A seven-foot Great Dane who weighs the same as a baby elephant could be Britain’s heaviest dog. The huge hound, called Balthazar, tipped the scales at 15st 6lbs during a recent trip to the vets. And he measures a whopping 3ft 3in from his paw to his shoulder but is 7ft from his nose to his tail. Now his owners Vinnie, 46, and Dixie Monte-Irvine, 39, from Nottingham, say they are shocked at how big their five-year-old pooch has become. On Sunday, self-employed business analyst Vinnie said, “He is a big dog and we were told from when he was a lot smaller that he was always quite heavy for his age. He isn’t a fat dog though as you can still see his ribs. We took him to the vets as he has a poorly leg and he needed to be weighed to see how much medication he can take. After he was weighed everyone at the surgery was gobsmacked and we were all just Googling to see if he was actually the world’s heaviest living dog.” The enormous hound chomps his way through two and a half stone of dog food every two weeks – costing his owners a staggering £108 every month. But Vinnie said Balthazar is a gentle giant who likes to play with their children Francesca, 11, Gloria, four, and Tyrion, two. He added, “He is a calm dog and he mostly likes to just sit around with our cats. They see themselves as a pack and will usually all come out on a walk together. We have three cats, Magic, Buffy and Leo. Buffy and Leo sleeping on either side of him when they go to bed. We have to buy him special dog beds online and he regularly eats them. He lives in the kitchen which thankfully is a big kitchen but it can make a cooking a challenge at times.” The family’s other dog, 15-year-old Patterdale Terrier Fifi, has become a surrogate mum to Balthazar who the family got when he was just six-weeks-old. A spokesperson for The Vet Nottingham, in Nottingham, where Balthazar was weighed, said, “We certainly haven’t ever seen a dog that is as heavy as that here before.” Last summer a three-year-old Great Dane called Major was in the running to be crowned the world’s tallest dog. The giant dog, who lives with owners Brian and Julie Williams in Penmaen near Swansea, South Wales, stands at a whopping eight-feet tall on his hind legs. But he only weighs 12 stone which is three stone less than Balthazar.