RIP Princeton (Apr 24, 2008 - Oct 19, 2017)

Our beloved Great Dane Princeton died peacefully on Oct. 19, 2017 after a long struggle with bone cancer. He was nine and a half years old. He is greatly missed.

Princeton is now a 9-year-old Great Dane

Princeton on his 9th birthday

I’m happy to report that our Princeton is now nine years old -- quite old for a Great Dane.

He has slowed down a lot and the fur on his face is all turning white, but he is still happy and fun-loving. I try to cherish every day that he is still with us.

The usual lifespan predicted for a Great Dane is six to eight years, so he has already lived a long life for his breed. He even outlived his wonderful champion show-dog littermate, Shabrea’s Greatest Hits Cash’n the Ring of Fire, who died not long after their ninth birthday. I was so sad when I heard that Cash had “gone to the Rainbow Bridge,” but his family loved him to the end.

Princeton used to have a streak of black fur like a permanent tear-drop under his right eye. It made him look like he was crying or his eye was watering. But now it is almost all white, as if all his tears have been wiped away by a lifetime of good care and good times.

Princeton, age 9, still alert to dogs outside our fence

Princeton turns 8 years old

Princeton turned eight years old today, and he's still going strong! I took this birthday portrait of him this morning.

Princeton's happy 7th birthday

I got behind on blogging, but here are birthday photos from the day that Princeton turned seven years old. He's still doing great!

If you know his face well, you can see that some of the grey has turned white.

Great Dane chews door knobs!

Our Great Dane Princeton looked guilty when we came home and discovered that he had chewed up some door knobs while we were away.  He totally destroyed the door knob to the closet!

The guys at the hardware store thought it was hysterical when we took it in to find a replacement.  They had never seen anything like it!

Princeton watched us replace it with a doleful look that seemed to say, "Sorry, I didn't know these door knobs were hard to fix."

Why did he do it? And how can we stop our dog from chewing the door knobs in the future?

We used to keep Princeton in the crate or the backyard when we were out. But he got a pressure sore on his elbow from lying on hard surfaces, so we started leaving him in the house. Note: If we put a pillow or blankets with him in the crate, he shreds them.

Keeping him indoors where it’s carpeted seemed to work at first. Then we started noticing a few tooth marks on the door knobs. It seemed like a small price to pay. He had his favorite NylaBone chew toys with him, but he chomped on door knobs anyway.

Suddenly one day when we were gone longer than usual and he got less exercise than usual, Princeton escalated to full-scale war on door knobs!

The only solution we found so far is to keep him in the crate or the backyard again when he is home alone. (Thankfully the sore on his elbow has healed.) Any other ideas?

The good news is that Princeton had his sixth birthday today (April 24, 2014). Happy birthday, big boy!

 

Princeton is still looking great on his sixth birthday, April 24, 2014

Princeton on his sixth birthday, April 24, 2014

Happy 5th birthday, Princeton!

I took my Great Dane Princeton out in the backyard for a photo shoot on his 5th birthday (April 24).

Naturally the first thing he had to do was check out what was happening on the other side of our 6-foot fence. Looking over the top was no problem for our big boy.



Princeton knows about cameras and has a show-dog style, so he struck a pose for his birthday photo. This is how he wanted to be remembered on his 5th birthday.

Great Dane pulls lights off Christmas tree

My Great Dane Princeton got into some big Christmas mischief this year. He thought the Christmas lights were really cool -- so he started pulling them off the tree and dragging them across the room!

Fortunately there was no damage done. I took a photo of the scene right after the dog unraveled the Christmas tree.

Actually I think he got the lights wrapped around his head when he was scratching his face on the Christmas tree. We caught him trying to use the tree as a scratching post to itch his face both before and after this incident. He was alone in the room with the tree when it happened, so we don’t know for sure.