George of the Jungle Inspired Dog Names

Pet parents Dave and Christine Nasser first met their Great Dane, George, more commonly referred to by the public as Giant George, when he was just seven weeks old. Although the pup was not the runt of the litter by any means, he was a little bit of an outcast at first; their earliest recollections of the blue-gray pup was of him sitting off to the side of his litter, not playing with his littermates. He was by nature a gentle giant, and while there were a few mishaps due to his size, including a dent in the drywall caused by simply wagging his tail, when Dave and Christine had children, he was delicate and mellow with them. As an adult dog, George slept on his own queen-sized bed in the house, ate over one hundred pounds of food each month, and was frequently taken for rides around the neighborhood in a golf cart. 

When he was four years old, in 2010, he was named the World’s Tallest Dog by the Guinness Book of World Records, and while there were originally some disputes about his final height, a judge from Guinness and a veterinarian confirmed his official height to be thirty nine and one-eighth of an inch tall, three quarters of an inch taller than the previous record holder, another Great Dane by the name of Titan, with the official records being revealed on the Oprah Winfrey Show when he visited on February 22^nd of that year. Already a local celebrity in his hometown of Tucson, AZ, the huge dog’s popularity skyrocketed, and he became quite in demand. He made appearances on nationally televised shows such as The Today Show, Regis and Kelley, Good Morning America, and the Animal Planet. He always created a big stir when he traveled; he and his family usually sat at the bulkhead when they traveled by plane, to give him enough room, but on one trip he was given three seats all to himself, and there were so many fans trying to take his picture during the flight that the captain had to turn on the fasten seatbelt lights. Giant George retained his status of Tallest Dog in the World just until 2012, when Zeus, a Great Dane who reached a height of 44 inches, took the title. Although George passed away in 2013, at eight years old, fans around the world still send messages to his Facebook account, asking George to meet their pets as they cross over the rainbow bridge themselves.