Von Knopf Danes
Current Events
3/10/2010 Nana and Bruno have left for their new homes this past Saturday. Kajal and Ricky were bred on Monday. And, we have had health tests done on Kajal (thyroid normal) and Elwood (eyes and heart normal). So we have been really busy!
3/02/2010 The puppies received their first set of shots this past Saturday and all checked out healthy from our vet. They did great and went fast asleep as soon as we arrived home.
The snow is almost all melted this morning and the backyard is a mess! Later today will be major clean up day. The front driveway when plowed pushed a lot of gravel into the yard as well and that needs to go back. We can't wait until SPRING!
2/15/2010 The snow is incredible out here when it blows and snows. I had to run out today and got stuck on my way back into my driveway. I did manage to dig it out and somehow get it back into my garage 2 hours of hard labor later but i won't be going anywhere until I am plowed out or the snow melts. This experience took 1/2 of my van's front moulding off (the pretty conversion van stuff). Ugh. There was also a piece of metal on top of the snow behind my van that I am hoping wasn't important. Oh dear.
2/09/2010 All is going well here at our house. This weekend we will try to get some stacked pictures of the babies. We won't force it but if we are lucky, we will take a few pictures. The puppies will be four weeks old on Thursday.
1/27/2010 We tried to get new pictures of the puppies last night but they were pretty wiggly. Their eyes are starting to open and just a little bit of playfulness is starting to show up. :)
1/14/2010 All is well here as we wait for Clarice's puppies to arrive. Her due date is today. It is 7:44 AM and not much activity but some nesting going on through last night. We will try and nap during the day to keep well rested.
12/31/2009 It is almost the beginning of the new year and decade! We wish a very Happy & Safe New Year to everyone! Looking forward to seeing our friends ringside next spring.
One wish for the new year....I wish we could keep the mud outside of the house where it belongs.... ;)
12/17/2009 Christmas is nearly upon us and we are not entirely ready. We have been busy getting ready for winter and trying to keep other parts of our website up to date with announcements, pictures, etc.
Jake finished his Canadian Championship in grand style all owner handled and from the puppy classes! Congratulations to Sylvia and Jake!
The Ho family bred to our blue boy CH Fred and has puppies less than a week old. All is going well at their house.
Clarice is going to have puppies on our about January 14th. This is a repeat breeding that produced Elwood, Jake and Sky. It is difficult to try not to get overly excited.
We received an ecard from Caymen and her family this week! Thank you to her family for this.
Max's owners in Michigan sent an ecard too with a cute bear sending us lots of hugs. Thanks Kate!
I've been eating entirely too many sweets these past two weeks so I better get busy and do more laundry or something otherwise this five extra pounds I managed to pick up recently will become either permenant or worse yet turn to ten!
12/06/09 Well now I just got my computer back home as we have had a bit of a problem with it. I will catch up with everyone in the next day or two so please understand....geez I won't mess with certain functions again on this computer...ugh my fault entirely but what a pain!!!!
11/25/09 The show season winds down for us here at our house but we will be all eyes glued to the TV when the 2009 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship is televised from Long Beach, California! Here is the link for more information if you care to watch it too: http://www.akc.org/aenc/
11/20/2009 Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and we have much to be thankful about at our house. Thanks to those who have Danes from us for taking such good care of them!
We hope to have a new breeding announcement coming up soon. We will know if this special breeding took on December 12th. If this did take, we will be looking for special loving AKC conformation show homes on terms. The breeding is a repeat breeding between our blue girl Clarice (our CH Fred's daughter) to another special blue boy we all know and love...BISS CH Sharcon's Tomahawk. The litter produced three very nice blues last November.
Fall is in full swing and Winter is nearly apon us. We will be looking forward to the spring to get back out in the show scene and hopefully a nice litter of puppies too!
11/01/2009 We have been really very busy lately. During October we attended the Great Dane Club of America's National competition. We met several folks making new friends and visiting with friends we have met over the years. People from all over the world attend this huge event.
