Dear Friends...

First of all, thank you for your support of Titan. I'm blessed to share my life with this gentle soul... and happy to have so many friends and fans join us on this journey.  

And what a bumpy ride it's been as, immediately after Titan was officially certified by the Guinness Book of Records, stories began to surface of a 'giant' Great Dane whose owner claimed had been robbed of the title. Armed with a PR firm and professional photographers, his owner spun a tall tale of opportunities lost, earth-shattering measurements and a 'confirmed' world record before ever being awarded the title.

Despite the fact that this distraction detracted from our mission to help rescue and special-needs dogs, I strived to take the high road. But now, after months of having our accomplishment overshadowed by his media blitz-kreig (and on the eve of this dog actually being on Oprah) I've decided it's time to let the public know the truth about 'Giant' George...

Read on for the details surrounding this controversy, followed by the photos and web page that serve to prove 'giant' George may be less World's Tallest Dog and more World's Tallest Fraud...

Apples-to-Apples:
Guinness requirements state an animal must be measured at the shoulder.  Measured correctly, George is 39 1/8" at the shoulder, compared to Titan's certified height of 42.25".

Apples-to-Oranges:
Admitting that he didn't know the proper procedure, George's owner also took a second, third and fourth 'official' measurement, each time moving the measuring tool farther & farther up the neck until he achieved a record-breaking height of 43".  Titan was not measured this high up on the body. In fact, my guess is that most of the 100 dogs that vied for the title weren't measured this way, as this is not the correct way to measure a dog. After many people posted objections on George's web site, the official measurement details and accompanying photos were conspicuously removed.

Something's Fishy:
Despite having his official paperwork since November, 2009, Guinness sent a representative to personally measure George in Feb, 2010. They confirmed George's height at 43" at the shoulder, declared the book closed on this record; and, although they never changed their site to reflect Titan's achievement, GWR updated their site in less than 24 hours from Gibson to George.

So What's the Beef?:
I'm no math whiz, but a dog that measures 43" mid-neck in October does not suddenly become 43" at the shoulder in February. The pictures below originally accompanied his original measurement details clearly show the only way this dog is 43" is with the measuring tool placed midway up the neck.  This is clearly a departure from Guinness' standards, and if they allow this dog to be measured so far up the body then Titan -  and all other dogs vying for the record - deserve to be measured the same way. 

Don't be Chicken - What You Can Do To Help:
SPREAD THE TRUTH. Refer people to this blog. Comment on articles you find on the web. Post on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Contact the Guinness Records Management Team at http://guinnessworldrecords.com/corporate/contact_us.aspx and ask that they show exactly where they measured George so other dogs can be measured in kind. And let Oprah know that she missed an opportunity to help special-needs and rescue dogs everywhere by booking a contender who fell short of the mark instead of the true World's Tallest Dog.

Thanks for your support!

Diana


EXHIBIT A: The official measurement details that were removed from George's web site:





EXHIBIT B: George's measurement showing placement of the measuring tool to obtain 43":


          

EXHIBIT C: Photo of Titan being measured:



EXHIBIT D: Screen shot of Titan's measurement video:

Dear Friends...

In the past few days we've received emails from friends and fans concerned with recent news stories about a new contender in the race for World's Tallest Dog. Actually, this is an old story that has somehow resurfaced on the Internet. By his owner's admission, when measured at the shoulder (instead of halfway up the neck) this dog is 39 1/8".  Impressive (as are the professionally shot photos) but not enough to beat out the many contenders for the title who stood more than 40" tall at the withers; and certainly not as tall as Titan who measured 42.25".

EVERY dog ROCKS, including our challengers. But it's up to the folks at Guinness to decide who breaks a record. And they're gonna make that decision not based on media hype but on careful review of each claim. One day a dog will come along who deserves to be the new World's Tallest Dog - and when that time comes we will congratulate the lucky pup and wish him all the best. In the meantime, let's all cherish the time we have with the people & pets who are close to us, try to make a difference in the world at large, and not worry about computer-generated hype and outdated 'news' stories.

Thanks again to everyone for your love & support... here's to great things in 2010!

