not colby. not miles. not oakley, not thor, not rainer. not j.d., cole, duke, clemens, august, toby, or dean either.

instead -

meet madison. maddie for short.

madison is a purebred black great dane. she's barely four months old and she's bigger than our full grown chocolate lab/pointer mix.

see for yourself:

and for those curious, here's how and why maddie happened... (let me give you fair warning, it may run a little long.)

okay, so. as of this morning i already had five dogs. more than many.

as of a week ago i got hired as a dog trainer, which has been kind of a dream job for me. now, as a dog trainer you need to have a dog that you can bring to class to demonstrate how to perform the commands. so i have five dogs to choose from right? wrong.

twinkie was the first one i adopted in this bunch. i picked her up from a local kill shelter where she faked being friendly until i got her home where she'd snarl at everyone except me. this was back in 1999. she was about five then, which makes her about eight now. she's still a bit of a grump, but we think that's a combination of old age and being part chihuahua... *g* she's not aggressive towards people anymore (except kids), but she still doesn't like strange dogs. so, bring her into an environment chalk full of strange kids and strange dogs? i think not.

next.

rob and i adopted karmel last summer from a no kill rescue shelter. he was a year and a half. he's half rottie and half golden retriever. then and now, he's one of the best dogs you could ever ask for. he graduated at the top of his class in both basic and advanced training. he's awesome. he's almost perfect. almost. his one flaw is that he likes to pee on certain things in certain places. this isn't supposed be the case since he no longer has the berries to accompany the twig. however, since he was neutered so late in life, he developed the habit of scent marking, and that's a hard thing to work out of a dog. the good news is, he never ever decides to mark in the house. the bad news is, he does nothing but lift his leg when you get him in an environment where other dogs have previously let their presence be known. so... turn him lose someplace where a million macho male dogs have been? uh, no.

then there's pepper. our heinz 57. one day we think he's a german shepherd mix. then next a lady who has bred greyhounds tells us he must be mixed with that, and the day after a vet says, ``definitely mixed with great dane and black lab``... so, who knows? anyway, we got him from the same place as we did karmel when they called us a couple months later hoping we'd take him in, as they knew he'd get the love he needed from us. pepper is a sweetheart. a very protective sweetheart with a killer bark and a very possessive nature when it comes to mommy or daddy and strange dogs. so ... bring him with me and either a) make him sit in agony and watch me interact with other dogs, or b) risk him getting aggressive because of the stressful situation? hell no, i'd never do that to my baby.

so, buster? buster, my little chihuahua who i've had since he was about 8 weeks old, is ideal for a `demo dog`. he's extremely well behaved around people of all ages, and has no problem with any size dog, as he was raised with a small sister and two/three big brothers. why not buster, then? one simple reason... because many other dogs, especially bigger ones, don't do too well with small ones. if i want to train dogs, i'm going to need them to concentrate. and concentrate is something they won't be doing if they are distracted by a little cat-looking dog who they see as a snack.

sooooooooo. then we have chocolate. my two and a half year old chocolate lab and german shorthair pointer mix. like karmel, he's almost perfect. almost. the one thing that prevents him from being my `demo dog` is that he's too hyper around other dogs. a perpetual puppy who can think of nothing but playtime when he's around other dogs. needless to say, not a lot of training would get done with him around.

from five to zero in two minutes. *g*

and really, i swear i have a point.

so i was left with no dog to take into class with me, and i didn't know how to react to that. i swear, i honestly hadn't even thought of getting another dog (actually, i was thinking of ``borrowing`` loris' dog beans who's super awesome)... when the other day i'm contacted by a lady in great dane rescue. says she heard that i have room for large dogs, and hey, howbout a dane?

and god. this lady had no idea that ever since my trip up to north cali more than two years back for one of my best friends weddings, i've been obsessed with great danes. i spent every available moment with joanna's three danes who i fell madly in love with.

but i don't go looking for dogs. with the exception of my first rescue, twinkie, the others have just ended up in my home one way or the other. so... no great danes. no problem tho, cause as anyone who knows me knows, i love all doggies. *smiles*

but (and here i am with my point, finally)... this lady gets a hold of me, asks if i'm interested in a dane, i can't help but say yes. .... turns out they just rescued four girls from breeders who went bankrupt and could no longer afford the high cost of puppy care. so... here we have madison.

at four months old, she's the perfect age to begin training, and by the time she's seven months and ready to be out and about, i should have her trained to a tee. and wow, this is all so exciting. and even more great news - so far she's met chocolate and buster and they all get along fabulously! tomorrow we introduce her to karmel. then on wednesday pepper. and by friday she should be ready for twinkie. woo!

any thoughts? (0)����������������