God bless America for creating Scooby doo.

[UK biggest fan of Scooby]

I have decided to knight America as the greatest country in the world for creating a masterpiece. I'm bowing down in respect to your great nation. Thank you for bringing Scooby Doo into my life you absolute geniuses!

[CaptainBuck]

Yep.
Scooby has a fully prehensile tail he can use to swing from or press buttons. Both his head and tail are malleable and useful as a communication aid or creating a distraction.

Creator Iwao Takamoto later explained that before he designed the character, he first spoke to a Great Dane breeder, who described to him the desirable characteristics of a pedigree dog. Takamoto then drew Scooby as the opposite of this. He said "I decided to go the opposite [way] and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, small chin and such. Even his color is wrong."[3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwao_Takamoto
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo_(character)
books.google.com/books?id=00B68sB1-CkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Iwao+Takamoto+:+my+life+with+a+thousand+characters&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xwIST5CCFa_8iQKMv5muDQ&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Iwao%20Takamoto%20%3A%20my%20life%20with%20a%20thousand%20characters&f=false

[UltimateScoobyFan]

But my goodness does scooby-doo ever act like a typical dane

I own a great dane, and run a great dane meetup group in my city. They are all scooby-doo! lol. They love to eat anything, the are silly and goofy, they honestly love to lay on you, sit on you, they wish you could hold them lol, they are big sucks and are scaredy cats.

I think thats why HB used danes for characters. Like Scooby, and Astro. Great Danes have such awesome silly personalities.

[UK biggest fan of Scooby]

If only the whole world was Scooby Doo. And the earth was made out of Scooby snacks that would be pure ace!