Category: Choosing a Breeder

How to Choose a Great Dane Breeder Near Me
We’ve written posts about how to spot a Great Dane Breeder Scam , and we’ve written about common Great Dane Breeder Red Flags.

That’s a lot of information on which breeders NOT to choose, but how do we know which breeders are the ones to look for?

This post is perhaps the most important in our series on finding and supporting ethical breeders, and one you should read before you purchase your next Great Dane Puppy.

FIND A GREAT DANE BREEDER NEAR ME

Before you can begin the process of choosing a breeder, you have to find one!

There are a few ways we recommend searching.
- Search the Great Dane Club of America website, as well as their local chapters.
- Attend a dog show, meet breeders and learn where the dogs are coming from.
- Search our database, https://www.hellodanes.com/find-a-great-dane-breeder/
- Get personal recommendations in your local Great Dane community.
Make sure to chat with references, veterinarians, and Great Dane lovers who are ‘in the know’.

KNOW WHAT A BAD GREAT DANE BREEDER LOOKS LIKE

Inform yourself what backyard breeders look like, talk like, and act like with their litters.

Too many breeders are getting away with making people think their puppies will be healthy when they are not health tested at all.

Read and educate yourself of what a backyard breeder does with their litters so that you know what to avoid.

Off Color and Designer Great Danes
Bad Breeders
Scam Breeders: What to Look For
Breeders: Shady Business
Should I Choose a Breeder or Rescue?
Choosing a Dog From a Show Breeder
What Makes a Breeder Good?
What is a backyard breeder? The AKC has 1000’s.

CHOOSE A GREAT DANE BREEDER

Now that you’ve got a few names, you’ll want to narrow it down a bit. Perhaps you are looking for a specific color, or really like the ‘look’ of the dogs being produced by one of the breeders. Avoid buzzwords like ‘Euro’.

Euro Danes: A Big, Droopy Problem
What Does Euro Mean in Great Danes?

Decide on a color that you’d like, and pursue Great Dane breeders who test their dog’s health and produce those colors.

Blue Great Danes
Mantle Great Danes
14 Exciting Things about Black Great Danes
Colors of Great Danes

VERIFY HEALTH TESTING IS COMPLETED WITH OFA

The next thing you are going to want to do is to verify the following things.

I’m going to be brutally honest here.

What is OFA Health Testing?
Is Embark a ‘Good Enough’ Health Test?

We are really, really sick and tired of breeders who claim they’ve ‘health tested’ their dogs after getting them checked out by a veterinarian.

That is NOT health testing.

Actual health testing for dogs in a breeding program involves x-rays, bloodwork, an eye-exam and an echocardiogram.

Expect nothing less. OFA health tested dogs are much less likely to pass expensive and painful conditions onto the puppies.

Read more information about OFA Health testing here.

Both dogs that were bred to create the litter should be fully OFA Health tested: Hips, Eyes, Heart, Thyroid.

Ask the breeder for the CHIC# for each dog, and then verify the results at www.ofa.org using their free search tool.

LOOK FOR EXCELLENT PARENTS

Look first at the parents that were bred.

Are they excellent examples of the written breed standard?

Are the parents free of roached back, droopy eyes, flat or deformed feet and legs, bloat, aggression, fear, thyroid disease and heart problems?

Are they strong, clean, well-cared for, trained and offered enrichment and family time?

Does the breeder show their dogs, or have puppy buyers that show the dogs and prove that they follow the breed standard?

AKC PAPERS DO NOT MEAN THE DOGS ARE WELL BRED

Note: AKC Papers are not enough.

Healthy Great Dane puppies should have good bone (‘substance’) and be confident, curious and friendly. They should have tight, strong feet and be free of knuckling, worms and sores.

If you see timid, sick, weak or small puppies contact your local Great Dane rescue.

They may be able to step in and request that the breeder surrender the dogs and help them find suitable homes once they are healthy.

WHAT IS AKC REGISTRATION?

Ask the breeder about AKC Registration.

They should have a documented pedigree for the puppies going back at least 4 generations, and should be willing to share it with you so that you can research the genetics.

Most ethical breeders sell their puppies with an AKC LIMITED registration, meaning that you won’t be able to breed your puppy and register the off-spring with the AKC.

This restriction helps breeders keep their genetic lines from getting mucked up by ‘backyard breeders’.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO BREED YOUR NEW GREAT DANE

If you want to breed, be honest with the breeder and ask if you can mentor with them. Finding a quality breeder to learn from will also ensure you have better access to quality puppies for breeding in the future.

LOOK FOR A BREEDER THAT SOCIALIZES ITS PUPPIES

Make sure the breeder you are talking to thoroughly socializes the puppies.

