Annual 4th of July at the Kaisers

Space to roam and buddies to wrestle. Hank the bulldog and Sugar the boxer, what a day!

July 4th at the Dog Park

Toby thinks all dogs are friends to play with. For the most part this is true at the dog park. He does his best to keep up, but he'll never hold a land speed record!

Dog Days of Summer

Toby has taken to swimming in the kiddie pool, he loves diving for his toys that Darrell got him. He spoils him worse than I do!

New experience....camping

June 2006 brought a fun camping trip. Toby did great! It was cool (a little too cool for the humans) but perfect for a big ole dog. I think he sniffed and greeted everything possible. He had his first wade in the lake and enjoyed that too. There were so many kids, and so little time.

Five and six months

Toby and I took 2 sessions of obedience classes. He "graduated" in June at 6 1/2 months. It was the best money I've probably spent. Our Molly was trained as a hunter which is completely different. Sadie, well, really wasn't trained. She just learned from Molly.

At 6 1/2 months Toby can do the following:

• Walk nicely on a leash (at 100 + lbs, that's important!)
• Adjust his speed to mine while walking
  
• Sit
• Down
• Come
  
• Stay (even at the curb while I walk across the street to get the mail)
• Shake
• Leave it
• Ignore other dogs or people
• Wait (important to break him of "rushing" to people. He has to wait to be petted from people.
• Halt (while walking, ending with a sit)
• Go get it, and return

At 6 1/2 months Toby weighs 100 lbs. and is 30" at the shoulder. I was worried about him growing so fast that I switched him from large breed puppy food to adult. We also noticed some redness on his feet and inbetween his toes. Many foot problems and excessive shedding are due to allergies so we have been giving him Benedryl and will need to change brands of food to a natural dog food.

When Toby reaches a year old, we will do some addtional training to become certified as a therapy dog.

4 months

Toby's monkey is his favorite toy, he's gone through 3 of them.

From day one we made sure we socialized Toby to both people and other dogs. He now thinks everyone is his best friend. He doesn't understand when other dogs are aggressive, which could be dangerous for him. He loves the off leash dog park and obedience classes. He will do nearly anything for a treat, which has made training easy. Toby and Hank having a great time playing in the back yard, neither would give up. Here he's waiting patiently with Molly for a treat.

All legs and feet.

Our first trip to Nebraska to visit my sister and new puppy. What a weekend! Best of friends and the little white fluff ball definately held his own. Toby is still working on potty training and has a way to go at this point. He loves the car and is still easy to manage size wise.

Oh, the things puppies can find to play with and eat! First was the change in dog food when we brought him home. You guessed it, diarrhea. Adam came home late one night to that horrible smell. Toby was sick in his kennel. There was poop everywhere! So at 2:00 am I was bathing him and Darrell had kennel clean up duty. Off to the vet the next morning. Keaopooptate and NO food for 24 hrs. It broke my heart when he was soooo hungry. Toilet paper was his favorite. He once pooped a miniature "Thing One" (from Dr. Suess) stuffed toy.

I'm still smaller than the dog food bag.

First things first.....what to name him? Adam wanted Luther, but it reminded me of Lucifer and that was bad. In retrospect, it would have been appropriate at times! Sam thought, Ezra. But Ezra is one of our families human names. My friend Mary likes to name her pets human names and desperately wanted "Stan." Nope. I ended up choosing Tobias. It means "God is great" and the biblical Tobias defeated a demon with his archangel Rafeal.

We elected to leave Toby's ears natural. It seemed mean to crop them and then have to tape them in place for months.

Great Danes are lovers of people, children and other dogs. They need to be indoor dogs (yes, I hear the gasps of horror!) Their coats will not withstand the cold. They also are very social and will be terribly lonely if left alone all the time. ANY breed of dog left alone and bored will be destructive. People need to know this breed BEFORE they buy one. Yes, they're huge. They don't know they're huge. But they are also loving, mellow and easy to train. Toby has been no more trouble in the house than our other puppies. You must be willing to befriend and TRAIN your puppy. Toby did not leave my side for months except for his kennel at night and part days while I worked. He went everywhere with us, for socialization and to learn his manners. At 7 months it was decided he will train to be a certified therapy dog. More on his training later.

It's hard work being a puppy!

Just like having babies......you nap when they finally decide to.

Toby's Blog

After reading the book "Marley and Me" I decided to start a blog for Tobias. The book reminded me of how fast time passes. I wanted a place to write down all the new memories our family is creating with our newest family member.

Our family already had 2 Germain Shorthair Pointers. Molly, who is the greatest bird dog ever, and her daughter Sadie, who is not! Molly is 12 and Sadie 6.

Several months ago I was considering getting myself a lap dog. I was considering a Dacshund. But secretly always wanted a Great Dane. Well, maybe not so secretly. We decided however that we should wait until our beloved Molly had passed on. She is getting up in years and having some liver trouble and had a major tumor removal. To our relief, she rallied and is going strong!

In late January I got a call from my sister in Nebraska ,who is in the dog business. She asked me if I still wanted a Great Dane. Well, I said "duh, yes but that doesn't mean I can have one." She explained she knew of one for adoption. He was purebred but had a leg sore that had already healed. I called my husband and pleaded my case. He said what I thought he would....It's not the right time, we need to wait. Well, numerous phone conversations later he told me to do what I wanted (because he knew I would anyway.) I told him that if he wasn't totally on board and willing to love him as I knew I would, that I would say no. He said that was silly, because I should know how much he loves his dogs. I gave the green light to my sister and he was given his vaccinations, a microchip and was neutered.

We picked up our 20 pound "gentle giant" on Februrary 2nd 2006. He snuggled in my arms for a few minutes and after his long ride I thought he would need to relieve himself, but he was too busy for that so off we drove. That was mistake number one. He peed on the car seat just as we pulled into the driveway at home.