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ninapearl_gw

speaking of puppies...

last year

the breeder i got my boy dane from has a lovely female dane who gave birth to ELEVEN puppies 7 weeks ago. i drove 2 hours to st. louis when they were a couple of weeks old because i couldn't wait to see them. i went back recently, oh how they have grown!! spent the whole weekend cuddling and playing with them and it only reinforced my reluctance to EVER bring a puppy home. i'll stick with my adult dogs but it was so much fun to play with these little guys and gals who will grow to 150# in a new york minute! 😂

at 2 weeks...



and now...



two of the males will be sold as companion dogs, the rest are going to show homes. they are already crate trained and well on their way to being potty trained. one of the boys is especially cuddly, seeks out a human lap at every opportunity but i don't need a puppy...i don't need a puppy...i don't need a pu...

Comments (33)

  • last year

    Keep repeating that mantra, but it not going to work. Post photo of new puppy.

    This is why I cannot foster. Every cat and/or dog would end up staying.

    Ninapearl thanked Sherry8aNorthAL
  • last year

    There is no greater bliss than sitting in the pen with a mess of puppies. Lucky you!

    Ninapearl thanked sushipup2
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  • last year

    Ninapearl - how did your pups react to you when you arrived back home with puppy scent on you? Keep us posted on the progress of your not needing a puppy! So hard to resist. But, it seems to me that you make a much larger and greater impact for good bringing home adult Danes who really need you!

    Ninapearl thanked KW PNW Z8
  • last year

    Post photo of new puppy.

    oh trust me, it isn't happening. one of the biggest reasons is that it would be very hard for me to properly socialize a puppy. i am a recluse so getting a puppy out and about would just be too much work!

    how did your pups react to you when you arrived back home with puppy scent on you?

    pretty much just how i expected, i got the big sniff from head to toe. i unpacked and threw all of my clothes on the floor. pippin and frank were just sure there was a puppy in that pile somewhere! 😂



    But, it seems to me that you make a much larger and greater impact for good bringing home adult Danes who really need you!

    thanks! i like to think i did my part over 17 years adopting many danes from different rescues. over the past few years, i have stepped away from rescue mostly because the fate of a rescue dog, should it outlive me, would be precarious. i'd love to think that someone close to me would step up but that just isn't a reality in my situation. this is the reason my last few danes have come from preservation breeders who will, in such an event, take the dog(s) back without question and either find them a proper home or keep them for the rest of their lives.

    pippin came to me at 11 months old (the youngest dane i've ever gotten, most of my rescues were seniors) only because, as she matured, her breeder didn't feel she had what it would take to win in the show ring...

    frank came to me at the age of 4 because his previous owner is a groomer who, until recently, had her own mobile grooming business. he traveled everywhere with her and he never really took to "life on the road", it was stressful for him. when i lost pippin's best friend to bone cancer, it took me a couple of months of serious sadness watching her grieve and while i wasn't sure i was ready to open my heart again, i contacted her breeder to see if she knew of any available adult danes. she instantly thought of frank and said his owner had been searching for 2 years for a home she could place him in and be 100% sure he would be happy. the rest is history. he and pip bonded from the instant they met and they have been joined at the hip since. 💗



    this was the day they met...




  • last year

    You are a much stronger woman that I am.

    Ninapearl thanked faftris
  • last year

    OMG... those pups are the cutest. Hard to believe how large and tall they become. But I get it why you're refraining. I have never had a puppy but went through it with some friends. Mine were rescues and the youngest was six months and the other three three years old

    Ninapearl thanked lily316
  • last year

    Nina you are a good & kind hearted soul. And a strong one too. Not sure I could resist. But playing with pups and getting all that love is good for the soul!


    Ninapearl thanked pudgeder
  • last year

    Ours is only 14 pounds now, 8 years old. EVERY corner on all furniture is chewed!

    Ninapearl thanked Sherry8aNorthAL
  • last year

    we did a photo shoot with a professional photographer who is also a dane breeder in iowa. she always does a "group" photo when the puppies are 6-7 weeks old. this was the biggest litter so far for her and she did an amazing job! what you don't see are 11 humans hiding behind the puppies to keep them from falling off the wall. 😂



    this is one of many, many outtakes!



