Great Dane puppy socialization is NOT for the faint of heart… BUT…
Socialization is one the MOST important things that you can do with your Great Dane puppy!
This process begins with the breeder. An ethical breeder will have already exposed your puppy to a variety of sights, sounds, people, textures and obstacles. They will have also taught the puppies some early basics about collars, crates, cars, handling, sitting politely for a treat, coming back and peeing outdoors.
Unfortunately, not every breeder is that thorough, but it really does make a difference.
Make sure you choose breeders that are breeding dogs with good temperaments. Puppies that come from anxious, fearful or aggressive parents are more likely to have those behaviors as well, no matter how much you socialize them.
GREAT DANE PUPPY SOCIALIZATION IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Many people believe that socializing a puppy means taking him to a pet store or dog park and meeting lots of people and dogs.
The truth is, both of those places and situations are the exact kind of environment where a dog may actually learn to be afraid of dogs and people!
Dog parks and pet stores are for mature, confident dogs that are vaccinated and already engaged with you as the owner. Not under-vaccinated or terrified dogs that are still learning about the world and how to appropriately handle interactions with humans and dogs.
Now that I’ve made a mess of your beliefs about socialization, it’s time to chat about what socialization for Great Dane puppies actually looks like!
SOCIALIZATION is about positive exposure to novel things
The more positive, safe, calm and curious exposure your puppy has to novel things, the more likely it is that your puppy will be confident and able to handle new situations (including people, dogs, and travel).
OBSTACLES
Create a ‘puppy playground’ and change it every day. Make sure to include novel items and obstacles that require the puppy to climb up, over, under and around. Encourage the puppy to explore.
Well socialized dogs are calm, confident and gentle. They are much easier to train because they are less excited by or anxious about the environment, people, sounds and dogs!
Early desensitization to common sounds is important. Play these sounds and then praise and treat the puppy. Play them and act like it’s no big deal. Mix it up!
Play the sound of thunder, babies, cars, gunshots and fireworks from your phone.
Knock on the door.
Have somebody ring the doorbell, randomly (ignore it every time!).
Bang pots and pans together.
Drop things on the floor.
Run the vacuum, drill, dremel, & hairdryer.
If at any time your puppy seems scared (ears pinned, cowering, shaking, stop! This is meant to be fun.
Yes it’s important to keep puppies safe before they are fully vaccinated. But that’s no reason not to socialize them. There are MANY things that you can do before your puppy is truly ready to meet the world.
TOUCH
Because Great Danes are SO large, it is important that they are accepting of touch.
Touch the puppies toenails with trimmers and a Dremel, treat and praise.
Brush the puppy all over with crinkled up foil, a dog brush, or your hands.
Do a pretend vet and judging exam. Look at teeth and ears and do a pretend shot using a ballpoint pen.
Rub the puppies ears and pretend to clean them.
Run your hand down your puppies back and to the tip of the tail.
Gently pick each foot up and put it back down again.
Brush the puppies teeth.
Do not use training methods that involve hitting, pinching, shoving, tapping or pinning/alpha rolls. These can seriously undermine the work you do to make your puppy trust you and trust your hands and the hands of a veterinarian or groomer.
TEXTURES
Textures are all things your dog may encounter in the world. Make a point to explore and touch all of these surfaces at minimum:
Sand & gravel
Grass
Wood chips
Concrete & asphalt
Snow & Ice
Puddles and wet spots
Bridges
Tile
Hardwood
Carpet
Foam
Foil/shiny objects
After all that, it’s still true that your puppy needs to be exposed to people and dogs. We encourage you to do this part thoughtfully. Exposure to rude people and rude dogs is not socialization.
WATCH
Sit on your lawn, near a bike path, or at a park. Be calm and just WATCH.
Children playing
Strollers
Wheelchairs and walkers
Bicycles & Scooters
Large dogs
Small dogs
Barking dogs
Wildlife
People of all kinds
Reward your puppy for looking at you and ignoring these things. Ultimately, that is what you want from your dog as an adult! Calm confidence.
Of course, greeting people (calmly) and dogs (safely) is also important! Consider taking a puppy preschool class in a clean facility where early social skills are reinforced.
When meeting people, there is no reason to reward a jumping, excited, peeing or nervous puppy with attention from people that are squealing with excitement to meet him! That scenario is the fast track towards creating a 120lb adolescent Great Dane that either jumps and tackles people with enthusiasm, or is unfortunately afraid of them.
Know body language. If at any time your puppy is scared (ears pinned, stiff, avoidance, hiding, shaking, panting, tail tucked, lip licking) these are signs that you are moving too fast.
EARLY TRAINING
Every experiences that your puppy has a young age (good or bad) can shape the future.
If you take a puppy that has had very little exposure to early training basics (sit, look, leave it) into a store you may accidentally be having your puppy practice the WRONG behavior in those situations.
People will be so excited, and your puppy may either be fearful (bad socialization experience) or too excited (that’s not pretty when they weigh 140lbs!).
Focus on training inside of stores! They are a great place to practice ignoring people and dogs.
Be choosy! One bad experience with a rude, out of control dog or a pesky child can ruin a puppy for life. It’s much better for a puppy to learn to ignore and walk away from those two scenarios than it is for them to learn to ‘tolerate’ it.
Walking into a dog food store is like walking into a shark tank. You’re immediately inundated with nutrition advice and thousands of bags with bright colors and promises of better health for your pet. If you are interested in what we believe are the best foods for Great Danes, this blog post is the place to be (NOT the pet store)!
Back in the day, before Natalie and I started this site and put literal years into educating ourselves about the most current advice for Great Dane care, we were confused. So confused! It’s easy to get sucked into marketing and anecdotes from other dog owners. We all love our pets and want what is best.
