A DANE BREEDER's CHECKLIST:
The 10 basic necessities to planning and having a litter responsibly are listed below. If you are buying read A Dane Buyer's Checklist and read "The Romance of the Boar Hound" for more on the topic of what makes a Great Dane a "real" Great Dane. Also FindaPup has a list of buyer's help.

1) Both parents have AKC full registration, are adults, neither has any disqualifying fault, & you have at least a 4-5 generation pedigree on both dogs. The dog(s) in question belong to you legally & their ownership, as well as their registration, is not in doubt.

2) You have done a pedigree search and know all the dogs in _at least_ the first 3 generations & have all the pertinent data on them as to their breed worthiness (i.e. color, size, health certifications, titles, health problems, what they died of; their good traits and their faults, etc.).

3) Both pedigrees have AT LEAST 3 champions (& other titled dogs?) in the first three generations, __&__ the parents and grandparents also had the proper health, temperament & type checks. (It is generally expected ANY male used in breeding be, at a minimum, a breed Champion, so, on an average, it is counted that the sire & both grandsires will have titles-or others will to make up for their lack. It is also more & more universal that Danes have at least hip & thyroid checks.) This is generally considered the minimum level of quality for a litter to be produced ethically. These tests alone will cost you some hundreds of dollars, not to mention show & training fees, so be prepared for the expense.

4) You are sure from your pedigree search that you do not have cross color or other genetic problems that you do not know how to deal with. You should honestly judge if your knowledge of the breed, your own dogs, your skills, experience & your info on the pedigree is complete enough to avoid any nasty surprises. See the CHROMA-LINX for a listing of articles on genetics. And be sure you are in compliance with *ALL* aspects of the Breeders' Code of Ethics; are you honestly up to date on the medical and genetic aspects unique to the breed, as well as the general requirements of understanding animal husbandry as it applies to dogs? What about the finer points of Dane conformation? Do you know what the breed right nows needs? Download the Code of Ethics from the parent club website at <www.gdca.org>

5) You know the breed standard well enough to be sure that these two dogs are individually really breed worthy (a majority of dogs in any breed are likely not), & you are breeding them only to supply yourself with a dog or dogs (not to make pets to sell, for example, or to show children the miracle of birth). You are certain they are a good match for each other (not just conveniently located or simply beloved pets) & their having puppies will have a positive impact on the future of the breed. AND!!---you have had at least two other experienced & objective people in the breed who will concur with your opinion (that you should breed these two dogs & moreover to each other). This, BTW, is why dog shows were created-to assess breeding stock. Breeders who don't show are not only saving themselves thousands (and ensuring litters are profitable), they are easily then able to claim what they please while dodging the opinion of their peers. **To download the Standard for the GREAT DANE, go to: <www.gdca.org>

6) The dogs in question are at least 18 months & preferably two years old, and you have completed the appropriate screening procedures on their health (hips and thyroid as a bare minimum in Danes), their temperament & their qualities of type. **For more info on this & on breeding requirements in general for the Dane, a good source is Jill Swedlow's new book "The Great Dane: Model of Nobility." There is quite a bit dedicated to the subject of ethical breeding. See the OFA site for help on health checks: <www.offa.org> and the Health and Welfare page of the parent club for Dane-specific information: <www.gdca.org/healthandwelfare.htm>

7) You have enough time, money & expertise to do the job properly. For danes this is at least $1-2000 saved up for litter expenses. And you have made arrangements (esp. if you are breeding harls) with your vet to euthanize defective, disqualifying and/or excessive pups humanely at birth, to do the dewclaws, etc., as well as what to do in an emergency; like a C-section, for example.

8) You have the knowledge, time & ability to surpervise a successful mating (usually takes 2-3 experienced people, esp. if a "maiden" mating with Danes), you know how to care for a bitch when in whelp & while nursing & you can take off the time from work, (etc., i.e. your normal activities) to dedicate to her needs. (Normally at least 1-2 weeks at birth, and then dedicated time to the pups from a month onward, plus all the work until they can be sold at a MINIMUM age of 2 months, including crops, shots, wormings, leash & house breaking, etc. etc. etc.)

