Biggest Pooch In the World?

Remember Marmaduke, that gigantically goofy Great Dane from the funny pages? Well, he might as well be a chihuahua compared to Boomer, a towering Newfoundland from North Dakota who just might be the biggest dog in the world.

The gentle giant can easily drink out of the kitchen sink without lifting a paw, he can stare eye to eye at drivers sitting in their cars, and he can power through a 20-pound bag of dog food in a couple of weeks, according to the Associated Press.

The over-sized pooch measures a whopping 7 feet long from nose to tail and stands three feet tall from floor to shoulder. His weight? Oh, just a mere 180 pounds.

"He comes into the house and his tail is so high everything gets knocked around,'' owner Caryn Weber told the AP of her 3-year-old furry friend.

Weber, who lives with her family on a North Dakota farm, suspects Boomer might be the biggest dog ever, which is why she's sending his measurements to the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records. The previous record holder, a nearly 4-foot-tall Great Dane, died this summer.

Boomer is considerably larger than the average dog in his already large breed. According to the American Kennel Club, the typical Newfoundland weighs between 130 and 150 pounds and stands about 28 inches tall at the shoulder.

Weber certainly didn't intend on a record-breaker when she got him as a puppy. "When we got him, he was three months old and his legs were really short and his body was really long and I thought, he's going to have short legs and all of a sudden his legs took off and they matched the length of his body," she told WDAY News 6 in her home state.

He grew so fast that Weber's sons named him Ripley after he literally ripped out of his stitches during a growth spurt following abdominal hernia surgery.

Is Boomer truly the world's largest dog? Only Guinness can confirm, but stay tuned for the results.

Photo courtesy of Ziga via Wikimedia Commons.