When we dug around in search of the best foods for our Great Danes, here is what we found:
Outdated advice, including food brands that no longer exist
Nutrition information and ideas that are not based on any actual research and science
Recommendations for food brands that are poorly formulated
Click bait articles that seem to know very little about Great Danes
Promotional articles from dog food companies that don’t know how to formulate for Great Danes
Fear mongering, elitism, and pseudoscience in pet food marketing
A whole lot of confused Great Dane owners!
This blog post today is for those who feed Great Dane KIBBLE, and we are bringing you science-backed, UP TO DATE information about what to feed your giant breed dog! Raw and fresh info coming soon, though we share some of that here, too!
Great Danes have very specific nutritional requirements.
The appropriate food will keep them at a healthy weight and will support their gut health, joints, growth, and structure. Read on!
Food Requirements for Great Danes
The best foods for Great Danes may not be what you think.
Remember, on this blog we look at science, research, and evidence; not marketing.
Foods for Great Danes must be formulated specifically for the growth (puppies) and maintenance (adults) of large and giant breed dogs. This means that puppies need a large or giant breed puppy or all life stages food, and adults over the age of 2 need an adult or all life stages food.
Additionally, we like to see foods meet the following guidelines (especially for Danes under the age of 2):
Calcium level at or below 1.2%
3.5g or less calcium per 1000kCal
Calcium to Phosphorus ratio of as close to 1 : 1 as possible
Specifically labeled for large or giant breed dogs
Grain-inclusive
Includes meat meal or meat by-product meal, which may lower the risk of bloat
Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist or PhD in Animal Nutrition employed by the company
We are going to break down the science of dog food in this blog post below. Our recommendations MAY surprise you, so we’re backing up our information with science!
Now before you go crazy and start looking at a million labels, let us help you.
What are the Best Food Brands for Great Danes?
To keep things simple, here is our list of foods that meet the guidelines and recommendations outlined in this post. Click on any to see them on Chewy.
Check out THE GIANT DOG FOOD PROJECT to compare brands and values.
I like to note that some people have not loved our recommendation to choose well-researched, science-backed foods. We believe that such opinions are often misinformed. To be perfectly honest, I used to be misinformed as well, and actively considered foods such as Purina and Royal Canin to be absolute garbage.
Of course we all want to believe that the ‘holistic’ option is best, but I’ve learned that’s not always the case; millions of dollars are spent every year on dog food marketing and we are all susceptible to it.
A dry diet which contains named (chicken, beef, or salmon) meat meal or meat by-product meals will have MORE meat and more meat based nutrition in it, and that’s just good science.
“Fresh meat” and “deboned meat” can be in the food as well. It’s important to note, however, that fresh meats are roughly 70% water, and once extruded into kibble won’t be a large portion of the final product.
For this reason, we recommend steering clear of foods that only use fresh or deboned meats to appeal to YOUR taste and wallet.
Organ, bone, tissue and cartilage on the other hand (in the form of meat meals and meat by-product meals) are species-appropriate and will contain necessary amino acids, vitamins, proteins, fats, and even glucosamine!
All about Calcium & Phosphorus Levels
Calcium should be 1.0% – 1.2% Phosphorous should be 1.1%-.8%
The overall calcium level should not exceed 3.5g per 1000kCal
For puppies, it is also very important that the food has the AAFCO Large Breed Growth Statement, indicating that the formulation is appropriate for growing puppies that will be 70+lbs or more as adults.
The ratio of calcium to phosphorus should be as close to 1:1 as possible. (For example, a 1.4 to 1 ratio is not acceptable, but 1.2 to 1 is)
However, these are NOT the only considerations!
A food with the correct ‘analysis’ and ‘healthy sounding ingredients’ may still be incorrect.
This is why choosing an appropriate large or giant breed formula from a company with qualified nutritionists on staff matters so much.
Additionally, many foods on the market that are popular in the Great Dane community are actually dangerously high in calcium and way too low in protein.
There is a lot of outdated misinformation out there about protein levels in Great Dane food. Many people believe (and promote) that Danes should be fed ‘low protein’ foods to ‘prevent knuckling’.
That statement is unfortuantely based on pseudoscience, anecdotes, and misunderstandings about protein in pet food.
Quality protein from meat, meat meal and meat by-products is necessary, and studies show that protein does not actually “cause knuckling”.
Too many calories and too much of the wrong kind of nutrition is what causes growth problems in Great Danes, not too much protein.
Foods that use a lot of peas or legumes, especially when paired with “fresh deboned meat” (which as mentioned above is 70% water) may have replaced a significant amount of meat protein with plant-based protein. This is not healthy.
Large Breed foods that are backed by legitimate peer-reviewed science and research will have optimal fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus levels. Most also offer joint support.
If you are choosing an appropriate food, the protein level on the bag should not be a consideration.
A more extensive list of our favorite foods for Great Danes is below, but until then, here are some of our favorites.
Great Dane Food Dealbreakers
Here are some foods that you definitely want to avoid for your Great Dane.
Grain Free Food for Great Danes
Unbalanced foods from boutique companies are believed to lead to dietary-induced heart problems (Secondary DCM).
Grain-free foods in particular are problematic as most are from boutique food companies that tend to replace a lot of actual meat content with peas, potatoes, chickpeas and legumes.
There is a growing body of evidence that should be addressed, especially because Great Danes are already prone to genetic heart problems (Primary DCM).
Secondary (nutritional) DCM is often a silent killer. You may not know your dog is sick until it’s too late.
Secondary DCM is often reversed completely, however, by choosing science-backed dog food formulated by Veterinary Nutritionists.