  • last year

    Thanks for the smiles, Nina!

    Ninapearl thanked petalique
  • last year

    That's so weird how they all look alike, there are two styles of Danes...HAHA! So stinkin' cute!

    Ninapearl thanked arkansas girl
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Thanks so much for the wonderful photos of the temporary lap dogs. I favor those grey and white ones. Are those colors accepted for 'show'? When do their ears stand up?

    (Do I see a back brace? How's the scoliosis going?)

    Ninapearl thanked chisue
  • last year

    What a quality pup you would have if you were to choose one of the 2 going to be companion dogs. They look so very well cared for. I'm sure Mom is happy that they are healthy and born, 11 must have been quite an experience.

    Ninapearl thanked lucillle
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    there are two styles of Danes

    you aren't far from the truth! while technically, there is only ONE breed standard, there are many not so good breeders who put very high price tags on what they refer to as "Euro(pean) danes". these are danes that look very much like mastiffs...huge heads, very "course" bone structure, gigantic jowls that produce copious amounts of drool. you won't see them in the show ring in this country although they are shown in many european countries.

    this is an example of a "euro" dane. jorah, one of my past rescues.



    compared to a dane bred to the breed standard. this is my girl, pippin. this is the photo i fell in love with, it wasn't long before she was living with me. :)



    Thanks so much for the wonderful photos of the temporary lap dogs. I favor those grey and white ones. Are those colors accepted for 'show'? When do their ears stand up?

    (Do I see a back brace? How's the scoliosis going?)

    the gray/white coloring is called "merle". it's only been since january 1, 2019, that this color was added to the great dane standard and accepted into the show world. they really are beautiful! frank is considered a "mantle" merle because of his heavy white markings. in the group photo, the second puppy from the left is also a mantle merle. he is one of her show prospects.

    thanks for asking, i started seeing a pain management specialist about 8 months ago. come to find out, my issue wasn't so much the scoliosis as it was an apparent injury to the QL muscle on my right side. pain relievers, trigger point injections, and botox injections over the past months have given me zero relief so after several people suggested i should try acupuncture, i figured *what have i got to lose?*. i got immediate relief after the very first treatment 1 month ago. i had my 5th treatment yesterday and i have gotten progressively better. we have begun spacing out my appointments to every 2 weeks now and so far, it's working! the results have been nothing short of miraculous. i have not taken a single pain pill since my very first acupuncture appointment! i do still wear the back brace if i know i'm going to be especially active, i.e., wrangling puppies! 😂

    pip and frank still think they are lap dogs, i often have one on each knee. when pip is feeling especially cuddly, she becomes a shoulder dog. lol



    as for their ears, they only stand if they are surgically cropped like pippin's. jorah's ears were left natural, he was born in ukraine where cropping is outlawed, much as it is across europe. we are starting to see more "natural eared" danes in the show ring.

  • last year

    Ninapearl, Your explanation of the Dane breed standard is a very interesting read. Amazing the difference in bone structure between the Euro Dane & the American standard. I’m looking at the bone size in the forelegs. I’m curious about the practice of ear cropping. I’d heard that it was becoming more common to not do that especially with the Boxer breed & especially in Canada. Tail docking too. I’ve never had a dog breed where ear cropping was desired but my small poodle & 3 Yorkies all had docked tails before they came to me. My 2 Papillons of course are neither docked or cropped. Do you have any opinions either way on those practices? I’ve often wondered the reasons for not letting them keep their natural state. For the big dogs with cropped ears especially.