We brought Twinkie and Elwood with us. Both did everything I asked them to do and looked very good. The competition was tough. We received many compliments on these two and thank those that came up to us to tell us so.
Imagine 600 or something like that Great Danes in one place competing! But by the time it was over both of my young competitors had enough of hotel living. The Chatanooga Choo Choo hotel was very accomodating and fun, but my two crave free run in our own backyard.
Today we welcome the time change as we had an extra hour of sleep!
9/19/2009 Today Twinkie went first in the Bred By Exhibitor class against compitition with points and one major pointed as I understand it. She did very well but I need to work with her more on the exam as she squated a bit which will prevent her from winning. The judge still liked her best in her class so I am pleased.
Jake's new win picture is up under the now showing tab. He such a nice puppy; he is doing well for his age.
9/15/2009 Wow, nearly a month has come and gone by. My computer was down for about a week with a virus of some sort. Seems like that took a very long time.
We have been showing here and there; nothing too focused right now as back to school has had us a bit busy with other things. Fall is my favorite time of year with cool night and sunny days. This is the time of year where home projects hopefully get finished! Winter is not far behind so we will wind down showing for this season which is fine as we have some fairly young ones still maturing.
08/16/2009 The rain these past two weeks has kept us busy with trying to keep the mud out of the house. We seem to be drying out at the moment and can look forward to keeping the dirt outside the house versus inside! This is a challenge as we let them have free access several times each day outside to run which is like having a football player in your yard with cleats in the mud. Ugh. Extra towel washing, extra rug washing, extra clothes washing....we bought a second washer...
07/19/2009 Kajal, Twinkie, and Sky are now all International Champions! Kajal is an adult champion where as Twinkie and Sky are puppy champions. The critique was very complimentary so we are very proud of the girls!
07/04/2009 Independence day for us here in the USA. A time to celebrate and enjoy our country and freedom.
06/24/2009 Wow what a weekend! Zoe finished her AKC Championship at a very competitive all Dane show! This is our first home bred champion and we are all smiles.
I have revised the order of my tabs to accomodate a new "Champion Girls" tab. :)
6/14/09 Twinkie goes Reserve Winner's Girl today! She is only one year old and won out of the Open Black class. She is mature enough and has a fabulous ring/show attitude that she can appear much older. She is so very sweet.
5/31/2009 I uploaded a new picture of Sky to the Young Hopefuls tab. Her owners are doing very well with her and training her for the show ring.
We are in the middle of switching food for our Danes. A couple of them started with really itchy and yucky ears to the point that they are now very raw. We tested for everything with our vet but everything came up negative. So, it must be the food. Too much starch causing yeast to take over. So far the transition is going okay. We are on day three.
Another beautiful day outside! However, I think ticks are going to be a big problem this year as they have been out in full force. We do not use a topical chemical that you see on the market. We do use a cedar oil spray on them each morning (or every other morning). It seems to work and they smell good. The down side is it is a oil so you can feel it when you pet them. In addition it does attract dirt/dust so we will bathe more often.
5/21/2009 Twinkie is back home for a bit taking a rest from her training. She is also in season (her first) and doesn't quite know what is going on. Pretty typical. We will get her out at the shows soon and look forward to start being competitive with her.
Elwood is turning out to be a fabulous blue male. Fingers crossed!!!
5/10/2009 Happy mother's day everyone!
Emma went to her new home last night. She is such sweet outgoing girl. I will miss her but know that having her new family all to herself (and a couple other four legged buddies) will be good for her. She is a very sweet singleton baby.
Twinkie has been out at the dog shows in training lately. She will be home soon to mature a little and to celebrate her first birthday! Twinkie is a girl without a care in the world. She is one to live life to the fullest with a smile on her face!
Over the next couple of months we will be training Elwood for conformation, getting our yearly vet health check ups for everyone, and we will be retiring Hope. Hope did well in the show ring with 7 points to her credit. However, she comes into season too often which complicates things. Hope is a sweet, very easy to live with Dane. Once she is spayed and healed we can enjoy having her without concern over her reproductive cycles.