Bloat & Nutrition Risk Factors
To date, no food brand has been correlated with an increase in bloat risk.
However, the following factors HAVE been noted and require more study:
Low fiber diets
Poorly formulated diets with fat in the first 4 ingredients, often seen in foods from Victor and Life’s Abundance which are not formulated by a veterinary nutritionist or backed by research. There is one exception to this rule; the Royal Canin Giant Breed line. Read more about this HERE.
Dogs that are fed only a dry food diet (we recommend mixing in canned food into at least one of your dog’s daily meals
Dogs that eat quickly (we recommend slow-feeder bowls)
Dogs that eat from raised bowls (though more study is needed). This is likely related to gulping and excess intake of air from the unnatural eating position that occurs with raised feeders.
MLM Foods for Great Danes Scam
MLM foods such as Life’s Abundance (also NuVet Vitamins) are foods where breeders profit off of the (expensive) food being sold to puppy buyers.
Some breeders also participate in the unethical practice of essentially requiring this purchase or in offering a more robust health guarantee if you feed this food.
These foods are backed by a lot of marketing claims, but no science.
Some foods meet WSAVA Guidelines but unfortunately, most don’t.
Look past the marketing and fancy words on your dog food bag.
Start asking questions.
Food should be formulated by on-site, employed, credentialed Ph.D Veterinary Nutrition professionals with extensive, certified knowledge in veterinary health and nutrition.
If you reach out to a company and they have a list of excuses for why they don’t actually staff a full-time board-certified Veterinary Nutritionist (DACVN or ACVN), or why they don’t also then test their foods by investing heavily into research and trials, tread cautiously.
Many companies will say they use a “team of nutrition experts, including nutritionists“.
What this most often actually means is that they paid a consulting company to sign off on a formula they generated using software or spreadsheets. If it meets nutritional minimums, a box can be checked and the company can claim that a ‘Nutritionist’ was involved.
Photo credit to @born.greater
The List of Best Foods for Great Danes
As before, this food list is not exhaustive. Remember to get your nutrition advice from credentialed professionals and those who share the same ethos of choosing science-backed, highly researched nutrition.
This list is for ADULT dogs over the age of 12-18 months.
These are the same foods that are recommended by veterinarians and fed by the top breeders (whose dogs are healthy, lean, robust and long-lived). We recommend putting your favorite on autoship from Chewy.com!
For puppies, choose the Large Breed puppy version.
The addition of fresh whole foods and toppers (up to 10% of the diet) on a professionally formulated food will provide better nutrition than a few dried blueberries in a bag of ’boutique’ food ever will.
We recommend feeding same-brand canned food, in addition to dry food.
Here is a list of ‘popular’ Great Dane food brands that we do not recommend.
Why are these foods on the ‘not recommended’ list?
Simply put, they don’t meet basic criteria for ethical, quality formulation and nutrition.
In other words, these foods are not typically formulated, researched and/or then fully tested by people with legitimate credentials to do so.
Most ’boutique’ foods only look healthier and feel ‘higher quality’ because of marketing, not because they actually are.
They do not participate in common canine health research and journals (choosing instead to do their own ‘testing’), and they often do not substantiate their formulas in actual food trials (choosing instead to pay somebody to just look it over on paper to see that AAFCO minimums are reached).
Most of these brands below have documented, verified cases of secondary (dietary-induced) DCM.
This is despite having only a tiny market share and minuscule sales compared to ‘big dog food’ (science-backed brands with a huge market share) that do not have any documented cases of nutrition-related DCM).
It is a myth that ‘holistic’, ‘ancient grains’, ‘super premium’, or ‘human grade’ boutique dog foods are healthier or better for your pet.
These are marketing terms with no true regulations or standards.
Foods that are not Recommended
Many of these foods are popular in the Great Dane community, but that doesn’t make them better. A lot of these foods are made in factories that manufacter many other brands on contract, and none of the brands listed below have qualified nutritionists on staff. Many of them have calcium levels that are in excess of current recommendations, too!
Nutrition is a KEY element in Great Dane health. We believe these brands should be looked at with higher consumer demands of quality and ethical formulation practices:
Earthborn Holistics
Diamond Naturals
4Health
Victor (high calcium levels in all but one formula)
Your Great Dane is bored. It’s true. Many Great Danes are bored, and frustrated pet parents see the symptoms as a sign of disobedience or dominant behavior.
This is important. Most people imagine their Great Dane should be a couch potato, content to lounge all day. They kind of are. They do like to lounge! Most will happily park themselves on a couch given the opportunity. They don’t need the same kind of intense working and exercise that a herding dog or terrier might need. But they are still dogs, and I think we all tend to forget that.
Great Dane Signs of Boredom
Imagine a life inside a home. You cannot see friends, watch TV, read a book, work on a hobby or go for a walk. This is the life most pet dogs are living.
A few toys scattered about and a quick 15 minute walk really isn’t fair, nor is it enough.
Boredom is something that plagues many pet dogs, not just Great Danes. All of us get stuck in a routine and forget that our dogs are living their lives alongside us, and have different needs than us, too.
Do any of these common ‘complaints’ accurately describe your dog?
Boredom, frustration, confusion and anxiety are key factors with dogs that are destructive, out of control and difficult to live with. Not ‘Dominance’ or being ‘defiant’ or ‘stubborn’.
Dog Behavior & Boredom Go Hand-in-Hand
SO many difficult behavior problems are minimized or even eliminated when you solve issues related to boredom, anxiety, and a lack of sleep.
Stir crazy, under-stimulated, over-tired anxious dogs are really hard to live with.
