Guinness crowns new world’s tallest dog

This good boy is also a big one. Really big.

Guinness World Records announced Wednesday there was a new world’s tallest dog.

Guinness World Records announced Wednesday there was a new world’s tallest dog, Zeus. (guinnessworldrecords.com)

Zeus, a 2-year-old Great Dane, is roughly 3½ feet tall and loves drinking from the kitchen sink without putting his paws on the counter.

Zeus, who was the largest in a litter of five puppies, now eats 12 cups of food a day to keep his massive frame aloft, but he won’t say no to an ice cube.

“He’s been a big dog since we got him, even for a puppy. He had huge paws,” owner Brittany Davis of Bedford, Texas, a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, said.

While Great Danes were originally bred for hunting, Zeus is a much more agreeable fellow, preferring to sleep by a window or sniff around the farmer’s market where is a local celebrity and gets treats from the vendors.

“Zeus would be absolutely terrified of a hog. He’s scared of rain, so hogs are out of the question,” Davis said.

However, he is known to wrestle with his brother Zeb, one of his three miniature Australian Shepherd siblings, but he knows to stay away from Penelope, the cat who allows Zeus and the other dogs to live in the house with her.

“He and the cat have a mutual agreement to stay away from each other,” said Brittany.

The only real complaint Davis has about Zeus is people sometimes act weirdly around the giant dog.

“The comment that we hear most often is ‘Wow, that’s a horse!,’ ‘Can I ride him?’ or ‘Does he have a saddle?’”

The answer to all those questions is ‘no,’” Davis said.

Zeus is carrying on a tradition, too. The world’s previously largest male dog? A Great Dane named Zeus.