CC, Redford and Mugs

CC
CC (Ch. Toncor's Champaign and Caviar) is a female brindle Great Dane. CC weighs about 150 lbs. and is 35 inches at the shoulder. At age 8, she is the grand dame of our household. In her younger days, she was a showgirl and earned her AKC Championship Title. In her old age, she is content to be loved by her people, nap in the warm sun and eat. CC is our cookie hound. As far as she is concerned, nothing happens in this house without a cookie, and if we head for bed without cookies, she will let us know. Thank goodness Costco sell big boxes of Milk Bones (her favorite.) Like all of our other dogs, she likes to go places in the car. At her age it is more difficult to get in and out of the car and we sometimes have to give her some extra help, but she really enjoys going to the store or the gas station or where ever she can.

In her younger days, she liked to be outside and in her doghouse. The problem was that the doorway was too short for her to stand and look out. To fix the problem, she chewed the top of the doorway until it was tall enough for her to stand in and then added a window in the side. When the doghouse was replaced sometime later, I cut a taller doorway and added a window and she has not chewed on it since.

Redford
Redford (Ch. Avanti's All For One Elan) is a male fawn Great Dane just over 2 ½ years old. He weighs in at 160 lbs. and stands 36 ½ inches at the shoulder. He was born in January 1999 in Chicago. Redford was ten months old when he came to live with us in October of that year. What a surprise we had when we got him home and he started waking us up at 3 am, full of energy and ready to go for the day. It took us several days to figure out that his body clock was on Chicago time and his breeders were early risers (5 a.m. Chicago time.) It took about 8 months to get his clock adjusted. Our other two dogs, CC and Mugs, thought he was crazy as they were used to sleeping until we came down stairs.

Redford is a show dog and we started showing him in November of 1999. He finished his Championship in five shows prior to his first birthday in January of 2000. Redford was shown in Best of Breed Competition in 2000 and finished the year ranked No. 8 nationally. For this year he is currently ranked No. 3. Redford has sired five litters and several of his puppies have points toward their AKC Championship. Around the house, he likes to play ball, tug-of-war, and "gardening". His version of "gardening" is to remove the plants from their pots, shake the dirt from the roots, and then carry the plants around in his mouth like a trophy. Redford likes to travel and can't wait to leave when we start packing. Once he is in his crate in the car and satisfied that he is going, he usually falls asleep, sometimes before pulling out of the driveway. He is typical of his breed in that he is a people dog and is happiest being with his people.

Mugs
At home, like the Danes, Mugs enjoys playing ball and tugs-of-war. His most favorite activity is "killing" any stuffed toy he can get access to. We constantly have stuffing around the family room and in the yard. He too, likes to travel and goes with us to our condo in Arizona. He has a basket of toys there and they are usually spread all over the condo within 15 minutes of his arrival. On his trip to Arizona with us we were packing to come home and he disappeared from the bedroom. I found him camped out by the front door. I know he knew we were going home and did not want to be left behind. When I started to load the car I put him on the patio and closed the screen door. When I came in from putting the suitcases in the car, he had made a hole in the screen and was sitting by the front door. Now when we get ready to leave, we open the door to his car carrier, he gets in and is loaded into the car first so that he knows he will not get left behind.

Mugs (Mugs McWire) is a male Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund. Mugs weighs in at about 13 lbs. and stands 6 inches at the shoulder. He is 5 years old and sometimes thinks that he is a Great Dane, but with very short legs. Mugs has spent his whole life living with Great Danes. Like his Great Dane housemates and friends, he was shown in AKC Conformation competition and has an AKC champion title. His current activities (between showing Redford) are centered on Earth Dog Competition. This type of competition requires the dog to pick up the scent of a varmint (usually a rat), track the scent into the burrow, and "get" the varmint. "Getting" the varmint, means barking at, or displaying some other aggressive action toward a caged rat at the end of the tunnel. Since he has been raised with Danes, we did not think his breed instincts for this type of work were very sharp, as it took several times for him to catch on. However, once he did, he really liked it.