Great Danes (well, the blondes, anyway) mostly kill by drowning people in slobbery kisses - or breathing at them, and their breath kills at 20 paces!

I was however a bit alarmed at Tenterden Folk Festival this summer by some people with a very big flash (by UK standards) camper van with two Airedales (or were they Giant Schnauzers, or Bouvier des Flandres - the old memory, you know - I think they were Airedales: one of the big wire-haired breeds anyway). I am pretty good with dogs and in my attempts to introduce myself (owners watching) they did nip harder than I would have let a dog of my own nip. Not damaging at that stage, but a potential warning.

Sometimes they were left out of the van on long leads, but mostly they were shut in all day while the owners folked. Clearly there as "guard dogs". Some people seem to set their dogs up to become potentially iffy.   

There are plenty of men and a few women too who think it is clever to have a "hard" dog and positively encourage their dogs to be aggressive to other dogs.

There remains a fighting dog cult in the underclass, too. Places in Essex are specialising in breeding so-called "Bulljacks" - oversized Jack Russels crossed with Staffs or Bull Terriers. Small, fast, agile at ground level, with jaws like a mechanical digger.

It's people that are the problem.