Teufelshund Great Danes at 280 Carlson Dr, 28544 Jacksonville, Florida

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The "Mission" is to produce Great Danes that meet the standard as described by the AKC, but so much more. The Great Dane was originally created and intended to be a Working Dog and AKC does still class it as a Working Group dog. Bred to have the "speed of the wolfhound" and the "size of the mastiff," the Great Dane was a hunting dog, used to hunt the 300 lb wild boars that were common then in Europe. The ears were originally cropped to prevent the boars from grabbing the dogs by their ears. Great Danes were used as guard dogs and the cropped ear does make the Dane look more ferocious than the natural, floppy ears. Danes were also kept as companion pets to royalty. What do we do with our Great Danes today? How many people use them for hunting? How often are they seen as guard dogs, police dogs, working dogs, therapy dogs, assistance dogs? Yes, I suspect you know that answer as well as I do. Very few. AKC sponsors many competitions and events for working dogs from companion Obedience to Utility, Agility and Tracking competitions. Yet, only one Great Dane to date (January 09) has earned the Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH) title. Only 10 Great Danes claim the Utility Dog Excellent (UDX) title. Only 11 Great Danes claim the Tracking Dog Excellent (TDX) title. Only 7 Great Danes claim the Versatile Companion Dog (VCD) title. Only 2 Great Danes claim the Master Agility Champion (MACH) title. There are other events and titles possible and there are definitely a lot of dogs competing, but not very many Great Danes. Of course, there are many Great Danes with conformation titles. It has always been my goal, (and always will be) to produce a Great Dane that is not just pleasing to the eye, but that is physically, mentally and genetically sound. A dog that is capable and willing, even eager, to do whatever job I ask it to do. I always keep at least one and usually two puppies from every litter for careful evaluation of how my program is progressing and if changes need to be made. Quality, not quantity is the goal here. How can a breeder really evaluate what they are producing if they are producing many litters a year and moving them all out young? And, always doing the same breedings over and over again with the same poor results? What is their real motivation in producing so many puppies? Key Factors In Breeding For The Total Dog Genetic Soundness - Genetic soundness is definitely one of the most important factors in breeding. A breeder must be able to "multi-task" in their breeding program. Choosing color and understanding color genetics is the easiest part, (and it's not easy in the harles and mantles!). Then there has to be an understanding of the genetics of potential health concerns. Hip Dysplasia, Hypothyroidism, von Willibrands Disease (one of 6 potential bleeding disorders possible in all canines), Ocular Disorders and Cardiomyopathy, along with Gastric Torsion, Seizure Disorders and other Orthopedic disorders are all possibilities in large breed dogs. "Possibility" does not mean "Common" and nutrition is being proven to play as much a role in many of these health defects as genetics. Research should be done on ancestors in any given line of dogs that a breeder wants to use in a breeding program. Testing can and should be done, but even a dog with, for example, an Excellent OFA (Hip Dysplasia) rating can still produce puppies with hip dysplasia as most defects are either the result of recessive genes or a complex combination of genes. This is why researching your lines is so very important. Look at parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, as many dogs as possible in your dog's pedigree and related to dogs in your pedigree before making the decision to breed it. Mental soundness is of utmost importance in any responsible breeding program. Again, another reason to meet the ancestors and ancestor's siblings of your dogs. Each dog breed is known for specific temperament characteristics and to a certain extent, (about 35%), those characteristics can be inherited. Temperament is affected to a large extent by the way puppies are handled in the first 16 weeks of life, but after that, changes in environment, treatment and training will only have a minimal affect on a dog's temperament. The Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test is an excellent way for breeders to evaluate the temperament of their puppies and what kind of homes they should go to - some puppies, no matter how wonderful the parents, should not be in homes where there are children or dominant dogs, and any breeder who allows someone to just pick their puppy based on color or structure or sex or price alone isn't meeting their full responsibility to the puppies they've produced. A breeder has a responsibility to know the personalities of their puppies and what kind of home each puppy will be best suited for. That doesn't mean that someone who wants a harlequin has to settle for a merle instead because of temperament. If you don't have a harlequin that suits the lifestyle of the person wanting one, another breeder might and the buyer should be encouraged to look elsewhere and given tips on how to evaluate the temperament of a puppy. Physical Soundness - back to the conformation standard adopted by AKC, a Dane that is put together right, proper bone length, proper spine length, proper leg length, proper head size and shape of skull, presents not only a dog that is pleasing to the eye, but a dog that is more likely to be physically sound. Have you ever watched a dog show and marvelled at the beautiful movement of a dog running around the ring beside it's handler? Yes, the dog is trained to stay beside the handler and move as fast or slow as the handler is moving, but no amount of training can teach a poorly structured dog how to move so beautifully. The joints must fit cleanly into the sockets and everything from