Great Dane Owners...

All of mine have invariably bloated late in the evening or during the night. There was no exercise involved. Tubing also has no benefit when the dog is in gastric torsion - the tube cannot pass through when the stomach has "flipped".

I have German Shepherds and they too are more predisposed to tortion and/or bloat. There are so many POSSIBLE reasons for bloat. If it was as easy as exersice or diet alone it would be very easy to avoid. There is always ongoing research on bloat. I have lost one GSD to Torsion and one to Bloat. I would just start reading all that I could and self educate yourself as best that you can. If I owned a Dane I would certainly have a bloat kit on hand.
I have never owned a Dane but the ones that I have been around were lovely dogs.

Good luck

Cindy

Once a great dane owner alway a great dane owner. I had 5 danes, the one I have now I got from a rescue foundation. He was raised in the city but I spent time with him and he is a wonderful homesteading dog now. He does not chase the chickens or any live stock. He is a big lovable goof. That's a picture of him next to my name.

My boy who bloated did it immediately after eating, both times. No exercise involved. I always used to crate my Danes for a couple of hours after eating, anyways. I have also talked to people whose dogs bloated on an empty stomach. There is a stress component involved, and excitability or easily stressed outed-ness is a risk factor for bloat. Here

My dog that bloated had several risk factors: nervous disposition, very deep and narrow chest, older than five, lean, and he was a gulper. I would love to have another Dane some day, but I live very far from the nearest vet, and even farther from the e-vet, and frankly, bloat scares me. The short life span is depressing, too.

Jess

We live on 5.5 acres with livestock and had a female great dane. She was perfectly well-mannered about the poultry, horses etc. and really was a fantastic dog. Unfortunately, she grew too protective of our kids and bit a neighbor when she misunderstood his motives. We had her put down

Around here, finding a good Dane is very very difficult. There is a breeder that is very famous a few hours away, but her dogs are known to win shows, yet have bad temperaments. Another breeder breeds nice dogs but they are so small and wimpy that they don't look much like danes.

I would have a dane again later in life, but not while I have small kids in the house because trying to juggle the dog/kids and not have anyone get knocked over.

WHY would you ever put your dog down for loving and protecting your children??Thanks for loving and caring for my children.
Yes, you paid the price.

I have a rental home in Austin, and I rented for about two years to a wonderful woman who was keeping her son's Great Dane for him. I always wondered why she had so little furniture and no wall decorations. Now, after reading the list on Ginnie's page, I know.

I loved her Dane, and I was sorry to see them move.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

we had a dane when I was very young, a female free from a show breeder becasue her ear wouldn't stand up, she was gentle and very obedient.

currently I have a 4 year old female dane, have had her since puppyhood.
we trained her well and socialized her heavily. she bit her first person at 6 months old. she comes from good show lines also.

she is animal aggressive, but accepts the indoor cat and our 2 house chickens. she has been in several dog fights, 2 started by her.

she is VERY house protective, and will bite anyone she doesnot know. her circle of people include me, daughter, mom and stepdad, brother, and my ex.
she is extremely gentle with her people. she is completely house broke and has a cage, but is never locked in except when company comes. I have no problem leaving her with my daughter (12) alone. It is actually comforting to know if someone tried to come in while I was gone, she would rip their face off. we did buy her as a protection dog after our house pitbull died. we needed something that would actually bite when neccessary, but we did nothing to encourage this behavior.

I wanted a male, and assume a male would have been gentler to strangers. I will never own another female dane.
she is 120 pounds.

someone on this thread said a dane must have 8 cups of food a day, YEAH RIGHT! she gets 5 cups a day of a lowfat food. anymore and she would be a giant walking sausage.

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If you do get one from a breeder. Please be sure that if they breed Harlequin/merle gene pattern that they do breed it responsibly. It is a gene that can and will produce blind and/or deaf dogs. It can still happen even when breeding the gene to the right colors but less often and it shows that the breeder is doing their best NOT to produce handicapped/cull puppies. No one wants to support breeders who do not care.
Please read up on it as well as hidden and cryptic merle pattern.

danes were originally bred to hunt & catch wild boar (despite BS you may read on the net to the contrary). most of the hunt & catch has been bred out of them by the show fancy. every once in a while a throwback is born that wants nothing more than to hunt & catch and you can't beat it out of them. also they should have a high pain tolerance like all bull & mastiff breeds and so may not respond to invisible fencing.
a lot of issues surrounding the weak heart & heat intolerance stem from the fact most nonworking dogs (pets) are overweight & under exercised. keep in mind unless you are an olympic marathon medalist, you CANNOT run fast enough to really push your dog (unless it is obese or totally screwed confirmation like an english bulldog) and get him into good condition.
aussies that use them for hog hunting get many miles a day of running out of them (but they usually crossbreed them to improve health & performance).

Unfortunately 'pet' quality, from a breeder, means one not pretty enough for show. Doesn't necessarily mean that they're actually pet quality. We've never had a dane bite even with them being extremely protective of livestock, mostly when we'd sell kid goats to certain ethnics we'd have to carry the goats (I say we, but really I was so young I didn't do much of the actual carrying so much as the standing around and being a kid) to the people's car. We've had two dogs aggressive towards animals, the first was a male dane that was left alone by the previous owner to fend for itself and ended up killing goats the previous owner's neighbor had, so they gave him to us to avoid him being put down. He was a good dog otherwise, but was a PITB about the animals. The second was our latest, Kali, who wasn't aggressive so much as I think she liked the feel of wool in her mouth. Not a mean bone in her body, but give her something like a paper towel or like the entire bag of wool she demolished pulling wool out bit by bit and she was in heaven. In the end, her wanting to chew on sheep wool turned into a game as she inspired the border collie to chase and kill sheep. BC was all too happy to chase the sheep and had the kill instinct that the more dorky Kali did not. After injuring two sheep they both were cured of this habit, and both are (I assume, since Kali was stolen!) alive and well today.

We have always had Great Danes, both when living in the city and on the farm. When we lost our last Dane, I wanted another one, the DH said lets get a farm dog. So we have 2 labs. I will have another Dane, not that I don't love my labs, but I do miss that loving house dog. My Danes would perfer to lay in front of the fireplace or on the couch. Lets go outside, No mom, I'll let you do the chores, and wait for you here on the couch. Mine grew up with the animals and or children. So they would lay on the porch and over see what was going on. Now if anyone or thing came near the kids or the animals, was a different story. They went into protection mode. I remember the day a friend down the road came to pick up some eggs. He open our gate and picked up one of the kids. Our Danes were down that road, he slams the gate shut and drops the kid over the gate. I would talk to a Vet about diet. They are large dogs and grow quickly and need special diets when young. You don't want them to grow to quick, bone problems. Heart problems, small hearts for there size, short life span (7-10 years) We are also seeing cancer problems, 3 of my danes died from bone cancer. All from different breeders. Now for digging all of ours were diggers, not under fences, they dug holes to bury things. The childs coat, DH's slippers, socks you name it. I'm not sure what a homesteading dog is, but I would and will have another Great Dane. There's a reason why they are call GREAT danes.