    Ninapearl thanked KW PNW Z8
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    @ KW PNW Z8 yes, the difference is most noticeable in bone structure. the euro danes are very heavy boned and it isn't unusual to see them mature to over 200#, even some of the females will get very large. jorah was actually bred by a show breeder, sold as a companion. his owners moved from ukraine to chicago when he was 5. when he was 8, they moved back to ukraine to be close to family since she was expecting her first baby. they ended up surrendering jorah to rescue as it would have been a difficult and very expensive trip for him to make. when i saw his picture/description, it didn't take me long to break my long-standing rule of only 3 danes at a time. he was a great dog and gave me 2 years of precious memories.

    while ear cropping is not part of the standard for danes, the reason for it goes way back to when they were bred to hunt wild boars, go to war and serve as guard dogs. their ears were cropped to prevent them being torn by boar tusks.

    as for my personal preference, were i to raise a puppy, i would not crop. i do like the look of a good crop but it takes a very experienced vet to get that result. it isn't as easy as just having it done and waiting for it to heal. cropped ears have to be trained to stand and that involves a lot of work "posting and taping" their ears until the cartilage is mature enough to allow the ears to stand on their own. it can take months to accomplish the final result and there is nothing worse than a "crop flop". typically, the procedure is done before the pup is past 8-10 weeks old with 12 weeks being the absolute limit. past that, it would be almost impossible to get the ears to stand. surprisingly, when puppies are cropped when they are just a few weeks old, they don't miss a beat and seemingly experience very little pain and if they do, it's only for a couple of days. she had her show prospects all cropped last week and she has to really watch them that they don't play too rough.

    the really diehard show people prefer to crop in keeping with the original "look" of the breed. i have seen a few natural eared danes in the show ring but i don't often see judges giving them a second look. natural ears are so so velvety soft and i could sit for hours just stroking those ears.

    i've also heard people claim that cropping helps prevent ear infections but i have seen that as anecdotal evidence, not as a result of any sort of study or formal research.

    this is destiny, another past rescue. she came from a backyard breeder who had her cropped when she was a puppy but then got lazy about posting/taping her ears and this is how she ended up. this is SO typical of bybs!! she found her way to me when she was 5 years old, very sweet girl but extremely timid.



    eta: when i got jorah, he did not know the english language because his previous owners only spoke to him in russian. it was a challenge at first but i went online, learned the russian words for the usual commands. i would give him a command and then immediately follow it with the english word. it didn't take him long at all to catch on.

  • last year

    Getting secondhand warm fuzzies just seeing your pix and reading - thanks so much for sharing. Puppies look so soft and wriggly 😊

    Happy Christmas/Hannukah Eve!

    Ninapearl thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
  • last year

    Love your Dane adventures. All those puppies will go to good homes, but you may come across adults who need a loving home, and there you are! Glad to hear your back is better.

    Ninapearl thanked socks
  • last year

    Nina, as I understand it there are no local vets who will crop ears unless the dogs hearing may be an issue. I know some of the all white danes are hard of hearing, even deaf. My neighbor bought a dane puppy and went out of town to have the ears cropped. It was important to her - I have no idea why - to me they are fine with what they are born with.

    I've heard the difference between the European bloodlines and ours described as basketball players as opposed to football players. We do not have the football players with their stockier and sometimes more muscular build.

    I wouldn't quibble, I'd take either including the drooler. I could not have left without a puppy as you did but then I don't have more pounds of dog than people in my house already. I've been wanting a great dane puppy for a while now, DH is just slowly coming around. I do understand his point, they are a little hard to travel with. Local family are not especially dog people and don't really care to have them in their houses. I have neighbors who would cheerfully pitch in but I couldn't impose for too many days.

    Ninapearl thanked morz8 - Washington Coast
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    @Ninapearl Thank you for explaining the historical background & reasons for ear cropping.of Danes. Too bad about the judges with the old school opinions about ear styles today. Seems it would take a couple of generations of dogs from the best show breeders to opt out of cropping to change the opinions of the many judges who hold so much power. My Phalene Papillon - drop eared ”Moth” style - that I have now is a retired grand champion show girl. In conversations her prior owner mentioned she’d avoided some shows because she didn’t care for a particular judge or the judge favored the Butterfly Papillon - prick eared style - over the original drop eared style. Not quite the same situation with a judge preference for a specific natural ear type within a breed rather than a human created artificial look for ears but shows personal bias.