Any good dog trainer worth their salt will address most behaviors by first assessing the routine and what kind of access the dog has to appropriate mental enrichment and exercise.
Destruction, digging, chewing, getting into the trash, barking and hopping the fence are all signs that a dog literally doesn’t have any appropriate outlet for the correct behavior.
They are saying, in dog language that they are BORED.
Enrichment Ideas for Great Danes
Are you ready to tackle boredom and common behavior problems?
Even just a few minutes per day can go a long ways here. If you have more time on the weekend, save that for the big stuff. During the work week, compromise where you need to and make up for it later. That’s ok to do!
#1 – Unstructured Walks
Instead of structured walks on pavement, consider also adding unstructured walks that involve sniffing, exploration, and moving naturally on varied terrain such as grass, sand and gravel. (This can help their feet too!)
This DOES mean getting off your property; remember, your backyard is not a novel or interesting environment.
In this situation it is incredibly important that your Great Dane be a calm, gentle, and friendly ambassador of the breed. This is NOT a good activity for Danes that lunge, pull, bark, or are fearful or aggressive.
It’s also important that the stores you visit are truly dog friendly! Only service dogs (who are task trained to assist with a specific medical condition such as seizure alerts or blind navigation) are allowed in most stores. If you are unsure, call the manager to ask in advance, and always err on the side of caution.
Sit at a park on a blanket and watch people and dogs walk by.
Not only is this activity mentally engaging, but it socializes your Great Dane by allowing them to realize that they can be ‘in’ the chaos without being apart of it.
People watching is also a great opportunity for you to work on your obedience training with your dog! By using positive reinforcement, you can teach your dog that engaging with you is much more fun than lunging, pulling, barking, or reacting towards people, dogs, bikes, and children.
Use clicker training and teach your Great Dane a new trick each week.
Clickers are a fantastic tool that work by communicating to your dog the exact moment they do something you like.
Many people think that clicker training means clicking at the dog with the clicker to get their attention. This is completely wrong!
Clicker training starts by teaching the dog that when they hear a click, they get a treat.
Click, treat. Click, treat. Click, treat.
With a little practice, you can then begin to CLICK when your dog completes a behavior such as sit, paw, down, or touch. For example:
Sit, Click, Treat. Sit, Click, Treat.
or
Touch, Click, Treat. Touch, Click, Treat.
The dog learns to ‘work for the click’ because clicks = good things! Clicker training aids in providing your dog with clarity and precision, which means they learn more, faster.
Take a class together. Learn how to stand for the show ring (conformation class), work up to your Canine Good Citizen (obedience) title and then go a step farther into Rally Obedience.
There are MANY amazing sports and obedience classes that you can take through local training clubs that will help you build a better relationship with your dog and possibly even provide you with a fun new hobby.
Here are some ideas:
Basic, intermediate, and advanced obedience
Conformation (how to act like a show dog)
Rally (Obedience course)
Dock Diving (Dive off a dock for a toy)
Scent Work (Learn how to find things by scent tracking)
Agility (Athletic course)
Lure Course (Running quickly after a lure)
Trick Training
#6 – Learn Scent Work with Your Great Dane
This goes hand-in-hand with taking a class, but you can also learn to do this at home with youtube videos.
Scent work is an incredible way to work your dogs mind.
Dogs have an amazing sense of smell and within a few training sessions, most dogs are able to find ‘hides’ (scent) that are just out of sight.
It only takes weeks from that point to teach them to find scent that is well hidden! If you enjoy the process and your dog is good at it, you can even earn ribbons and titles together.
Some handlers are paid very well for dogs that can scent track things such as bed bugs or drugs, and many are even used in search and rescue efforts.
#7 – Fitpaws & Body Confidence Training
Purchase some FITPAWS or other dog fitness gear and learn how to use them to teach your Great Dane better balance, coordination and body awareness.
These are fun and can be used in your living room or backyard. When used under the supervision of a canine rehabilitation specialist, they can also be incredibly helpful for building core strength as well as building strength in the toes and ankles.
Because standing on the FITPAWS is basically a dog trick, using lots of positive reinforcement is key. This will wear out your dogs mind and body!
If you don’t have FitPaws, watch Youtube videos online for dog coordination exercises.
Have your Great Dane eat meals out of a puzzle feeder.
This will slow down their eating, reduce their risk of bloat, provide them with better digestion, and wear their brains out, too!
Puzzle feeders come in so many shapes and sizes. Experiment with what works well for your pet.
If you don’t want to spend money on bowls to clean and wash, you can roll your dog’s kibble up into a towel! They have to forage to get it out and will love ‘working’ for their dinner.
Stuff rubber KONG or West Paw Topl toys, freeze, and let your dog figure it out!
Here are some popular dog Kong or Topl stuffing ideas:
Kibble (hydrate with bone broth)
Peanut butter (take it easy with this one)
Pumpkin
Plain yogurt
Canned dog food
Make sure that you only replace 5% of the normal diet with treats, toppers, and stuffing. Your dog does NOT need a Kong filled to the brim with peanut butter, in other words! Rehydrated kibble is always a good choice, as it’s part of the normal diet and gives you a base upon which you can be creative.
For example, smear peanut butter inside before stuffing it with the canned food or rehydrated kibble, then add a treat for the dog to find in the middle!
Freezing the Kong or Topl before serving will make it last longer, and can be a great activity for dogs that have separation anxiety.
#10 – Play Hide & Seek with your Great Dane
There are many ways to play with dogs, and hide and seek games are perfect indoor activities for those not-so-nice weather days.
You can play hide and seek by hiding in another room or behind a curtain and then rewarding your puppy or adult Great Dane for finding you! This fun game also builds on recall (staying close and always looking where you are), so your dog will have better off-leash skills out of the home, too.