5/1/2009 Everyone is doing well. Twinkie is out on the road being shown and in training. Zoe is starting to get out again looking for those last points/Major to finish. Kajal is maturing slowly and will have her out very soon too. Elwood is still too young for competition other than puppy matches. I need to get him out for some good socialization once Emma (the baby girl) has left for her new home. Hope, Clarice, and Ricky are doing great too; these three may have put on a few winter pounds so it is good that the weather is turning warmer for more play time outside. :)
4/5/2009 Elwood, Kajal, and Sky attended a match yesterday and Sky went Puppy Working Group 3 with her new mom! Her family has never shown before so this is wonderful. We all had fun yesterday. Kajal went working group three for adults. She was very excited so we will need to work with her on channeling her energy.
Zoe, Tre, and Twinkie are showing this weekend in PA. I hear they all look wonderful and hope that today we can pick up a win. It is a very large show with more than 35 entries for the girls alone! Tough competition.
Baby Emma is doing well and has begun the weaning process. She is such a character!
3/21/09 All is well with our baby fawn girl. Her name is Emma. Her eyes are open now and will soon begin to explore the whelping box as she starts to coordinate her movements. This is Hope's last litter. She is a wonderful mom and has produced some wonderful kids.
I am thinking about trying obedience with Hope as it will be something entirely new for me. Which means back to school for us both but not until she is spayed and has completely healed. I hope to find some patient new friends in this competitive sport as I will be such a novice in obedience! Hope will be wonderful for this I think. She has the right personality. It is me that I wonder about. :)
3/07/2009 Jake is now in his new home and doing well. I will miss him but his new family of Dane folk I know will love him too. He will be hitting the show scene up in Canada by his family at Quicksilver Ranch when he is old enough. Their main website is: http://www.quicksilverranch.com/.
I will be changing around my webisite a bit to see if it makes things easier to navigate. I am not sure exactly how at this point but feel it needs better organization.
Monday Hope is due to have her puppies. We are pretty excited about it and will post pictures as soon as we can of the new puppies.
2/16/09 The puppy boys are just too much fun!!!!
2/12/09 Last night's storm was pretty windy. We lost power for a while but all is well.
The snow and ice have finally melted earlier in the week. The ice was a big challenge as it was nicking paws making it pretty hard for them to want to go outside. Everything is one big pond now and I hope to see some of that water drain into our intended pond soon.
Hope will have pups March 9th and is doing well. She is a happy loving Dane eager to please.
2/01/2009 Ricky is the proud father of two puppies in Finland currently ranked #1 & #2 best Dane puppies! They were bred by Genneda Great Danes. One of them is also on the cover of a Dane calendar. Congratulations!
We are trying to be patient over here while we wait to see if Hope is going to have puppies. It is hard. :)
Clarice's puppies are doing well but the horrible amount of ice and snow prevents us from starting to let them venture outside. The adults do not want to go out in it either. Hopefully today's warmer weather will last long enought to melt it. If not, well then we are looking at more ice. Ugh. Everyone has cabin fever because nobody can run and play outside like they are used to doing. Muscle tone is also starting to decline...for me too. :(
1/16/2009 Wow time is flying by! The puppies are 7.5 weeks old and are doing great. Today they visited the vet's office for a check up and their first shot. All is well and they had a good time...that is the pups and the office staff. :)
12/12/2008 The puppies are all beginning to start to play a little. First with their mom and a little bit between each other. Their eyes are open but still haven't developed focus. They also have begun walking a little albeit they are wobbly.
Clarice is well and is such a wonderful mother.
12/06/08 Clarice had her puppies on th 26th of November. Three nice blue babies are doing fine and boy are they fat! :) 2 boys and a girl.
Yesterday the babies eyes started to open. It is really exciting to watch them grow and develop.
We will be breeding Clarice's sister to Tommy on her next season as long as the weather co-operates. This will produce black and blue puppies.
11/20/08 Clarice is doing fine and there are only 5 days to go! It is a nervous time for us all but exciting too.