Diana, Titan, Ari & Diego

After coming home from the 2nd Annual Holiday Pet Parade, I was on the phone with my sister when their Husky, Mocha Java, passed away.

Mocha was a wonderful dog, adopted after he'd spent almost a year at the local shelter. Thinking that he might have wandered from a county or two over, the shelter wanted to give his owners time to find him. When no one came forward, my sister's family was able to adopt him.

Over the past several years, Mocha has been a treasured member of their family. He was a faithful friend and protector to my sister, brother-in-law and beautiful niece - as well as a constant companion and pal to their other adopted pooch, Solomin. 

Though Mocha was very well trained, he also had the luxury of certain liberties while the family pretended to look the other way. A little begging from the table here, a little sneaking up on the bed there. Like Opal and Big D before him, Mocha also enjoyed the Shafer Sunday ritual of a pancake after the family finished breakfast. From his daily walks to his perch from which he could watch the deer cross the property, Mocha was blessed to have found a Forever Home with a family that loved him - and they were blessed to have this wonderful spirit in their lives.

Mocha Java is now running free with my sweet deSade and Dante at the Rainbow Bridge...  another beautiful soul gone but never forgotten.

Well, as you might've guessed, Titan's first couple of weeks as the new World's Tallest Dog has been a whirlwind. Not as much for my boy, as he's used to living like a Rock Star, but more for me! Actually, life would've been so much easier had his web site not been temporarily shut down by our provider for too much traffic. In a way, I that's a good thing. Means we've been getting the word out there about special-needs and rescue dogs. Unfortunately, that also meant that I had to dump VistaPrint and find another provider who could handle the occasional surge in traffic and who also had 24/7 tech support - and that meant re-building the site from scratch!

Thankfully I managed to copy the Guestbook comments from the original site, because there were so many well wishes. We've heard from fans from Atlanta to Afghanistan, and Jersey to Japan. We even received a congratulatory email from Caryn, owner of Boomer, a magnificent Newfoundland and one of the contenders for World's Tallest Dog. What a classy lady!

I've only managed to upload half of the archived comments. The rest are coming soon! You can find both the archived and current comments on our Guestbook page. Check 'em out! And as always, thanks for the ongoing love & support!

Welcome to our first blog entry! As you may have guessed, things have been pretty crazy around these parts, but in a good way. After months of planning... and hoping... and waiting... we got the news last week that Titan was named the World's Tallest Dog! It feels like a dream; however I did 'wake up' long enough to have the good sense to upgrade my cell phone plan before all the calls from well wishers and requests for appearances put me over my minutes usage! And thank goodness I did, because in less than a week after 'Tite-Tite' was announced as the new recordholder, my phone's been ringing off the hook and we've been on the go ever since!

Contrary to the initial news reports that painted Titan as 'ailing,' my boy actually lives the life of a Rock Star. Still, none of our escapades could've prepared us for the whirlwind week we've had so far. And we absolutely, positively couldn't have navigated the post-announcement mania without the help of Shannon, our Guinness rep who flew all the way to San Diego with certificate in hand. From the 4 a.m. satellite feed of the Today Show (live, from my kitchen!) to The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Shannon was with us every step of the way - although she failed to get my attention when an errant dreadlock fell just out of my eyeline smack-dab in the middle of my face during the taping and could only shake her head in amazement when Titan did his 'business' on stage during the first rehearsal of the Tonight Show! LOL!

Other than that little, huh, BIG snafu, my boy took it all in stride. In fact, he's been amazing! Regardless of where we were or who we met, Titan seemed to know he was a Canine Ambassador. He posed for pictures, demonstrated the Great Dane lean and kept the slobbering to a minimum. And he navigated the maze of hallways and slippery floors at the Tonight Show so well that unless we told them no one would even guess that he's deaf and visually impaired. In fact, he made such a good impression that after the shows his web site got so many hits that it was shut down for exceeding its bandwidth! 

Now that we're back up & running, I need to build the site from scratch. Thankfully I hadn't gotten too far along with the original site!

So stick with us... there's much, much more to come!