Great Dane. Standard of the breed

Appearance. In general, Great Dane is a big-sized dog with balanced appearance, nobility and proportionality of lines, thus he resembles an antique statue.

The most important proportions of Great Dane. The body of the dog is almost square, it especially concerns male dogs. Their slanting length of the body should not be 5 % more than the height. The bitch of Great Dane shouldn’t have the slanting length 10 % more than her height. According to the standard, the male dog’s height at the whither should be not less than 32 inches (80 cm). For the bitches this standard is not less than 29 inches (72 cm).

Great Dane’s character.
Normally Great Dane is friendly, joyous, devoted to his owner, especially to children, even-tempered and restrained with strangers. He is also self-confident enough, fearless, easy trained and moderately malicious, but without excessive aggression.

Standard of Great Dane’s head. It should be porrect, big-sized with perfectly developed superciliary arches. Lines of the high flat forehead should be parallel to the  snout’s lines. The length of the snout should be approximately equal to the half-length of the dog’s head. The snout of the Great Dane is rectangular with strongly marked droopy upper lip. The lips are dark in color. Jaws are strong and broad. Great Dane normally has at least 42 white teeth. Eyes are dark brown with close-fitting eyelids. For Great Dane born after 01.01.1993 the standard provides uncroped ears. They should be hanging, middle-sized and without breaks. In countries where ear cropping is still in practice it’s usually done according to the size and shape of the dog’s head.

The neck of Great Dane should be long, muscular, slightly booming from withers to the torso.

Great Dane’s body. The dogs of this breed have short, broad and muscular, slightly booming to a little distinct waist. Croup is sloping and very muscular. Great Dane’s tail is set on high, broad at the base, gradually convergent to the tip. The tail is usually hanging freely, but in excited state is slightly raised over the back’s line. According to the standard the chest is broad and oval in shape, with voluminous ribs. The stomach and groin are neat and together with the chest line make smoothly curved line. Testicles (of male dogs) are average and dropped into the scrotum.

Extremities. Forelegs are straight and parallel. The shoulders are muscular with adherent shoulder blade. The shoulder of Great Dane should be a little bit longer than the blade. Dog’s elbows are adjacent to the body,  directed strictly to the back. Forearms are long, straight and sheer. Hind legs of the Great Dane are strong, muscular and parallel; hips are long and broad; lower thigh is almost as long as hip and muscular. Great Dane’s paws are short and round. Claws are dark in color, firm and short.

Step. According to the standard Great Dane has long, free and springy step, the body isn’t swaying.

Great Dane’s skin. The skin is flexible, without folds and perspiratory glands. The hair is very short, thick and normally without underfur.

Great Dane’s colors.
Pale yellow color consists of the brightly yellow ground color with black or white spots on the chest and paws.
Striped color. The ground color may be between light yellow and red and gold with vertical, clearly traced lines, evenly arranged all over the body and creating tiger-like pattern. Evan small  white spots on the chest and paws are undesirable, but acceptable.
Harlequin. The ground color is snowy white with many black irregular spots all over the body. Grey and brown spots are undesirable, but acceptable.
Black. The ground color is glossy black without yellow or grey tint. The white spots on the chest and paws are acceptable. To this category also belong black Great Danes with big white spots on the snout, neck, chest, stomach, paws and tip of the tail, that create the impression of white color dog, covered with black coat.
Blue. The ground color is light grey without yellow tint. The white spots on the chest and paws are acceptable.

Disqualifying taints of Great Dane are the following:
  • cowardice and inexplicable aggression;
  • bifid or brown nose;
  • undeveloped low jaw;
  • blue eyes, ectropium, entropium;
  • tail’s breaks;
  • monorchism, cryptorchism, too small, undeveloped testicles;
  • lower height as compared to the standard;
  • harlequin color with light grey ground color, harlequin without spots or with yellow, blue spots;
  • dirty yellow grey ground color.

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