I finally took the leap and am now immersed in schoolwork, studying canine behavior. Most folks know that we have Great Danes. They are our wonderful, loving, 4-legged offspring. Our first two arrived from their breeders with good health and we promptly took them to obedience school and socialized where we could living in a non-dog friendly community.
Our good fortune ended when we brought Jinkies home from the breeder. She was different. Something always seemed to hurt, she would limp and then get better. Everything we fed her went straight thru. Our vet finally referred us to an ortho vet, Dr Huber, who saved her leg and her life. She had folding fractures in her front legs and a broken growth plate in her back leg causing both legs to start to twist. He performed a radical surgery on her, having to use fat from her abdomen to replace where the bone section was taken out. Then she went on a special diet to try and make up for the lack of nutrition (probably early weaning) in her first weeks. 
At 12 weeks she was in rehab and recovery. She had to be carried to and from the outside (if you know the breed you know that by 4 months she weighed 60 pounds
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I had no idea Jinkies had been through so much. Bless her heart. She’s lucky to have found such a loving family. Which one was the crated dog? I know a lot of people use crating as a training technique but so many overuse it and the poor dogs spend more time in the crate than out. We’ve never crated ours, allow them on beds, the couch, chairs, pretty much anywhere we’d sit, they’re welcome. Our two boys, Larry, a smallish 40 pound brown dog with a face reminiscent of a Dobie, and Bo, an English Springer Spaniel, both had tough starts. They are such sweet and loving dogs. Bo lived with an abuser who I finally had to threaten with the police to get Bo away from him. Larry showed up scared of everything, covered in fleas and ticks, with heartworms and intestinal parasites. Every rib bone Larry had was showing. He seemed as if he’d been on his own for a long time. Our Lucy brought him home. Three years later he’s now finally free of heartworms and much calmer. He still shows some remnants of his time alone. He won’t come in the house if anyone besides us is here and when he’s outside, he likes to rest under bushes. Good luck with your studies. I know you’ll be great.
Desi was the crated one. He doesn’t mind it now, will even go in there and hang out. It amazes me how far he’s come as far as that goes. The only time he’s crated is when we are gone. Its more for his own safety as he has pretty bad separation anxiety and will go into a destructive mode. In his crate he’ll chill and sleep, he seems to trust that we’ll be back soon to let him out.
My older daughter would rock those boots. In fact, they may be hers!!!!! I love that you tried them on and got the ggliges. If I tried to wear anything like them, there would be a broken hip involved very swiftly. I have enough trouble navigating on shoes the side and dimensions of large frigates. Sounds like you had fun. When my daughters go shopping with me now, they assume very serious, attentive and careful expressions – when they arent hiding three aisles over pretending they dont know me!