If you have a house with carpet and you thought it would be a good idea to get a great dane, what the heck were you thinking?  You would be better off pulling the carpet out and exposing the plain concrete slab of your house.  The dogs won’t appreciate this but your allergies will and you will save a fortune in carpet cleaning bills.  There are a couple of reasons that carpet is a really bad idea

Short Hair

Just because danes have short hair does not mean that they don’t shed.  They shed a lot and it is pretty easy to sweep up on hard floors but that short hair also has a way of burrowing deeply into nice carpet.  It won’t vacuum out nearly as easily as long hair because of the reduced surface area and it tends to work its way deeper and deeper into the carpet.  If you have ever removed carpet you know how disgusting it can be beneath the surface.  Multiply that by a factor of 10 just when taking into account the great dane hair.

Big Paws

These monstrous paws do great damage in two ways.  One they track in all sorts of good junk from the yard, danes are not very good at wiping their feet and their feet are so big that the increased surface area contributes greatly towards big muddy foot prints on nice carpet.  Next damage factor.  Ever see a cleated soccer player change direction on a muddy field?  They leave a big divot in the grass.  Danes are capable of doing this to your carpet.  Their nails get long fast any you need a hedge trimmer to cut them so it often goes undone, thus contributing to divoted carpet.

Slobber

This one is a little more avoidable than some of the others but no less destructive.  I have already discussed the tendency of food to disappear in a dane household and carpet seems to be prime eating area for great danes or and dog for that matter.  The likely hood of a steak being eaten off of your nice carpet is pretty high and from what I know steak is fairly difficult to get out of carpet.  Apply this rationale to basically anything that you expect to disappear in the future.  Bones are also incredibly messy but a delight to chew on the carpet.

All solid floors is the way to go, you will save a fortune in heartache and bills alike.  As much as we love our great danes we must be prepared for their ability to destroy.