A Protective Guard Dog??

We have a great dane puppy living next door to us, and he is sadly now being tossed out into the yard most of the day and is causing great problems for the owner. He is now about 7 months old, they got him at 12 weeks and have found that with two little ones in the house they cannot really make time for him. He is constantly on their countertops surfing for food, knocks the kids over and when outside barks incessently. Our trainer for our pup, says that people do not realize the work involved with a big dog as a puppy – she said they need a lot of consistent training and are not really suitable for families with small children as they are so big and rambunctious. Danes also don’t live that long, usually less than 10 years and often a lot less more like 6 or 7 because they are so big. This family had a dane before and he was a lovely dog, but as she said, they did not have kids when he was a puppy and she had all the time in the world to train him, now she does not have that time and so the dog is a problem. I would be careful with a puppy or a huge dog if you have little ones and don’t have a lot of time to get him well trained…even with our dachshund pup the amount of time and effort has been amazing to try and get him to be a well behaved boy….so depending on the age of your children, I would be cautious. Linda