We spend an awful lot of time here talking about bad breeders and dogs that have problems with their health and temperament.
If you have an ‘imperfect’ Great Dane, an underdog, a dog that is a ‘pet’ not a ‘showdog’ or is a Dane from a backyard breeder this can sometimes feel like an attack.
But it’s not about your dog! We LOVE your dog. We actually think your Great Dane is awesome.
We believe all Great Danes deserve the most loving home possible, even the ones that aren’t ‘perfect show dogs’, and we celebrate the people that love their Danes no matter where they are from.
ADVOCACY
As lovers of Great Danes and of the breed, we should all be advocates.
Advocacy means educating people and making it socially unacceptable to breed untested, poorly structured dogs for profit.
We love our imperfect Great Danes, but that doesn’t mean we have to love the places and breeders that they have come from.
Rescues are full because so many breeders have a habit of creating anxious, unhealthy dogs and not caring at all where they ever end up.
We believe Danes deserve better than this!
MEET MATILDA
Matilda is my own personal heart dog. She is actually the reason I became so heavily involved in advocacy for Great Danes! She is an amazing, strong girl with an unfortunate, preventable past.
Matilda was born in Oklahoma to a breeder that planned to keep her as a bitch/dam.
At 3 months of age she was hit by a car and her right leg was shattered. This breeder took her to a veterinarian’s office (yay!), but didn’t officially surrender her and didn’t come back to pay for her care (not yay!).
Matilda lived in a cage for 10 days with a shattered leg, all because her backyard breeder didn’t care.
She was finally released to rescue by the city, and the rescue veterinarian amputated her leg and spayed her when she was just 4 months old. How I ended up with this amazing dog is another story, but let’s just say that I think she’s pretty dang perfect.
Matilda is the ultimate underdog.
Her unethical breeder cost the rescue thousands of dollars in veterinary care and boarding, and cost sweet Matilda an easy, normal life on 4 legs. If she had taken care of this the day it happened, Matilda’s leg could have been saved. Instead, she was forced to suffer and wait while her backyard breeder failed to ‘get it together’.
This is not ok. Backyard breeding is not ok. Breeding dogs and then dumping them on rescue like this when they will fail to be ‘profitable’ is not ok.
When we purchase dogs from backyard breeders, we support the exact kind of operations that result in dogs like Matilda having to suffer. She’s lucky, she landed with a good rescue who placed her here with me, and she’s living the best life she possibly can.
WE ALL JUST WANT A PET
Not many people actually need or want a show dog. Most of us really do just want a pet!
It’s so important that we celebrate every single Great Dane, no matter where they came from or what they look like.
But that does not mean we should continue to financially support the kinds of breeders who do not care about this breed the way that we do.
Supporting ethical breeders isn’t about all Danes being show-dogs, it’s about all Great Danes being given the best chance possible at health, structure and wellness.
We support Great Dane rescue and ethical breeders.
There is absolutely room for both. But it’s up to us as advocates for the breed to make sure that breeders aren’t contributing to the rescue problem.
Make it socially unacceptable to breed poorly structured, untested dogs for profit.
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