I had the best Dane of all! He was a huge Harliquin with totally mutilated ears. I think who ever clipped them thought he was a pit bull, they where that short. I NEVER wanted a Dane until his owners brought him to me for training. They bought him when he was a small pup and of course he grew,grew,GREW! They lived in a trailer with six kids and he was an unneutered male that would slip out anytime someone opened the door. So with $1500 in fines they decided they could not keep or afford him. Thankfully!
So now I had this ginormous dog that used to greet you by jumping up and would take off at the drop of a hat. Cured all of that and even did some Schutzhund work with him. He truly turned out to be one of my heart dogs. I have never had such an intuitive dog in all my life. When I had my knee operated on and had just come off crutches I was quite unbalanced, he would instinctively come over and walk beside me so I could lean on him. He would put himself in front of my tiny mother and push her away when I was bringing in the horses so she wouldn’t get hurt. If he thought there was a problem he would stand In front of me, all 160lbs of him,look someone in the eye and very lowly start to rumble. It never crossed anyone’s mind that he wouldn’t take it further if he needed to. He truly was fantastic dog and if I could find one even close to him I would certainly get another. I always felt incredibly safe with him when I rode and yes, he did do about 10 miles a day. Oh, did I mention he lived to be 14 and had OFA excellent hips? My vet told me he hoped I bred the crap out of him because the Great Dane breed needed him.
I have had a couple of others who were as dumb as posts but the sheer beauty of them is wonderful but be very careful when they play! I use to hide behind something when they got to running because they would bowl you over in a minute.
Great dogs but living with one is expensive. Food, heartworm pills, vets, everything is much more plus they are so prone to bloat. Plus be prepared fpr slingers. Ugh! i would be driving down the road and he would shake his massive head and the next thing i knew there would be a slinger hanging off my rear view mirror. Ok, i’m not very good with drool so that would totally skeeve me out. But even with that I would get another if I could find one half as bright and wonderful as my boy, Too Tall’s Inspector.
