This section is one that we really have no authority to speak about, and have just gone on what we've been told and what we've learnt on the way. We suppose the best advice is to listen to the breeder of your Dane, which we did, but then there's also your lifestyle and your Dane's personality too which certainly seem to have played a part in Harvey's appetite!!

Feeding first - we took the advice of our breeder and kept him on the food he had when he was with her as a puppy. But after a while Harvey went off his food so we tried him on lots of different biscuits with various meats - out of tins, with jelly, without jelly, with anything but jelly..... that worked for a while, then he seemed to lose interest. So, we exhibited nervous owner behaviour and started to try everything else we'd heard from Dane owners.....that seemed to work for a while, then Harvey just lost interest again.....our anxiety grew.....

So, we were sensible dog owners and started to cook mince and chicken for him every night to add with his biscuits....yes, every night we'd cook our dinner and then cook Harvey's too. He loved it, for a while....(what sensible dog wouldn't!).....

So, we went to the National Working and Pastoral Breeds Society Championship Show in 2005 and spoke to a couple of owners who suggested we feed him raw mince and biscuits....raw mince...we weren't sure at first, but they seemed to know what they were talking about so we started to change his menu..... (Please note, change Dane's diets S..L..O...W..L..Y..!) so after we'd mopped up the mess of his upset tummy (too quick at diet change looking back on it now), we haven't looked back.. Seriously, all he has now is raw mince and biscuits (with warm water and the mince is warmed up for 1 minute in the microwave as it takes the chill off it and smells more like meat) and he eats it all, most of time. We've realised that Harvey has days when he's hungrier than others, and days when he can't get enough. But mainly, we don't stress about it anymore, he'll eat when he's hungry and he's never been the greediest of dogs. More recently we've had some different advice and have started Harvey on raw chicken - we've never seen Harvey eat so quickly. We put a raw chicken thigh in his bowl after his main dinner and it went down without much chewing....9 raw chicken thighs later and no problems with his tummy, Harvey has another addition to his diet!!!

Now, exercising. We DID take our breeders advice to heart and listened to everything else we'd heard from her, other Dane breeders and all we'd read. Exercise we took very seriously. It's not to be ignored with a giant breed due to their rapid growth rate and stress on their bones and also because of bloat that can happen if they are exercised too much too soon before or after feeding. Harvey was never exercised for more than 20 minutes for the first 6 months of his life. After that, its been increased gradually and now he has a great life out for his walks, but clearly gets tired and we know when he's had enough!!! Some days he can go mad in the park tearing around, other days he's happy plodding along next to us, just depends on the mood he's in and we normally have a good idea by his behaviour on the way to the park how he's going to be. This is Harvey after a good walk!