Puppy Socialization
Puppy Culture: A Way to Socialize from the Start
Puppy Socialization Guide
Puppy Training: 5 Mistakes in Training

Well-socialized dogs make GREAT family pets! Be wary of any breeder that doesn’t expose puppies to a variety of textures, obstacles, noises, experiences and items. They should be spending time with the puppies and making sure they have lots of opportunity outside of the whelping area.

If the puppies are extremely timid, shy and fearful it’s very likely that the breeder is not using ethical practices for breeding and socialization. These puppies absolutely deserve an amazing chance at life, but their breeder does not deserve your money.

Some of the best breeders use Puppy Culture/ENS type protocols that are time consuming but extremely effective for ensuring that puppies are confident, engaged and able to handle the world. Read our post on Puppy Culture socialization here.

NO DOUBLE MERLE

No ethical, thoughtful breeder will pair two dogs with spotted coats.

Double Merle Great Danes

This can create double merle puppies, which can be blind, deaf, and have piles of health problems.

Here are a few examples of color pairings that you do NOT want to see:

Harlequin + Harlequin
Harlequin + Merle
Merle + Merle

Entire rescues are dedicated to saving the sick, timid, weak, deaf and blind white or mostly white puppies that result from these preventable pairings. Some breeders will do this anyways and then hard cull (euthanize) the white puppies at birth so that people never know.

Be educated about this, it’s important!

CHOOSE AN APPROPRIATE COLOR PAIRING

Appropriate Great Dane Color pairings include:

Harlequin + Mantle
Mantle + Mantle
Black + Black
Etc.

BREEDER CONTRACT

A breeder should have a solid, in-depth contract for you that covers everything from basic care requirements to breeding restrictions, spay and neuter and health and return guarantees.

Any breeder that does not require this doesn’t likely care much about the puppies, where they end up, or their relationship with you as the buyer. Ask to see the contract in advance; this can also help weed out breeders that are actually a scam and don’t have any puppies to sell you at all.

BREEDER GUARANTEE

Your breeder should be 100% willing to take a puppy back at any time, for any reason.

This simple guarantee helps ensure that no ethically-bred Great Dane ever ends up in a shelter or rescue.

If your breeder wouldn’t take a dog back, they don’t care much where they end up. In my opinion, that’s one of the worst offenses a breeder can make.

If you don’t think it matters because you never have any plans to return the dog, do a quick search through the many Great Dane rehoming groups. Digest the sheer volume of posts from people who didn’t think they would ever have to find a new home for their dog.

None of those people likely have a breeder who backs them up and will help them. Don’t be that person, and don’t financially support those kinds of ‘breeders’.

BREEDER KNOWLEDGE AND SUPPORT

The breeder you choose should have a HUGE amount of knowledge about Great Danes and will be able to talk to you about nutrition, health and more.

Expect your breeder to be interested in you as a buyer, and to want to watch the puppy grow up. They will be there to answer your questions!

It is important that you have a personal relationship with your breeder. If you don’t like them as a person, that maybe a red flag.

WHY DOES CHOOSING THE RIGHT BREEDER MATTER?

It’s not the ethical breeders that are the problem.

It’s the careless, thoughtless backyard & mill breeders that are a driving reason behind why so many dogs end up in rescue.

We support breeders, and we support a buyers choice to choose breeders instead of choosing rescue.

If you choose to purchase a dog, we ask that you to be thoughtful in your decision. Choose only the types of breeders who are not contributing to the population of discarded purebred Great Danes that fill up local rescues across the Country.
November 18, 2020
Puppy Culture – Early Socialization for Great Dane Puppies
Socialization for Great Dane puppies is SO important! Puppy Culture is a dedicated socialization program that good breeders use on puppies from birth onward to ensure that their puppies are stable, friendly, and resilient. Finding a breeder who participates in Puppy Culture is a good thing!

Many people believe that puppy socialization means taking them to the pet store and the dog park. However, doing so can actually cause the puppy to have bad experiences and become more fearful!

This is especially true for Great Dane puppies that may have come from breeders who are not focused on developing sound and stable temperaments.

Good socialization is actually a combination of positive experiences, exposure to different sights, sounds and textures, and a keen understanding of how to utilize small amounts of stress to build confidence and resilience.

Socialization is how you teach dogs to live in our world. They learn to be confident, because they know that everyday things (other dogs, people, sounds, textures) aren’t going to hurt them.

Confident, well-socialized dogs are calm, easy to train and free of aggression, fear and frustration.

What is Puppy Culture?

Puppy Culture is a written protocol for socializing puppies before they leave the litter at 8-12 weeks. Good breeders will use this protocol, even though it requires a LOT of their time.

We talk a LOT about choosing ethical breeders, and this is one reason why!

Quality breeders socialize puppies a lot before they go home with you. This helps keep dogs OUT of rescues and shelters, and helps to make sure that the dog you welcome into the family is positive, friendly and free of aggression.

What is Involved in Puppy Culture?

