. He should only need a coat in the coldest weather, and hopefully I'll find him warmer clothes for that. This hoodie I bought online, and this was the largest size it came in. Keep in mind that my 120lb puppy isn't even a year old yet and still has lots of growing to do. You can see how the hoodie is much shorter lengthwise than it should be, and too tight around the shoulder/chest area, which is why the collar isn't buttoned. The hood itself can't fit comfortably over his ears, even if I took out the elastic. Still, if he does get cold this fall, it will be useful just to preserve some of his body heat. Doesn't seem to restrict his movement at all, though when I first put it on him he wasn't too pleased. And it only cost $18 or so. Compared to most of my purchases for him that's nothing.

I don't ride a bicycle much (at all) but I thought biking with Savi would be an excellent way for both of us to get more exercise than our normal walks. A couple of problems presented themselves right away. To my surprise, Savage was quite a bit startled by the whole concept, having never seen his mama on wheels. I think he was worried I was going to take off and leave him alone. I was envisioning a leisurely ride with my dog trotting contentedly by my side. But it was not to be. He spends the entire time bouncing back and forth directly in the path of the tires, growling occassionally and pretty much wearing himself out. I'm worried he's a little obsessed, and I stopped riding and walked witht the bike when I started thinking he might overheat. (I'm not completely paranoid. It was really warm, even though it's October!) Once I got off the bike he stopped freaking out and allowed himself to sniff around off the gravel road and run ahead a ways.
Well, he did get a lot of exercise, so in that respect the biking episode was successful. My hope is that he will calm down a bit after we do a few more rides together.
Having my puppy to exercise and entertain does cause me to find new activities for us to do. Living and working in a tourist area, I find I don't do many of the things that the tourists come here specifically to do. Savage actually gives me a great excuse to explore the area. Yesterday we went on a hike through the forest, one that I've never done before. The trail leads to a huge magnetite rock sticking up out of the earth. It was really cool to be able to take time out of my day to just go hiking, because I would never have if I didn't have my puppy. In his own little way, he really opens me up to new experiences.

Since Savage wears the choke chain only for occassional training sessions now, and his blaze orange bandanna while hunting, we needed a comfortable everyday collar that also gave me a little control at the other end of the leash.The martingale-style collars work pretty well for that, but finding a cool-looking one was quite a search. I bought Sava his new collar from Shore Dog, which has a huge selection of wild fabric choices! (This fabric color is called "Groovy"). As you may know, I don't normally link to commercial sites, but I was so impressed with the product, selection of colors and sizes, and service I received from Shore Dog that I had to give them props on my site. Check 'em out!

Finally got my camera charger, and went crazy taking dane pictures today! So this is my baby Savage at almost 11 months old! It's hard to believe his first birthday is fast approaching. The picture below illustrates how far he's come. The difference between the two is 9 months, 20 inches of height, and 94 pounds of weight. Look at his little baby face! I am still absolutely in love with this dog!!

The (half-hearted) effort is underway to make Savage into a bird-dog! I originally planned to hunt grouse this season as an excuse to spend time out in the woods with my puppy. So bright and early this morning we all headed out to begin Sava's first hunting adventure. Now, my little dane is not much of a hunter, anyway, preferring to harass sticks in the trail as opposed to unneccessarily wasting energy chasing live prey. But he has shown a great interest in grouse ever since we came upon a mother and her covey of babies a month or so ago.
I believe his excitement today was mainly because of R.'s and my excitement over shooting birds, but he had a great time anyway. We walked for miles along old logging roads near the Gunflint Trail, and though Savvy didn't spot any birds on his own, once he heard one of us loading the shotgun he went absolutely wild. It was necessary for R. to hold onto Sava when I was shooting, and vice versa, because when the puppy spots a grouse he doesn't hesitate to go for it. This might be a problem when it's just me and him, but I'm assumming I'll end up shooting more birds in trees after Savage has flushed them up, and him getting in the way won't be an issue.
We allowed him to retrieve the first two or three grouse just for fun, but if given a chance he will chew up the meat. He eats turkey backs every day, after all! I would never expect him to be a retriever, or a pointer, or anything like that, but having him along with me on the hunt is so much more fun. Watching him pounce into the brush going after a shot bird is fun to watch. Once the grouse were killed and I was carrying them back to the truck, Sava lost interest in them and went in search of live ones. Altogether, R. and I bagged 7 birds this morning, and my baby dane enjoyed every minute of his first hunt.

