I was at a book store last week getting my stepdaughters late xmas present (we always mail them out in Jan). She wanted a book on horses, but while I was there I browsed thru the dog books as I'm always looking for new breed books.
I came across one that looked promising, so I leafed thru it. Besides the column of info on each breed, it had off to the side three items based on a 1-10 scale: grooming, exercise, and whether they were good for city life.
I turned to the great dane page, and was a bit surprised at what I saw written. I looked first at the groups on the side. Grooming: 2. Good answer. Exercise: 10. What??!!! A few ? popped up in my head. City life: 2 Hmmm.......... .always thought they made good city dogs.
Then I glanced at what was written in the actual column of information. It had some of the basics, but I came to a halt when I read this: Do not plan on getting this breed unless you plan on letting it run at least 9 miles a day. Now I know Gunther is not your typical dane as he's even more laid back and never even has had a wild puppy side, but 9 miles? I know of people with labs that don't run them that much!
Then there was a brief statement on training. I'm paraphrasing b/c I can't remember what exactly was written, but something to the effect of "in addition to basic dog classes, you may want to hire a professional to deal with this breed" I know some people may not be able to handle a breed of their size, but I wouldn't think you would need to hire a professional as if you don't your dog will have behavioral problems.
I was amazed that this book could even be published with such bizarre and inaccurate information. I didn't even look at any other breeds, as what I saw for the dane was enough. How off is he compared to your dane? Gunther gets maybe 4 miles of exercise tops a day. As for training, I have always done my own, and although I probably have more experience than the average person, I don't think danes are any more difficult than any other breed. In fact, Gunther has been sooooo much more easy to train and deal with than Keiko ever was.