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- The Great Dane is a great pet
because they are the best companion out there,
always at your side, very loyal, loving.
They're the best dog you can have around.
I'm Celeste and I have had Great Danes for 26 years now.
My website is CelestialGreatDanes.
If you wanna go learn more.
I love the breed and it is my whole life.
The Great Dane at its essence is majestic.
It is strength
and stamina
and personality
and it's all these things wrapped up
in a great amount of energy and joy and love.
They're fun and they're amazing.
The history of the breed is originating from Germany.
The very interesting thing about the Great Dane history
in Germany and what they were bred to do is to hunt
boar, bear and even deer.
But when we think they were actually hunting them,
they were called the catch dogs.
So they sent the hunting dogs out and they would
find the animals, the bear, and they'd send
a howl and warn the owner.
At that point the owner would send out the catch dogs.
The catch dogs would come and hold the boar.
They'd hold them by the head.
So that's what the Great Danes did.
They were the catch dogs, not actually the hunters,
or the ones that sought out the animal,
but they were the ones that would hold it.
Boarhounds, that was the original name of the Great Dane
back in the day, they were used to hunt the boar.
They have roots in Ireland also from the Irish Wolfhound.
Which is very cool.
You see a lot of the same characteristics
in the Great Dane as in the Irish wolf hound.
I was excited to find the boarhound ancestry.
Because it dates back to the 13th and 14th century B.C.
That was so exciting to see this painting
because it did have the Great Danes depiction on them
because the colors of the Great Danes, the white Great Dane
the fawnequin Great Dane and the merlequin Great Dane.
These colors I thought were just our modern colors
for today that we have developed over the years,
but they had them pre,
before Christ.
I got my first Great Dane in 1991.
My daughter was a baby at the time,
and I've raised all my children with Great Danes.
They've been a huge part of my life.
After my first Great Dane passed away at 10,
I decided I would get a pair and go ahead and start
raising them and breeding them
because I wanted the line to continue on.
I realized they have the short lifespan
and I wanted to always have that Great Dane in my home.
What you want is a majestic looking creature with strength.
You want him to be square,
legs and body about the same size.
Head is very square and muscular.
Strong firm neck and body.
You want certain colors.
If they have certain AKC standards.
They only allow six colors in the show ring
of the many colors that they have.
The six they allow are fawn, brindle, mantle,
harlequin and black.
But in the Great Dane there is this huge color scape
that we don't see in the rings, that they don't allow,
the six main colors, that they don't allow.
So we have the white Great Dane.
We have the Merle.
We have the chocolate.
We have the lilac, which is some of the newer colors.
We have the fawn mantle, the blue mantle,
and the harlequin you have already heard about.
But every time you hear quin you're talking about
a Great Dane with a white base.
In the harlequin the splotches are black,
and the tears are black.
But in a fawnequin, those splotches, instead of being black,
are the brown fawn color.
In merlequin instead of the splotches being black
or the fawn color, they're the merle color.
So you get the fawnequins by having a white base
with the different color spots.
And that's how you get the quins,
like fawnequin, merlequin and harlequin.
So the new trend now with Great Danes
is the European and everybody is commenting on the
Euro Great Danes.
In my opinion what I've seen from owning
both the American and the European lines
is that the skin and the head size is different
between the two.
The jowls and everything on the European
seems to be a little bit bigger, looser
and not sit quite as tight on the face.
While the American has the nice tighter jowl
and the tighter eye and the tighter skin around the face.
That's the differences I see between them the most.
How does that effect me is a personal preference
so it doesn't effect me unless I say the Euro
usually gets me a little bit more drooled on
when I'm around.
As far as health, the American lines tend to have
healthier eyes that are nice and tight.
With the Euro's skin being so flappy and extra,
the skin around the eye does not seem to fit tightly
on the European.
That is, I would say, a defect in the Euro line
that hopefully as we bring them over here
and cross them with maybe American tight eyes,
we'll be able to get a better looking Great Dane
with a European head and the tight eyes.
According to the AKC standards
the minimum height for a female is 28 inches.
The minimum height for a male is 30 inches.
Most Great Danes you see will be taller than that though.
