Training & socialization.

The head start we give you

Your puppy does not arrive as a blank slate. By the time he leaves here at nine weeks he has had:

• Early Neurological Stimulation from days 3 to 16 — the standard handling protocol, done daily.
• Daily handling by several different people, including children, from day one.
• Household noise from three weeks — the hoover, the dishwasher, the doorbell, the television, a recorded thunderstorm at breakfast.
• Crate introduction, with the door open, as a nice place rather than a punishment.
• Litter-box and then outdoor toileting, so the idea is already there.
• Sit for greetings, started at five weeks. Keep this one up — it is the difference between a charming adult and a dangerous one.
• Car travel, short trips, so the vet is not the only place the car goes.
• Nail trims, ear checks and mouth handling, so grooming and vet visits are routine.

That is the foundation. What happens between nine and sixteen weeks is on you, and it matters enormously.

The first week at home

Keep it small. A new puppy does not need the whole house, the whole family and five visitors on day one.

1. One room, a crate, and a routine. Same food, same times, same spot in the garden.
2. Outside on waking, after eating, after playing, and every hour otherwise. Praise outdoors, say nothing about accidents indoors.
3. Crate in your bedroom for the first few nights. He has never slept alone. Expect two or three bad nights and then a good one.
4. Name, and the recall game. Say the name, puppy looks, reward. Twenty times a day, for the rest of his life.
5. Book the vet visit within seven days — it is also the condition that keeps your health guarantee active.

The five things that matter

There is a long list of nice-to-haves. These five are the ones that determine whether a 170-pound dog is manageable.

1. Four feet on the floor

Never greet a Great Dane puppy who is jumping — not once, not when he is small and it is funny. Turn away, wait for four feet, then greet. Every visitor must do the same. An adult Dane jumping up will knock over a child, a grandparent or you.

2. Loose-lead walking

Start in week one, in the hallway, before he outweighs you. Stop dead when the lead tightens; move when it loosens. Use a well-fitted harness, not a collar, on a breed with this much neck strength — and never a prong or choke chain. An adult who pulls cannot be walked by half the household.

3. Settle on a mat

Teach him to lie on a defined bed or mat and stay there while you eat, work or talk. This is the single most useful behaviour in a giant breed, because it gives a very large dog a legal place to exist in a room.

4. A reliable recall

Build it from day one, on a long line, with food he actually likes. Never call him to do something he dislikes, and never scold him for coming back late.

5. Crate as a den

Fed in it, napped in it, never punished in it. A dog who settles in a crate travels better, recovers from surgery better and copes with an emergency vet stay far better.

Socialisation — the 16-week window

The critical socialisation period closes at around sixteen weeks. Experiences a puppy has before then shape how he reads the world for the rest of his life; experiences after it are much harder work for much less return. You have roughly seven weeks from pickup.

Socialisation does not mean "meet as many dogs as possible". It means calm, positive, controlled exposure to as many kinds of thing as you can manage, with him under threshold and enjoying himself. One frightening experience undoes twenty good ones.

• People: men with beards and hats, children of different ages, people in uniform, people with sticks and wheelchairs and umbrellas.
• Surfaces: grass, gravel, tile, metal grates, wet decking, stairs (carefully).
• Sounds: traffic, sirens, fireworks recordings, hoovers, bin lorries.
• Places: the car, car parks, pet shops, outside a school at pick-up time, a friend's house.
• Dogs: a handful of known, calm, vaccinated adult dogs. Not a dog park.
• Handling: paws, ears, mouth, tail, by several people. Your vet will thank you.

Adolescence, and surviving it

Somewhere between seven and eighteen months, your beautifully trained puppy will appear to forget everything. He will not come when called, he will test every boundary, and he will do it at 120 pounds. This is normal, it is hormonal, and it passes.

• Go back to basics rather than escalating. Long line on, rewards up, expectations down.
• Keep the routine identical. Adolescents cope badly with change.
• Expect a second fear period at around eight to twelve months — a dog who was fine with something may suddenly not be. Do not force it; rebuild gently.
• Do not give up on the lead manners. This is exactly when they matter.
• Mental work tires a Dane more than physical work, and is safer for growing joints. Scent games, puzzle feeders, trick training.

Great Danes are mentally mature at about two and a half to three years. You are raising a toddler for a long time.

Exercise while they grow

This is where training and orthopaedics meet. Growth plates close at 18–24 months in this breed, and until then repetitive impact damages them permanently.

• Five minutes of lead walking per month of age, twice a day. A five-month-old gets two 25-minute walks.
• No running alongside a bicycle, no jogging, no long hikes before 18 months.
• No repetitive jumping — no agility, no frisbee, no leaping out of the car. Use a ramp.
• Free play on grass is good. A puppy choosing his own pace self-regulates; a puppy on a lead next to a runner cannot.
• Swimming is excellent if he enjoys it — all the exercise, none of the impact.

Full details and the month-by-month expectations are on the size and growth page.

Common problems, honestly

• Counter surfing. An adult's head is at counter height. This is not a training problem you will fully win — manage the environment. Nothing edible lives on a surface.
• Leaning. Danes greet by leaning. Charming at 30 lb, a physical event at 150. Teach sit-to-greet and keep it up.
• Separation distress. The most common behaviour problem in the breed. Build alone-time in tiny increments from week one, before it becomes a crisis. A Dane left alone all day every day will not cope.
• Resource guarding. Trade, never take. Approach the bowl to add something good, not to remove it.
• Mouthing. Normal in puppies, alarming from a dog with this jaw. Redirect to a toy every time; never play with hands.
• Fear of stairs. Common and sensible in a leggy puppy. Go slowly; carrying a 60 lb puppy is not an option for long.