    Your decision to bring only mature dogs into your life took me back to the decision my DH & I made last year. We’ve had both styles of Papillons. Our first was 11 years ago when we got a 6 month old girl from a show breeder who placed her as a pet because she didn’t breed females with adult weight below 8 lbs. We lost her too soon to a terrible condition - congenital liver shunt - diagnosed at 9 years old through pre-dental blood work showing wonky liver #’s. It was confirmed via ultrasounds & bile acids testing. We managed with diet until her quality of life declined & we had to say goodbye to her. We thought we couldn’t bear the heartbreak of losing another pup but found we missed having a dog in our lives. Like you, we decided no puppy at this stage for us. We found a retired show girl dog from a preservation breeder. I wanted a Phalene Papillon because we could not replace our Butterfly Papillon & I thought it would be easier for us to look at a different little face. We’ve had our new dog for a year now & the change in her personality as she learned to trust and love us and her new home has been remarkable. We still miss our Ginger so much but we can smile at memories of her now.

    This is our ’new’ dog Whisper at 2 years old earning some of her points.


    Whisper 5 year old & coat growing out after being trimmed for having puppies. She is 7.5 lbs. This is a couple of months after she came home with us 11/30/23


    On Squirrel watch from her window perch & a recent picuture.


    Ginger - she was placed with us as a companion dog at 6 months old because her original owner wouldn’t breed a female Papillon with weight under 8 lbs. Ginger weighed 4.4 lbs as an adult - within standard but barely. Truly a little Butterfly!



    Ninapearl thanked KW PNW Z8
  • last year

    @morz8 - Washington Coast actually, the puppies won't be ready to go until they are 8-10 weeks old so even if i did want one, they weren't ready yet, thankfully!

    most of the white or almost-all-white danes you see are the result of poor breeding and are known as "double merles". they are the result of backyard breeders who don't research pedigrees/genetics before they throw a couple of dogs together to breed willy nilly. there are too many double merle dogs/puppies in rescues to even count. i know quite a few people who take these dogs/puppies in and do absolute wonders with them by teaching them sign language. sometimes, these puppies will be born not only deaf but with very limited or even no vision. those pups are often trained successfully with vibration collars. i can't even imagine the patience it would take and i admire anyone who takes on these challenges!

    when you reach the point of considering adding a dane puppy to your family, i can't stress enough the need to research any breeder you may be considering. the Great Dane Club of America has a breeder list where you can find one or more within a reasonable distance of where you live. reputable/preservation breeders often have a waiting list for puppies so if you choose to go that way, be prepared to be patient and be prepared to be grilled almost endlessly about your desire to own the breed (or more appropriate, to be owned by the breed) because good breeders are very particular about who they sell to! https://gdca.org/breeders/

    i'll also say that if you don't have your heart set on a puppy, there are many, many, many young/adult danes in rescues all over the country with lovely dogs just waiting for a home. most, if not all, are foster-based and go to great pains to put their surrendered dogs into foster homes where they stay for however long they need which allows for them to become well rounded dogs whose temperament has been evaluated to make sure they are dog/cat/child friendly, etc. the only disadvantage with rescues is that you will very likely never know much about their background, how they were raised, the health of their parents, etc. that being said, i lost a few of my rescues to genetic issues but also had several live well into double digits with my oldest being 14 when i lost her. i adopted her when she was 8, when she turned 10 she was diagnosed with heart disease but with proper meds and a cardiac specialist, she lived to 14, almost unheard of in the breed!

    @KW PNW Z8 Seems it would take a couple of generations of dogs from the best show breeders to opt out of cropping to change the opinions of the many judges who hold so much power.

    this is absolutely true and i think it's why i'm not sure i will ever see a natural eared dane at westminster in my lifetime. crufts, maybe. 🤷🏻‍♀️

    it's so wonderful for you (and me) that we are able to open our homes to retired show dogs. i know for myself, and i'm sure for you, you have had good relationships with your breeders for a long enough time that they are more than comfortable placing these dogs with you. this is how i was able to have eden. i had been on the breeder's list for 4 years in anticipation of a retired show dog. when she retired eden and after she got one litter of puppies from her, she offered her to me. i was over the moon!! i got her at 3 years old, lost her to bone cancer at 9.

