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Hugo's Page
My search for a Great Dane puppy, as some of you may have already read in one of my other on-line entries, began about a year ago when some of my customers were looking for, or planning to purchase their own puppies.
A friend said to me "... after all these years, you're finally getting a Great Dane...." It was then I remembered how I used to pour through the Marmaduke comics, and buy all the books showing that great beast's antics with his family. I guess I'd had a bit of a fondness for those giant, four-legged slobber machines for some time.
I started doing more research on the breed requirements to familiarize myself with the breed again. The more I studied the more I knew this would be my next dog.
My cousin had rescued her Danes, and of course my first thought was to rescue one of my own. However, the last time I'd brought a rescue dog into my home, I found she didn't have the temperament for staying with me at the store. That would be my Luna dog that some of you have met.
 After quite a bit of training, it became clear Luna was not going to be able to be at the store by no fault of her own, just her experiences of what life was about before I ever met her.
So, I decided the only way to be sure I could shape my Dane for the things I wanted him to do was to try to get the best temperamant I could, and train him from the "get-go".
After examining at least a hundred web sites, and contacting breeders in several states around the U.S., I found a breeder that met my requirements for what I hoped would be a healthy puppy with a great temperament for therapy training, and greeting customers at the store.
I knew I wanted a breeder who would be willing to allow me to feed raw foods, and follow the vaccine program I see as healthy for my dogs.
It was a challenge to find a breeder who would be willing to step away from the long-standing methods of feeding and caring for Great Danes that are so ingrained in breeders all over the country.
Most breeders have decided to continue the "old school" methods of feeding and health care that has been around for ages. Some have added good health measures such as probiotics and joint supplimentation, but still stand by high grain foods that provide a moderate protein ratio. This is largely out of fear of rapid growth and bloat. Unfortunately, there are trade-offs to feeding giant breeds too low a protein and too high a grain content. Those two factors often lead to lack of muscle support for bones (and often poor nutrition) along with a greater potential for grain related bloat problems. That's another subject that is controversial and of on-going discussion.
It was also absolutely important for me to know that the breeder would be able to test the temperament of the puppies to be sure that the potential for the training I wanted to do would be there. I was looking for a puppy that would not be fearful, and would be curious of new situations.
I found Eastwood Danes of Argos, Indiana.
I filled out the on-line application and began an e-mail relationship with the breeder that has lasted many months. We discussed all aspects of the care of Danes, including: diet, training, health problems, genetics, showing, breeding, temperament, and many other topics. It became clear that although we had different ways of approaching our subjects, we agreed upon all the important aspects of Dane health and care.
The breeder, Kim, had three litters planned for the Summer. Yes, that's alot! She had several choices to make about when to breed her three bitches, and it just fell to the Summer.
As it turned out, only one of the bitches, Abby, became pregnant. Below are Hugo's mom and dad, Abby and Eko.
After the long wait through the pregnancy, the puppies arrived on April 23, 2008.
The first of 13 puppies, little Hugo came into the world and quickly began to grow.
As Hugo kept growing I didn't know if he was going to go to me. There were two other families waiting for a blue male. While I was waiting, the breeder and I kept up our conversations about the potentials for the puppies' homes as well as how they were growing and changing. I regularly asked for hints, but she had to wait until at least four weeks of age to get a decent look at the pups standing to see their form. That helped her determine which was show quality. The show quality pups generally go to show homes to represent the breeder around the country.
 (at 2 weeks)
 (at 4 weeks)
By four weeks, I was going a little crazy wondering if I was going to have to wait until the Fall to get my puppy. I kept checking the website for new pictures, and the breeder and I kept talking about how the pups were doing. She was teaching them to go "potty" outside, and they were learning social skills from their mom and siblings.
By this time I had seen the pictures of the little puppies in their first "stack" (that's how they position them in the show ring to best show off their form).
 Little Hugo was the pick of the litter for the boys. What a handsom fellow, eh?
Little problem with that though. That meant I would most likely not be getting a puppy until Fall.
I wasn't ready to give up though. The breeder wasn't prepared to decide, and things stretched out for another three weeks.
At 7-1/2 weeks, the puppies who were getting their ears cropped, came home from their surgeries.
 Hugo was pick of the litter for the boys, and possibly going to a show home, and I had also requested the puppy I get have his ears cropped. So, Hugo had his cropped too.
(Check the special interest page for my further thoughts on ear cropping.)
After several more days of waiting (translated" "torture") I was told the puppy could come to me. One family had decided to take a different color, and the show home had decided to wait for the Fall litters. Yay for me! I was so excited. Now I could actually say I was getting a puppy for sure. AND he was beautiful to boot.
