If you’ve read UG for any time at all, you know my wife and I are dog people. And since rescuing our first Great Dane (my bestest dog ever, Angus [R.I.P, my dear canine friend]), we our now raising our third Great Dane, Bevo (now almost 6 months old and growing faster than our nation’s debt).
I can’t imagine that we’d ever own another breed now that we’ve been blessed with these gentle giants in our home and in our lives.
The Daily Mail has a fantastic article on George, the world’s biggest dog (a huge Blue Great Dane), that catches so much of the spirit of living with these giant dogs:
That is a lot of dog.
One of my favorite parts of the article:
All the things that make Great Danes wonderful pets — their lack of aggression and their attachment to humans — make them more emotionally sensitive than other dogs.
They need to be with their ‘pack’ at all times…
I can’t tell you how true this is…these huge, fearsome looking and truly fearless dogs are huge babies. And it’s obvious that it’s possible to “hurt their feelings” when you yell at or scold them. And where ever we are in the house? That’s exactly where the dogs are.
Plus, my lovely missus takes them everywhere. And I mean everywere — Austin is an exceptionally dog friendly city, so they go to Home Depot/Lowes, Best Buy, Barnes and Nobles, Neiman Marcus, and pretty much any restaurant that has outdoor seating/eating areas.
George is 43″ tall at the shoulders (nearly 4 feet tall), weighs ~250 lbs, and is 7 feet long. Our biggest Great Dane, Jersey (2 yrs old), is a really big dog, but just a bit bigger than average for a male Great Dane: 36″ tall at the shoulders and about 160 lbs. We think his little brother Bevo will be at least that tall if not a bit taller, but not as thick as Jersey:
2 yr old Jersey and his new little brother, 5 1/2 month old Bevo.
We used to let Angus share our King-size bed with us, but then we ran into the same thing that George’s people did:
Eventually he [George] outgrew the single mattress we placed there for him and preferred instead the comfort of our king-sized bed — sprawling between us like some over-indulged prince while we spent half the night clinging onto the edges.
I laughed when I read that, because that is exactly what happened to us. And Angus was not nearly as large as George, and yet he still stretched from one end of our giant bed to the other. Now our two Danes and our one large Lab/Bloodhound mix (Otis, 9) each have their own giant dog beds spread around our bedroom floor.
That's how our Danes sit on our couches, too. They just back right up, and plop their butts down on the couch.
And my wife and her giant puppy (Jersey) at our favorite joint (Angel’s Icehouse):
Beauty and the beast
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WOW!
That is one big Ol’Houn’dog!
Have been wondering, Robbie, when you were going to pick up on this story…immediately thought of Angus and you guys when I read about George, the big dufus, loveable beast he is…
Such beautiful dogs, I’d love to have one. My family has a rescued Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Lily, but one of our neighbours has two stunning Harlequin Danes called Hector and Pilot.
Unfortunately, whenever they go past on their walk, our silly spaniel races round to the front of the house and barks at them and generally goes nuts! Hector and Pilot never bark back, they just look a bit embarrassed!
We used to housesit and dogsit in a house in Bermuda. The lady we used to sit for had a Great Dane named Tor. I remember the first time my husband and myself visited the house in Bermuda. My mother-in-law warned me that Tor’s bark is more scary then he actually is. On the way to the house, I temporarly forgot about Tor (leave it to me) When I opened the door of the car I heard this deep, deep almost mean bark. I was caught off guard until I see the biggest dog I have ever seen running towards me with a big teddy bear in his mouth!!!! Tor would try to get in your lap and he was full of kisses and snuggles. He was was very, very protective of you too! I have a picture of myself and Tor where he is standing in front of me and I’m sitting on the floor. All you can see is the top of my head!!! The house we stayed to also had it’s own private little beach and a stone patio where you could jump into the water. Oscar, the ladies other little dog, loved swimming in the ocean with us, but Tor wouldn’t go handy to the water! On really hot days we would try and get him to jump in with us, but he never would. We would end up spraying him with the hose just to cool him down! Robbie is so right when he call’s Great Danes gentle giants!
OMG…. HE’S HUGE! Nice to see Jersey and Bevo….. Jersey sure has filled out! Though I haven’t met them, if they are anything like Angus big loveable guy, may he be running free in Heavens doggie park! He was such an awesome dog, with an awesome bark, I remember walking out of my room only to be greeted with this deep bark…. I guess he forgot I was a guest and surprised him! Sure made me jump and then freeze!
While in grad school, I lived with an Italian diplomatic family whose dog was a mix of Great Dane and Black Lab. HUGE. I used to wear my shearling gloves (bought when I lived in Northern England) to take him for a walk during humid D.C. summers; to be more accurate, when he pulled me along behind him.
Hey Robbie, apropos of nothing here in particular, I feel the need to do some maternal bragging and think you will understand my motivation. My 19 year old just received his Pathfinder badge – one of 24 out of an initial 53 person class.
Congrats to your kiddo, Sheila on his Pathfinder badge. Sounds like you are raising a good man.
Wow…..that IS a huge dog !
As always, love seeing your two kids, Jersey and Bevo looking great.
Our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rusty, did exactly the same thing to me and J. in our king size bed.
Lay on his side between us with legs out straight.
One morning Rusty was dreaming or something and he suddenly did one of those instant “Flex” moves pushing his legs arrow straight out and relaxing. J. was already sleeping on about 18 ” left on his side of the bed and when Rusty did that he pushed J. off onto the floor.
Fortunately at that time we had our box springs and mattress on the floor with no frame, so it wasn’t a long fall to the carpet. We thought it was funny…..um…J. less than me, but he still grinned.
Rusty, of course, was oblivious.
Sound familiar ?
The size of the dog doesn’t matter — from 14 lbs to 140 – they are ALL bed hogs.
that is one big dog he is like bigger then the world
:
wow……… i like them both,,, ilove dogs:smile:
wow! how i wish to have that kind of a big big dog, i’ve never seen that kind of a dog before.
*poof*
And you’re a mentally ill woman from canada, whose comments are even deleted by AIUSA because you are so out of control.
I love Great Danes myself