11/19/08 Kajal passes her OFA cardio exam by an
11/18/08 Kajal celebrates her 1st Birthday!
11/16/08 Tre (a young 9-month-old male we bred and co-own) was at his first show today. He went Reserve Winner's Dog! Really nice win. There were eight dogs in the classes in the competition and Jonathan (junior handler and Tre's best friend) looked great so I hear. Visit my "Now Showing" tab and scroll down for a picture of these two.
Another very young puppy out our fawn champion boy Ricky in
11/09/08 Zoe won her first Major going Best of Winners at the Hoosier Great Dane Specialty on 11/9/08!!! This was a 4 point major against some very nice competition. What a nice prestigious win.
11/4/08 Election Day is today for all
All is well here and Clarice is showing more each day that the puppies are on their way. Thanksgiving dinner will be a bit busier this year that is for sure!
10/31/08 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
10/16/08 We are trying so very hard to be patient while waiting on Clarice! This breeding is very exciting as I am looking forward to a litter of blue puppies.
10/14/08 This past weekend Zoe went Winner's girl two days in a row! What a good girl and pretty too. If the pictures turn out nice we will post them under the "now showing" tab.
10/08/08 I took Ricky and Kajal today to the doggie eye doctor. Ricky had an updated "CERF" exam since he was only 3 months old when I had the original one completed. Kajal had her eyes checked too and both are fine as expected. The CERF website will update in a few weeks but then OFA takes another couple of weeks to update too. Kajal will not have an OFA record until she has one other OFA type health check such as for the heart. That we cannot do until she is at least 12 months old. For those not familiar with these online record keeping dog health companies, here are the links to their main/home pages:
CERF: http://www.vmdb.org/cerf.html
OFA: http://www.offa.org/
Please know that while some health testing is a good thing, it is not an exact science nor is a complete identification that ANY dog is healthy. For example, the eye exam we did today is usually not necessary in the Danes. Danes typically do not have eye issues. Some have eyelid problems (rolling in or rolling out) that do affect their 'look' and possibly eye health but can be corrected if need be. Selective breeding works to avoid this as it is a conformation issue. These eyelid issues are identified as well during the CERF exam and notated on the dog's record. Other breeds have significant debilitating eye problems and CERF is the best source to identify this.
We have had many nice compliments from folks from near and far away about our Danes. I am so happy to receive them and humbled knowing how lucky I am. :)
9/29/08 Whew what a busy weekend. Friday, Clarice was bred to Tommy which went well. Sunday we were at the
9/20/08 Kajal's picture arrived! It is hard to see her as my scanner has distorted it quite a bit. Oh well... Kajal loves to see everything and experience everything. Her alert expression is quite wonderful. She also makes us laugh when playing with her as she has her own unique way of bouncing around with her toys.
We continue to tape Twinkie's ears and her baby teeth are starting to come out. She really loves to give kisses and I fully expect to have a wet face when she grows up into those big paws. I am working with her on 'free stacking' for a treat. She is very food motivated so I see this as pretty easy to do. :))
9/7/08 Zoe has received Reserve Winners today. She was very good and looked just wonderful in the ring today. Kajal was there too but she was just too happy and excited to contain herself! She is such a wonderfully silly puppy.
I forgot to mention that Twinkie (our newest black puppy from Hope and Ricky) was at the puppy match yesterday. She went Best Puppy! Well let's not tell her she was the only Great Dane puppy... She did get to go into the Working Group for puppy competition which was fun. She and a baby Rottie were the youngest two there and if we could just have only won on the 'cute factor'!!!
9/06/08 At the show today Zoe went Winner's girl! Kajal was there too for practice mainly and she had a ball of fun watching all the little dogs.
9/2/08 THis weekend Kajal went to her first AKC show. She did very well and was excited by all the happenings at the show. We need to practice gaiting and stacking. She won Best Puppy in the sweepstakes competition and was awarded a nice ribbon and collar. She did well...she was the only pup though. :))
Here is a picture of a 12 week old puppy out of Finland. Genneda Great Danes used Ricky as a stud for her girl. She looks very promising!