In order to get to Seattle, Hugo had to take an early flight out of a small airport about an hour from the breeder's home. It was a long day for him with one stop in Georgia, and then on to Seattle. He flew on Delta, and they did a good job of getting him to me within a short period of time from when the plane landed.
I was a bit of a wreck during the waiting part, but my daughter came along to keep my head on straight.
After lots of pacing about, we had a puppy in our arms! He was very happy to get some big hugs once he realized we were there to save him from more airplane rides.
 Such a little Fella. We could hold him.
After getting him out of the crate and over to a hotel where he could pee and get some lunch and water, we decided he'd spent enough time in the crate, and took him home cuddled up in the back seat. I drove VERY carefully on that ride home.
Once we made it home we gave the little guy some time to see what his new home was like.
Our new little boy took to looking around the yard, and figuring out the lay of the land.
After the first week, we needed to remove Hugo's stitches from his ear cropping, and change the stances that hold the ears upright until they remain up by themselves.
Poor little puppy Hugo was not very happy while we were working to get his ears free of the gooey tape and get the stitches out.
Once we got everything squared away, he was ready to play and go out and about. He got new stances that left his ears free to heal on the edges, without any extra weight on his head.
He went for another car ride to visit the horses at my daughter's work. (sorry I didn't get pictures of that.) He was a little scared at first, but now thinks they should come play with him.
 So he WAS small for a little while. This picture is proof of how he fit in his bed the first few weeks.
 After about a week, I found the stances I wanted to use were not staying upright, and causing his ears to fall backwards.
So Donna (Preston's Mommy) came by and showed me how to do the traditional taping. We've been using it ever since.
Luna and Hugo decided playing was fun. He was still pretty little for the first few weeks, and she could push him around a bit. He has learned to take her snarls seriously when treats are involved, and beat up on her as much as he can the rest of the time.
At 13 weeks we decided we should get some nice pictures taken of him before he got too big. So, Jerry and Lois of Creative Indulgence came and took a few (hundred) photos of little Hugo.
Hugo is 15 weeks as of Wednesday, August 6th, 2008.
I will do my best to get some new photos soon.
Please feel free to come visit him at the store. He does sleep alot, but is always happy to get some extra love.
August 10th
Hugo at 15 weeks.
 Hugo is a true water baby. He loves the pool!
 (8 weeks)
He's a little bigger than his ball now at 15 weeks.
 Someone keeps taking pictures. There is just no privacy around here.
 He's Growing.
September 11, 2008
Wow time passes and the "little boy" is getting bigger.
 Taller than Luna now.
This is the perfect example of the understanding between Luna and Hugo. She gives him the bossy girl teeth to be in charge of the playtime, and he goobers around like a dork who just keeps coming back for more. I just laugh every time I see this picture. I have to point out the tongue hanging out and the ear that just won't stay straight.
 The kids are trying to be so good for their treats making it a little easier to take pictures.
We spend alot of time practicing sits and waits in the house and outside to be sure we have good manners, walk in and out calmly, and generally don't wreck too much havoc around the place.
 Hugo visited the horses again. This time he's a little bigger, but still smaller than the horses. They're a bit intimidating, but more to me. I'm more worried about a big horse hoof coming out to paw at my "little" baby boy. Hugo would like to play play play. The horses seem to think he's a little pony.
 Now here's something we see every day. Hugo has made it his task to destroy the plants in the backyard. This includes eating them. Monitoring which plants he's trying to poison himself with is a bit of a task. Since he and Luna love to DIG! the plants are regularly near distress from being uprooted, but seem to keep growing.
 Here's the baby boy with a nice stick. Sticks are very high on the list of toys!
 The ears are still a bit of work. As you can see they don't quite stay up all the time. People keep asking how much longer he's going to have them taped. I've been told while they're teething, Danes' ears may fall. I guess alot of effort going into those new teeth may take away from the ear stance progression. So for now, I will keep putting them up until they stay by themselves for more than a day. In fact they have to go up tonight again -as the one keeps flopping over. I'm going to try soemthing new. He's asleep now, so I may have a chance to try this without alot of trouble. (cross my fingers). I'm going to try a thick mole-skin ear support inside the ear, stuck on with adhesive and then just tape at the base of the ears. Hopefully this will be comfortable, and he won't mess with it too much. He is sensitive to smells and the adhesive is pretty strong when it's wet. We'll see.
Let's all go have fun now! Hugo is!
Well, the ear stance with mole skin wasn't strong enough to hold those long ears.
We had to go back to regular taping. That left ear just wants to flop over. We've been through too much to let that go now. We'll just keep it up until they stay.
So time is passing, and keeping up with the pictures is getting harder.
