I decided to get another Dane after Happy because I really loved the breed and was convinced by other Dane owners that his behavior problem was over the top for the breed. Having him convinced me that I wanted to become a responsible breeder to help keep this breed of dog strong and healthy. I found a black and white female from a breeder who had healthy bloodlines, which we named Nykita. A few months later I found a black and white male from another breeder with healthy bloodlines, which we named Bear. Plus he carried the recessive blue color gene as his mother was a blue. Seeing pictures of a blue Dane does not do them justice because if the lighting isn't right they just look like a shade or two lighter than black. Actually seeing one in person when we went to get Bear made us realize how big a difference there can be with the two colors, the coloring is absolutely gorgeous so this got us hoping that Nykita would also be carrying the recessive gene and we would end up with a chance for some blues in their litters.
There are several good articles on Dane color families out there but the basics are there are Fawns, Brindles, Harlequins, Merle, Mantles, Blacks, and Blues. Merles are not eligible for showing because it is not an acceptable color to many show organizations. In those 6 acknowledged colors there are 3 color families of Fawn/Brindle, Harlequin/Mantle, and Black/Blue. Breeding inside those families are considered acceptable practices, for example breeding a black to a blue is acceptable. Breeding cross color is generally frowned upon due to the increased health complications that arise from mixing the color families. For example one of the reasons that Merle is not an acknowledged color is due to the higher risk of deaf or blind puppies that result from Merle to Merle breedings.
Short color lesson over, now back to my story. We raised these as close together as we could, she was around 8 months older than he was but they played very well together and we never had any major problems with them fighting and neither displayed any sort of territorial behaviors. When Nykita was a year old she had her first heat cycle with Bear around, I had read everything I could about the breed and knew that this was too young to breed her. It was interesting keeping him away from her and vice versa. He chewed a hole through the wall of his dog house one day while I was at work and got in with her, he broke the chain link fencing from his dog run door a night after I sealed the hole back up. The instinct was very strong with him, getting them split back up was a feat of strength and patience. Fortunately either he was too young or just didn't catch her in the right part of the cycle to actually breed her. After this fiasco when the next heat came around in six months I penned them up, one at my house and the other at my dad's house down the street, which did the trick.
When Nykita was 2 years old I decided it was time, I let them do their thing and 63 days later we had a massive litter of 13 black and white Danes. As I said earlier we were hoping that somewhere in Nykita's lineage would be the blue recessive gene, and that she would carry it as well, and we would get a mixed litter, but no such luck. After having our first litter and getting no blues we decided to keep a pup back from the litter, who stood a 50/50 chance of carrying the blue recessive gene from Bear, and found good homes for Nykita and Bear.
Below is a slide show from our first litter, if you are unable to view it you may view the album here.
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