(high tech music) - [Announcer] Dogumentary TV. Producing the best breed
documentaries on YouTube. (dog barking) (safari music) - 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.
