This top dog refuses to be “Home Alone.”
Kevin, a Great Dane named in honor of the character played by Macaulay Culkin in the classic ’90s film, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the tallest dog currently in existence.
According to Guinness, the dog’s length from paw to shoulder blade is 3 feet 2 inches, which is the height of an average three-year-old child, while the average male Great Dane is usually 2 feet 6 inches tall.
Kevin lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, with his owners, Tracy and Roger Wolf, and their two sons, Alexander, 12, and Ava, 10. Their house is filled with an animal brood, including three dogs, four cats, chickens, goats, and a horse.
“Kevin is the epitome of a gentle giant,” Tracy, who works at a veterinary clinic, told Guinness. “In fact, he’s scared of most things.”
Kevin is “super super friendly” – “too friendly, in fact – you shouldn’t keep your mouth open when he’s around,” Tracy says – “but everyone loves seeing him, as long as he doesn’t smack them with his tail.”
The dog loves to sleep on the couch, so if someone takes over his favorite spot on the couch, he’ll tell on mom.
“Kevin’s favorite thing to do is probably take naps. I think holding down the couch is his favorite pastime.”
Cuddling and napping are some of Kevin’s favorite hobbies, but he’s pretty picky about how he relaxes.
“He doesn’t actually like to sit; he stands or lies down. I think his legs are too long,” Tracy explained. “He also sometimes sits on my lap with his bottom back so he can keep his front paws on the ground in front of him.”
Although he is lazy, he consumes 6 to 10 bowls of food every day to stay in shape.
Despite being larger than life, Kevin often gets scared of the smallest things – vacuum cleaners are one of his biggest fears, for example, and he even flinched around the measuring stick that made him the world’s tallest dog.
“He’s scared of vacuum cleaners. He won’t let me within six feet of them! He jumps and runs to get away from them,” Tracy said.
Tracy says Kevin doesn’t realize how big he is and is in fact a “big baby” — except when being bigger is an advantage.
“When Kevin or my dogs come to the clinic, I put a baby gate over the office door so I can leave the door open and still keep the dogs inside,” she says. “Whenever I’m there, they stay there, but when I leave, they just walk right through the baby gate like nothing happened!”
“I don’t think he realises how big he is – he tries to squeeze into our tiny bed, sit on us and do all the things a small dog does,” Tracy added.
Kevin replaces another Great Dane named Zeus, who passed away in September 2023 at the age of three.
