We got our first Dane when I was 19, shortly after we moved into the house we currently live in. He was an abused Dane my dad seen at a livestock auction, no one bid on him so my dad went to his owner after the auction and asked him how much he wanted for the dog. He told him he was free to a good home since no one bid on him, dad brought him over that evening and we eventually named him Happy.
He was a 6 month old black and white and absolutely huge even though he was obviously malnourished, he was nothing but skin and bones. I went to the Vet and set up an appointment for his vaccinations and health check and bought some vitamin supplement for him to get him back in a bit better health. After two weeks of giving him eggs, high protein dog food, and the vitamin I could tell he was starting to fill out a bit and was looking much healthier all around. He got a clean bill of health at his first vet visit and weighed in at around 70 pounds. He grew and grew, eventually topping out at 165 pounds and stood 35-36 inches tall at the front shoulder. When he hit a year old I noticed that he had developed a few splotches where hair was not growing mainly on his feet and legs, and he would constantly dig at them until they bled. I took him to the Vet and found out that Danes can suffer from what they called hereditary mange, it is simply an allergic reaction to his own skin mites and hopefully a short round of steroid shots would get him cleared up this time around and if he continued to have problems that I would have to put him on allergy medication indefinitely. The shots did clear him up and he did not have any further outbreaks but I believe they had some unwanted side effects.
During the two weeks of steroid shots he became very territorial and aggressive, and our fenced in yard became his and no one except my wife, my dad and mom, and myself were allowed in. He had to be penned up if we were expecting guests as he would meet anyone at the yard gate put his paws on top of the gate and literally look down on whoever was on the other side as he barked aggressively at them until they left. Once well removed from the yard and in territory not his own he was perfectly fine with just about anyone, but the yard was his and only a few people were allowed in. Unfortunately this territorial/aggressive nature continued even after we stopped the shots. I don't know how many times I would come home from work when a package was delivered to find it sitting on the walkway 4 or 5 feet outside the gate with 2 or 3 dog treats still littering the walkway inside the fence in what I can only assume was the delivery persons attempt at calming him. He would completely ignore those treats, even though sometimes they were some of his favorites, just because of who they came from. Once I left them there for several days to see if he would eat them and after 4 days I got tired of stepping over them and threw them away.
While this was nice security it also made me a bit nervous as to what would happen to the person that accidentally got too close to the fence or if he were to get ambitious enough to leave the yard in pursuit of whoever came to the gate, because lets face it, if he wanted out bad enough my 4 foot yard gate was not going to stop him. But time went on and we had no mishaps. We had owned him for 2 years when our daughter was born, he showed an unnerving curiosity as to what exactly she was. She was born a bit jaundiced so we had to set her in the sunlight to help clear it up. He would stand in the yard and stare at her through the window until we moved her away. I decided it was time and tried to give him away to a good home. However due to his aggressive nature no one really showed much interest after the initial meeting and unfortunately I ultimately had to make the hard decision of putting him down, I could not live with the alternative of him possibly permanently harming my daughter. I have never had a Dane since go through the transformation to an aggressive territorial dog, in my mind the combination of him being so neglected before my coming to own him and the steroid treatments were both factors that played a role in his case.
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