tip of nose to tip of tail must be in proportion before a dog can move with such grace and agility as you see in the conformation show ring. In the Great Dane, many of the physical characteristics of the breed are specifically designed for the work the dog was intended to do. That smooth topline is like aero-dynamics in a car and provides for greater speed. That barrel chest provides more lung capacity for rapid, extended running when chasing down boar. Those muscular, well-angulated hindquarters are for a stronger, faster run. The full, square jaw is designed for grasping it's prey. Color - The AKC conformation standard describes a dog that is the ideal in physical structure and aesthetically pleasing in color. The color guidelines for the show Dane are very strict and limited. There are only 6 allowed colors for show - Fawn, Brindle, Blue, Black, Mantle and Harlequin. I can not speak on the fawns, brindles or blues as I have no experience or interest in them. I have very limited experience with the blacks, enough to know that the only way to eliminate white markings is to do exclusively black to black breedings for generations and the preferred black show dane has no white markings on it. Mantles and Harlequins are two of the most difficult colors to work with because the genes that cause the white pigment are all variables with varying expressions. Without going into great genetic detail, there are three different white genes and numerous allelles involved in the expression of white, so it is very rare, if not impossible, to produce two mantles or two harlequins that look exactly alike. Then add in experimental breedings done years ago crossing fawns to harlequins and blues to fawns to improve structure, breeders who didn't know what colors they were producing so mismarked the registration papers and you can get even more variety in color and markings. ANY color produced in a great dane litter is registerable with the AKC, but only the six colors mentioned above are showable. If you are really interested in understanding the genetics of color, go to Chromadanes website and read all of JP Yousha's articles. She provides an excellent resource for anyone who really wants to know and understand that the "odd" or "rare" colors are here to stay and almost impossible to completely eliminate. JP Yousha makes a statement in one of her articles that I can't paraphrase exactly from memory. She states something along the lines that "color should be the least of our worries." Personally, I love the black and white Danes - Harlequin, Mantle, even mismarked harlequins and mantles, as well as the merles with light silver base color and black spots. In fact, I prefer a harlequin that has large black markings instead of the small, torn looking patches often seen and preferred in the show ring. My color goal and preference in breeding has always been to produce black and white Danes. I have produced puppies of the non-showable colors. They are beautiful and popular with some people, but they are definitely not my preference. I've produced them from properly marked dogs when I thought I was doing a "colorpure" breeding. Truly, seeing (or hearing) is NOT always believing when it comes to mantle and harlequin color genetics, regardless of what the color on the pedigree is. I have seen merlequins registered as harlequins. I have seen fawniquins registered as harlequins. I have seen blacks w/white markings registered as mantles. The standard is very clear on the color requirements of the six show-accepted colors, but there is no definition of color or markings on any of the other colors. Puppy registration applications only include those colors that are accepted for show. Breeders wanting to properly register their other-colored puppies should view the color and markings page of the AKC website. Because there are some potentially serious health defects linked to some great dane colors, I have real issues with anyone who breeds without understanding color genetics and the AKC color standards first. I have first-hand experience with some of those defects and am more than happy to share that experience - just ask. An interesting note: The Great Dane is one of the few breeds where the standard specifically calls for a decidedly masculine appearance in the male dogs and a feminine appearance in the females. How I Fell In Love With The Great Dane Our first Great Dane was a beautiful black female that was traded to us in exchange for some mechanic work. We got Angel in April of 1997 and she was given to my oldest daughter as a birthday gift. Christina was being home-schooled at the time and Angel turned out to be the perfect friend and companion for her. The two were inseperable and Christina's diligence combined with Angel's intelligence had that sweet puppy housetrained and knowing all of her basic obedience commands within a month of her joining our family. Angel learned quickly and by the time she was 2, she could show off her 80+ commands and tricks in 4 different languages. We never received her registration papers from the breeder, but we never planned to breed her anyway so she was spayed young. She was as much a member of our family as one of my children and we were all devastated by her death in 2007. Christina and I can not talk about her even now without feeling the loss all over again and crying on each other's shoulders. I got my first great dane breeder in 2003, a harlequin female that wasn't much to look at but her father was a spectacular dog and she came from strong, healthy lines. Belle was bred three times and all of her puppies were better quality than their mother. Belle was an excellent mother, carrying, delivering and caring for her puppies without problems. When she was 2 years old, her breeder contacted me to see if I wanted another pup from the same breeding and that is how I got my second girl, Grace (AKA Freedom Isnt Free). Grace reminds me a lot of Angel, both in looks and temperament. There are too many words to describe the personalities