First of all, somehow the charger for my digital camera disappeared and it's been a hassle finding a replacement. Therefore, I haven't got any updated pictures of my beautiful puppy. The above picture is from when he was around 17 weeks old. Yes, he still sleeps on top of my boyfriend even now, at 10 months old!
Work on the new house has been progressing, but that means I work there from 8am to 3pm, and then go to my "real" job at the bar from 6pm to 1am. Savage goes to the property with R. and I, and though he gets to run around there and chew on wood scraps and such, he was missing out on one-on-one training for the past few weeks. In addition to not getting scheduled walks and training sessions, he has also been off-leash for that time. The reason for that is when he was wearing the choke chain for help with heeling, it seems to have worn off some of the thin fur on the underside of his neck. Then that got irritated and Savage began to scratch at it, further irritating the injury. So I decided to leave his collar off until the hair grew back. We ditched the choke chain and bought him a fabric-covered nylon martingale-style collar, but his skin is only now returning to normal. No collar means no leashed walks, no heel training, etc.
Well, yesterday we went for a long "heeled" walk and Savvy seems to get right back into the groove, so that's promising. The great news is that with the help of treats (tiny bits of cheese) Savage is now coming when called quite consistently. If I had to estimate, I'd say he responds to recall about 88% of the time, which is fabulous.
Our main problem is that he still becomes uncontrollable around other dogs. Not to say that he fights or even barks, but he's so excited to play that he will not respond to "come" or "heel" or "no" or anything. He absolutely craves contact with other puppies all the time. My dog is so incredibly social and his best times are when my friends and I take all the dogs (2 to 7 at a time) out running off-leash. Savvy is growing up to be a very friendly guy, with no sign of aggression at all. Even with Baron and Duke, my employer's two shepherds, Savage is very polite and submissive. Baron is a classic alpha dog with somewhat of a temper, and insists on keeping Savvy in line while playing, with short barks and occassional nips. I believe if Sav ever growled or otherwise stood up to him, there would be a fight. But I'm comfortable with them together because my baby is so passive. However, like some other danes I've met, he has never been "spooky", shying away, or putting his head down and his tail between his legs when he's startled or corrected. He seems to take everything in stride.
We often go to the lakeshore and play, where he fetches stick in the shallow water and splashes around. About a week ago, my friend S. and I went out and paddled a canoe around the bay while the pack followed us. Little Savage couldn't stand to be left behind, and spent a half hour or so swimming, getting out and shaking off, and then jumping back in. My hope is that he will gradually understand that swimming is not difficult or scary and start to really enjoy it. Two days ago I spent an evening at my parent's resort. While my sister and I cruised around in the paddle-boat, Savvy followed us and seemed to be having at least a little fun. He's so funny looking when he swims, with his legs going every which way and his big ears sticking straight up. At the end of the dock he obviously was conflicted. While he desperately wanted to swim out to us, he couldn't quite make the leap off the dock. R. lowered him off the dock into the water twice, and though I was wary of that approach, Savage didn't seem to mind much, and was not scared of the dock at all after that. I'm so proud of him.
I continue to feed him his regular diet, and he seems to be requiring more of it lately to keep him at a good weight. I try to add some variety, even if it's only a different brand once in a while. He got to try green sunfish, which I caught fresh, and earlier this week he was given three backs/necks from freshly killed grouse. Before feeding him the grouse, I made sure there was no bird shot in the meat, and the sunfish needed to be filleted to check for hooks. People are simultaneously shocked, fascinated, and very interested when they hear what I'm feeding my boy, and it's given me the opportunity to open up some minds about the raw diet, which is working out very well for my happy, healthy dane baby.
As the leaves start to turn orange and yellow and the weather gets chillier at night, I'm looking forward to winter, but know I need to take some precautions with Beautiful. Last winter when he rode with me on the snowmobile I remember being obsessed with keeping his ears warm. They seem to get cold so much faster than the rest of his body, and I'm (maybe irrationally) afraid that they could actually freeze. Of course, who knows if his size will make it possible for him to snowmobile this year, but he does need protection even just out walking on very cold days. I just bought him a hooded sweatshirt online (finally found a dane-sized one) and am hoping it will help keep him warm, while the hood can be pulled up to warm his ears. I used to scoff at people that dressed up their dogs, but even the other night in the boat returning from the resort, Savage was obviously uncomfortable with the weather. The hoodie I ordered is bright red, so maybe we'll use that on walks during deer season instead of an orange safety vest.
So, for everyone that made it this far through this loooonnnng post, thank you so much for your interest in Savvy, the most wonderful puppy in the world. I'm always surprised by the number of people that actually read the site, and I promise to post lots of new pictures when I get the new charger.

