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Great Dane Rescue

The sad fact about many large pets is that they may be more than the owner bargained for and end up in a pet rescue home. Great dane rescue clubs offer a great option for people looking to get a great dane. I personally love great dane puppies but I also realize that they are a handful. Many people get great danes because of their calm temperament, puppies do not share this temperament.

People are often attracted to great danes because they are such fabulous beasts, but a large animal that is really only happy living amongst its owners can become a nuisance if the family is a bad match.

I will be the first to tell you that if you have carpet get rid of it. Expect lunch to disappear if you turn your back for a second, and oh god the poop. God forbid you actually having to clean up an accident inside. They are hard to take care of and they are expensive. Danes are more than many families can handle and for this reason many of them end up abandon and in great dane rescue shelters.

Here are a couple of excellent reasons to get a great dane from a rescue shelter:

Getting a puppy is fun but the joy quickly wears off especially if you have done it before. Getting a house trained dog that is not in puppy phase can ensure that you new pet helps relieve your stress, not add to it.

Getting a rescue dog means that you are helping out. You are making a difference in the dogs life and ensuring that dane will come to a good loving home.

It is cheaper. Great danes can cost $1500 or more, getting one from a great dane rescue shelter will usually cost you nothing more than the adoption fee.

Great danes are very adaptable animals, they usually mesh well with a new family. They are very people oriented and eager to please. They love to play and they love attention. Danes from shelters will usually adapt to a new family very quickly.

Rescue organizations offer a great service for animals, they are a great alternative to kill shelters and pounds, but to keep them open we have to use them. Getting a dog from a rescue shelter is goes a long way to ensure that they will stay open and be able to continue offering their humane animal adoptions. Great dane rescue shelters are a great way to find your next pet.

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Great Dane Puppies

Great dane puppies are near and dear to my heart. They are rambunctious and wild but some of the cutest things you will ever see. Their oversized feet, which they will quickly grow into, make them clumsy and adorable. If you have ever considered getting a puppy and I am sure you have, a great dane puppy would be a fabulous choice. Here are a couple things to realize about dane puppies:

They are not cheap, if you are looking for a puppy from the Walmart parking lot, you will not find a great dane here. These are pure breed pups and because if this will command a much higher price than more common brands. That said they are also much more rare than many other breeds. Expect to spend in the neighborhood of $600 – $1500 for a pup.

They will eat a ton and they will still look like concentration camp survivors. Big dogs like this will not eat as much as expected when they get older but in the growing phase you can expect to feed a great dane puppy 6 – 10 cups of food per day. I would feed at least 2 times per day and then let them out. It does not take long for the food to digest and cleaning up after a 50 lbs puppy is one of the less desirable aspects of owning a giant dog. Despite the amount they eat, they will still look crazy skinny. All of the nutrients are going into the making of a huge dog, don’t expect them to fill out until they get to around 2 years old.

They chew, and they chew, and then they chew some more. They will chew furniture, they will chew toys, they will chew you. Get used to it. Anything that gets chewed is your fault not theirs, engineer their environment so they don’t chew things that they are not suppost to chew.

They are smart but they are stubborn. Despite what many people say Great danes are some of the most intelligent beast I have ever worked with, but they are stubborn. They will do what they want when they want, but they also love to please their masters. Training is important because they are so dang big. Start training when they are puppies so you avoid problems when they are full grown.

Get great dane puppies their shots. Because of their low body fat they are more susceptible to wasting diseases like Parvo than other breeds, it only takes a one animal in the area or even in the area in the last couple of years and your puppy could catch a vaccine preventable illness.

Great danes are truly fine animals, I will never personally own a different type of dog after having the opportunity to own a great dane. Considering that danes are relatively short lived animals getting a great dane puppy is a great way to prolong the enjoyment and the bonding time you have with these fine beasts.

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BARF diet update

After trying the BARF diet with my great danes for a couple of weeks I must share my findings. And, give some feed back as to how effective it was.

First I must say that the dogs loved the BARF diet but I did not. It took a lot of work and while I love my danes I find it difficult to dedicate the time necessary to carry out the BARF diet.

I have started feeding my great danes once a day because that is the only way I can successfully control their trips to the bathroom. For one this is also a weight control issue, for the other it doesn’t really matter how much he eats, he just stays skinny.

Breakfast time at the dane house was wild for awhile. As soon as the beast caught a whiff of whatever was being served up they went ballistic. I usually fed them some sort of raw meat, usually with bones. Sometimes it would be organ meat other times it would be chicken breast or something more traditional.

Eggs and yogurt where a very easy addition and they seemed to not even realize that they had been added. These food stuffs were just inhaled with the rest of the grub.

I added pureed fruit and veggies on occasion but this was less common simply because I feed the great danes before I drink my coffee and I don’t think far enough ahead to prepare in bulk.

My findings were simple. I saw some increase in energy and the coats of the dogs seemed to improve. This could have been my perception based on expectations but I am certain I saw the dane that has a hard time putting on weight add a little bit of muscle.

I also have absolutely no doubt that the danes absolutely loved the BARF diet. Dogs love meat, they are carnivores. My well trained dogs went from being able to sit while drooling for dry dog food to plowing me down in a mad furry to get to a bowl full of chicken liver and eggs.

Giving the dogs bones also seemed to be very effective at cleaning their teeth. I noticed less plaque on their teeth after a couple of long chewing sections. Problems with the bones though are that they are a mess. The dogs dragged them all over the house and my wife went nuts cleaning up bone fragments and blood. I also found that the dogs regurgitate undigestible bone fragments, which can be pretty disgusting.

The BARF diet seemed to interrupt the dogs regular doggie doo cycle and when you are dealing with 130 lbs beast this can be a fairly bad deal. Keeping it regular and keeping it outside is usually a good idea.

Feeding two dogs went from around $60 per month to a couple hundred per month. Great danes don’t eat as much as people originally expect based on their size and they already cost enough in other aspects so I really don’t see the benefit of feeding them like this on a regular basis. The benefits I saw from feeding the great danes the BARF diet were really not worth the expense or the effort, but I will give them raw treats from time to time.

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