Here's a few of Hugo at work. As you can see he has continued to grow.
At first it looked like we might have made the desk tall enough.
Then it became clear that he would have to lay down most of the time even at the young age of 5 months.
Now the laying down is definately neccessary. He's officially become a "Lounge Lizard" in his new Bowser bed. Lucky for him he was in the right store when his mom left his clean bed at home.
Enjoying a little sunshine in the back of the store.
Look Ma my ears are up!!
 ( 5-1/2 months)
We took a little trip to Beaver Lake Park with Jerry and Lois from Creative Indulgence. They caught the growing Hugo loving the water!
I may have distorted some of the pictures to make them fit, but I hope I haven't messed them up. They do such a wonderful job.
 This lively little boy is such a joy, and such a challenge. He's a six month old ball of gangly bones, skin and energy. He makes a regular habit of grabbing pillows and blankets off the sofa and running away with them. Fortunately he can't get far, but he does do a pretty self-saticfied dance while he runs away.
The big challenge is not laughing as he buries his head in shame and looks up at me with those innocent little eyes- those little puppy eyes in that big 82 pound body - knowing he's been a naughty boy.
Then there's the totally ignoring me while he's being scolded because he's so interested in smelling the last thing I ate on the scolding breath I'm sending his way. Such innocent little eyes sniffing and looking up at me with that "...what is that? Can I have some?..." question in his eyes.
Oh, and when he grabs dog toys off the store shelf and tries to run past me with that little smerk of joy on his face.
He's really good at shoving several cat toys in his mouth (on the fly) so you can't tell he's got them until he tries to chew them up, or spits them out on the bathroom floor.
We're working on learning to ring a bell when he's outside instead of jumping on the glass door. I figured that will be better than replacing the door.
There's always something to work on. Like most people it's all about finding the time to be sure training continues.
We're also working on keeping off the chairs and tables when mommy says to, instead of when mommy is close enough to grab him. Let's see, there's also the running through the room at top speed back and forth, over and over (known by Dane lovers everywhere as "The Zoomies"). Controlling it is alot like trying to stop a large, free moving, very fast rock from running around in your living room. I believe I received some bruises tonight.
Our next adventure is going to the vet on Thursday to have him look at the growth on Hugo's head. Some of you may have seen it when you visited him at the store. It started out fairly small and next to his right ear. He also had one next to his right eye. The one on his eye seems to be going away, but the one on his head has grown and spread a bit. We'll see if the vet want to remove it. I'm hoping it's nothing serious, so we'll go in positive.
I'll let you know what becomes of our visit.
Now I think it's time to put the wandering troublemaker to bed. He's walking about in a tired puppy daze trying to find something to get into that he won't get scolded for. Oooop. He just wandered into his kennel. Ooop- now he's out again. Time for Mom to take some action.
Well, It's Christmas 2008!
The year has moved quickly and the store has been as busy as we were able during this VERY snowy winter.
For my friends and relatives who may not be close, here are a few pics from this winter...
Now that there's a little time, I figured I 'd better get this page caught up.
Last time I wrote I was going to be taking Hugo into the vet to see about a growth on the top of his head.
Well, you may be happy to know, as I was, that it was a common growth that can also be found to grow on the gums and other areas of the head. It is called a Hysto.....something that I can't remember now (sorry). I can look that up again for those who may be interested. The growths, although sometimes large, generally reabsorb on their own. My vet did take a bit of a sample from the growth and looked at it under the microscope. All looked according to what he expected. So- we elected to leave it until January to see if it would reabsorb on his own rather than take it off via surgery just because it looked bad.
Well, what do you suppose he went and did...? Yep, he scratched it.
So then we had a bleeding growth that I was hoping would scab over and be o.k.
So what happened then....yes, he scratched the scab and I was sure I was going to have to have it removed if to only keep everything from getting a spattering of red on it. I made an appointment to have the surgery, and found out, much to my disappointment that it would have to be done under full anesthesia. That is something I'd like to avoid as Great Danes can be very sensitive to such chemicals.
Long story short... the growth started to heal and shrink, so I canceled the surgery. It is now almost gone.
Speaking of pictures. I found some 'old' puppy pics of Hugo from when he was just about 3 months old. Thought I'd share them 'cause they're so cute.
 What a Baaaby boy! Makes me think about crazy things like someday getting another puppy. HA!
Back to reality.....
The boy is getting biiiiigggeeerrrr. He's most likely about 100 lbs now, as he was 90 in mid November. Guess it's time to weigh him again.
He still believes in working hard, and comes to work everyday.
Hugo's a great representative for the store. He loves our products, and really enjoyed the Christmas season.
He got fun toys, and has enjoyed the snow in his new Windhorse coat.
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