I’m writing this post one day ahead so that I can publish it on time, because tomorrow could be a shit show of no power, lots of rain but hopefully…no flooding. Yup, the small community where the adventure base resides also happens to be in rural Southern California, smack in the path of the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hillary. I wrote a story about being prepared for the storm (Hurricane Hillary, Have you thought about the weather? ) yesterday, today we actually finished our own preparations and tomorrow (sun) while you are reading this we’ll be getting the remnants of the storm. That’s ok, we’re fairly prepared unless the storm really does dump a year’s worth of rain on us….that might actually be quite a bit. I digress:
We have not had a puppy Great Dane for 9 years and I seem to have forgotten quite a bit about puppy behavior, but it’s coming back to me. Here’s a list of 5 things I forgot about raising a Great Dane puppy:
1. Fancy Chew Toys: Silly me, I forgot that Great Dane puppies don’t really need or want fancy store bought chew toys. What the puppy really likes the best are newspapers that you try to supplement for puppy pads, actual puppy pads (often times the puppy pad is either used as a chew toy or a bed), paper towel rolls she can destroy and her own puppy bed. Man, that puppy bed is the best, filled with nice soft foam to chew on and spread throughout her enclosure. Code for..most of the living room when it’s not picked up.
2. Chew Toys we don’t give her: I think these chew toys are really the best, because they’re outside her crate/living area and generally consist of things we wanna keep in one piece. I do remember puppy Quincy destroying an entire (nice) couch just two weeks before Thanksgiving one year…hopefully our puppy doesn’t graduate to that level of damage. But wooden table legs, wooden chair legs, the sides of wooden kitchen cabinets all seem to be fair game. And the (full) bottle of Natures Miracle makes a great toy too! But her most favorite chew toy that is not freely given and not appreciated at all is my arms. Her tiny teeth are sharp little teeth, but Great Dane puppies must be taught at a young age to mouth softly, so we’re working on that one as we go. You’ve been warned!
3. Sticks and Stones: Until most any puppy has all three shots in the Parvo vaccine series, most folks are highly discouraged from taking their puppies anywhere that other dogs have been. Dogs can unknowingly carry Parvo..and it’s a tough, long lived virus that’s nearly impossible to kill on surfaces or in feces/soil ect. But the best thing for a Great Dane puppy (to keep it..and you sane) is exercise….but not too much. So we’ve been very careful where we take puppy out and what exercise we give her (leash training for a dog that will be 130-140 pounds is important at a young age). We’ve started with short walks on the property as we start leash training and start trying to potty train….outside. But I forgot that Great Dane puppies wanna “mouth” everything in their world, like sticks, rocks, stones and more rocks. Yes, you should be alert and dig them out of that puppy mouth if she doesn’t spit it out quickly.
4. Food: I forgot how much Great Dane puppies eat. Our 9-year old Great Dane is pretty even, eating smaller amounts than she used to. But a Great Dane puppy can’t eat enough. Beware, cause it comes out the other end pretty often too!
5. Cleanup in Aisle Everywhere: I don’t know why I don’t remember cleaning up after our previous Danes as much as I’ve cleaned up after this one. I think it was because I used to take business trips and work very long days, so I just missed some of this. Needless to say, this puppy is full of energy and loves to make messes. Such is life of a puppy!
Ok, I’m going back to getting through the remnants of Tropical Storm Hillary, I hope you stay dry and safe on this Sunday.
