Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Rock on, Bella!

B and I love dogs, and I won't even get started on how much we love Great Danes now, too. We love Bella and think she's a riot, and part of the reason we started this little blog back in August was so we, and our family and friends, could keep track of how she grows, what she does, and the ins and outs of owning a giant breed dog.

In doing all our research, we stumbled upon Savage's blog (the link is in the sidebar to the right). Savvy is a gorgeous blue male, and we were fascinated with his mom's documentation of how he grew, his training, feeding style, and all her research on the breed.

Over the past 6 or so months since we brought Bella home and started this little blog for fun, we found tons of other Great Dane blogs out there, and started a little family, so to speak. We always check in to see how our other Dane pals are doing, and we love their blogs. So imagine my surprise when Savvy and his mommy presented little ol' us with this:




We're excellent - go figure!! So we just want to say thank you to Savvy and his mom for thinking of us!

My Pal Jackson

I had so much fun on Saturday - I got to play with my new friend Jackson all day!

Jackson is a Rhodesian Ridgeback who mom and dad's friends rescued a year ago. He is such a sweet boy, and he's one lucky dog to have such great (and fun!) parents. They love him so much, and he loves them right back.

We went to the dog park earlier in the day - it was hot and there weren't many other doggies to play with, but we still had fun. We came back to my house and played, ate and slept for the rest of the day. We got plenty of treats, but as you can see, we had to work for them!




Near the end of the night, Jackson decided he needed a midnight snack, and check this out - he moved my bowl out of the way and found the food underneath! What a smart guy - I should have paid closer attention - knowing how to do that could come in handy someday!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Quick Update

Once again, I've been slacking on the blog updates (I'm SO sorry - really!) but I wanted to give a few quick updates before the next round of photos (which will be tonight - I promise!).

Bella turned 8 months almost 2 weeks ago, on April 8th. She's almost 32" tall and weighs in at a whopping 102 pounds! We're in triple digits now, folks! She's been doing great with her obedience class and takes her test to pass Obedience II tomorrow. She'll also be taking her Canine Good Citizen test next Tuesday, so everyone out there, keep your fingers and paws crossed that we all do well on that! She's got everything down except the "Accepting a friendly stranger" and "reacting to another dog" tests (only because she wants to lick the friendly stranger and play with the other dog). Dad and Bella have been working very hard on those two pieces, so when she passes, Dad also deserves a big pat on the back.


Healthwise, our big girl is doing great! Our vet referred us to a doggie ophthalmologist since she'd been having some eye issues, and her right eye appears to be sunken in a little more than the left, which concerned us. Happily for all of us, the doc gave her a clean bill of eye health, and said she's perfectly fine. She said that since Bella is still growing, she may not have "grown into" her face just yet, or she just might have deep-set eyes, and that it's really nothing to worry about. She did suggest that we give her some moisturizing eye drops every day, and it seemed to give her some relief last night, so we may be on to something! She'd also been eating a ton of grass lately, and after researching it and asking our awesome doggie daycare lady, found that it might be due more to the grass being fresh and new (it is springtime here, after all!) than her having an upset stomach. We also decided to supplement her dry food with some fruits & veggies to give her some added nutrients, in case she was eating grass for that reason. We're happy to report that as of the last few days, our pup is no longer an herbivore, thought she has taken a liking to green beans.


Photos are coming tonight - Bella had lots of fun on Saturday with her pal Jackson, a rescued Rhodesian Ridgeback, and we've got the pics to prove it! Hope everyone has a great day out there!