We’re the Hardin’s – John and Kristie – proud owners of Bogart and caretakers of Shale. We currently live in Charleston, South Carolina – an amazing city in itself, but also incredibly pet-friendly. Our Danes enjoy trips to the beach, the dog park and several dog-friendly festivals, plus businesses where they are welcomed as the family members they really are and the rest of the time, our giant friends spend their time lounging around the house – selecting toys from their private toy box or snoozing on the sofa.

Our love of Great Danes began in January of 1995. As my (Kristie’s) college graduation neared, I began to search for a dog to share my life. Always fascinated by the sweet-natured giant Great Danes, I didn’t think twice when I saw a litter of Dane puppies advertised in our local newspaper. I traveled to a beautiful horse farm where I was greeted at my car by a curious female Great Dane. After meeting with the family, I was taken to meet the puppies and that is where my first Dane, Gatsby, chose me as her new owner. I’ll never forget that adorable fawn puppy sitting in front of me – there was no question which of that litter was meant to be with me. I left that day with a long-time friend, but without any true knowledge of the breed. Once Gatsby and I settled in, I began to purchase every book and gather every bit of information I could on the breed. 

I soon graduated from college and met my newest Judo instructor, John, who had recently finished eight years in the Marine Corps and returned home to eastern Tennessee.  There is no doubt in our minds that Gatsby, soon after meeting John, selected him to be part of our family – she conducted a thorough inspection of him and put him through rigorous tests that I never saw repeated with any other person during our eleven wonderful years with Gatsby. This is apparently a very effective method, as John and I were married three years later.

            

John and I purchased our first home and decided to add another Great Dane to the family. We both decided that we wanted a blue male and I began a search for just the right dog. This is where our beloved Huck entered our lives, in the fall of 1998, from a kennel in Texas.  Gatsby eventually forgave us for Huck’s intrusion on her life and the two became close companions and traveled extensively with us, including many camping and hiking trips and two cross-country trips, to Washington state and back. Even though we took every precaution to prevent it, we lost our sweet Huck to bloat in April of 2004 – just a week after his sixth birthday. Soon after this we moved to Charleston, SC.

We knew Huck was irreplaceable, but we also were aware that our love of Great Danes would move us to have another in our lives. It was extremely important to us to find just the right dog from just the right kennel – we felt that we hadn’t done this properly in the past. We were looking for a kennel that cared about their dogs and had a history of healthy, nice-tempered Danes. Our first Dane, Gatsby, had started showing signs of hip dysplasia at the age of three – a condition that worsened over the years and we had also just tragically lost Huck despite all of our efforts to keep him healthy. So, at this point we were only researching kennels when we first met Phyllis and Willowrun Great Danes. We had no intentions of adding the new Dane to our family just yet, so soon after losing Huck. We had been combing the internet as well as visiting kennels when I began talking to Phyllis via e-mail. I had heard of Willowrun during the years since Gatsby and I came together and after exchanging a number of e-mails with Phyllis, we decided to take a trip up to Wilmington to meet her and see the kennel. We spent the entire day at Willowrun talking to Phyllis and visiting with her Danes. Sometimes a situation just feels right and this was definitely one of them – we both saw the love and care that were given to these Danes and the knowledge that Phyllis possessed and openly shared was just amazing. But again, at this point, we planned on continuing to develop our relationship with Phyllis, and hoped to own one of her puppies in the future. 

Even though he is an incredibly sweet tempered dog, Bogart presented an entirely new set of challenges for us because, in a mutual decision with Willowrun, we decided to postpone neutering him so that he could eventually be bred to an appropriate Willowrun bitch. Raising an intact male has definitely required an abundance of patience and diligence to ensure that he is well-trained and well-behaved.  Phyllis has respected our decisions concerning Bogart – allowing us to be involved in choosing his mate as well as choosing the right time (for our family and for Bogart) for the breeding.
Our time spent with Bogart and with Phyllis during this process has been invaluable – we now have an incredible adult Great Dane and a true friend in Phyllis. 

We also met an amazing blue female, Shale, that first day at the kennel whose personality we both loved. We grew more and more fond of her as we visited the kennel over the next two years. While Shale is owned by Willowrun, we are now owned by Shale – she is Bogart’s best pal and lives with us here in Charleston and like Bogart, has become an integral part of our family. We lost our sweet Gatsby in January of 2006 at the age of eleven, and like Huck, she is dearly missed. We can’t imagine our lives without these amazingly sweet giant dogs and we feel very fortunate to have a friend and mentor such as Phyllis Lockwood in our lives.
We look forward to our continued education and interaction with the Danes we love. In the near future, we hope to obtain therapy dog certification for Shale and we also plan to add a third Dane to our family in late summer – a puppy from our amazing Bog and Shale!