You can also hide toys or treats for your dog to find around the house, and make doing so a fun daily part of the routine.
#11 – Introduce a Flirt Pole to Your Great Dane
For dogs aged 2+, you can introduce a flirt pole.
Flirt poles tap into natural prey drive; dogs love to chase, circle, and ‘catch’ the lure on the end.
However, a flirt pole is an incredible alternative to laser pointers. It results in the same fun behaviors and play, but unlike a laser, the dog can actually ‘catch the prey’ and is less likely to develop obsessive or compulsive behaviors.
Flirt poles can also be used as a reward as part of a positive training program.
Don’t expect any miracles here, at least not straight away.
A dog that has made a habit of chewing up beds and hopping fences is a dog who has made these things part of the routine. Adding a TON of enrichment will help, but many times this also requires thoughtful training and management.
Get creative here! Get ahead of the curve and keep the enrichment activities coming. Work with a highly qualified trainer to change or even eliminate the behaviors that are unacceptable.
Even just one new enrichment activity is bound to get even the most wound up dog to settle more!
If your dog is currently showing signs of boredom and anxiety, don’t stress! Jump in, change your routine and go from there.
We tend to do things more often when we are rewarded for them. Dogs are the same way.
Most dogs are highly motivated by food. From a biological perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Use food to your advantage when training, and gradually distance and eventually fade out the rewards over time.
Treats for Puppies
Puppies especially need teeny, tiny bites.
I like to use pieces that are the size of my pinky nail or even smaller!
You do not need huge chunks of meat to teach with food; offering several rewards quickly is much more effective than a few big rewards spaced farther out.
By minimizing the size of each reward, you are also able to give more rewards in the same span of time, which is really handy for teaching difficult behaviors such as ‘STAY’ and ‘COME’.
Start with a high-rate of reward and as your dog understands the trick, space the rewards out.
Zuke’s mini natural are amazing and dogs go wild for them. I like to cut them in half so they go farther; these are rich, use sparingly.
Frozen veggies: some dogs will go nuts for a basic blend of carrots, peas and green beans in tiny bites.
Freeze-dried organ meats are fantastic when you really need to ‘get the point’ across. Use tiny bites sparingly.
Training has to be fun, otherwise why would either of you be interested? If you or your dog aren’t having fun, figure out why that is and fix it. The goal here is to reinforce correct behavior and build a bond based on trust, engagement and good habits.
The best training treat is the one that your dog will work for. Some dogs are happy to work really hard for plain old kibble, others need more motivation. The more difficult the skill you want to teach, the more valuable the rewards need to be.
Your puppy can only learn so much in a day. Break training sessions up so they happen several times per day, only a few minutes at a time.
Lastly, make sure you aren’t using so many training treats that it replaces more than 10% of the diet.
Great Dane puppies are exceptionally sensitive to dietary and diet-based growth issues, so you need to make sure that most of the nutrition is coming from their actual food.
If you notice loose stools or excess gas, back off on the training treats! Try even smaller bites, or use a spoon coated in pumpkin to do a quick lesson in ‘heel’, where they walk in position and lick the spoon as the reward.
We recommend that ALL Great Danes, especially puppies receive a daily probiotic supplement. This can help keep the gut bacteria healthy which is great for eliminating gas and loose stools. Additionally, gut health and bloat seem to go hand-in-hand! Having a healthy gut may be a key factor in reducing bloat risk.
The information contained in this post is for informational purposes only. We do our best to present the most up-to-date research, however it is up to the reader to make decisions regarding the health and well-being of their dog. We make no claims here to prevent or treat bloat or any other condition related to Great Danes. Find a veterinarian with GIANT breed experience, and chat with them.
Some of the products we list on our website contain affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase, we may receive a small commission for referring you. We only recommend products that we truly believe in. This commission does not affect the price of the product and is used to fund our content and expenses related to operating this website.
You may have heard the term ‘Double Merle’ associated with Great Danes. Double Merle Great Danes can be beautiful, but why are they this color? How do you get a pure white Great Dane?
Here are 5 facts about white Great Danes that you maybe didn’t know!
What Are Double Merle Great Danes?
A double merle Great Dane will be most often all white or close to it. (White Great Danes). Some may have merle patches and not be pure white.
As striking as they can be, this is not a color that should be intentionally produced, celebrated, or desired in Great Danes.
Double Merle Great Danes are often blind and/or deaf and can have other significant health problems, including autoimmune disorders, eye disorders, deformities, aggression, allergies, and problems with their heart, thyroid, and digestive system.
It’s important to note that not all ‘double merle’ dogs will have health or temprement problems. However, many will.
Many DM (double-merle) Great Danes are pure white, however, they can have some spots (most often merle patches). The absence of color around the ears and eyes is a contributing factor to deafness and blindness.
A Harlequin Great Dane is white with torn black patches and is NOT double-merle. Fawnequin and brindlequin are also not double merle, even though they have a white base coat like a harlequin does.
A double-merle white Great Dane
How Are Double Merle Great Danes Made?
Many Great Danes carry the merle gene. Merle genes are responsible for creating the beautiful Merle and Harlequin coats, as well as many off standard colors with spots (‘merlequin’, ‘fawnequin’, etc.).
By itself, the merle gene is ok.
When a puppy receives TWO copies of the merle gene (one from each parent that carries it), they are ‘double-merle’.
Double Merle puppies happen in litters where a breeder paired (either intentionally or accidentally) two dogs that each carry the merle gene. Not all puppies in a litter bred like this will be double-merle.