Personally in my opinion I would not want
a female under 34 inches or a male under 36 inches.
I really like height, and for you to get the square look
that you want in a Great Dane you need to have legs
to match the back of the body.
The weight requirements is, the female should be
no smaller than 100 pounds and the male should be
no smaller than 119 pounds.
And they go up from there.
My Great Danes run from about 125 pounds
up to 180 pounds for the females.
And depending on their age,
usually around 125 at the first year
and then they start to thicken out.
They've got their height by that time.
The male's much heavier.
Can be 180 to 200, 225.
The temperament that I see in the Great Dane
has always been what everybody classifies them
as gentle giants.
They're usually just so calm and mellow.
They do get the zoomies where they run around
for about five minutes solid.
Other than that, they're very gentle and mellow.
That is their personality.
They're very gentle with the smallest children
or the small dogs.
Or if there's someone older in the room,
they seem to sense that energy
and they're really kind and gentle.
What would be the right home for a Great Dane?
It's open to so many people.
Do you have the space first of all?
Do you have the money to feed them?
Do you have the time and do you like to have
a constant shadow at your side?
Because that is what they want.
They're Velcro, they're pack animals,
they wanna be with you at all times.
They never want to be away from you.
The person that can stand to have a dog always at their side
all the time, that is the person that the Great Dane is for.
Other than that, you also have to have
funds for a Great Dane.
They cost more than $100 a month just to feed.
They're not your little teacup poodle
that you can get one bag of food
and it's gonna last all year.
This bag of food in my pack lasts about a day.
They can be very expensive.
If you're considering a Great Dane I hope you consider
the cost of the Great Dane.
And it's not just the food.
We're talking about they're chewing up a bed
or they're chewing up a couch.
It could be very expensive.
Can't be too attached to your things
if you want a Great Dane
because the Great Dane may chew it.
Training and socialization you need to start
very very early.
As early as possible.
Hopefully your breeder has started it.
I start socialization and puppy visits on the weekends
as early as four weeks old.
Because they need to interact with a lot of people.
I have them bring kids and family members.
And they get used to scents and people being
on them and playing with them and holding them
against their will.
And it all has to be done.
It has to be done as early as possible
and as much as possible.
You need to be messing with their paws
so that you will be able to trim their toenails one day.
You need to pull on their neck and their skin
where you would get their shots
so they can be used to that when you go to the vet.
You need a little tug on the ears
and play with the ears so that if a child
comes up and tugs on your Great Danes ears
he will be fine with it.
Okay, so for obedience training it is just
necessary because of their size.
You wanna make sure that they can follow all your commands.
They're a large dog and can quickly get outta control
if you do not have full control over them.
So obedience training would be a great recommendation
especially if you wanna pass your canine good citizen,
or your CGC, you'd definitely want to have some
obedience training before you go there.
I have placed a few of my Great Danes in service homes
and they're great at helping.
Even the things of like taking off shoes, socks,
putting shoes and socks, bringing you stuff.
They're excellent service dogs.
They can handle a lot of weight and pressure
while another dog would not be able to handle
that kind of weight.
So they make excellent service dogs, and the fact
that they always want to be by you, it's not sad
for them to be hooked to a wheelchair all day long.
They don't mind that.
They want to be close to you.
They work great as service animals.
Health issues with the Great Dane are usually caused by us.
They are because they were not given the proper nutrition.
You want to start with the skeletal design
and you wanna make sure that it's not grown too fast.
You actually have to grow Great Danes slow
and you want to never feed them a puppy food
that would cause that bone to grow too fast.
That's where you come in with skeletal problems
like you can have hip displaycia
or problems in the backbone where they would get wobblers
where the bones are compressing the spinal cords.
It is crucial that they are fed the proper diet.
Especially that first 18 months while they are growing.
Also for this breed they do OFA testing for the heart
so that you can test and make sure that the line is clean
by OFAing that's the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals.
Defects that I see in maybe backyard breeders
is usually the cherry eye.
Where, and it is hereditary, you see it come up in the line
with the parents that have it.
So you wanna stay away from that or else
you'll be having eye problems and maybe eye surgeries.
And if the parents have it, it's a very good chance
that the puppies will have it.
