Some dogs don't just join the family — they take up most of the sofa, half the boot of the car and, if you're not careful, the whole holiday. A recent piece over at our sibling site the Ark in Space rounds up the eight biggest dog breeds on the planet, and even the honourable mentions are enormous. The Irish Wolfhound, pictured in the original gallery, just scrapes into the top ten: a tall, shaggy, gentle-looking hound that was historically bred to hunt wolves and still carries the frame to prove it.
Also on the list are three names most people will recognise. The Great Dane is the classic gentle giant, often taller on its hind legs than the person holding the lead. The Neapolitan Mastiff brings serious bulk, all wrinkles and heavy bone, a guard dog of ancient Italian lineage. And the St Bernard, the alpine rescue dog of Swiss mountain-pass legend, is as famous for drool as for size.
The remaining four breeds are revealed over at the Ark in Space, along with a photo gallery worth a browse if you like dogs at architectural scale. Fair warning: reading it may make your own pet look improbably compact.
Why does this matter on a travel site? Because dog size shapes trips. If you're planning to take a large breed along on holiday, logistics change fast — ferry cabins, airline cargo policies, car hire categories and cottage rental rules all get trickier with a dog the size of a small pony. Plenty of self-catering places that welcome a spaniel will balk at a Mastiff. And if you're travelling without a dog but love them, Europe's giant breeds are rooted in specific places worth encountering: Wolfhounds in Ireland, St Bernards at the Swiss-Italian passes, Neapolitan Mastiffs around Naples. Meeting a breed where it was bred is one of the more charming side-quests a trip can offer.
For the writer of the original piece, none of this is hypothetical wish-fulfilment — a house that barely fits a labrador rules out anything bigger. Sensible, perhaps. But there's no denying the appeal of a dog you could saddle up, were it socially acceptable.