Each puppy in the litter has a 1-in-4 chance of receiving BOTH merle genes. To put this into perspective, that’s leaves each puppy (in the litter) a 75% chance that they will NOT be double merle, and have a normal single-merle coat pattern.
It is important to note that Double Merle dogs are 100% preventable.
This highlights the importance of genetic color testing prior to breeding, for breeders that are unsure if either dog in the pairing is merle or not. Color testing can be done HERE.
Double Merle Great Dane Health Problems
Not all white Great Danes will have health problems. However, because of their unique genetic makeup, many of them do. Here are some common things seen in double-merle Great Danes.
Deafness
Blindness
Under developed eyes
Eye problems that lead to pain or blindness
Auto-immune disorders
Allergies and skin sensitivities
Poor overall conformation (resulting from bad breeding practices)
Aggression, fear, and other temperament problems (instability)
A white Great Dane
Double Merle Practices & History in Great Danes
Double merle dogs are most often produced by unethical backyard breeders who either had “no idea this could happen“, or didn’t care.
Some breeders pair merle + merle dogs because they are in pursuit of ‘interesting’ designer colors. The flashy merle gene may result in some puppies getting catchy or trending colors that sell well and result in profits for the breeder.
Additionally, in the world of show dogs, some show breeders intentionally pair two Harlequin Great Danes with exceptional pedigrees because the pairing may produce desirable ‘show marked Harlequins’.
At times, this is done because well-built and appropriate black or mantle studs are hard to find, and keeping the gene pool diverse is important.
Unlike the backyard breeders who don’t understand genetics, however, a show breeder pairing merle + merle will often utilize genetic testing and a thorough study of the pedigree, which can help greatly reduce the risks associated with this practice.
The actual length of the merle gene carried by each parent can affect the outcome, and will be part of the considerations involved when pairing two dogs with a merle gene. This is what makes color testing so important.
The GDCA condones this practice, as of this writing.
Editor’s Note: At Hello Danes we are fierce advocates for truly ethical show breeders. It’s important to note that there is a massive difference between a backyard breeder (whom we don’t support for any reason) and a breeder who is showing, color testing, and fully OFA health testing their dogs prior to breeding.
While we don’t personally condone the practice of breeding “spot to spot” for show purposes, we recognize that it happens and understand why. It’s seen in MANY pedigrees.
Our stance is that backyard breeders and unethical breeders, especially those breeding for fancy colors and dumping puppies in rescue are the biggest issue to contend with when it comes to double-merle dogs.
It’s important that Dane owners not get ‘lost’ in the double-merle discussion, as 100% of sick, unhealthy, abandoned double-merle puppies are coming from unethical breeders.
Double Merle Danes & Breeders
Unethical breeders who produce white puppies may lie to buyers about them. They will often say that they are a ‘designer color’ and sell them at a premium price. Many others will dump them on rescues when they are born.
These are not reputable practices. It doesn’t matter how ‘friendly’ or nice the breeder seems, if they are dumping white puppies or selling them at a premium, they are a backyard breeder.
The Great Dane Club of America condones the practice of hard culling (euthanizing) deaf double-merle puppies by 5 weeks of age; this is practiced by some breeders, most often the ‘old school’ type.
Advances in merle gene color testing, we believe, has greatly reduced this practice.
Other breeders (typically the show breeders that are focused on structure, health, and temperament) take responsibility for these pups (if they end up with some in a litter) and will find them suitable, quality homes and support them for life.
Always ask questions and never support breeders that don’t ethically take care of pups from their double-merle pairings!
In a spot-spot pairing, each puppy has a 25% (or 1 in 4) chance of receiving both copies of the merle gene (one from each parent), making them ‘double merle’.
Some of the double merle puppies will be reabsorbed by the mother long before birth, they simply don’t make it.
In a live litter, there may be no double merle puppies or there could be several.
Be clear about statistics with this one. Some people will say that 25% of the litter will be double merle, and that’s not how it works.
Each puppy is the one saddled with that 1-in-4 statistic, not the litter as a whole.
Great Dane Genetics & Color Testing
Ethical, educated breeders who aren’t sure and want to avoid breeding double-merle dogs in the first place will use modern advances in genetics testing to confirm the colors of each dog in a potential pairing.
If you are looking for a color that isn’t accepted by the AKC as a show color, tread cautiously.
Some fancy colors are the result of spot-spot breedings, and unethical breeders will do this because they know it may get you to spend your money with them.
Merlequin is a popular off-standard color that comes from spot-spot breed pairings. Genetically, a Merlequin is actually a double-merle dog.
Like any other double-merle, this dog may or may not have health problems.
If you are set on finding a puppy in a ‘designer‘ color, make sure your breeder is focused first on health, structure, and temperament.
Merlequin are double-merle dogs who have the harlequin pattern (torn patches of color) but instead of having mostly black torn patches, all of their patches are merle. Imagine a harlequin Dane with merle spots instead of black and merle spots, essentially.
Double Merle Great Danes in Rescue
Entire rescues are dedicated to helping the double-merle dogs that are created by unethical breeding practices, and they are FULL.
Just the other day I saw a 4-month-old white puppy. The rescue was looking for a very special and hard-to-find home because the puppy was already showing signs of aggression, fear, and guarding.
She required surgery to remove her eyes because they did not develop properly. She also had additional structural problems that will lead to pain later in life.
Backyard breeding is not ok. This is not ok. We have to STOP supporting breeders that do this, whether it was intentional or not. The breeders won’t stop, so it’s up to us as puppy buyers and advocates for Great Danes.
Adopt a Double Merle Dog
If we want to stop the production of double-merle dogs, we have to educate people so that they stop rewarding breeders for producing them.
