Can you believe this? Scary! Here's Hercules, an English Mastiff. He's captured the title of "Largest Dog in the World." Hercules weighs 282 pounds. His neck is bigger around than most people's waist--38 inches! The Boston Herald reports that his paws are "the size of softballs." English Mastiffs normally weigh about 200 lbs. Hercules "just grew" reports 
his owner, John Flynn of Peabody, Massachusetts.
from:
Dogs in the NewsHere's another picture of the big guy. I'm sure experts would agree that Hercules could drop a few. I'm writing a book about overweight dogs so I fully understand what a challenge this can be. Kelly is about 10 lbs overweight, and even cutting back on her food and making sure she gets more exercise, the weight is coming off slow.
There is actually a BBC television program called
Help! My Dog's as Fat as Me! Also in England, two brothers were found
guilty of allowing their dog to become obese. Their Labrador grew to about 154 lbs. Fortunately, as a result of the guilty verdict, the owners took action and Rusty has begun to lose weight and get healthy.
According to Snopes, the picture of the man walking a giant dog next to a horse often seen circulating on the web, bears no connection to the real Hercules, above.