    whisper is just adorable and ginger looks so so sweet!! i'm sure she was a very tough loss for you. the smallest dogs i've had were corgis. they did well when i started bringing danes home but then, if you know corgis, they are BIG dogs in little dog bodies. 😂

    my first dane and my male corgi fell madly in love at first sight and were inseparable during the 3 years that ashley lived with us. simon was a retired show dog and his breeder wanted him left intact so she could occasionally show him in veteran classes when she was in my area. ashley was another senior (8) when i got her so i only had 3 years with her but she was oh so perfect and was the beginning of my dane addiction!

    pippin and frank are young and very healthy with our only vet visits being for wellness exams. i hope they live for many years to come as, at my age and my physical capacity for being less-than-active, they will probably be my last danes. if the time ever comes that i am daneless, i will head to the pound and find the longest residing resident (hopefully a scruffy little mutt) that needs a warm lap to live out its life.

    ashley and simon (he gave her a face/ear bath every day after dinner)...




    eden at 8.5 years old... she was such a sweet girl. i used to have friends who would visit and bring their little dogs. eden would lay down on the floor to play with them. 💗





  • last year

    @Ninapearl - I have seen a couple of Pembrooke Corgis up close. They are indeed just short legged big dogs! Amazing that their purpose was cattle herding but does make sense when you look at their bodies. I love the pictures of your Danes that you’ve shared in your posts here & in others. They truly show why Danes are called ”Gentle Giants” and their affection so evident in the pictures that they demonstrate and share with each other is truly remarkable.

    A few months after we said goodbye to our Ginger & my DH was deciding we must bring another Papillon into our lives so we went to a nearby Papillon Specialty show. I needed to know whether I could stay in the same room with a dog who looked like Ginger. It was a smaller show with not many people attending as audience only. One of the show people approached us to chat & asked why we were there. At hearing our story she gathered a few others she said we ’must meet’. Several of them knew the breeder in AZ that we had gotten Ginger from. We are in WA but as you know, these breed clubs are a very close community. Ginger’s breeder had been chair of their club’s genetics comittee & was held in high regard. Our acceptance by her & having one of her dogs really paved the way for us in connecting with Whisper’s owner. They all were very interested in hearing about Ginger’s congenital liver shunt especially as so unusual to be found so late in life & after so many healthy years. Not the norm for that issue. But, their reaction to us felt like a warm hug with so many sympathetic to our recent loss. The woman who had initially approached us took us under her wing and referred us to several owners who had younger dogs they might want to place in secure homes. We decided on Whisper but didn’t meet her until the day we brought her home. We saw videos & pictures only. Her owner had invited us for a visit but I just couldn’t risk getting attached until she had a bile acid test which our vet thought was prudent considering Ginger’s late diagnosis. Whisper came from WA but a couple hours drive away from us. She is the first dog we’ve had who wasn’t a puppy. It’s been really interesting to note the changes in her personality over the past year. Even our neighbors notice how her demeanor has changed. I think it’s that she feels very safe and secure now so she’ll freely approach them to say hello when we stop to chat while on our walks. At first she stood by us & approached them somewhat reluctantly when they’d extend their hands to her. Papillons are noted for sociability so her standoffishness was a bit concerning. Now she loves everyone & is obviously happy. I’ve kept her prior owner updated with her progress & pics. She recently told me that ”I’m so glad that you have Whisper!” A feel good moment for me! 😊

    Ninapearl thanked KW PNW Z8
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    what a great story!! you obviously have a deep love for the Papillon breed. isn't it funny how such a tiny dog can take over your heart. i'm sure it took whisper a while to warm up to being in new/strange surroundings but i'm also sure your love for her gave her the confidence she needed to open up to you and become a social butterfly (literally!). it's so nice to get to know great breeders, they are always a source of information and always so willing to guide us. that has made a huge difference for me, too, as i have kept in touch with the 3 who i got well bred danes from. eden's breeder was truly crushed when i lost her as, while she has experienced osteosarcoma in the past, it's very unusual in her lines. frank's former owner loves seeing how content he is and pippin's breeder has told me several times that her placement of pippin with me is the best decision she has ever made for a dog. it was pip's breeder and the photographer from iowa (who was a co-owner of pippin) who put me in touch with frank's previous owner and pre-approved me and my home for him. it all worked out perfectly! once the puppies are placed, i'm planning to take frank and pippin to her place in st. louis for a weekend play date. i'm really looking forward to that!