Double Merle dogs are 100% preventable. There is no excuse, but despite the existence of blogs, veterinary documents, reputable breeders, educated buyers, rescues, and people like us who shout from the rooftops, it still happens.
Share this with others, keep spreading the word. Great Dane owners with ‘ooops’ litters that happen ‘accidentally’ between their pet Danes are another contributor. This is also preventable through educated ownership and responsibility.
Support 501c3 Great Dane rescues, adopt double merles, choose only highly ethical breeders, and have fun with your Danes!
Socialization for Great Dane puppies is SO important! Puppy Culture is a dedicated socialization program that good breeders use on puppies from birth onward to ensure that their puppies are stable, friendly, and resilient. Finding a breeder who participates in Puppy Culture is a good thing!
Many people believe that puppy socialization means taking them to the pet store and the dog park. However, doing so can actually cause the puppy to have bad experiences and become more fearful!
This is especially true for Great Dane puppies that may have come from breeders who are not focused on developing sound and stable temperaments.
Good socialization is actually a combination of positive experiences, exposure to different sights, sounds and textures, and a keen understanding of how to utilize small amounts of stress to build confidence and resilience.
Socialization is how you teach dogs to live in our world. They learn to be confident, because they know that everyday things (other dogs, people, sounds, textures) aren’t going to hurt them.
Confident, well-socialized dogs are calm, easy to train and free of aggression, fear and frustration.
What is Puppy Culture?
Puppy Culture is a written protocol for socializing puppies before they leave the litter at 8-12 weeks. Good breeders will use this protocol, even though it requires a LOT of their time.
We talk a LOT about choosing ethical breeders, and this is one reason why!
Quality breeders socialize puppies a lot before they go home with you. This helps keep dogs OUT of rescues and shelters, and helps to make sure that the dog you welcome into the family is positive, friendly and free of aggression.
What is Involved in Puppy Culture?
Puppy Culture goes beyond exposure to grass, tile, and other dogs.
To give you an example of a non-Puppy Culture (but standard) approach, some breeders will allow their puppies to play in the grass outside and be exposed to children or farm animals. They will keep the puppies in an enclosed space and let them poop or pee at will. These breeders may attempt to trim their nails, but will do little else to expose the puppies to handling, experiences, or otherwise.
Puppy Culture breeders, however, will:
Handle the puppies all over, often, and may even employ ENS (a form of early stress that has been shown in studies to increase resilience)
Introduce teeth cleaning, exams, and nail trims early on and often
Introduce crates and early hygienic potty habits
Create times where each puppy is alone and away from the litter
Expose the litter to everyday sounds in the home, including vacuums, hammers, and hair dryers
Work on their engagement with humans and desire to stay close and recall
Use positive methods to work on bite control/puppy biting and prevent resource guarding type behaviors
Create safe obstacles for the puppies to overcome, such as ramps, tires, beams and wobble boards
Have the puppy touch and explore as many surfaces as possible with their paws and nose
Invite puppy lovers over to play with the puppies several weeks before they go to their new homes
Breeders who utilize all Puppy Culture protocols are dedicating a significant amount of time, effort, and love to doing so and the results are incredible!
Pro Tip: When choosing a breeder for your Great Dane puppy, please note that some breeders are relying on buzz words such as “Puppy Culture” and “OFA Health Tested” to generate sales.
However, they are not fully participating in these programs and many of them cut corners. Make sure to ask a lot of questions! Ask for verification of their socialization efforts AND the full health test results (heart, hips, eyes, thyroid which should be published at www.ofa.org)of both parents.
Socialization of Fearful Great Dane Puppies
Fearful or unsure puppies will keep their bodies low to the ground. They may pin their ears back, tuck their tail, and keep their head shrugged or hung low. Additionally, they will shy away from eye contact. When being handled, they may cower, act ‘head shy’ or roll onto their side or back.
Fearful puppies should be socialized as early as possible. Unfortunately, fearful behavior is often the result of unstable genetics, and many fearful Great Danes are plagued with a combination of bad genetics and poor early socialization.
Socialization does not mean forcing your fearful Great Dane puppy to interact with other dogs or humans in situations that they could get hurt- like dog parks.
Socialization of Great Dane puppies means that you are exposing them to new situations and allowing them to learn that these situations are not actually scary.
For fearful puppies, this means going slowly and building confidence through positive experiences.
Socialization of Puppies Who Are Confident
Confident puppies will have their heads up and their ears forward. They are more likely to make eye contact and truly engage with people. They will be interested in tackling obstacles and will have plenty of energy to do just that!
When they are raised with Puppy Culture, they are especially good at maintaining focus and even sitting as a form of ‘please’.
Confident puppies often need more obedience training to prevent them from wandering off out of curiosity for something in the environment. They are often very receptive to positive reinforcement, and love to be trained, too!
The good news is that Puppy Culture satisfies their curiosity and confidence, while rewarding them for engaging with humans and responding to requests to come back and look for direction.
Why Does Puppy Socialization Matter?
Puppies from healthy, well-tempered parents that are properly socialized from birth are more likely to be confident, curious and calm family pets.
For giant breed dogs, this translates to them being easier to live with, easier to handle, and safer around other dogs, people, and situations of all kinds.
Fear and aggression are considered one of the top three risk factors for bloat in Great Danes!
For health reasons, helping Great Dane puppies grow into confident and resilient adults is also incredibly important! Many dogs who experience bloat are fearful, timid, and aggressive.
Installing confidence and a calm indifference to the environment makes training a breeze, too! Dogs that are over-stimulated or anxious about the environment around them will have a much harder time learning and focusing.
A lot of aggression and reactivity is based in fear. The world can be an overwhelming place!
