The Great Dane is a bit stubborn, but otherwise they aren’t much of a problem to train. Great Danes are surprisingly friendly despite their size and make great family pets and even better watch dogs, and they are rarely aggressive. Because of their size its important that you teach your Great Dane what behavior is acceptable and what is inappropriate behavior around guests and strangers. The last thing you want is you 150-200 pound dog jumping on unexpecting people. Great Danes make great guard dogs for this same reason.
When a dog jumps on you in a friendly way they are simply trying to say “hello”. This is what each dog is taught by their mothers and they instinctively try to carry this over to saying hello to humans. Jumping is a behavior that is especially hard to unteach. People that are unaware that this isn’t an accepted behavior will think its cute and will inadvertently teach your Great Dane that this is a good behavior and guests will often times encourage jumping.
The best way to train your Great Dane out of this behavior is to tug on their leash briefly and command them “off!” a Great Dane should be able to learn this quickly. Another option is to train your Great Dane another way to say hello. Teach them to sit or to give you a paw as a way to say hello instead of jumping on you.
I suggest you try to train your Great Dane these obedience lessons as early as possible. Great Dane can be very intimidating which makes them even harder to train as adults or during adolescence. Steady and firm training is required for this breed to stop any chance that your Great Dane challenge you for dominance. With good training Great Danes make loyal protective pets.
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