Orange County Register

Am I stretching things a bit with the Orange County reference? Maybe!

But perhaps one day while you’re at Dog Beach in Surf City, you’ll get a glimpse of Titan …

Titan earned the title world’s tallest dog this week, courtesy of the Guiness Book of World Records. Titan was the only animal honored out of 30 records announced or set Thursday — the official Guinness World Record Day.

The 4-year-old white Great Dane from San Diego is blind, deaf, epileptic and undergoes acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments every three weeks, owner Diana Taylor told Sue Manning with The Associated Press.

“Titan is magical,” she added. “He’s low-key, calm and has a wonderful demeanor about him. He gets along with all dogs, even the tiny ones.”

The massive canine is often mistaken by children for a horse or cow.

Titan’s official height, as measured by a veterinarian, is a hair over 3 1/2 feet tall from floor to shoulder. You could add eight inches if official measurements included the head, Guinness spokesman Stuart Claxton said.

Titan weighs 190 pounds and doesn’t stand on his hind legs because it isn’t good for him. If he did, Taylor figures he would stand 80 or 82 inches tall.

Titan takes the title held by Gibson, a 7-year-old harlequin Great Dane from Grass Valley, who died earlier this year after battling bone cancer. He was actually slightly shorter than the new title holder.

Taylor was living in Atlanta when she adopted Titan as a puppy from the Middle Tennessee Great Dane Rescue. When he could see out of one eye, she taught him sign language. As he went blind, they learned to communicate by touch.

The dog joins the record books along with the world’s largest gingerbread man in Norway, the biggest group hug in the U.K.; most nationalities in a sauna in Finland; and the world’s longest paper clip chain in Mexico.

Top photo: Diana Taylor walks with her Great Dane, Titan, along Ocean Beach in San Diego.  Photo by: Peggy Peattie, Union Tribune

Second photo: Titan parks his behemoth behind on his owner’s lap, something Great Danes seem to enjoy doing. Photo by: Crissy Pascual, Guinness World Records

Third photo: Gibson, the previous record holder, visited Orange County in April 2007 for the annual pet expo. Photo by: Kevin Sullivan, The Orange County Register

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