Great Dane

The Great Dane are the descendants of hunting dog and was bred about 400 years ago in Germany at first for hunting down the wild boars but as they evolved they are probably now not very good hunters today. The aggression and the ferociousness needed to hunt down such a big wild animal was eventually bred out of them and now they are very popular for their swift moment, friendliness, courage and dependability. The Great Dane dogs are the successors of the hunting dog family that is famous as the middle-aged widely breeding dog all over the world today. The Great Dane dog was initially developed from the mastiff family of dogs in Germany and hence is also known as German Mastiff or Deutsche dogge but they are way more refined in terms of their structure and characteristics as compared to their primitive counterparts. They have a very athletic built, with a narrow elegant neck and a sharp narrow mouth with a massive head. The dog owners sometimes crop their ears that are very popular in the USA but is banned in many other countries as it is against animal rights, therefore, it is best to let it natural as they are. 

Description of Great Dane

Appearance and Size

It is one of the large german domestic dogs that are very well known for its well built, smooth muscular body which is lean and elongated. It is a combination of regal appearance, elegance and strength. It is a giant breed but with such well-balanced conformation that it never appears clumsy and have a powerful drive and thus have a long reach to an object that is far from it. They usually appear as a square because of their height to length ratio. If the shoulder length of the male great dane dog is less than 30 inch (76 cms) and the shoulder length of the shoulder of a female great Dane dog is less than 28 inch or (71 cms) are considered as Danes. For a decade the tallest domestic dog that is recorded is a great dane with the current record holder was a black great dane with a height of 111.8 cm (44 inches) before it died in September 2014. Now according to the current Gunness World record, the aforementioned George is the tallest living dane dog with a height of 109cms that is 43inch at the shoulder. According to the American Kennel club, male dogs need to look stout throughout their lifespan than female dogs with heavier bone structure and wide frame. Thus the ideal weight of a great dane of 18 months should be 120 lbs or 54kgs and that of a female should be 100lbs or 45 kgs. Usually, they are square shapes because of their length to width ratio, have a long neck and narrow face with floppy ears that drop down to their face a little. In earlier days there was a tradition to crop their ears so that they face less ear damage and injury because of it. The tradition and the fashion continued in the new era as well where their ears were cropped by performing surgeries. But due to the implementation of animal rights, there are several countries in Europe like the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Denmark and few parts of Australia and New Zealand the practice is totally banned though it still is very popular among pet owners in the United States. 

Personality

The great Danes or as they are popularly known as “big dane” are some of the best-natured dogs in the world. They are playful and relaxed around children and their urge to please people and great adaptability makes it easy for them to get trained easily. They are also very fierce if they feel attacked or sense that someone needs defending but otherwise they are gentle and affectionate for the pet owners as well as for strangers. They are very dependable and always tries to be around the family. They truly believe that they are lapdogs and follow the owner around to find a chance to climb up to the lap. They need social exposure at a very young age as they are keen on nature and loves to socialize and easily adapt to the environment and surroundings they are in. Thus dog owners need to expose them to the different places, people, sites, sounds and experience to help them grow their socialization skills and help them become a well- rounded dog. Therefore the dog experts say that they need to be often taken for a stroll to neighbourhood a crowded park full of children and stores that allows pets as they are puppies to polish their social skills. Though the great Danes are usually are friendly with other pets at home and adjust accordingly but sometimes they can aggressive and attacking the other livestock around. It is because sometimes they don’t care or cannot tolerate other pet being equally treated like them. 

Coats

There are five to six acceptable show coats for the grate dane breeds according to the breed standards. All of them are mentioned below.

1. Fawn: They have a goldish-yellow colour with black stripes that usually appear around the eye rims, eyebrows and around ears.

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2. Bindle: This breed has a fawn and black colour with a V-shaped line or striped pattern on its body.

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3. Black: This breed is generally considered fault and non-desirable with a black glossy finish on their body with white stripes on their toes and chest.

