Fearsome Freddy is top dog
ED GLEAVE MASSIVE mutt Freddy is the biggest dog on the planet. The Great Dane weighs 14.5 stone and tops 7ft 6in when he stands on his hind legs, making him the Guinness World Record holder.
Owner Claire Stoneman is “over the moon” that her pet is officially top dog.
But her devotion to Freddy and his sister Fleur means her love-life is on hold.
Former glamour model Claire said: “I’ve been single for the best part of four years. But I get cuddles off the dogs. And I don’t have to wash dirty underpants. “Some guy started texting me and I said about dogs and he said ‘I don’t really like dogs’.
“If you don’t like dogs you’re not going to come and watch a film sitting on a sofa with a 14st dog next to you. They’ve kept guys away, I suppose. I just want to have a relationship now.”
Claire, from Southend-on-Sea, spends more than £12,500 a year keeping Freddy and Fleur.
She said: “I never would have thought he would get this big because he was the runt of the litter.
“You know about it when he sits on you. The way he is, he’s about the same as a newborn elephant apparently, so he’s very heavy.” Claire sleeps in the same king-sized bed with Freddy but living with the huge hound means she has had to replace her sofa 23 times in the past four years.
She said: “They don’t live in my house, I live in their house. Basically everything I’ve got is set up for them.
“They are children to me, I guess because I haven’t had any kids. They need me and it’s quite nice to be needed.”
Claire never leaves her pets for more than four hours and when she’s out she monitors them via a CCTV system at her home. Freddy is in Channel 5’s The World’s Biggest Dog, on December 29 at 8pm.