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All About Great Danes
from: The Complete DogIn popular culture, you'll find numerous references to Great Danes, from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo and Astro of the Jetsons to Einstein in Disney's Oliver & Company and Duke and Turk of the Swiss Family Robinson. In addition, there's Ace from Batman Beyond, G.B. Stern's The Ugly Dachshund novel, Mars and Jupiter from the patriot, the 2003 movie Good Boy…etc.
Great Danes have a long history of celebrated success -- more than most dog breeds -- because they have characteristics uniquely their own: long, slender and lanky bodies with a regal bearing coupled with a gentle temperament common to the mastiff breed, of which its most closely related.
Appearance
The general minimum height of a Great Dane is 28 - 32 inches at the withers, and weighs a general minimum of 100 - 120 lbs. Comparatively an English Mastiff can grow 27 - 32 inches and weighs 175 - 200 lbs, making a Great Dane's appearance to be tall and lanky. One of its prominent features, aside from a well muscled slender body, is their long slender legs and broad skull with a generally square appearance, especially along the snout. Coats of fawn are the most common along with a black mask. Other common coat color is brindle, blue and black, some lesser occurring coat colors are the harlequin (pure white but with black patches distributed over the entire body) and mantle.
Temperament
Though a large, well muscled dog, Great Danes are famous for being very tolerant, one of the reasons they've earned the title “Gentle giants”. Unfortunately, this characteristic makes them poor guard dogs, since they're so predisposed to human affection -- even to strangers. In addition, dut to this temperament, plus mild activity, they're excellent pets for seniors as well as younger children.
However, Great Danes have strong dominance issues when it comes to other dogs and smaller animals, which is why it's imperative that Great Danes get obedience training as well as aggression training when young.
Health Issues
It's common for large dogs, such as Mastiffs and Mossolers and Great Danes to have slow metabolism, which is the reason Great Danes are more placid than other energetic dogs, such as Huskies and Malamutes. Also, as with most dogs that are somewhat inactive, they're prone to bloating, hip dysplasia and a string of congenital heart diseases. Dalmatians as well as Great Danes both have a genetic disposition to deafness as they get older.
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