Great Dane owners - tell me what your dogs are like (bonus points for pictures)?

[RubaiyatOfAnyone]

I am still mulling over a future dog, once smallest dd is no longer on a par with one with house training and dashing away into traffic.

Growing up we had a Jack Russell, English Mastiff, and Boxer (at different times). The terrier was always bad tempered, but I have very loving memories of the Mastiff and wonder if a great big shambling friendly family dog wins out over the enthusiastic-and-boundless-energy Boxer. I was wondering about Great Danes as they are related and I’ve heard good things about their temperament.

Can all you Great Daners tell me what you like (or don’t) about the breed? Alternatively, if anyone can recommend a friendly, reasonably bright, good with kids breed i should look into instead?

I think Great Danes are gorgeous, but I couldn't handle the short lifespan - people we know just lost theirs at only 7 - heartbreaking.

We have a golden retriever - we got him when they were 3, 5 and 6 - he's been amazing. We have a working lab too - I'm not sure he would have been as good when they were small (they are 10, 12 and 13 now), but he is flipping clever and lovely too.

Great Dane still going strong at 81/2. Biggest issue: small dog owners who don’t correct their dogs when they bark hysterically at her (she’s never, ever the aggressor) and are ‘surprised’ when mine barks back; off-lead dogs (owners) with no recall ability who think it’s okay to get in her face (literally) but complain if she so much as looks at them. She’s a gentle soul who has never ever been aggressive and even tries to separate her playmates if she thinks they’re playing too roughly!
On lead she walks perfectly. I walk her off lead on beaches/ open country/ in a friendly farmers field ( she ignores the livestock and is great mates with the farm dogs) and away from the urban furbabies.
If you haven’t got somewhere open for yours to run, don’t get one. A galloping Dane is a joy.
She’s gentle, affectionate, endlessly entertaining and thinks that there no sane reason why she can’t sit in my lap . Oh and stunningly beautiful; the best gift my non dog loving husband ever gave me. He adores her btw.

Yes the lifespan is an issue but most Danes die quietly without long health problems. Mine has had (and continues to have) the best care and best life I could give her. Comes on holiday, lots of attention, lots of care and fun.

@MindTheGapMoveAlong

Great Dane still going strong at 81/2. Biggest issue: small dog owners who don’t correct their dogs when they bark hysterically at her (she’s never, ever the aggressor) and are ‘surprised’ when mine barks back; off-lead dogs (owners) with no recall ability who think it’s okay to get in her face (literally) but complain if she so much as looks at them. She’s a gentle soul who has never ever been aggressive and even tries to separate her playmates if she thinks they’re playing too roughly! On lead she walks perfectly. I walk her off lead on beaches/ open country/ in a friendly farmers field ( she ignores the livestock and is great mates with the farm dogs) and away from the urban furbabies. If you haven’t got somewhere open for yours to run, don’t get one. A galloping Dane is a joy. She’s gentle, affectionate, endlessly entertaining and thinks that there no sane reason why she can’t sit in my lap . Oh and stunningly beautiful; the best gift my non dog loving husband ever gave me. He adores her btw.

Basically this, small dogs are allowed to get away with murder, a big dog only need to glance at someone funny and it is all over fb, with a post of how there feral tiny little piece of poo was terrified by the on lead Big Dog.

We knew a Great Dane who reached 13 or 14 but I think that is quite exceptional. thinks that there no sane reason why she can’t sit in my lap ...her too, quite right - she sat quite comfortably on my lap, front feet still on the floor. She really was lovely - our dog (a standard dachshund) used to stay with her.

Parents in law had them and I was besotted and in love with them. So gentle and wonderful, just want to be lap dogs. They were celebrities whenever they walked them, so you'll get lots of attention.

The short life spans are a downside and you have to be on it with training, like others saw, small dogs get away with (wrongly) bad behaviour. People will see 'big dog' and think it's dangerous. Great Danes are so gentle so far from the truth. Beautiful dogs.

I won't comment on them (as the small rug rat is mine, not the large, farty, drooly Dane) but just sharing some pictures.

Some Danes will be calmer, but make no mistake that some of them will be like living with the exuberance of a Boxer in a much larger package.

PROS: They are beautiful, obviously - a well trained one is a joy to walk and to watch running. A well bred one is a joyful clown.

The list of cons will be long, but they are just things to think about and be prepared for, rather than a reason not to if they still appeal.

CONS: Lifespan, obviously. Everything will be very expensive - food, vet's fees, beds, collars, etc. Hairs are like needles, you will find them everywhere (including embedded in your flesh). You will need a big car (see also hairs embedded everywhere in that, including the roof). Everything breakable needs to be above tail height and if/when they split their tails, there will be blood everywhere and much time spent trying to invent imaginative ways to keep some sort of dressing on to heal it. Drool ...

Lived with them for years, owned by a friend. Can appreciate them, but not a breed for the faint hearted.

My nan had them & I stayed during school holidays etc. Brilliant dogs, I felt very safe with them (although obviously never left alone).

I'd say wait til youngest DC is 5+, mainly due to height - a Great Dane tail can be a bit like a whip when excited & it wasn't great fun when said tail was level with my face

I'd think carefully about any very popular colours; sometimes breeding can be for preferred colours over temperament. I've met some blue Danes in the last decade who haven't really had great temperaments which is a shame (but could just be a fluke!). My nan had a harlequin mis-mark who was quite different in personality to the fawns and brindles. Funnily enough she was actually pretty good at agility; she had a lot more drive than the others who were happy with a walk and a nap.

