Thinking about breeding your Dane?

First off, you need to decide - what is the real reason you want to breed your Dane. Unless you understand the basics of genetics, have outstanding quality dogs and are prepared to be an responsible breeder, then please think twice. If you are breeding to let your children, see the miracle of life, breeding to let your bitch have "just one litter", then don't breed. The only good reason to breed a dog is to improve the breed.

Each year, millions of dogs are euthanized in shelters across the country. We're not talking only about "mutts", about 30% of dogs turned into shelters are purebreds. The number of purebreds that are turning up in shelters increases each year. Our rescue takes in around 80 Danes a year and turns down about twice that many, due to lack of room in rescue, lack of funding and the bottom line is there are not enough good homes for them all. Our local paper normally has 3 - 5 ads for Dane pups each weekend. The number of ads dramatically increases near Christmas. The pups in the ads in the paper, often start out at a pretty high price. Then as the breeder can't sell the pups, the price drops each week. We have been asked by breeders on quite a few occasions to take what's left of their litter since they can't sell them all. The big problem is there's not enough GOOD homes for all of the Danes that are out there now. Why add more to this serious problem?  Here's some links to pages on other sites about breeding your dog.

Should you breed your Great Dane?

Great Dane Genetics - This site has some interesting info on Dane color, and white, deaf Danes.

Know the Facts Before Breeding Your Dog

So You Want To Be a Breeder?

The Responsible Breeder - Making a Difference

Should Sassy Have Puppies?

Breeding Links - Lots of Good Links

Costs of Whelping a Litter