This is Savage and Tigerlily (or just Lily), a wonderful 3 year old brindle female. We spotted her downtown and had to go say hi. I spent a good half-hour talking danes with her owner (whose name I don't remember. LOL), and her and Savvy got to know eachother. It was great to be able listen to the owner's views on training and know that he's gone through pretty much everything I have with Savage. I could spend hours just talking about my amazing puppy.

Keeping up with training, I just bought a 20 foot long leash for Savage, so we can work on recall more. I'm also considering buying a gentle leader, or Halti-type head collar for him. I've heard it works well for teaching "heel", which is what we've been mainly working on. The theory is that when the dog pulls on the leash, the head collar naturally pulls his nose down, which trains the dog to slacken up the leash to get into a more comfortable position. The choke chain I'm using is awkward and probably super-uncomfortable for Savvy. It doesn't move around his neck well and the leash ends up wrapped around tight, causing me to adjust it constantly. Plus, if he really wants to pull, the choke chain doesn't stop him. It just lets him pull anyway, while gagging and choking. Not a solution to the problem. So we need to find a different system, maybe even a martingale, or "limited choke" collar , which tightens up, but will not actually choke him all the way. I'm always nervous about him getting the choke chain caught on something and panicking and passing out, or something. There's got to be a better way.
Still, he understands "heel" and will walk contently beside me along the road, but if we are downtown he still usually pulls and tries to get ahead. I know there is a ton of new and interesting things to see and sniff, but eventually I would like him to heel when I ask, no matter what is going on. Coming on command is still a challenge. Most times he will, but there are situations when he won't, so for his safety and for training's sake, he is now mostly on leash everywhere we go. Except for running on the Old Gunflint Trail, which is where we generally take our off-leash walks. That's where he gets to range around freely and run off energy. If I'm "borrowing" another puppy friend that's where they get to cruise around together, because there is so little traffic on the gravel road that it's hardly an issue. Even so, ever since he was a baby, Savage won't run out of my sight, so I know where he is and what he's up to at all times.
I've been having a problem with one of his ears for the longest time. When un-taped his right ear still flops over, when he's relaxed or after a few days. The left one is probably as good as it's going to get, with only the very tip still flexible but erect. Well, I figured out that when I began taping the right I wasn't keeping the natural fold at the front of his ear folded over far enough up. So his ear wasn't supported enough. Last week I finally corrected this and sure enough, this week his ear is looking much stronger and straighter since I took the tape off. Yay! I hope that this is indeed the case, and if so, maybe we only have a few more weeks of taping left!! Very exciting news. It would be absolutely awesome not to have to worry about ear-taping issues anymore.

Yesterday Savage, R., and I went up to Sag Lake to visit my family on my birthday. During the afternoon there was a crazy rainstorm and on the way home R. took this picture of me and my baby dane with a rainbow in the background. I was thinking about last year at this time, when I was going absolutely wild trying to make arrangements for new puppy, and hoping the day would finally arrive when little Savage and I would meet for the first time! Now I can barely remember when he wasn't around. Did I ever leave half-full glasses on the coffee table? Did I ever not have an entire chest freezer full of turkey backs? It seems to me that somewhere in my past I used to drive a compact car and have conversations about topics other than dogs. It's like my life has been turned upside down, but in a good way!