    i tried for several years to find a corgi breeder who screens her breeding dogs for the degenerative myelopathy gene but have been unable to find one within a reasonable distance. this is what i lost simon to. because it's considered an "old dog disease", breeders just don't test for it. the onset of symptons doesn't typcally appear until a dog (at least with corgis) is past the age of 8-9 years. simon started showing symptoms when he was just over 8 years old. in doing my research i discovered that his sire was also stricken at about the same age and was euthanized when he became pretty much immobile. i didn't wait that long with simon. i laid him to rest before he became paralyzed as i was intent on letting him retain as much dignity as possible. it was one of the hardest losses ever for me. he was my little shadow. he went to work with me every day while my female, maggie, was glued to my husband's side. he was a builder and she went with him pretty much every day to his jobs. mostly she would lay under a shade tree and watch him work.

    maggie and simon were not at all related. at the time simon got sick, i sent a blood sample to the university in missouri where a study on DM was being conducted. he tested "affected" so it was a given that his problems were unrelated to a disc issue or anything else neurological. i sent a sample of maggie's blood also and was shocked to find out that she, too, tested "affected". i lost her to nasal cancer just months after gary passed away so she didn't live long enough to start exhibiting DM symptoms. it is such an insidious condition. the dog's mind remains sharp as a tack but the disease slowly spreads up the sheath over the spinal cord until total paralysis is the result. it was beyond sad watching him fail and i promised myself i would never put myself through that agony ever again.

    one of my favorite photos of what gary always called "the lollipop kids".



  • last year

    That disease your Corgis had is beyond tragic, I’d never heard of it but then I had no knowledge of liver shunts either before Ginger. My first thought when we were thinking of how or if to have another Papillon was that it must be a dog who was tested for the condition. I had of course read and researched everything I could find about it when Ginger was diagnosed, What I learned is that it shows up as a congenital condition more often in some breeds - notably, Yorkshires. We’ve had 3 yorkies none of which had that & all of which lived past 14 & old age kidney failure was their issue. The liver shunts are showing up more in Papillons & research has been done but it can’t be tested for because it’s not been tied to a gene like some eye diseases have been & which responsible breeders do test for. The shunts are usually discovered in puppies when they fail to thrive in first few months. Sometimes a surgical fix can be done, sometimes not & death or euthanasia follows. A responsible breeder would have the parents & litter tested when finding this in one puppy. I learned that Shunts can also develop as a new issue, usually in middle age & most often in larger dogs. That type of shunt can often be surgically corrected. That type is not congenital but a condition that develops. The internal path Ginger’s took made it an obvious congenital condition & the route it had is likely why she did so well for so long. Her small size did make the visual on Ultra Sound a challenge. They did find that her liver was also very small even for her tiny size. If she hadn’t had the predental blood work it likely would’ve been discovered by her becoming ill soon after as her liver function was declining. Our primary vet was alarmed at liver #’s & referred us to an internal medicine / specialty center for further testing. I did make Ginger’s original owner aware of the situation & gave her copies of all the medical records. She was horrified as it had not shown up in any of her lines. She told me she reached out to owners of Ginger’s 2 littermates & any other dogs bred from the same parents & was working to have them all tested. Bile acids are tested via blood draw after fasting & again exactly 3 hours after eating. So, at least it’s not too invasive but it must be conducted with very precise timing.

    I’m thinking that a non dog person might wonder why we would risk going through the extra sadness & grief of losing an animal too soon because of a medical situation & having to make a decision to end or prevent their suffering. I had to reconcile that myself before bringing Whisper home. But, as you well know Nina, there aren’t enough words to explain what these 4 legged furry packages of love bring into our lives!

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  • last year

    I hope anyone reading will see how buying from a responsible breeder can be worth the wait and upfront cost. Buying a puppy mill dog not only supports an industry that should be illegal, but it often comes to grief, often in enormous vet costs and premature loss. Having AKC 'papers' means nothing by itself. A breed club is a good way to find a breeder for a healthy companion to be with you for many years.