For the life expectancy it's the saddest part
and the worst part about owning a Great Dane
is you don't get much time with them.
The internet tells only five to eight years.
In my experience my males have only lived eight to 10
and my females a little bit longer.
I do get a couple more years usually out of my females.
It's very heartbreaking you don't have much time with them.
But for the love they give you, it makes up for the time
and it's not something that should deter you
from getting a Great Dane.
I love my dog's ears.
And I love that they are floppy and I can grab em
they're long and beautiful.
But I do Hollywood work with my children
and in Hollywood to make the set
they needed the cropped ears.
So I went ahead and cropped two of my Great Danes ears.
The process was unbelievable.
I think I spent over $600 first of all.
And what you think is just gonna crop their ears,
it's gonna heal and it's gonna be done.
That's not how it works.
You crop the ears and every week you go back to the vet.
Over and over again.
And re-wrapping the blood
and re-wrapping the poor sore ears.
And the dog's shaking his head
and the dog's trying to get it off.
Every week, every day it's a battle.
And it's not over in a month, it's not over in two months,
it is a very long process.
They look amazing.
And the standard when they're done.
But the cost and the what the outcome,
it's up to you to make that call.
To me it's cosmetic surgery and it's
for the Hollywood lifestyle.
But it's not necessary.
Also I learned from the cropped ears,
if the Great Dane can close his ears
and put his ears down he can close out sound.
The most incredible thing I've watched, seen
taking pictures of the Great Danes over the years,
is their expressions.
How they tilt those ears.
If they're behind they'll turn their ear
just so they can hear me this way or this way
and they angle them like antennas.
They're very important and they
put them in all different directions.
When you crop them they can no longer angle them,
they can no longer use them as antennas.
They can no longer close off sound and sleep.
That's why cropping can be cruel
and not as good, I think, as leaving them natural.
In the Great Dane community you don't dock the tail.
But I've seen it done in emergency situations
or when the dog has hurt the tail.
Or even has happy tail.
But it's not normal.
As a breeder I have a lot of questions about dew claws
and in the beginning I automatically just removed them.
They're like the thumb on the Great Dane.
They're up higher.
Hers are removed so I can't show you on hers.
But what I've learned over time is you just don't
automatically remove body parts
and stuff off the Great Dane.
Those are important to them.
They use them as shock absorbers to ...
they also can use it in a situation
to help them out of a lake or somewhere else like that.
They're important to them.
We're all the time now tacking stomachs
and removing this and removing that
and I don't believe it's benefiting the dog.
I wonder why do we remove the dew claws?
Why do we take them off?
What is the purpose?
Well it was for the show ring,
or it was for this or they might get caught in the future.
These are silly reasons to remove someone's toe.
I have many amazing stories over the years.
Danes have taught me so much.
But the big thing, one of the things that I still
when I think of amazing,
there was a litter that was born
and the puppy was deceased, it wasn't breathing
and I couldn't get it to breathe
and I took it away from the mother.
And the mother was going crazy, this was Angel.
And she was going crazy.
She was having a fit and
I didn't want her to have this puppy that I thought
was deceased, and it was, it was not breathing or moving.
And she had a fit.
So finally I said I'm gonna let her see it I can't
get it breathe, I can't get it to go.
I'm gonna let her see it.
And I put it down for her.
And she jumped on it with her foot
and I thought, oh she's gonna kill it, she's hurting it.
And she did CPR.
This puppy came alive.
She knew what to do.
The instincts were all there.
I was killing it.
I was trying to save it, but I didn't have the instincts.
And what I've seen over the years
is these instincts of these mothers
and that they know what to do.
And these little babies are born
and immediately they come out
of the sack and they're smelling.
They have no eyes, they have no ears yet.
And they smell their way to nurse right away.
And it's always amazing to me.
How nature and how instinct and how within one minute
of being born they're nursing.
Throughout history the Great Danes
were first owned by hunters and nobles and kings
and they were actually used
to protect the sleeping princess.
But today we need them for companionship and for love
possibly to do things for us that we're unable to do.
But in any situation the Great Dane is the right fit
because they do fit and supply all our needs.