9) You have a standing list of puppy buyers (at least 6-8) and/or help from other established, ethical breeders to help sell the pups you are not planning on keeping. You have the circumstances to keep all or part of the litter if it doesn't sell. You feel comfortable with having to keep a few until 4-6 months, as well as take back any pup/dog the owner cannot keep for its whole lifetime. (This is a Code of Ethics requirement you MUST write into your puppy buyers contract.) And that you can live with the financial lost a litter normally entails. You'll only break even if you are lucky & you cannot expect a profit as an ethical breeder. No good litter was ever bred with the bottom line being staying in the black.

10) You have assembled all the paperwork required for the sale of the pups: you have a written Code of Ethics contracts, you have pedigrees and registration papers, & proper "puppy care packets" ready, as well as documentation of the proper health & other certifications on the parents & other relatives of the pups. (Also, of course, "other" supplies like leashes, collars, ear tape equipment, etc. for the buyers to also take with them & your card so they can (& they will) call you at all hours of the day & night with the problems they experience & questions they have.)

If you have successfully completed this checklist, then you just have to consider the general hardships involved in breeding (esp. Danes & this goes double--or triple-- for Harls), which, if done properly, involve a certain amount of unrecoverable expenses (of both time & money), usually some disappointing results (cannot sell pups, pups not what you planned for/wanted, etc.), and inevitably (if you breed enough) some tragedy (from a male who damages himself while mating, to bitches dead in whelp, to pups who must be euthanized or die of various causes). Of course you must also think about what may occur when you go from a companion (pet-only) to a breeding home for the dogs involved. Your dogs are at a raised risk for health & temperament problems when kept intact (not spayed/neutered) as adults, & this risk is raised again when the dogs are used for breeding. Many dogs are "not the same loving pet" once they have been used for breeding as their own focus changes.

If you cannot bear the idea of the common tragedies & general dissapointments that accompany breeding, admit this particular hobby isn't for you & find another way to express your passion about dogs. Many pet owners wish they had never started, have a miserable experience, hate the blood, gore & general mess, dislike the changes in temperament that can occur, let alone are prepared to lose their dogs as a result of the decision to mate them. Even fewer seem to realize what a big responsiblity breeding really is. SO you have to go into with your eyes wide open.
Breeding takes planning to be a success.
If you don't plan ahead, you will likely have a poor time of it. If you don't know your "beans" you will likely not be able to act ethically or take good care of the puppies, & you may even have trouble selling your puppies (at any price), or get sued for what you sold. If you are not prepared for the risks you are taking & understand just how risky breeding is, you will likely have a litter only to be left bitter by the experience. Breeding isn't fun and games. It is a solemn dedication of income & time to the future of a breed one loves at some risks to the indivdual dogs one has lovingly & painstakingly reared to hopefully be good enough to parent the next generation. It is NEVER to be undertaken lightly.

Sadly, especially here in the USA, we often take the responsibility far too lightly.
We see terrible examples of casual breeding around us everyday. This is why we have so many rescue dogs (10 million excess pets put to sleep each year), & why so many AKC dogs are of such poor quality. (Of the over one million AKC dogs registered each year, it would appear less than 10% come from hobby-show breeders, less than 7% from USDA liscenced "puppy mills;" the other *84%* that is the VAST MAJORITY of ALL AKC pups are born to "back-yard-breeders" who are casually producing "just one litter.") Whole breeds are ruined one casual litter at a time, by folks who love their own dogs, but don't know enough about the breed as a whole to know & love THE BREED as a WHOLE. And THAT is what it takes to be a breeder--you must lift your eyes from your own dogs, look to the horizon, which represents the future of the breed, look around and see who might have more or less worthy dogs than you, & make your breeding decisions on what is BEST FOR THE BREED, not what suits you personally or simply seems exciting or fun. Breeding dogs is difficult, expensive & full of both joys and despair; it should be seen clearly as an activity that takes both heart & head--love __AND__knowledge to successfully accomplish. So care enough about the breed & about the future of dogs as pets to learn what is needed before you breed.