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4. Harlequin: The harlequin great dane is based on pure white and black irregular and torn patches that are uniformly and well distributed all over their body. But the large black patches are not desirable as they give an illusion of a blanket on the body and neither they should be small enough to look like round patches or spots. A pure white neck of this breed is usually pure white and that is also preferred.

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5. Grey Merle: The grey merle great dane is usually known for the structure and shape of their body and leg and they are perfect in producing the accurate and desirable black and white marked harlequin dogs. Thus even when the grey colour is not desirable and unqualified the fact that they produce perfectly desirable harlequins put them in a brack of not desirable neither disqualified. Thus the colour grey never obtains the highest score in the dog show or in FCI.

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6. Mantle: The breed is purely black and white in combination that has a solid black colour as a blanket all over its body that is also covering its skull whereas the projecting part of its face, that is, nose and mouth area should be white with the white blaze which is optional but the collar of the neck needs to be completely white. Its chest should be completely white with few parts or the complete foreleg and hind leg need to be white with the tip of the tail as black is desirable. A little break in the collar ring of the neck or little white marks on the black blanket of the body is also falling under acceptable range. 

7. Blue: This breed is accepted with pure steel blue colour with no frowned pattern or blackish blue colour on it but it can have on the chest and feet. That is the acceptable standard set for the blue breed.

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History and Origin

The great dane dogs that have a very strong similarity with the primitive darwins of dogs were first found in the Egyptian artefacts that indicate their presence in 3000 B.C. they were also found crafted on the walls of the Babylonian temples that were built around 2000 BC. even in the manuscript of the Chinese that was written in 1121 BC has mentioned the origination of such big dogs in Tibet.  Some of the studies suggest that the breeds were taken by the Assyrians to the different parts of the world and traded to the Romans and the Greeks who then selectively bred them with the other breeds of the big dogs. Studies also suggested that at the beginning of the 16th century the two popular breeds of big dogs, namely, Irish wolfhounds and English Mastiffs were crossbred very carefully strong long-legged dogs in England which were then exported to the nobilities to many countries in Europe as a symbol of strength and sophistication. These great dane are the ree descendants of the strong long-legged dogs who were the result of selective crossbreeding of the two most popular breed during the 16th century for their strength and agility. These dogs were then crossbred independently during the starting of the 17th century at the courts of German that was absolutely different from the English method. Across many countries of Europe, these big-legged doges were bred to hunt down the bores and thus are popularly known as the bore hounds. Their ears were generally cropped by the locals so as to prevent the bores tusk to tear them down. In the early 16th century, the name of the dogs was given by the Englishmen as “English Dogges”. In the late 1600s, the nobles started owning the dogs with the domestication purpose and started calling them Kammerhunde which means the chamber dogs are were highly pampered and were made to wear the glided collar around their neck that was made of velvet. They were then called the Great Danes. Throughout the early 1800s, the Germans continued to bed this the great Danes that particularly focuses on altering their temperament and aggressive nature as they were originally bred to hunt down the bores that were equally aggressive and ferocious in nature. Through the decades the careful selective breeding of the great Danes with other breeds of similar dog species resultant in the change characteristics of the dane dogs from a hunter to a domestic friendly creature. Though there is no documentation of the arrival of the great dane in America or how they have arrived but the Great Dane Club of America was first formed in 1889. It was the fourth breed club that was included in the American Kennel Club.    

Types of Great Dane

There are seven different kinds of great Danes known today that are mentioned below:

1. Fawn Great Dane: They are the most well known and popular domesticated dog that is fully covered with tan colour uniformly over their body and have a dark black mask over their mouth covering most of their face. Thus if the fawn pooch has any other darker marks or patches over their body other than the mouth, they are rejected and not considered for any dog shows. The character of the famous cartoon scooby-do was inspired by the characteristics of this breed.

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2. Brindle Great Dane: Brindle great Danes are quite popular for their range of colours. They are almost the same size as any breed of great dane with coats that are a combination of several colours like black, grey, fawn, red and blue. the markings on them distinguish them from the rest of the breed of great dane and make them desirable for domestication.

