Things I’m REALLY Glad We Taught Waylon While He Was Still Small

There is something slightly ridiculous about calling Waylon “small.” He was never exactly small. But there was a time when he was small for a Great Dane, and looking back now, I realize we had a very short window when some of his behaviors were merely cute and inconvenient instead of potentially involving 140+ pounds of determination.

I will say that he does gravitate to the comfiest places. If that happens to be seat were coming back to… its gonna be a minute.

One of the best things we did with Waylon wasn't teaching him a bunch of impressive tricks. It was treating everyday life as training. We didn't wait for a formal training session to teach him how we expected him to behave. Walking through a doorway was training. Dinner was training. Someone coming to the house was training. Getting into the car was training. And yes, even that tiny puppy standing on his back legs desperately trying to investigate the kitchen counter was training. At the time, some of it probably felt repetitive. Now? I am SO glad we did it. Because eventually the puppy grows up. And when you're raising a giant breed dog, the puppy grows up into something approximately the size of a small horse who lives in your house.

The Counter Was Off Limits Before He Could Even Reach It

This is probably one of my favorites. Waylon couldn't reach the kitchen counter yet. But he was trying. Those little front paws would come up. That long neck would stretch. That nose would start investigating. And I'm sure it would have been easy to laugh and think: Look at him trying to see what's up there! Except we knew something Waylon didn't know yet. One day he wouldn't have to try. One day that counter would basically be at nose level. So counter surfing was a no from the beginning. We didn't wait until he was tall enough to steal a chicken breast before deciding the counter was off limits. We taught the rule while reaching the counter was still just an ambitious puppy dream. And THANK GOODNESS. Because today, there isn't much in our kitchen that Waylon couldn't reach if he really wanted it, but he doesn’t.

His Crate Wasn't a Punishment

We crate trained Waylon from the beginning, and he continued using his crate until he was about two years old. It wasn't somewhere he went because he'd been bad. It was just his space. When we weren't home and couldn't supervise him, that's where he stayed. And we didn't go directly from: crate → entire house. As he got older and proved that he could handle more freedom, we gradually opened up his world. A little more space. Then a little more. Then another area of the house. Every increase in freedom came after he'd shown us he could handle the space he already had. Eventually, we reached the point where we trusted him to roam the house while we were at work. And that didn't happen because he reached some magical age when Great Danes suddenly become responsible adults. It happened because he earned it little by little. Looking back, I think that gradual freedom was one of the smartest things we did.

We Used Real Life as the Training Ground

I don't remember thinking, Okay, now we're going to have a 20-minute training session. Training just happened throughout the day. Want your dinner? Sit. Want to go through the door? Wait. Want the treat? Leave it. Want to go outside? Don't bulldoze the human who's trying to open the door. The things we were already doing became opportunities to practice. And because they happened over and over again every day, Waylon got a LOT of practice without training becoming some enormous chore.

“Leave It” Turned Out to Be One of the Best Things We Taught Him

There are commands that are fun. And then there are commands that make everyday life easier. Leave it is one of those. Food drops on the floor. Something interesting appears on a walk. There's something he wants that he isn't supposed to have. “Leave it.” With a dog Waylon's size, wrestling something away from him is not Plan A. I'd much rather be able to use my voice. That started when he was little enough that I probably could have physically taken something away. I'm very glad we didn't rely on that.

Waiting Matters When Your Dog Can Take You With Him

Doors were another everyday training opportunity. We didn't want Waylon learning: Door opens = CHARGE. A Great Dane flying through a doorway might sound funny until you're the person attached to the leash. So waiting became part of going outside. The door opening wasn't automatically permission to barrel through it. Again, not particularly exciting training. But grown-up Waylon makes me appreciate all those boring little repetitions.

We Taught the Puppy With the Adult Dog in Mind

I think this is the biggest thing I learned. It's incredibly easy to allow something when they're puppies because it's cute. The jumping. The pawing. The pulling. The begging. The climbing all over you. The tiny paws reaching toward the counter. But with a giant breed dog, I think you have to occasionally look at that adorable puppy and imagine the exact same behavior coming from a full-grown dog. Would I still think this was cute if he weighed 140 pounds? If the answer was no, we tried not to encourage it when he was little. Because it's much easier to teach: “We don't do that.” than to spend two years saying: “Okay, I know we've allowed this your entire life, but you're enormous now, so we've changed our minds.”

And We Definitely Didn't Do Everything Perfectly

Before this starts sounding like Waylon graduated summa cum laude from Great Dane University, let me be very clear: We made mistakes. Plenty of them. And still do! His behavior isn’t always perfect, but he’s a good boy. He’s friendly, but not overly. He’’ll come check you out when he’s ready, give you the sniff test. Now his sniff test to a human can sometimes the same as it is to another dog, and sorry about that! But not all the time. I've already confessed that I somehow managed to turn a perfectly good kibble eater into a tiny food critic trapped inside a giant dog's body. So no, this isn't the story of people who knew exactly what they were doing. It's just one of those things I can look back on now and say: I'm really glad we did THAT. We established boundaries before his size made those boundaries harder to establish. We gave him freedom gradually instead of all at once. And we tried to make the little moments part of his training instead of expecting everything to happen during formal training sessions.

Because Eventually, They Aren't Little Anymore

That's the strange thing about raising a Great Dane. The puppy stage feels like it lasts about eleven minutes. One day you've got this gangly little creature trying unsuccessfully to get his nose onto the kitchen counter. Then you blink. And suddenly you're looking directly into his eyes while you're standing in your kitchen. The puppy who couldn't reach the counter can now inspect dinner without lifting a paw. The puppy you could easily redirect weighs more than some grown adults. And that adorable little personality? Oh, that's still there. It's just much, much bigger. So when I think about the things we did right with Waylon, I don't think first about tricks. I think about all those boring little moments. The waits. The sits. The leave-its. The crate. The boundaries. The tiny bit of additional freedom when he'd earned it. None of it seemed particularly remarkable at the time. But now that I share my house with a very large dog who could absolutely create complete chaos if he chose to?

What if I just hold in my mouth instead of wearing it?

I'm really glad we started while he was still “small.”🐾

— Terry & Waylon

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This is simply our experience raising Waylon and what worked in our home. Every dog is different, and a qualified trainer or veterinary professional can help with individual behavioral or health concerns.