How to Get Great Danes to Calm Down

A riled-up Great Dane is going to do a lot of damage to your home no matter how large or small your living room. It can be a lot to handle their energy and famous enthusiasm for life.

All of these things need to be done with patience, over a period of time, and on a consistent and structured schedule to be successful. One day of training or one day of following your schedule isn’t enough.

1. Let Your Great Dane Grow

If you own a Great Dane puppy, hang in there pal! Puppies are always a handful. Let him/her grow and raise him/her with tender love and care. They’re just a little unstructured at the beginning. You know, people tend to compare dogs with children, but honestly, I’ve been a nanny and children are way easier than puppies. I’d love dogs, but I’d take nannying over having a puppy any day.

Kids eventually take care of themselves, dogs don’t. However, puppies and kids are similar in that they need time to grow and mature. Great Danes aren’t high energy dogs, but every puppy tends to be a little crazy. My brother owns a Great Dane mix. This dog is not as big as a regular Great Dane, but as a puppy, he could still do some damage.

He loves to play and run outside, and he even chewed my parent’s doorknob until it was all warped and flat. They replaced it, and he did it to the other one. He did all of this because he’s young, but he’s mellowed out since because we were patient with him.

Thankfully I didn’t have to do it, but it’s possible and they will calm down. So, keeping in mind that they’ll grow is the first step in helping them to calm down. If you don’t go into caring for your Great Dane with a mindset of care and love, you’re doing it wrong.

2. Create and Follow a Strict Schedule

Consistency and structure is the best thing for your Great Dane. Great Danes aren’t known to have overwhelmingly high energy levels, but any untrained dog will take liberties and cultivate bad habits if they aren’t guided correctly.

Dogs are intuitive like children are, actually, they don’t do well in chaos, it isn’t good for them. It isn’t healthy for them to spend too much time in an unstructured environment.

To help your Great Dane make the most of their lives and to help you stay sane, here are some things you can do to prevent them from getting overexcited:

• Training
• Exercise
• Playtime/Attention

Keep in mind, all of these “preventative” measures should be done on a schedule. Using these methods will not be as effective without a schedule. If you are spotty with your efforts, you can’t blame me cause you weren’t consistent.

Training

Training is your best friend. It can take about 3-6 months to train your Great Dane. (If you aren’t consistent, it will be longer.) You can be frugal and watch training videos on YouTube, pay someone to train your dog, or you can pay for dog training lessons along with your Dane. Whatever you choose to do, Great Danes must have training.

Here is a site which could help you to get started with the training process.

How does training relate to how calm my Great Dane? You might be asking this. Well, believe it or not, your dog can be trained to not whine, relax, and it can be done without harming them or stifling their personality and uniqueness.

I’ve heard of some dog owners not wanting to train because they don’t want to tie their pet down. Well, even humans need guidelines to live by. We even practice and hone our skills to be disciplined in many areas. We find purpose and satisfaction out of life.

Dogs are naturally quite loyal, but training really brings out your pets’ personality and skills to a point where they can be their best self. There’s nothing wrong with that.

It may seem tedious, (and Danes can sometimes be rather stubborn) but if you stick to training them, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the result.

Exercise

Sometimes your Dane won’t calm down because he/she hasn’t enjoyed a sufficient amount of time outside to exercise and enjoy the freedom to run free. They don’t need a ton of exercise, but too little will cause them to be restless.

Adult Great Danes need about 30-60 minutes of exercise a day. That’s per day. Puppies need at least 90 minutes a day. If your adults or puppies go several days without exercise or spent too much time in their kennel, they will become restless.

When I talk about exercise, I’m not including the time they are free to roam or the amount of time they are in the house. Along with need exercise time, Great Danes can’t be left cooped up in one place for too long. The longest you should ever leave your pet locked up and alone (and this is only if you have to leave them) is 8-10 hours. 10 hours is pushing it, but if you must then you can.

That’s a really long time in itself, any more than that and I’d personally say it’s abuse and you should give your dog to someone else. Any pet would go crazy and be restless if they are cooped up too long. Sure, your pet will probably still love you, but that’s the bad thing about pet loyalty.

You’re never gonna bite the hand that feeds you no matter how cruel, no pet wants to starve (metaphorically speaking- hopefully, you’re not starving your pet).

Attention/Playtime

This sort of scheduled “preventative” method goes along with exercise. However, playing with your pet, or giving them attention, doesn’t always mean they are getting exercise. This scheduled time should be catered towards loving your pet and giving him/her your quality time.

If you schedule this time at the same time every day, it will make things easier for you, and your Dane will also subconsciously recognize it when it comes. Make sure that you have a set of things your pet loves to do.

For instance, my sister-in-law rubs her Great Dane mix down with oil every other day. It’s a time when he’s getting tons of attention. They aren’t playing, but he knows that it’s his special one-on-one time with her and he absolutely loves it.

The same goes for when my brother and sister-in-law are watching TV, their Dane is used things happening at the same time every day, so he doesn’t get riled up.

Pets notice when something is off. It’s not that you’re not allowed to change plans, but for your benefit, scheduling each activity will help hone your pets danger skills. If something happens to you or someone else, they’ll know because things change- they can sense it.

What Do I Do If I’ve Already Tried the Above Tactics?

What if they overly energetic? What if they whine so much it makes your ears hurt? Well, I don’t have all the answers, but there are some things you can do which will help the situation.

No solution is perfect. You really have to read your pet and get to their level. They are living creatures, after all, so you have to treat them that way. They have a personality and individual characteristics just like humans do. They aren’t human, but they are alive and that should be taken into account.

What is the effect of neutering your Great Dane? There is always the option to neuter your Great Dane. Most dogs, even animals in general, will calm down after getting fixed.

Some things to do consistently when raising your Great Dane to decrease their energy level:

• Setting and maintaining a good diet
• Exercising your Great Dane properly
• Providing adequate mental stimulation
• Spending time with your Great Dane and introducing him or her to new people and animals
• Rewarding desirable behavior