Hi everyone. New here...Staff Member at AAGD, but wanted to check out some other boards.
Bottom line here is that Great Danes are listed on the list of "Most Dangerous Breeds". Anybody who owns one will scoff, but anyone who has ever been bit by one will not. A Dane can inflict a huge amount of damage in the blink of an eye. What would we expect from a breed that was designed to kill wild boar and bears?
We do have to be ultra alert owners and nip any potential aggression, even if the Dane is responding to another dogs aggression. The Dane has no concept of size of the other dog, the Dane just knows another dog showing aggression.
What small dog owners don't realize is their breeds are some of the most dog aggressive, but it's cute because their small. Here is a perfect example of why that is bad math. There is no winner in this debate as the little dog owner has a dog aggressive dog and the Dane owner is a victim of circumstances and public perceptions that are not going to change.
In this litigious society that we live in, where people look for every reason to sue somebody, Dane owners have to be hyper-sensitive to that and act/respond accordingly.
Personally, when my two cross paths with a smaller dog aggressive dog, I am all over their body language and redirecting at the first sign of fixation...and then under my breath I'm telling myself what an idiot the other dog owner is, and chuckling at what a cute squeak toy their dog would make...