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Educate Yourself!
Anyone considering Great Dane ownership, whether purchasing from a breeder or adopting from a rescue group, should do their homework first. While Great Danes are a wonderful breed, they are not for every home or lifestyle. Additionally, one wants to protect themselves from uncaring and unethical puppy mills and backyard breeders. Every year rescue organizations receive countless Danes into their programs simply because the owner was not fully prepared for Dane ownership.
Below is a listing of various educational brochures on Great Danes. Choose the ones you would like and email me with their titles. I will then send them to you via email.
These brochures are in pdf format. To open pdf files, you need to have the most current version of Adobe Acrobat. This can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
(All of these brochures are available at www.DaneOutreach.org and/or www. GDCA.org. Please pull them off of those sites until I can add the links to this page.)
Educational Information
Thumbnail Sketch of the Great Dane
How To Interview A Great Dane Breeder
How To Read Between The Lines
Tips for Choosing A Great Dane
Great Dane Ownership-The Right Choice?
GDCA's Before You Choose A Great Dane
Care Information
The Care of Your Great Dane Puppy
GDCA's Congratulations On Your New Dane Puppy
Dane Outreach's Northwest (Washington state) Rescource Guide
Breeding Information
Know The Facts Before Breeding Your Dog
So-You Are Gong To Breed Your Great Dane
To Breed or Not Breed Your Great Dane
So You Think He's Such A Stud
Dane Outreach
Dane Outreach Brochure
Is That The Truth?
I am amazed at the preposterous claims made by many so-called "breeders" that are totally inaccurate. As a purchaser, you need to make sure these claims are in fact true and not just made up to help the sale go through. Three areas are frequently mispresented: Dane colors, health testing, and quality (show/pet).
Colors: There are six "recongnized" Dane colors: fawn, brindle, black, blue, harlequin and mantle. Recongized means colors that are acceptable for the show ring. Any other colors are considered mismarks, and while a mismark can certainly make an excellent pet, they cannot be shown in conformation events, are not rare, and oftentimes should not be bred. Very frequently mismarks are incorrectly called mantles or harlequins. A mantle or harlequin follows a very specific color pattern and examples of these markings can be found under the Breed Standard section at the Great Dane Club of America site. Folks with questions on colors may want to also visit the Great Dane Colors site, where several pictures of different colors can be found.
Health Testing: Another area of concern is misinformation regarding health testing. When a serious fancier such as myself talks about health testing, they mean the animal in question had their hips and elbows x-rayed and OFA certified, OFA cardiac exam, OFA thyroid, and eyes CERF'd (examined by a canine opthalomogist) and PASSED all of these tests. Health testing needs to be done on both parents before a breeding is done. Sadly, I'm seeing the following: The purchaser asks if the parents were health tested and the "breeder" says yes. The purchaser means all the testing I listed, whereas the "breeder" means the dog walked through the vet's door, he did a quick physical exam and the dog looked ok. Vast difference. Also scary is the fact some of these "breeders" have learned to use Adobe Photoshop well and are making their own health certificates! As a purchaser, there is a very easy way you can check if a dog has had health testing. You simply need to get the dog's AKC (American Kennel Club) registration number. Once you have that, go to the OFA site and put in the number. You will then receive information on that particular dogs health certifications. As a bonus, you can also see results of their sire and dam, siblings and other relatives.
Quality Serious fanciers usually grade puppies into two catagories--pet and show quality/potential. The show quality puppy is one who has the attributes to compete in the show ring and hopefully obtain his/her American Kennel Club championship and the pet puppy will make a wonderful companion for a loving home. Many people do not realize what the difference is between a pet or show puppy. First, there is nothing inferior, defective or wrong with the pet puppy-he simply isn't destined for the show ring. After all, it costs the serious breeder just as much to raise a pet puppy as it does a show puppy and the quality of care and breeding are the same. What IS different is how well the show puppy adheres to the GDCA breed standard in terms of conformation (structure), movement, and temperament. To the inexperienced person, the difference can be very subtle and maybe not even noticable. The deciding factor between show and pet could be shoulder angulation, slope of croup, dentition, eye color and such. Unfortunatley, there are some "breeders" who will call a dog show quality based on color alone, when in fact a show puppy has to have "the complete package" of proper color, proper conformation, proper movement and proper temperament (and of course, soundness and health). Please do not let a "breeder" tell you a puppy is show quality unless they actively show themselves, have produced a number of AKC champions, and have the experience and reputation to support their claim. For those who are considering showing, ONLY purchase from an establised show breeder.
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Revised 2/1/08. Please report any broken links or errors to Georgia.
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