Puppy Culture goes beyond exposure to grass, tile, and other dogs.

To give you an example of a non-Puppy Culture (but standard) approach, some breeders will allow their puppies to play in the grass outside and be exposed to children or farm animals. They will keep the puppies in an enclosed space and let them poop or pee at will. These breeders may attempt to trim their nails, but will do little else to expose the puppies to handling, experiences, or otherwise.

Puppy Culture breeders, however, will:
- Handle the puppies all over, often, and may even employ ENS (a form of early stress that has been shown in studies to increase resilience)
- Introduce teeth cleaning, exams, and nail trims early on and often
- Introduce crates and early hygienic potty habits
- Create times where each puppy is alone and away from the litter
- Expose the litter to everyday sounds in the home, including vacuums, hammers, and hair dryers
- Work on their engagement with humans and desire to stay close and recall
- Use positive methods to work on bite control/puppy biting and prevent resource guarding type behaviors
- Create safe obstacles for the puppies to overcome, such as ramps, tires, beams and wobble boards
- Have the puppy touch and explore as many surfaces as possible with their paws and nose
- Invite puppy lovers over to play with the puppies several weeks before they go to their new homes
Breeders who utilize all Puppy Culture protocols are dedicating a significant amount of time, effort, and love to doing so and the results are incredible!

Pro Tip: When choosing a breeder for your Great Dane puppy, please note that some breeders are relying on buzz words such as “Puppy Culture” and “OFA Health Tested” to generate sales.

However, they are not fully participating in these programs and many of them cut corners. Make sure to ask a lot of questions! Ask for verification of their socialization efforts AND the full health test results (heart, hips, eyes, thyroid which should be published at www.ofa.org) of both parents.

Socialization of Fearful Great Dane Puppies

Fearful or unsure puppies will keep their bodies low to the ground. They may pin their ears back, tuck their tail, and keep their head shrugged or hung low. Additionally, they will shy away from eye contact. When being handled, they may cower, act ‘head shy’ or roll onto their side or back.

Fearful puppies should be socialized as early as possible. Unfortunately, fearful behavior is often the result of unstable genetics, and many fearful Great Danes are plagued with a combination of bad genetics and poor early socialization.

Socialization does not mean forcing your fearful Great Dane puppy to interact with other dogs or humans in situations that they could get hurt- like dog parks.

Socialization of Great Dane puppies means that you are exposing them to new situations and allowing them to learn that these situations are not actually scary.

For fearful puppies, this means going slowly and building confidence through positive experiences.

Socialization of Puppies Who Are Confident

Confident puppies will have their heads up and their ears forward. They are more likely to make eye contact and truly engage with people. They will be interested in tackling obstacles and will have plenty of energy to do just that!

When they are raised with Puppy Culture, they are especially good at maintaining focus and even sitting as a form of ‘please’.

Confident puppies often need more obedience training to prevent them from wandering off out of curiosity for something in the environment. They are often very receptive to positive reinforcement, and love to be trained, too!

The good news is that Puppy Culture satisfies their curiosity and confidence, while rewarding them for engaging with humans and responding to requests to come back and look for direction.

Why Does Puppy Socialization Matter?

Puppies from healthy, well-tempered parents that are properly socialized from birth are more likely to be confident, curious and calm family pets.

For giant breed dogs, this translates to them being easier to live with, easier to handle, and safer around other dogs, people, and situations of all kinds.

Fear and aggression are considered one of the top three risk factors for bloat in Great Danes!

For health reasons, helping Great Dane puppies grow into confident and resilient adults is also incredibly important! Many dogs who experience bloat are fearful, timid, and aggressive.

Installing confidence and a calm indifference to the environment makes training a breeze, too! Dogs that are over-stimulated or anxious about the environment around them will have a much harder time learning and focusing.

A lot of aggression and reactivity is based in fear. The world can be an overwhelming place!

Great Danes are prone to anxiety and aloof, timid, or even aggressive behaviors. But none of that is actually within the written breed standard, and none of it has to be a reality.

Socialize Your Great Dane Puppy

Even if your puppy didn’t come from a breeder that spent a lot of time on socialization or Puppy Culture, there are LOTS of things you can do!

Expose your puppy to a variety of textures; wood chips, sand, blankets, tile, gravel, grass, cement and bridges.

Give them obstacles such as tunnels, ramps, platforms and FIT Paws, then encourage and reward them for being confident and exploring!

Expose them to a variety of people wearing glasses, hats, masks and walking with strollers, bicycles, wheelchairs, canes, walking sticks, snowshoes and skis. Instead of asking those people to pet your puppy, just sit and watch them from afar.

Explore novel environments and encourage curiosity.

Need more? Check out our positive Great Dane puppy socialization guide HERE.

We hope this helps you not only choose ethical breeders that are creating wonderful family dogs, but find the Great Dane of your dreams!
November 1, 2020