Worlds Largest Dog

[Taylor]

Makes my Brutus look like a little guy.

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World
Records. Hercules was recently awarded the honourable distinction of
Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English
Mastiff and has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.
With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the
three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's
standard 200 lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is
natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just
grew"....and grew. and grew and grew.

 

[chesirechik]

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/hercules.asp

 

[KristiKelly]

Whether it's the largest dog or not, I still wouldn't want to have to clean up or step in a pile of his in the yard.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yikes, that's a big dog.

 

[rgf207]

False. Check the link in the second post

 

[momof3disneyholics]

That picture looks fake to me....

 

[Mrs.Toad]

That dog's got nothin' on Clifford.

 

["Got Disney"]

That dog's got nothin' on Clifford.

Your right and clifford is even red

 

[shep]

looks like fluffy with only 1 head

 

[ZachnElli]

The link doesn't say the picture or the dog isn't real, just that it's not the largest, heaviest, tallest dog ever.

 

[GreenMeanMachine]

So what's the bottom line, is this fake? That is the coolest thing I've ever seen if that's real. I want one!

Somethings got to be up though, there is no way that dog only weighs 285 lbs. That dog looks like it would weigh a good 400 if it weighed a pound.

 

[agnes!]

From Guinness website:

Tallest Dog Living

WHO:
Gibson
WHAT:
107 cm (42.2 in) tall
WHERE:
Grass Valley, California, USA
WHEN:
August 31, 2004

The tallest dog living is Gibson, a harlequin great Dane, who measured 107 cm (42.2 in) tall on August 31, 2004 and is owned by Sandy Hall of Grass Valley, California, USA.

Am looking for any other Guiness world records for dogs, the website does not have all the records listed.
agnes!

 

[dcgrumpy]

The link doesn't say the picture or the dog isn't real, just that it's not the largest, heaviest, tallest dog ever.

It does say it's either a digital manipulation or a freakishly large dog.

 

[agnes!]

Also, from CNN (June 9, 2001)...
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0106/09/smn.03.html

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They say dog owners and their -- dogs and their owners, I should say, often look alike. Here is a case in point, a 270-pound Massachusetts man owns a mastiff that outweighs him.

Eileen Curran of CNN affiliate WBZ looks at the pooch who eats by the bucketful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN CURRAN, WBZ REPORTER (voice-over): When John Flynn of Peabody walks his dog, cars slow down and heads turn. Flynn's a big guy, his dog, Hercules, even bigger.

JOHN FLYNN, DOG OWNER: I weigh probably 270.

CURRAN (on camera): So your dog weighs more than you.

FLYNN: Yes, yes, he does. Yes.

CURRAN (voice-over): At last check this 3-year-old English mastiff tipped the scales at 284 pounds. Hercules came to the attention of the "Guinness Book of World Records" thanks to a 9-year- old friend of the family, David Delauri. David was flipping through his edition of the book when he saw a dog that looked like Hercules.

DAVID DELAURI, FAMILY FRIEND: And then I came to this page and I was, like, oh, I thought, Wendy's dog was the biggest dog in America.

CURRAN: The mastiff in the book weighed 286 pounds and was the heaviest living dog. Flynn called the Guinness people and learned the dog had died. And after submitting documentation, he was told Hercules now qualified as the heaviest living dog.

(on camera): So what do you feed a 280-plus-pound dog? Some might say, anything he wants. But actually John feeds Hercules about a pound of dry dog food a day, and this is his dog dish.

(voice-over): The vet says Hercules is healthy but shouldn't gain any more weight. Flynn says he'll walk him more often and just try to avoid causing traffic jams.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That tale brought to us by Eileen Curran of our Boston affiliate WBZ.

 

[agnes!]

So, if the black Neapolitan Mastiff is real, he is not recognized as either the tallest("Gibson") or as the heaviest(the 2001 "Hercules") dog by the Guiness organization.
The dog in the photo is not 'Hercules'(an English mastiff), the ackowledged 2001 heaviest dog title-holder. The blurb tells at least one lie so far as I can figure out.

Additional references...
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_hercules_worlds_biggest_dog.htm
"Comments: I urge anyone who thinks this photograph is real -- or even might be real -- to visit a psychiatrist. Right away. Thanks to Photoshop, the dog pictured here (which appears to be a Neapolitan mastiff, not an English mastiff as claimed) is roughly twice its natural size...."

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hercules.htm
"The Truth:
Hercules, the massive English Mastiff, was real but his time in the limelight was in 2001 when he was the Guinness world record for the World's Largest Dog. For some reason the story began circulating widely on the Internet in March, 2007, and was accompanied by a picture of an enormous dog being walked near a horse. That picture is not of Hercules because it's a Neapolitan mastiff and Hercules is an English mastiff. Also, the picture appears to be fabricated. The dog is about half the size of the horse and an average horse is around 1,000 pounds."

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

There are pics on the snopes site of both the real Hercules & his real owner...neither looks *anything* like the dog or people in the OP.

When I looked at Snopes, there's a second pic of the quartet walking away...Is it just me, or does the black dog look like he's shrunk in the second pic ?

agnes!

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Whether it's the largest dog or not, I still wouldn't want to have to clean up or step in a pile of his in the yard.

But think of the fun you could have with an ATV! Those would be hills!

 

[Ride Junkie]

From Guinness website:

Tallest Dog Living

WHO:
Gibson
WHAT:
107 cm (42.2 in) tall
WHERE:
Grass Valley, California, USA
WHEN:
August 31, 2004

The tallest dog living is Gibson, a harlequin great Dane, who measured 107 cm (42.2 in) tall on August 31, 2004 and is owned by Sandy Hall of Grass Valley, California, USA.

Wow, I live about 45 minutes from Grass Valley and have never heard of him! Either way, all these big doggies in the pics are such cute lil' babies!!!

 

[Fan2CSkr]

That pic is a real dog (neopolitan mastiff) named Bentley. He is a rescue. The picture has been doctored. This is another picture of him with his owner Kei.

http://www.gentlegiantsrescue.com/happy_adopters_page_1.htm

I have a rescued male neo and he is large but his weight tops out at 208. They are such beautiful gentle giants!

 

[reeeoga]

I meet a Bull Mastive named "yoda" that weighed 260 plus pounds. His paws where larger than my feet (size 10.5). He was about feet long without the tail.

He also had a great personality!