ANKERS GREAT DANESMeet Thanos
Our baby in a giant body. Thanos was the biggest puppy in his litter and somehow also the softest, gentlest one. He still is.
All size. All heart.
Thanos is my boy. I am his person, and where I go, he goes — literally. If I move from one room to another, I can normally expect a very large black-and-white shadow to follow behind me.
When I sit down, he will settle at my feet. If I become distracted and have not acknowledged him for a while, a gentle bump from that enormous head is his way of saying, “Just checking that you remember I'm still here.”
He is one of the biggest Great Danes I have seen in a long time, but his personality could not be softer. He is affectionate, gentle and incredibly attached to his family.
The Thanos contradiction
He is enormous, powerful and can look very impressive when he decides something needs investigating.
Lightning, sudden movements and unexpected noises are another story entirely.
Say the words and his tail goes straight up. He is ready for action.
If something unexpected comes around the corner, there is a fair chance Thanos will be standing behind me so I can protect him.
He was always going to be a big boy
Thanos was the biggest puppy in his litter. The photos tell the rest of the story.
Training Thanos... sort of.
We have always believed puppy training is important with Great Danes because of the size they eventually reach. With Thanos, however, Puppy 1 came with an unexpected challenge.
It was not that he could not do the work. He was simply too lazy.
Halfway through a class he would decide that he had done quite enough for one day and simply give up. Trying to convince the biggest puppy in the class that training was not yet finished became part of the Thanos experience.
Fortunately, underneath the laziness is a very gentle dog who wants to be with his person, and that bond makes him wonderful to live with.
The six-foot advantage
People sometimes struggle to understand just how tall a large male Great Dane really is until they see one standing upright.
Thanos can literally stand up and look over a six-foot wall to see what the neighbours are doing. No ladder required.
Of course, whether he intends to protect us from whatever he sees on the other side — or expects me to protect him — depends entirely on the weather.
“He looks like he should protect me from anything. Most of the time, he is right behind me making sure I can protect him.”
That is our Thanos: enormous, gentle, loyal, slightly lazy, occasionally brave and completely devoted. He is our baby, and I would not change a thing about him.