April 6, 2007: Gibson, the world's tallest dog
 

http://cellar.org/2007/tallestdog.jpg

Normally if something has been on the Tonight Show it's probably not IotD fodder, but I couldn't resist this item about Gibson, the world's tallest dog. At 7 feet long and with a shoulder height of over 42", this Great Dane is a monster. He's shown here with actor Michael Clarke Duncan - star of "The Green Mile" and a tall man himself, at 6' 5" - and Gibson's owner, Sandy.

It's good luck Gibson is friendly because he could do a lot of damage if not.

AP Newswire report:

Famed hound Gibson is denying rumors of a sex tape involving himself, Michael Jordan and the Empire State Building.

I just heard a bit this morning on NPR about how dogs are the only species that has this much variety in size within one species. Amazing that a chihuahua is the same species as this horse.

Bet that bugger can pull on the lead.

aw, he's a big cutie! I wanna scratch under his chin.

I love that they got Michael Clarke Duncan for the photo op.

Here's the story from boston.com, which features another picture of Gibson.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/healt...y_common_gene/

http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonza..._6555/410w.jpg

"Gibson, a Great Dane that, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the world's tallest dog at more than 7 feet on his hind legs, with friend Zoie, a 7.5-inch-tall Chihuahua."

Irish Wolfhounds are taller on average than Great Danes, even, so this one is really a monster for its breed.

Bravo Gibson...ooo's a good boy, oo is, ess oo is!:p

What does the owner feed that big beasty?? Miracle grow??

:)

This dog is a monster. But I have a question. Since dogs apparently are all the same species, lupus canis or something like that? Not sure, but does that mean they can all interbreed? So that chihauhau and this great dane can interbreed? Is that possible? It seems unlikely to me, but maybe probably I'm wrong.

Yes, but it would require appropriate music and a step ladder.

The real cause of the pet food poisoning.

I'll bet that dog is hung like Jesus.

They CAN interbreed!

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=6970724

(edit: they don't know that this is a dane/huahua mix. It's just a guess on their part. Probably not real)

I'm guessing the male was the chihuahua, the female the dane. Otherwise, the bitch would undoubtedly die in labor.

Mmmmmm, chocolate.

Nice pooch! It's a shame we have to talk about bbq now.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5448/410wcopywr0.jpg

Whoa... I've never heard that expression before, but... you're right.

A jumping off point, if you will.

Over 7 feet standing up, holy cow!
But really, standing on all fours he's only 42" (11 hands) at the shoulder. That's more reasonable, after all your dining room table is probably..... um, 30"
Oh I know, your kitchen counter is probably ...uh, 34"

Well,..cough...uh, his head looks like it's up another ....conservatively, 10" to only about 52"or 53".
Well hell, a Corvette is about....uh, 49".

Wait, wait a Subaru Imprenza is about.... ah, 51".

OK, I've got it a new VW Beetle is 59".... there you see, he's not that big.

Oh, wait.....7 ft......nevermind.

:lobwtf:

Seven feet smevin feet! Why do they persist in saying he's over 7 feet tall?? He's as tall as any other thing! Head to ground standing there normally.
:lame:
It's like saying a boa constrictor is 17feet tall!! It's not. Its 17 feet l o n g.
:bonk:
Why put a dog in some strange, unnatural position standing on two legs and then declare it '7 feet tall' Hey a dog 53 inches tall is damn tall.

:bitching::brikwall:

Ladies and gentlemen: the world's tallest tapeworm!

I think they can get prego but I recall somewhere that not all interbreed species would survive. On the same note have you heard about designer interbreeding:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17616672/

Wow! He's dog-sized.

That is an ugly dog.:eek:

I really wish you hadn't linked that site. It's amazing how many dogs are up for adoption in my area. I know thats naive since there are always news stories about the large stray population, but it's tough to see pages and pages of pictures and know that the ones that don't get adopted have to be killed.

On the lighter side, there's a Schnauser (not a cougar) named Onyx.

YOu could put a miniature male with a large female, but it'd most likely kill the bitch if she was mini and you put her with a large dog.

Yeah but many things would probably go wrong.

I'm pretty sure something else would go wrong since the dane's penis is probably bigger than the chihuahua itself.

So do dog's exhibit extreme dimorphism? Like, across the species there is extreme physical difference yet reproduction is possible.
Because with the human population, all humans are capable of reproducing with every other type of human and our physical differences are very limited.

I don't know much about the entire biology of it but I know they are all the same species so they should be able to reproduce. But because they should be able too doesn't mean that it will be sucessful.

Like Pie said, with that much physical difference, a death would be more likely than anything.

Any dog can be cross bred with any other dog provided they have the physical ability to carry the pups. Any two big dogs can be cross bred. Any two small dogs can cross breed. The difficulty lies in the size of the organs involved. That's why interbreeding between large and small dogs is limited to those small males who own step ladders. ;)

DNA study sheds light on dog size

A single gene could explain much of the size difference between dog breeds, according to a study.
The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) shows the greatest range of body size of any mammal.

Researchers studied 3,000 dogs from 143 breeds and found small dogs all shared a mutation in a gene that influences size in other animals.

...
(continued here on BBC science news)

Snoo-Snooooooo!

They should have called him Digby!

Great Dane
 

I thought I had the largest dog!

Outstanding! My lil Pearl is 12 pounds:

http://cellar.org/2006/pearla3.jpg

And a lap dog, too! Welcome to the Cellar, Cottontayl.