Why is Scooby-Doo a Great Dane?

Part 1

How Scooby-Doo got his look

Scooby-Doo was created for the 1969 CBS series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, and he is a male Great Dane by species. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears first worked with a sidekick dog called Too Much, whose breed varied between drafts before it was settled as a Great Dane. The job of drawing him fell to Iwao Takamoto, a character designer who had spent fifteen years at Disney learning correct animal anatomy from the studio's most exacting animators. Before he began, Takamoto consulted a Hanna-Barbera colleague in the ink and paint department who bred Great Danes and had won prizes with them. You can probably guess what happened next: she told him about strong legs and a firm chin, and he went the opposite way on purpose.

Takamoto gave Scooby a hunched back, bowed legs, and a weak chin instead of the straight, proud lines of a show-ring Great Dane. In his own words, he decided to go the opposite of what he had been told, and even the color was wrong. The result was a dog that no Great Dane breeder would recognize as the breed, but that read instantly as timid and lovable on screen. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969, and was an immediate hit.

Part 2

Real Great Danes that made history

Great Danes have held the record for the world's tallest dog for many years. He measured 44 inches tall at the age of three and stretched to 7 feet 4 inches when standing on his hind legs. He weighed 155 pounds and ate about 12 cups of food a day. Zeus lived from 2008 until 2014, when he died at the age of six.

• Giant George, a Great Blue Dane, measured 43 inches tall and died at about seven years old.
• Freddy, a Great Dane from Essex owned by Claire Stoneman, was named the world's tallest dog in 2016 and stood 7 feet 5.5 inches on his hind legs.
• Freddy measured 3 feet 4.5 inches from foot to withers and had been the runt of his litter as a puppy.
• Freddy died in January 2021 at eight and a half years old.
• Atlas, a German Harlequin Great Dane living in Navarre, Florida, later held the record, standing 4 feet 4 inches at the shoulder and weighing 225 pounds at age six.
• A younger Zeus from Bedford, Texas, was named the world's tallest living male dog in 2022 at 3 feet 5 inches tall, an inch shorter than the Michigan Zeus's record.

If you are curious how tall your own dog might grow compared with these giants, dog height is measured from the base of the foot up to the withers, the highest point of the shoulder blades. According to the American Kennel Club, Great Danes are friendly, patient, and dependable. The average life expectancy for a Great Dane is between seven and ten years, and the breed is prone to a number of health conditions.

Part 3

What this means for you and your dog

You do not need a record-breaking dog to appreciate a Great Dane's calm, easygoing nature, whether the dog on your sofa is a cartoon-sized character or a real giant. Takamoto designed Scooby this way on purpose, and the character became lovable anyway.