    OR -- adopt from a shelter and spay/neuter.

    Ninapearl thanked chisue
  • last year

    @ KW PNW Z8 i had never heard of DM until i contacted simon's breeder when his symptoms started showing. she gave me information to do research and also told me that, unbeknownst to her, his sire was lost to DM. she told me that had she known, she never would have used simon at stud. thankfully, the couple of times he was used, no puppies were produced. that was many years ago so i don't know if the study at columbia university in missouri is still going on. at the time, of 1,000 corgis being tested for the gene, 700 of them tested either "affected" or "carrier" so it was obviously running rampant in the breed. other breeds commonly affected are GSDs, rodesian ridgebacks, boxers to name a few.

    DM is a presumptive diagnosis. it can only be identified positively by post mortem of the spinal cord. this was something i did not want to do but given that the disease was in simon's lines, it was a given. many, many GSDs are presumptively diagnosed. back in the day when these were "just farm dogs" and their symptoms began to manifest, it was assumed that the problem was disc related and they were mostly taken out behind the barn and unceremoniously shot.

    and you are so right. i would not trade the years i had with him for all the tea in china. i would only trade the ultimate outcome of his life. this is the only reason i have not sought out another corgi.

    @ chisue well said!! this also applies to buying a puppy at a pet store. i don't think there are many of those left but the ones that are and all of the past pet store puppies came from puppy mills where the mother dogs are used repeatedly solely to produce litters of puppies to sell. they rarely see anything but the crate they live their lives in and their feet never touch grass. they get zero vet care, never see a groomer, and are fed only the cheapest food available. they live in deplorable conditions but so many people are totally unaware of where that "cute fluffy puppy" came from. we MUST do better and seek out our companions from breeders who care! the amish are notorious for the puppy mills they run.

    **stepping down from my soap box**

  • last year

    i thought you all would like to see a photo of daddy dog. this is "bosley". i've never met him but i'm told he's a big teddy bear. he is cruising the show circuit right now and doing very well.



  • last year

    Wow! Magnificent!

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  • last year

    Ninapearl, Endora and Zeus are my granddaughter's two rescues. Camera angle can make all the difference, as is obvious here, but I wanted to show you Zeus, the black-grey-white male with the big ears. Endora is not a small dog--over 50 lbs.--but Zeus dwarfs her. He's huge, and he's not fully grown yet. These pics were taken in the spring, and he's noticeably bigger now.

    My mother-in-law had a harlequin Great Dane many years ago, and I keep thinking Zeus has that in his lineage, plus German Shepherd. He can run like the wind, and Endora is quite the swimmer!




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  • last year

    i agreee! but as long as there are people who would rather pay a few hundred to a byb instead of more for a dog from a preservation breeder, the problem will be infinite.

    as for those byb puppies, many (especially danes) can and often do have questionable temperaments passed on by the parents or health issues that will cost them thousands of dollars. when these people see estimates from their vets for necessary treatment, be it heart medications or emergency surgeries, etc., they often opt for euthanasia or taking the dog to the local pound. many don't even want to deal with the perceived hassle of surrendering to a breed specific rescue.

    i say "especially danes" because that cute 30# puppy who eventually reaches 150# or more and starts showing aggression is not easily dealt with and instead of seeking a good trainer or behaviorist, it's just easier to get rid of the dog by whatever means is most convenient. it's beyond maddening to see!

    i belong to only 2 FB groups for danes, both moderated by numerous preservation breeders. these pages are aimed at educating people in the care of their dogs. posts touting bybs are strictly forbidden although posts from reputable rescues with danes in need are allowed.

  • last year

    @Alisande they looks so sweet! it would be fun to do a DNA test on Zeus.

    Endora is the name of the momma dog in my first post. along with their fancy registered names, all of the puppies were given "call names" from different "witchy" movies/tv shows. 😂

  • last year

    @Alisande Zeus looks for all the world like a Cattle Dog to me! I realize he’s way too big but his markings & ears look like it. And Endora - those muscles & that powerful look! those chubby cheeks!

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