of Angel, Belle and Grace - loyal, devoted, protective, attentive - I could go on for days describing them and each of the subsequent danes I've purchased. There's no other breed of dog like a Dane and I have been exposed to many breeds over my lifetime to make that comparison. Above are some of the reasons that I chose to become a breeder of Great Danes. I am very particular about who buys my puppies. I trust my instincts when talking with potential owners and I have very rarely been wrong. Great Danes aren't for everyone and I want both my puppies and their owners to live long and happy lives together. Some have called my contract too controlling, but if you read it carefully, you will see that every single clause in it is designed to protect the best interests of the puppy, not me and not the owner. I feel a huge sense of responsibility for every pup that I produce, not just until they are 7 or 8 weeks old, but for as long as they live. I was the first breeder of Great Danes in my local area to offer a written health and genetics guarantee and a spay/neuter requirement and it is very satisfying to see other breeders copying the context of my contract in their own breeding programs now. I prefer my Danes natural-eared and prefer to sell my puppies to pet homes that choose not to crop. I will not sell to anyone wanting to dock their tails. If your things are more precious than your dog, you don't need the dog. I do not remove what many breeders refer to as "dew claws." In actuality, dew claws are on the hind legs and are common only in shepherds and labs, to my knowledge. What Dane breeders refer to as a dew claw is actually another toe on the front leg. Dogs use this "fifth toe" for grasping, for holding bones or toys and yes, for holding on to you, too, and I know it can hurt. Quit letting your dog jump on you! I just don't believe in unnecessary surgeries simply for aesthetic reasons. I like my dogs natural. 04-24-10 - I must add a caveat now that I've gained more experience. I now have a reason for removing this 5th toe. Boss loves his bones and chew toys and he works so hard at them that his 5th toe rubs against his other foot and has recently caused abcesses to occur. Keeping him occupied while they heal is no small project and I know it will probably happen again. So, from here on out, I will be removing the 5th toes on my puppies. Also, I caved to the pressure to crop the ears of a potential show dog. Never again. The surgery alone was bad enough. The continued taping has put so much stress on both me and the dog, not to mention her discomfort with the whole situation, that I have finally given up and I am going to allow her ears to flop. My new show puppies will enter the ring with natural ears. Pet Peeves: 1. People who ask me if my dogs are "full-blooded" or claim that their dogs are. All dogs are full of blood and I am almost tempted to add the line to my contract that if they take the puppy to the vet and the vet tells them it is only half-full of blood, I will gladly give a full refund. The term you are looking for is "purebred" - meaning that both parents and all ancestors are of the same breed as the puppy. AKC or UKC registration answers that question very quickly. If a dog is AKC registered, all of it's ancestors are of the same breed. The same is not necessarily true of CKC, UKCi, ABR and other similar registeries, as those will accept pictures and/or statements and sometimes a "witness" signature stating that a dog is of the breed claimed whether it truly looks like the breed or not and without any ancestry research or documentation. They often accept for registration "foundation stock" without any ancestors. These dogs may only vaguely resemble the breed - usually registered by people who are only out to make money and don't care about the preservation of the breed. 2. People who call all merles "blue merle". A merle can be a number of colors ranging from pale silver with black spots to a dark gray with black spots and anywhere in between including a beautiful periwinkle blue base color with midnight blue spots (probably the "true" blue merle). Now since there are chocolate merles and fawn merles, I do know that it is possible to produce a true "blue" merle, but DNA gene mapping would have to be done to determine if it actually came from the "blue" gene or if it's just one color affect of the merle gene. Since blue is a recessive gene, I believe that you would have to do several generations of blue to merle breedings (an unacceptable breeding by GDCA standards) to produce a true "blue merle." Or have my luck and produce blue merles like in my litter born April 4th, 2009. Both parents were blue carriers and there were several blue harlequins as well as true "blue merles." 3. Breeders who claim to "adopt" their puppies out to new homes when they are actually for sale, often for more than they are worth. Adoption in animal context means you are rescuing a dog that was in a bad situation or wasn't wanted anymore for a nominal fee. Any puppy sold by a breeder for more than around $150 is sold, not adopted. Well, unless it's a puppymill breeder - then I guess you really are rescuing it. I do sell my puppies and I do so because they have value and I back that value with my guarantee. 4. Breeders who badmouth other breeders, then go and do the exact thing they've lied about the other breeder doing. Life is too short for all the ugliness and our dogs should be bringing us so much joy that we don't have the inclination or the time to hurt others or our dogs. Our focus should be on what is best for us and our dogs and if we're truly doing it right, we should all be working together for the betterment of the breed. Backstabbing and jealousy should never try to walk hand in hand with this breed that is known for it's elegance and loyalty. Laura Taylor-Westerfield

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Teufelshund Great Danes

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Pet Service category, Jacksonville