Great Dane Menace

[tripletfeb]

A lot of you are suggesting physical excercise. While I agree, it's to an extent. Remember, this is a great dane the OP is talking about. Too much physical excercise can ruin their joints. A walk is good, even a small hike. But pulling a cart? Not good for this breed

 

[cassie]

A lot of you are suggesting physical excercise. While I agree, it's to an extent. Remember, this is a great dane the OP is talking about. Too much physical excercise can ruin their joints. A walk is good, even a small hike. But pulling a cart? Not good for this breed

How about a treadmill?

 

[ninja333pirate]

A lot of you are suggesting physical excercise. While I agree, it's to an extent. Remember, this is a great dane the OP is talking about. Too much physical excercise can ruin their joints. A walk is good, even a small hike. But pulling a cart? Not good for this breed

Another option would be to teach the dog to scent out treats and eventually search for other things, scent work is very mentally stimulating to dogs. You could also teach them as many tricks as possible.

My dog who has anxiety and ptsd from a house fire very much enjoys learning new things and scent work and it has helped her to come out of her shell and moved past thing.

To the OP:
And when it comes to teaching the dog to be ok when you or someone leaves start with teaching them to stay in one spot, maybe get one of those dog beds thats raised up off the ground and use that as his "place" and just teach the command stay or wait or place whatever you want the word to be.

Then once they have that down put them in there "place" and start conditioning them to someone getting up from the couch and rewarding them for staying. Start with baby steps. Then reward them for staying when the person gets up and takes a step. (Mind you after each reward the person goes back to sitting) and keep going till the person can walk out of the room.

Then you keep going one step at a time, I'd say each step (like getting up, taking one step taking two steps etc..) should each have its own day. If the dog reacts at any point go back a step. If you cant even get off the couch without the dog reacting then start with just the motion like you were going to get up.

Might be best to try it with 2 people, one person to do the rewarding and the other person to do the leaving the room part.
Eventually when the dog gets better with someone leaving the room, then have the person stay out of the room for longer and longer.

Then when the dog gets better with that, then you can move on to leaving the house. When you do that though I would start over with getting off the couch and do step by step with that motion as well.

Sorry for the long post, hard to convey what I mean in a short post.

 

[tripletfeb]

How about a treadmill?

I don't know if you are joking or not but they do have treadmills for dogs. One that would be big enough for a great dane, however... And most dogs need trained on how to walk on a treadmill. Sounds funny but it is a little different for them, with their four legs vs our two

 

[cassie]

I don't know if you are joking or not but they do have treadmills for dogs. One that would be big enough for a great dane, however... And most dogs need trained on how to walk on a treadmill. Sounds funny but it is a little different for them, with their four legs vs our two

For a Great Dane you do not need a special treadmill. A people treadmill will do just fine. Even a Bulldog can use one. I had a friend who used one to get her show dogs into condition. Yes it takes training, but doesn't everything? By the way I do have a dog treadmill. It was used for work of some sort. I have a sheep treadmill too. It was used to power a washing machine.

 

[FloorCandy]

I unfortunately can’t find a full episode, but there’s an old episode of its me or the dog, I believe called “Great Dane devotion”. The couple have 3 Danes, and one has terrible separation anxiety. It’s so bad they take the dogs to work so they don’t ruin the house, but they work for her dad and he says the dogs have to go because they’re naughty and scare the customers and employees. The dogs bark constantly in the car, in the episode the one with SA rips the entire couch apart and spreads it all over the house. I’m not sure, but I think the solution was frozen Kong’s, puzzle feeders, baby gates, and a camera focused on the gated area with a mic and speaker. And they verbally corrected the dog when it acted out, but thru the mic setup. They worked up from leaving the room, to leaving the house.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I unfortunately can’t find a full episode, but there’s an old episode of its me or the dog, I believe called “Great Dane devotion”. The couple have 3 Danes, and one has terrible separation anxiety. It’s so bad they take the dogs to work so they don’t ruin the house, but they work for her dad and he says the dogs have to go because they’re naughty and scare the customers and employees. The dogs bark constantly in the car, in the episode the one with SA rips the entire couch apart and spreads it all over the house. I’m not sure, but I think the solution was frozen Kong’s, puzzle feeders, baby gates, and a camera focused on the gated area with a mic and speaker. And they verbally corrected the dog when it acted out, but thru the mic setup. They worked up from leaving the room, to leaving the house.

I did actually see this episode! We have been working with him & also got him some doggy CBD. The CBD has helped a lot. He hasn't destroyed anything (hopefully I'm not jinxing it!) in a few weeks now. He still is very vocal though, which is something we still need to work on.