3. Harlequin Great Dane: The Harlequin Great dane are absolutely unique in their pattern as they are a combination of black and white. Their body is covered with white fur all over the body with irregular black patches or strips distribution that makes each of the Harlequin Great Dane absolutely unique from one another. As the two of the breeding standards set for the Dane family is that, one, they should have an absolute white neck and second, they cannot have any black patches and sports on the majority of their body as a dominating factor. Thus, by the appearance of this species, it gets very difficult to recognize and classify as one of the Great Dane breeds. 

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4. Black Great Dane: They are monochromatic by colour and possess a jet black colour. Though they might seem undesirable their rick, the dark and shiny texture is an extremely striking feature in them. They have a great athletic built with a narrow long neck and a projecting face that makes them even more elegant in nature.

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5. Blue Great Dane: They are lovingly known as Zoolander as they have a very attractive steal blue colour with variations in shade. Because of their extremely beautiful appearance, they are even used in entertainment industries for commercial purpose. They are generally steel blue in colour but the variation of it may range from light to fairly dark shade. Among these breeds, the colour is uniform and persistent throughout their body.  

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6. Merle Great Dane: They are very similar to that of Harlequin Great Dane with a widespread base colour and irregular and unevenly distributed black patches all over the body as a dominating feature. The only difference is unlike the harlequin the base colour of this breed is not a white tone but a much darker shade of grey, fawn or blackish white. But many of them possess a clear white broad stripe running through their chest. 

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7. Mantle Great Dane: This breed generally has two dominant colours, black and white where black makes the base colour of the body and tail, the white runs as a broad stripe covering its belly, chest and mouth and runs through the forehead. They do not have any pattern or patches in their body. There is very little variation in this breed but any patter or mark on the body instantly disqualifies them from the great Dane breed.

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Health Issues of Great Dane

Great Danes are generally a healthy breed and unlike other breeds of dogs, they are less likely to catch a disease or a severe health condition. But they are also prone to a few the health issues like growth problem that is very common in puppies and can at times develop in adults due to improper diet. That is if the diet is too rich in protium, calcium or supplements. Hip dysplasia is another problem that is genetic in nature that does not allow the hip joint to fit tightly and securely with the thigh bone of the dogs primarily in their forelimbs. Though they do not display outward discomfort but may suffer from pain and lameness especially with the aged dogs. This can only be verified by an X-ray report. Another major and life-threatening problem that is commonly faced by the aged Great Danes is gastric torsion. This happens due to the blotting of the stomach if the dog takes a giant meal in a day, drink lots of water after feeding or vigorously do physical activity that results in the accumulation of the excess air or distended gas that create torsion in their stomach. As they are unable to vomit out the excess air, it resists the normal flow of blood back to the heart. As a result, the blood pressure drops and the breed may experience a cardiac shock or arrest. Also oneof a very common disorder that the larger breed of dogs faces at mid-age or aged breeds is osteosarcoma, which is a severe bone cancer often develops with giant breeds and especially in Great Danes, even in their early age and cancer spreads aggressively. 

Conclusion

Great Danes were earlier known as hunting dogs and were specially bred to hunt down the wild bores. Hence they were ferocious and aggressive in nature. But after the 16th century as they started getting traded to different parts of Europe and the German royals started keeping them as pets in their court, the selective breeding of this breed started to control their temperament and nature and after a century of its crossbreeding, they are known as the most friendly, happy and adoptable pets in the world as they are even great with other pets and kids in the house. They are very popular for their athletic built with sharp projected face and long neck. They had naturally floppy ears that were chopped off earlier to protect them from getting hurt by the bore and it later became a fashion trend. But now in many countries, the cropping of the ear is totally banned except in the United States where this tradition with the Great Danes is very popular. They are very protective in nature and gets aggressive and ferocious if they feel threatened or attacked.