Thor

[idol5230]

This two-month old Great Dane is beautiful!!! But I'm concerned about one of the statements the owner made ..... and believe me, I know about having cats and dogs in the same house !!!

The owner said something like how the cats push the dog aside, and see what's in his bowl, etc. (total cat behaviour). Anyway, the owner said that they give the dog a toy shaped like a cat, and it can take it's frustrations out on that.

Never having owned a Great Dane .... is there any chance the dog would get aggressive towards the cats?? I owned an 80-lb male Chocolate Lab, and my six cats had that dog trained in no time !!! He's been swatted more than once by them.

[Karen]

Great Danes are usually very sweet dogs, despite the fact that they are so big. I don;t think there's any chance he'll become aggressive toward cats because of the cat-shaped toy. To a dog, there's no chance he'd mistake a real cat for his toy cat - and he probably won't even make the connection between the two. Real cats not only smell different, they hiss, spit and have weapons at their disposal - a.k.a. claws!

Our 3/4 Great Dane mix, dear Gracie (now at the Rainbow Bridge) was only ever intimidated by one thing - a probably 7-week-old kitten that made its way to our front stairs, and turned into a fur-raised hissing, spitting little ball of fury when I tried to take Gracie past it into the house. It would have been hysterical had our Great Dane not turned into 140 pounds of terrified jello at the sight of it, so I was stuck - I had Gracie, who wouldn't budge, by the collar, and I couldn't convince the kitten to move off its spot either. Had I let go of Gracie's collar, she would have sprinted away, so I didn't dare do that. I finally yelled loud enough for someone inside to come out and splash water at the kitten so it would run away.

Thor will probably grow up with a healthy respect for kitties, that's all!

[cyndilu55]

I have a Great Dane that is almost 5 years old. He is a wonderful dog but he has been aggressive with my other dogs many times. It got worse the older he got. We had him neutered when he was about 1 1/2 years old which helped until the past few weeks. He has shown some aggression again recently so we are watching him very closely when he is with the other dogs. He has never shown any aggression with my cats. Good luck with Thor.