Great Danes are prone to anxiety and aloof, timid, or even aggressive behaviors. But none of that is actually within the written breed standard, and none of it has to be a reality.
Socialize Your Great Dane Puppy
Even if your puppy didn’t come from a breeder that spent a lot of time on socialization or Puppy Culture, there are LOTS of things you can do!
Expose your puppy to a variety of textures; wood chips, sand, blankets, tile, gravel, grass, cement and bridges.
Give them obstacles such as tunnels, ramps, platforms and FIT Paws, then encourage and reward them for being confident and exploring!
Expose them to a variety of people wearing glasses, hats, masks and walking with strollers, bicycles, wheelchairs, canes, walking sticks, snowshoes and skis. Instead of asking those people to pet your puppy, just sit and watch them from afar.
Explore novel environments and encourage curiosity.
What is a backyard breeder? Why is is so important to be educated about unethical breeding practices? How do we save puppies from backyard breeders?
There are many questions to ask when it comes to unethical breeding and backyard breeders. These practices are harming the breed we love and causing heartache and headaches for rescues and families.
You might be surprised to find that the AKC is riddled with backyard breeders. Having AKC registration is not a sign that the puppy is healthy, well-bred, or even pure-bred!
Yeah, we’re going to go there. If you are looking for a Great Dane puppy, this post is for you.
What Is A Backyard Breeder?
Many people believe that all home breeders are backyard breeders (because they ‘breed dogs in their backyard’).
This is actually a matter of nuance in language. The term “backyard breeder” has a very broad meaning.
A “backyard breeder” refers to any individual who breeds puppies without committing to the necessary measures for ensuring the full health testing, structure, temperament, breed standards, and overall well-being of the puppies throughout their lives, regardless of where they end up.
There are MANY friendly, nice “backyard breeders” who claim to health test their puppies.
They may even raise them indoors around kids and farm animals. It’s likely they even have a website and are recommended by others who are looking to purchase a Great Dane puppy.
But they are cutting corners somewhere, and THAT is what makes them a backyard breeder!
It doesn’t matter how clean the facility is, or how nice the breeder is.
Make no mistake, if they are breeding out of standard dogs, dogs with poor structure and temperaments, breeding dogs without FULL OFA health testing (see HERE), and not supporting those puppies for life, they are a backyard breeder.
Like we said above, the AKC has thousands of them.
Backyard breeders are more common than puppy mills, but despite their ‘friendly’ exterior they do a LOT more damage.
What is the AKC?
AKC is one of the most recognizable acronyms in the dog world.
They document pedigrees by giving breeders a place register their purebred litters. They also offer a range of services from dog shows & conformation to sports, advocacy and training certifications.
The word ‘papers’ is now actually relatively meaningless because of this. AKC registrations are a wonderful way to document and see the pedigree (lineage) of a dog. They are important, but they aren’t everything.
AKC papers do NOTHING to monitor if the dogs who have ‘purebred’ registrations even meet the standard for the breed they claim to be. This is how we’ve ended up with millions of Great Danes whose structure is so poor they suffer from orthopedic disorders. Their eyes are so droopy they need surgery to correct it. Their heads so big and jowls so droopy they look more like Mastiffs than Great Danes.
Not to mention the litany of health and temperament issues that come from breeders who are pairing dogs just because they happen to be ‘purebred’.
Technically, Only Purebred Dogs Can Be AKC Registered
Mixed breed dogs and dogs with unknown lineage cannot be registered with the AKC.
If a breeder is trying to sell you a ‘Danoodle’ or ‘Labradane’ with ‘papers’, know that the papers are probably from a made-up or low quality dog registry.
The AKC does try to maintain standards and educate breeders and buyers. However, having AKC papers is NOT enough to prove the quality of a genetic line or dogs against the written standard.
Remember the game ‘telephone’?
You sit in a circle with your friends. The first person whispers a phrase to the next person, who then takes that phrase and whispers it to the person next to them. The phrase makes its way around the circle.
The phrase may have begun as ‘I like to eat cake’ , but always ends with something completely different and usually funny. ‘I think you are fake’ for example.
The practice of breeding a Great Dane simply because it has ‘AKC Papers’ can create entire lines of registered, purebred Great Danes that look very little like Great Danes. Just like the game of telephone that we played as children!
Purebred Does Not Mean Well Bred
Of course, we are major dog and breed snobs over here, but even as a not-snobby pet owner you should care deeply about this breed.
Poorly bred dogs are more likely to suffer from health problems, including painful, frustrating and expensive conditions such as allergies, hip dysplasia, cardiac disease, aggression, fear, blindness/deafness and autoimmune disorders.
There are many purebred Great Danes suffering from health conditions that are largely preventable with selective breeding, including poor hips, bloat, heart disease, entropion, and more.
These disorders shorten the life span of Great Danes and contribute to the unfortunate reality that these giant dogs are both short lived and fragile.
So, How Can I Avoid Backyard Breeders?
In no way are we saying that imperfect Great Danes don’t deserve a home, or that your imperfect Dane isn’t good enough. (Truth! Ask me about my dainty three-legged Dane! I love the underdogs).
What we are saying, however, is that AKC papers can mean surprisingly little in the world of ethical breeding practices.
AKC Papers do not mean that a dog was bred with health and structure and temperament in mind.
They do not mean that a Great Dane exemplifies the appropriate health and structure of the breed.
Having AKC registrations is not a sign that a dog is of sound breeding quality and should be bred.
It is important to find Great Dane breeders who are:
Stop buying dogs from backyard breeders! Every time you support a breeder who doesn’t care about structure, health and temperament you support an industry that is creating thousands of dogs who eventually end up euthanized or in rescue.
