What
do you think of when planning to
breed a litter of Great Danes.
Bloodlines? Type? Color? Some
might think that bloodlines will
take care of this. But No! Our
breed is a very old one.
Histories of the breed tell us
of the great variety of color
prevalent in the breed before
the 1800's.
Harlequins of that era
are described as white with
spots of yellow and brown, fawn
and/or brindle, liver, black,
blue, red, merle and mouse gray.
Some Danes had a bluish-gray
back-ground with black or white
spots. Fawns and brindles with
white spots, blues or blacks
with white or brindle spots. I
could go on and on, but I think
you get the picture.
In the late 1800's,
German breeders found they
could, by very selective
breeding and ruthless culling,
establish the 5 allowed colors
set forth in our standard. They
laid down very strict laws and
rules for breeders to follow and
enforced them by making mixed
color breeding, or a breeding
that was not approved, unregisterable. I must say I
wish we could put some such
teeth in our GDCA Breeders Code
of Ethics.
But all we can do is to
tell you that "Breeding or color
mixing other than that set forth
can be injurious to the breed in
the third, fourth, and even
later generations".
Allow me to read
paragraphs of the GDCA Color
Research Committee Report which
appears in the 1967-1969 GDCA
Yearbook. "In the 1800's, the
Great Dane breeders in Germany,
after much breeding and
observation, found they could
produce certain colors by
continually breeding certain
combinations, and ruthlessly
culling". By the end of the
century they had definitely
established five colors. Fawns,
Brindles, Blues, Blacks and
Harlequins. They bred out white
blazes, forefaces, stockings,
underbodies and spotting which
appeared on the fawns, brindles,
blues and blacks by discarding
for breeding purposes the ones
which carried greater amounts of
white. They separated the colors
into three groups; Fawns and
Brindles, Blues, Harlequins and
Blacks. After much
experimentation, they laid down
laws for breeding the above five
colors, which were rigidly
enforced and adhered to. The
German breeders had set a
definite goal in all five colors
and by the early 1900's, had
succeeded in producing colors
that would breed true. They
found eager buyers of their
stock in all parts of the world.
Great Danes began to
make their presence known in
this country in the late 1800's.
More and more stock arrived from
Germany and England. Color
segregation was not adhered to
in this country, and as a
result, many odd colors appeared
and were registered with the AKC.
Some were even shown to their
championships.
"The Germans continued
their tight control, and as a
result, their Danes continued to
improve in color. Black stripes
on brindle were more clearly
defined, bare color was usually
a light gold, and black masks
were appearing on fawns and
brindles, and although not
required by the standard, were
much appreciated. Blues carried
little or no white and their
Harlequins were unsurpassed".
There was a time when
brindle and fawn breeding seemed
very safely established. But
now? Now we have had to set up
stringent rules for our GDCA
Futurity and ask for pedigrees
of both sire and dam showing at
least four generations of pure
color breeding.
In 1972 the GDCA set up
the Revised Breeder's Code of
Ethics. Many meetings of the
Color Research Committee were
held to discuss the findings of
the Committee. Some very
well-known "old-time breeders"
were asked to participate in
forming the "Code".
At about this time we
were hearing about some very odd
colors that were making there
appearance, and were also being
placed at dog shows. The GDCA
then sent letters to ALL judges
of Great Danes, asking them to
be more alert for the serious
color faults and also for some
other serious faults that were
being overlooked. We quoted the
Standard and the Revised Color
Code of Ethics.
Wow! What great
excitement! One would think the
"Code" was something new and
arbitrary. Let us take a look at
the GDCA 1944 Yearbook. The
chapter on "Coloration Breeding"
reads....."In the fawn, the
color ranges from a light
biscuit through the red gold
shades that can best be
described as a fawn interspersed
with black hairs that give it a
dark, dirty appearance. In this
wide variance the ONLY shade
that may be considered the true
fawn to be sought for in
breeding is the deep golden. It
further states.......
"the brindle variations
from light faded silver with a
few black stripes, the too dark
base color that reaches the
extreme in the dog that has a
dark, forbidding appearance. The
desired shade is the deep golden
background with the strong black
cross stripes.....The breed is
singularly fortunate enough to
have most of its color
experimentation behind it".
More quotes, "through
past generations of breeding it
has been found that there are a
few fundamental rules that MUST
be observed. Never breed fawn to
any other coloration than fawn
or brindle. The same rules hold
true for the brindle".
Practically a whole page
is devoted to breeding
coloration for harlequins. New?
Arbitrary? That chapter on color
was published more than 32 years
ago (from time of yearbook
1944).
I can see no reason to
introduce blacks into a fawn or
brindle pedigree. I do admit
that the introduction of fawns
into the blacks seems to have
improved that color in regards
to head, etc. but, now that the
blacks have improved, why not
keep them that way by only
breeding to the best black from
black that you can find? Don't
start throwing in the wrong
colors, and downgrading them.
Black is beautiful, why not keep
it that way?
In 1972 I was asked to
name a committee to answer a
request from the AKC. A system
was being developed to process
litter, dog and transfer
applications. Part of the system
was to capture and store a dog's
color by using one of several
codes. They gave us a list of
characteristic colors that have
been recorded for the breed. We
were asked to review the list
and make any deletions or
revisions we felt were
necessary. The list of
characteristic colors follows.
Would you believe? .... fawn,
brindle, black, harlequin, blue,
black and white, black and
beige, blue merle, fawn and
blue, golden and brindle, golden
and fawn, gray and black, white
and black, harlequin and blue,
merle, red, and white, tan and
tan and black. Supplementary
descriptors named were white
markings and black mask.
The committee sent the
following dog colors back to the
AKC as requested. Fawn, brindle,
black, blue, harlequin, merle,
black and white. To cover
anything approaching the reds
and browns we suggested liver
and white. Chosen descriptors,
black mask, blue mask, liver
mask, white markings, black
markings and fawn mask. These
supplementary descriptors have
actually been found on
pedigrees.
Let us hope that the
colors other than the five
approved in the standard will not
have to be used.
The color research
committee files are full of all
sorts of odd colors with
pictures that prove unhappy
results of the mixed color
breeding. My grandchildren use
an expression that seems to
describe them very well -
-e-e-e-yuck!!
While trying to think
about what I could say to you
about color, I happened to look
out of my kitchen window, and
suddenly remembered some lovely
roses that used to grow in my
backyard. For the three years of
my husband's illness, I had not
been able to watch and trim, cut
or "cull" the suckers that were
occasionally coming into view.
What happened? Suddenly the old
common variety rose from which
the "Peace" had been developed,
was back. Still blooming, still
a rose, but the beautifully
shaded pink "Peace" was gone,
because it had not been guarded
and cared for. I am sure you are
able to see the connection.
We owe the people who
have served so well and long on
the Color Research Committee a
great deal. They have been
carrying on with the enormous
task first undertaken by the old
breeders. These old timers cared
enough to be firm in their
conviction that the five colors
had to be bred right, and proved
it. They sacrificed much, and
their reward was great and very
satisfying.
Let us hope we never go
back to the crazy "quilt"
colors. Isn't it much better to
be sure that we find in the
litterbox what we had planned?