Help! Its my first time!

[shangrila]

I would ve very leery of adopting from gentle giants. The stories I have heard... And I would never agree to feed only their dog food. Not only is it bad for your dog to stay one one type of food for their whole life, but it is just so greedy. Anyways, I am glad you are hearing about their issues before you make a decision on where to get your dog.

[Nina]

I have also read horrible things about them, one was that they had stolen a dog from someone back yard and adopted out, to someone in another state! Not saying this is true but it is what I have read,  and some of the dogs are treated horribly, malnourised, not getting medical attention that is needed. one of the stories is posted on here, the Danes name is I think is Tiegan, herat breaking story and he was rescued from GG. I would be very careful about adopting from them.


Nina

[DaneMom]

 congrats on the soon to be new dane. i have adopted from GG rescue and i had to take 2 of their dogs back due to them not doing well with my animals,kids or house. i tried and tried with them but in the end i was afraid to go back even though i spent $950 there for a rescue dog. Tracy did tell me that i could go back and get another dog but i just couldnt see going over there again and risking my kids,animals and house again. i did end up getting a dane pup from the news paper and she has been great. im not saying not to adopt from GG but just make sure you know about the dog and if that dog will go with your lifestyle. also make sure you get your shot records from them so that if anything happens you have thier shot record.  keep their number on hand incase anything happens. so after everything i ended up spending 1150 for a dog. ya i could have got a pup that pooped out gold for that price..LOL Oh tracy will stay with  you as long as it takes for you to find the perfect dog, she really is a sweet lady.

[DaneMom]

BTW i forgot to add that i got my dane pup from the paper for $200 because the people got evicted for having the dogs, her dog had 12 pups. so that is where i got that price from..LOL i didnt read the last posts about GG recuse but they are all correct.

 i got a 14 month Harlequen dane and he did the "kitty test" at her house and did so well. when we got him home he tried to attack my animals and didnt care of my kids were holding one. we had to put him in my daughters room (no she wasnt in there, she slept with my other daughter) and he tore everything up down to the window seal. it was really bad.
the second dog i got was a Borzoi that was 9 months old. she was great the 1st couple of weeks although we did have to keep a close eye on her with our smaller animals but she did good until she went back to peein and poopin in the house along with trying to attack my animals. she had this lump on the side of her face that tracy said was a sinus infection that was going away. it never went away. on the way to take the borzoi back she pooped.peed repeatedly in her crate. we had to stop on the way to norco because we had to rise the cage and her off due to all the mess. it was an aweful smell as you could imagine. tracy is a sweet lady and shows that she loves animals but i think she got over her head with so many dogs. she even told me that i could get a dog for free with a purchase of a dane or borzoi. she had a few shelties there and told me i could have one. i was so tempted because the poor baby's were so matted up and dirty. my husband said no that i couldnt and that was the only reason i didnt. if he wasnt with me i would have took all i could have. lol
so thats my story, i didnt want to tell it but i felt i had to. this way you have someone that has been there to tell you how things go. also DONT WEAR ANYTHING NEW OR NICE~! those doggies will have it ruined in 2 sec flat..lol good luck with what you decide and if you want to mail me for anything let me know. OR i can take you and you can give me the $400 and then have a pick from any dog on the lot! LOL $950 is the max on dogs there and those are the danes you see on tv and the ones she brings out. those are the ones she makes $$$ from. the mix or funky lookin dogs are the ones that are 400-500..just wanted to let you in on the info before you go. you will walk out spending almost a GRAND because you will fall in love and feel so sorry for a dog. i know i did and i have FIVE kids so that money means alot to us but oh well.. KARMA i guess you can say. good luck!

[brigid67]

Hi - I just got my new dane baby a week and a half ago.  I had researched Gentle Giants and at 1st was very taken in by their website, but after surfing the web etc etc I found that they were absoutely the worst...Be very carful.  I know that they say their adoption fee is like 400.00 but for any of the great looking healthy danes they are running about 900.00.  I have a friend who just spent 900.00 on one of their danes and the dog was aggressive to the little dogs in the house.  For 900.00 you could get a pup from a breeder.  Anyway, I thought - "yes - a rescue dog would be great"  And I researched all the rescues.  Put in apps everywhere and in the long run I ended getting my pup from a breeder. I have small not so nice Poms and I guess I thought for my 1st dane I wanted one who would grow up knowing those little dogs....  I don't know if my rationale was right but I love my Willow - she is such a loving handful.  My next dane will be a rescue. 

If you want to know more about Gentle Giants..try contacting Mark - he runs the Deaf Dane Rescue (you can probably google it to get the website and his email is on the website) He may be able to help with your research with Gentle Giants

Good luck with your new addition...I am sure you will get the dane that is just perfect for your family.
Timmie

[DaneMom]

awwww so cute!!!!! so glad you finally got your dane. they are so cute at this age. congrats!!!!

