|HISTORY OF THE
|Often called the Apollo of dogs, the Great Dane can trace its paw prints as far back as time
of the Egyptians. Drawings of dogs resembling Great Danes were found on Egyptian
monuments dating from 3,000 B.C., and artifacts found in Babylonian temples built about
2,000 B.C. include a relief-plate showing Assyrian men walking huge, Dane like dogs on
stout leashes. The dogs depicted have the same massive body and long, powerful legs as
today's Great Dane.
Some zoologists believe that all Dane-type dogs originated in the highlands of Tibet. There
is great similarity between the Tibetan Mastiffs that lived at the base of the Himalayas and
the Dane like dogs of the Assyrians. The zoologists' belief gains credibility in that the
earliest written report of dogs strongly similar in type to the Great Dane appeared in
Chinese literature in 1121 B.C.
The highly cultured Assyrians traded their dogs to the Greeks and Romans along with other
goods they manufactured. The Romans in turn bred the Assyrian dogs to British dogs they
also acquired. Thus it appears both the Tibetan and English Mastiffs are forbears of the
There was some debate as to whether the Irish Wolfhound or Irish Greyhound played a
secondary role in the Dane's development. The French naturalist Comte de Buffon, who
lived during the 1700s, thought the Irish Wolfhound was the primary ancestor of the Dane
because the Celts had taken some of the huge dogs from the Romans and English to Ireland
where they were bred to the native Irish Wolfhounds. But Baron Georges Cuview, an
anatomist who lived from the late 1700s thought it was the early result of an English Mastiff
and Irish Wolfhound cross.
The earliest Danelike dogs were called Boar Hounds, for the prey that hunted, but by the
16th century they were known as English Dogges.
Around 1680, when German noblemen were breeding great numbers of the dogs, the biggest
and most handsome dogs were kept inside their homes. These dogs were called
Kammerhunde, meaning Chamber Dogs. These pampered pets wore gilded collars trimmed
with fringe and padded with velvet.
Buffon gave the breed the name it's known by today. While traveling in Denmark, he saw
the slimmer variety of the Boar Hound, which shared more similarities with the Greyhound.
Buffon remarked that the Danish climate had caused the Greyhound to become a Grand
Danois. Thereafter, the dogs became known as the Great Danish Dog, with the heavier dogs
sometimes called Danish Mastiffs.
The Danish name stuck-despite the fact that Denmark had nothing whatsoever to do with
the development of the breed.
Most fanciers today credit Germany with the well-balanced, elegant Great Dane as we know
it. It is known that German nobility imported these English Boar Hounds until the 17th and
18th centuries, by which time they had developed their own breeding stock and no longer
needed the imports.
In 1880, a Dr. Bodinus held a meeting in Berlin where judges and breeders agreed that the
breed as developed by the Germans was distinctly different from the stockier English
Mastiffs and would henceforth be known solely as the Deutsche Dogge, or German Dog. The
Deutsche Doggen Club of German was founded, and the name Deutsche Dogge took hold in
parts of Europe.
The Germans had a hard time convincing other countries to accept the breed name,
however. The Italians to this day call the breed Alano, which means mastiff. In England, the
United States and other English-speaking countries, the dogs are called Great Danes.
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