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This is a breed which I am quite familiar with as both my father and grandfather bred them …

The above picture is of a Great Dane which was recently at my clinic for surgery on its elbows. This is a breed which I am quite familiar with as both my father and grandfather bred them. When I was young there was always a few of them living in the house, sometimes as many as four or five. Thats not a great number if you keep poodles but it sure is a lot of Danes. My recollection of them is that they are a very tactile breed, they like like to lean against you if you are trying to relax and also they try and sit in soft seats in a very human like posture.

The best Great Dane story my father told me is as follows .. late one night he heard some noise at the front of the house, at that time we lived in an isolated house in a rural Scottish setting. When he looked out he saw a couple of young lads siphoning petrol from one of the cars, they were most likely penniless and petrol less after an evening boozing at a dance in one of the neighboring villages and now they were trying to get home. My father’s response was to go to the back door and let all the Danes out who rushed in a mob to the front of the house barking and growling furiously. He said he never saw two guys jump a wall so fast in all his life!

The Great Dane is of course famous as it is one of the largest dog breeds in the world, but they are gentle giants and normally are very friendly with both people and other animals. They do have a slight tendency to get ” spooked ” and they can react aggressively when frightened. The only thing you have to watch is that they could sometimes injure small children just because of their sheer size and bulk running round the house.

Despite its name the Great Dane did not in fact originate in Denmark, some breeders have written that Dane like dogs can be seen inscribed on the pyramids and other ancient art, and others have said that a Dane like dog can be seen on some Greek coins. I tend to read the exact same thing when research the origin of other large dog breeds so I now tend to discount that type of story as it is probably a case of imagining that your favourite breed matches the picture! What is for certain though is that the breed as we know it today originated in Germany in the nineteenth century when the breed standard was set and it was called “Deutsche Dogge”, or “German Dog”. In England at that time it was called a German Boar Hound as it had been used in packs to hunt wild boar. The aim was to produce a dog with the speed of the Greyhound and the muscle and strength of the English Mastiff.
When I was taking the sutures out of the dog in the photo and I asked the owner what she thought the good and bad points of the breed are, her reply was :

Good Points.

• They need less exercise than you would think as they are quite lazy by nature.
• They do not cast hair very much in the house.
• They are gentle and friendly towards people.
• You do not need to bend down to stroke them. [ The owner has a bad back ]

Bad Points.

• They are very short lived, their life span is between eight and ten years.
• They tend to slobber a bit.

There have been several famous Great Danes I could find reference to, Buffalo Bill Cody always had his black Dane “Turk” with him and Manfred von Richtofen, the famous Red Baron is said to have taken his Dane “Moritz” up flying with him on a couple of occasions, and of course there is always Scooby-Doo!

From a vet’s point of view they do have a few problems, they suffer from early onset arthritis, bone cancer, and have a tendency to develop a serious condition called twisted stomach or gastric dilation. Young Danes as they are a fast growing breed can develop nutritional bone disease if they are not fed properly.

So there we have it, the Great Dane, not a breed for everyone, you need space to keep them in, you need to spend time with them, and it is imperative that you understand their feeding and veterinary needs, plus they are not a cheap dog to keep. Having said that my clients who own Great Danes never have any other breed.

Scott