Angel

[ZooCrew]

I tried to adopt a dog thru GG rescue.  But b/c of a technicality (one side of our fence is 4' not 6', but we can't do anything about it b/c it's not our fence) we were on "conditional approval".  After explaining our situation, I never heard back from them again.

However, I also know of several people who have rescued danes from them with no problems.  I do know that the #1 reason for returned danes is b/c of protection issues, which I think would happen at any rescue, not just theirs.  Danes were originally bred for war dogs and guard dogs.  So they have to be properly trained and socialized or many tend to become over protective of their family/space.  That is one of the only drawbacks to getting an adult dane rescue.  You simply don't know what their previous owners did with them.  And since they are so big, it is a much bigger problem if they are not well behaved.

I'm not saying don't get one.  I'm just saying be aware of what to expect.  I originally wanted to get an adult dane.  I didn't want to deal with potty training and basic training in general.  But since my husband was not as into big dogs as me, and for the sake of our other dog, I decided to get a puppy.  I still wanted to get a rescue (which is why I was going to go thru GG..........th ey are the only rescue in So. Ca that has puppies), but that fell thru, so I started looking at breeders.

We're actually doing the opposite of you.  You started small and are now going big.  I have big, and I promised my husband our next dog would be small.  Good luck with your searching and be sure to post pics when you get him/her.

Also, on GG.  Tracy is very overwhelmed, as it is mainly her and her husband Burt who run the place, with close to 100 dogs at any given time.  They do need help, and probably need to be a bit more organized, but overall, I think they are doing a great job.  As for the complaints against them, I heard they were made by neighbors.  They live kinda in the country, but their land only sits on I believe 5 acres, so I can imagine some neighbors might complain.  They do charge alot for their dogs, but you have to keep in mind how much it costs to feed all of them, medicate them, and have home visits by a vet once or twice a week.  I don't believe, though that they should require that you buy their food.  That seems strange, even though their food looks very healthy.

[Anky]

ZooCrew,

If you're interested, I can give you a site that has more info on the allegations.  The only reason I offer, is that I used to defend them, but then I heard a bunch of stories.  But Stories are just stories, then when I found out about this site and went there, I changed my mind.

Ang

[ZooCrew]

yes, I would be interested in reading that.  I haven't heard any new information in about 2 months, and I didn't have much information to go on in the first place.

[Anky]

The reason that no one has heard much lately is because the legal stuff is getting hot and heavy right now.  This is actually a Yahoo Group, and many of the members are the ones that are complaining, so the stories listed there are first hand knowledge, not just, I heard from a girl that did a transport for Lab rescue, who got it from a lady who does greyhound fostering who heard from her groomer that this happened.     The group itself is really slow right now because of aforementioned legal actions, but there is a TON of back posts to read up on.  I'd suggest sorting them by Date, oldest first, otherwise it gets really confusing.

Ang

Here's the group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Tiergans_Roar/

[ZooCrew]

This is a member's only site.  I don't know if I want to particularily join a site just to get some info off of it.  I can't read anything without joining.  I will have to think about whether I want to join or not.  It's hard enough already remembering which things I'm a member of now..........l ol   

[irinad83]

Hey there! just wanted to say congrats on getting a dane-they are amazing dogs-wonderful companions! get your lap ready-they think they are lap dogs for sure
Have fun!

[YayIgetaBIGdog!]

Hi. I just wanted to update everyone.  After doing the research about the GG my husband and I decided to not adopt through them.  Since then I have read a lot more that has convinced me I did the right thing.  (We decided to not even go up to see the dogs.  I am such a sucker for a dog in need!)  In part because I realized I did not research the rescue sufficiently, I decided to research danes more.  I had done some, but I don't think enough.  As much as I wanted a dane we decided they weren't the right match for us at this point in time. 
My husband and I ended up getting a yellow lab (smaller than I wanted, but still a substantial dog).  My baby, Sampson, is doing well.  He is learning to be a good boy and my husband and I are learning a lot about being dog parents.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who offered advice, information and encouragement.  Your comments were very helpful, and when it comes to GG, your information prevented what could possibly have been a disastrous situation. 
Thank you.  I hope I can come back to the forum one day and talk my BIG dog!

[my3dogs]

BRAVO!!!!!!
You are an awesome pet owner.  Did research and made the right decision for YOU and your family.   That is so wonderful.  So many people don't do that and their pupper ends up at the shelter.   That's how I ended up with my mastiff.  Her owner thought she was getting too big.  ugh!!
Do you have pictures of your new pupper?  We'd LOVE to see pictures!!!

-Wendy

[YayIgetaBIGdog!]

I have attached a couple of pictures, one of him just sitting and looking cute and one at puppy class graduation (when he didn't want to sit and just wanted to play with his classmates ).
Sampson is a great dog.  I wonder at times if he will stop chewing on stuff, but I am amazed every day by what he is learning.  So much fun!

I tried to post the pictures but they are too big.  He is cute, and I will work on getting pictures up!