As I said before, I seem to keep bumping into so many more Danes here in Australia! After I posted about not being able to find nice dog parks in Brisbane, I got a lovely message from Lupe, a big blue Great Dane boy – telling me about some dog-friendly places and inviting me to meet up for a playdate! 
So a couple of weeks ago, my humans took me to the Kedron Brook Dog Off-leash Area to meet Lupe & his humans for a playdate….and we had a fantastic time!
It was so nice to finally meet another doggie big enough that I didn’t have to worry about squashing him by mistake when I was running & wrestling – and who wasn’t afraid to play with a rough tomboy like me! 
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It was also great to have a big buddy along for my walk…
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We did lots of exploring together…
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And also exchanged sniffs with a couple of other doggies…
I always see lots of Ridgebacks - like my blog friend, Nala – whenever I go to the parks…they must be a really popular doggie here in Australia!
Then I introduced Lupe to one of my favourite toys: my ‘Udder Tug’ that I brought with me from NZ!
(For anyone who missed my 1st post about these, they are the rubber things that attach to cows’ teats for milking.
When the farmers are done with them, in NZ, they sell them in pet stores as dog toys and every doggie I know goes mad for them!
They are lovely and soft to chew on but strong at the same time – and smell deliciously of cow! 
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Lupe’s humans said he hadn’t really learnt how to play Tug properly yet – he was such a gentleman, he wouldn’t really pull!
So I decided to step in and show him how it’s done!
Yeah! Grrrrrrr!
(Hsin-Yi says I’m a terrible rough tomboy and why can’t I be dainty, gentle & ladylike, like all the other girl Danes? Bah! Who wants to be ladylike? How boring! 
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Lupe REALLY liked my ’Udder Tug’ - but was too polite to come and take it away from me! Such a gentleman! So I kept teasing him to come and get it:
Cooooome on, Lupe! You know you want it…
Aw, come on, Lupe! The whole metro-dog thing is very nice but sometimes a girl wants a bit of ‘alpha-male’!!
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Ooh, he got it!
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Awwwww…give it back…
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Hah! Just to remind you that girl dogs are ALWAYS the boss!
Of course, am older too – I’m 6 & 1/2 and Lupe is only 2, so maybe he was respecting his elders – hee! hee!
Actually, my humans thought I did very well for a ‘middle-aged gal’ – galloping and jumping around like a maniac puppy, chasing Lupe, chasing my tug toy, leaping over the water pipes, running through the long grass, jumping down the river bank, clambering up again…they said it was embarrassing that Lupe was calmer than me!
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On the way back, I decided to go for a cooling dip in the water. Lupe wasn’t very sure about going in the brook so I had to show him…
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Come on in, Lupe! The water’s lovely!
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Yeah – you see?
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OK – come on! How about one last play?
It was starting to get dark by then so the humans said it was time to go home…such a shame! I could have gone on forever!
(Hsin-Yi says: Actually, Honey was walking a bit funny the next day and we were horrified that she might be starting to develop hip problems but she didn’t seem to be in any pain and didn’t mind her legs being manipulated in any direction, was eating fine, could get up from lying down very quickly & with no problems, etc…so we decided to just rest her & see. No mad running for a few days – just gentle, pavement walks. Well, she was fine & normal again within a day. Guess she must have just overdone it on the playdate and was a bit stiff - at her age, she can’t hoon around endlessly anymore without paying for it the next day! 
When she was young, we would often have several playdates like this in succession but now I think she is going to be rationed to one every couple of weeks and TRY to get her to slow down and take it a bit easier! There ARE gentle ways to play too, you know! 
*sigh* I know it’s only a matter of time before my crazy, rough, tomboy girl will succumb to arthritis – she is practically asking for it, the way she plays and chases balls and does everything so “violently” and of course, all giant breeds are prone to it – but I do hope it holds off for as long as possible so she can continue her exhuberant enjoyment of life – you just can’t help but smile when you watch her )
Well, I had a great time with Lupe and I can’t wait for our next playdate!
OK – before I go, I must tell you about this fun thing I am doing called the “Slow Dane Challenge“. It is to help support doggies like me who are – ahem - a bit slow in training sometimes, not like those super clever and fast breeds like Border Collies - and to encourage our humans to do more training with us, without feeling embarrassed that we’re taking a while to learn things. (You might think I know a lot of tricks but it usually takes me MONTHS to learn them! )
The Slow Dane Challenge was started by a Great Dane here in Australia called Dante and his human, to encourage more Danes to do more training – ‘coz most Danes just grow up into couch potatoes and their humans think potatoes aren’t trainable. Now, it has been expanded to include non-Dane doggies too. You can join Dante & his human – and lots of other Danes (& non-Danes) at the Dogz Online Forum – Dane Thread (http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=188608 )
We all get a set time to learn a new trick (eg. 2 weeks) and we all have to do lots of training in that time and post our videos to the forum to show each other – and then at the end of the time, everybody votes for the winner of the challenge!
They have had 2 challenges so far: the 1st was learning to Pivot and the 2nd was the Bomb-proof Down Stay. You can see the videos of these past challenges here: http://www.dmantugs.com.au/challenges.htm
I am joining the 3rd challenge now – which is learning to jump over my human’s arms and here is a video of my training so far! (I actually started learning this many months ago back in Auckland but only had 1 session, then had my 2nd session last week.)
So how do you think I’m doing so far? Hsin-Yi says she is not sure her arms will survive the challenge! 
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