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ABOUT DANES:

Dane History
January 29, 2012

The study of DNA has recently shown us that all dogs are descended from grey wolves not from jackals, foxes and hyena's as Darwin suggested.  Scientist have also surmised that wolves became domesticated 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.  How they became domesticated has been speculated by many.  Some anthropologist believe that humans “took” wolf cubs from their dens and forcibly domesticated them.  Other anthropologist such as Frederick Zeuner, and Biologist such as Alan Beck and Luigi Boitani,  Ray and Lorna Coppinger believe that humans provided niches in which wolves chose to domesticate themselves by living off human garbage.  It is believed that increasingly docile wolves were born from the wild breedings of wolves who hung around the villages.  Later, selective breeding by humans produced the many different types of dogs that exist today.

Great Danes are listed in the AKC “Working Group” and are used for; companions, tracking, herding, carting, watchdog duties and they make excellent service dogs.  They have a long history.  This is a bronze Greek coin (rights reserved by Ahala) said to be from 230 BC with the image of a dog very similar to the Great Dane, "the statue is of a dog attacking a rabbit  from the Villa Regina, a small vineyard property in Boscor.." ⁽¹⁾.   The Great Dane has been called the “Apollo of dogs” from it's Greek background.  Similar dogs were used by the Asiatic people called the Alans who invaded Germany, Italy, and Spain in 407 AD.

In Germany these magnificent animals were selectively bred to hunt bears and wild boars and were declared the National breed in 1875.  They were called boarhounds back then.  They had a shorter and stouter build as German boarhounds.  Eventually, around the 1800’s they were crossed with the Irish Greyhounds and the result was a thin, tall, agile dog known today as the Great Dane.  Some believe that the boarhound was also crossed with the Mastiff type dog brought in by the Alans, which would explain the two variations in Great Dane type.

Many breeders are unhappy with the skinny greyhound appearance of certain lines of Great Danes and are importing European Great Danes that have the stouter Mastiff type build to add to their bloodlines.  What this will do to the “look” or if it will effect the current "standard" of the Great Dane in the U.S. today is yet to be seen. 

I too use the euro bloodlines.  I like the big square heads and the stocky build that it gives to my pups.  I prefer mixing the euro look with the American look for practical reasons.

References:
 1.  Roman Republican Coins and Books by Andrew McCabe
  2.  Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution by: Ray and Lorna Coppinger
  3.  Rolf, featured at pre Deutsche Doggen club, 1882. Photo courtesy of the Dane in History and Art.

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