Doggie snacks, walkies and vet bills take on new meaning with the world’s tallest dog. Natalee fuhrmann reports.
Chief is a thumping freak of a Great Dane who runs his owner ragged with his bumbling, klutzy ways. But Francesca Hyde wouldn’t have it any other way.
She says the advantages of owning the canine skyscraper far outweigh the bruises associated with living with a 100kg dog.
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“He steps on my feet all the time and the pain is indescribable,” laughs the petite 29-year-old from Palmyra, in Perth’s southern suburbs.
Francesca, a mental health nurse, is waiting for her Guinness World Records application to be ratified. She raced in the paperwork after hearing that a smaller dog’s measurements were being considered for the “Tallest Dog – Living” category. “Boomer”, a Landseer Newfoundland from North Dakota, USA, stands 1m tall, from floor to shoulder, but three-year-old Chief has the altitudinal upper paw, by 4cm.
“I bought him from the pound when he was about 12 months old, thinking he’d finished growing,” says Francesca. “Then my friends kept saying, ‘He’s growing bigger’, but I hadn’t noticed because I was living with him.”
Chief eats 2kg of meat daily and a bucket of doggy biscuits. “I work to support my dog,” she said.