The lifespan is a shame. It's one of the things that deterred me from having a Dane, but the main thing was that I wanted a breed I could pick up in an emergency. One of my nan's old girls went down on a walk pretty far from the car & it was horribly tense waiting for her to get back up (I was primary school aged so that stuck with me).

Overall brilliant dogs. They will try to sit on your lap and are the perfect height to back up when you are on the sofa and act surprised when they find themselves sat on you

Oh - one downside. Many dog owners won't let their dogs play with them. You'll probably build up a small group of larger breed dogs who are happy to play over time, but it is difficult when your puppy is 4x bigger than the others and just wants to say hi.

Oh. And the horse jokes. Not a single walk without someone suggesting you put a saddle on it.

We have several GD’s on our village and they are gorgeous. Often older owners I’ve noticed.

Can I ask GD owners a question? Why have I never, ever seen one of the village Danes pull on their lead, or generally prat about? Are they just naturally calm, or do you put in months of early training to avoid shoulder dislocation? As the owner of an (idiot) adolescent boy Lab, I’d love to know your secret!

I'd love to know this too! The Dane's I've known are really calm on the lead and just look so lovely to walk with.

I know that the owners of the ones I knew were really on it with training, the size means it's an even bigger responsibility.

My DPs Dane (which I posted pictures of above) is reactive having been attacked a number of times as a puppy. He will walk calmly as long as no one is about but needs holding back when people (actually men, he is fine with women and children) / other dogs are in the vicinity.
I couldn't physically walk him as there is no way I could restrain a 12 stone animal.

I lived with a GD for a short while.
He was lovely but did once pull his owner in the road when spooked by something.

Other things to consider are room - in your house but also if you want to go to a cosy pub or somewhere. Sometimes there just isn’t room!
Ours was quite neurotic, wasn’t keen on going to new places, but that might have been him and not the breed as a whole.

It was difficult when he was ill - impossible to lift.

we fostered a great dane. She was about 1 year old, and was mad as a box of frogs.

basically bouncy puppy in bloody massive great big body. She knocked over everythign in the house, bounced the fence flat and jumped up to say hello and flattened you.

Very lovely temperament, really truly think she didn't know how to be agressive etc, just so big and SOOOOO bouncy.

and she pulled like a tank on her lead, had aching arms the whole time we had her.

Was adopted inot a family with a huge garden. We were somewhat shell shocked for a week or two after she left!

My Dane was like a loopy boxer. As a youth he would use the sofa like a jumping step clearing it from standing! He used to run looking backwards so sometimes clipped you😂 I laugh now. He was the most living snd excitable waggy beast and was adored by us all. He was terrified by puppies and often bitten by little dogs he just used to look apologetic but the same jaws ate a raw cow femur in a day!

He would have killed snd eaten any at he got his teeth into but lived with our chooks who bullied him. I won’t have another coz it won’t be him. He was actually our second. The first was an aggressive ex fighter rescue but butter soft with us. I loved him too. But they get bone cancer, bloat and DVM and die relentlessly. 9 is a victory.

As for the the lead walking. Oh yeah having had loads of giants I am the queen at a) making them walk nicely b) making them listen to commands and c) dropping my body weight to the floor so all of me plus my yelling is playing against twenty odd stone of dog. I have been towed like a skier but not often😂

And could never make my spaniel walk nicely🤦‍♀️

To be fair she is a spaniel terrier cross so god knows what is going on but she is less reliable than any of my biggies😂

That reminds me of neighbours who had a Dane, it used to follow chickens around looking very confused by them.

Can I ask GD owners a question? Why have I never, ever seen one of the village Danes pull on their lead, or generally prat about? Are they just naturally calm, or do you put in months of early training to avoid shoulder dislocation? As the owner of an (idiot) adolescent boy Lab, I’d love to know your secret!

Is it something to do with bigger dogs? Being the perfect height for a restraining hand on the collar without having to bend down?

Never had a Great Dane but I had a Rhodesian Ridgeback about 20 years ago. He was a gorgeous dog but I'd definitely say they are not straightforward. He walked perfectly to heel, on or off the lead and I really don't remember training him to do it. He just liked to be close to me. Whereas my year old working cocker is a proper puller, and very strong, a work in progress. I suspect my mistake was having an extendable lead, when he was younger, so he learnt to race ahead and get traction. Now I keep him on a very short lead so he simply can't get his nose ahead but it's hard work heading out for a walk. Once he's run around and let off steam he walks on a loose (short) lead going home.

I knew an elderly couple who had a wolfhound, a very dignified dog. They used to exercise it by driving slowly around the lanes with the dog trotting alongside.

Going back to Great Danes, I like to watch Dogs Behaving Badly (makes mine seem like an obedience champ). There was a woman with a Great Dane that took over the sitting room, barked aggressively at the window whenever anyone walked past. It squared up to Graham and he was barely taller than it when it was on its back legs and I could be wrong but I thought I detected a tiny twinge of nervousness as he told it to back off. He did sort it though and the woman was so pleased she went off and bought another....

Are you my neighbour Stellaris😂