The current standard for the Great Dane asserts that the Great Dane should be viewed as the Apollo of all dog breeds. This is not entirely without merit as the houd does present itself in an impressive and noble manner which, combined with its wonderful person-ality, does give its presence a sense of the devine. The Great Dane is but one of more than 350 inter-nationally recognised dog breeds. The source of every single dog breed is its geographical origin and its skill set as a working dog , carefully nursed through breeding.

The geographical origin thus influences the fact that many different dog breeds exist for what is essentially the same skills needed to carry out a given job as a working dog.

Historically, the world over, many dog owners have always been very proud of the peculiar characteristics of their dogs and Denmark is no different. The first dog that springs to mind as a national breed for a Dane is a Dane – of the canine sort. The dog is in Denmark and throughout most countries in the world considered the dog of the Danes. The earliest archaeological evidence is a skeleton of the dog found in a human burial on the island of Funen, Denmark dated to year 5-400 BCE. As a working dog the hound was exclusively used to hunt big game (deer, wild boar and wolf), whereas the dog today serve chiefly as a guard dog and a companion dog.

As a breed the Dane partook in the first Danish dog show in Copenhagen July 1886. The dog is listed in the first edition of the Danish Dog Studbook from 1890 as “Large Danish Hound”. At no point in time has the breed been in danger of extinction. Undoubtedly, this stems from the impressive and majestic presence of the Dane that has always served to underpin a great interest in the breed.

The English name of the breed “Great Dane”, and the French equivalent “Grand Danois”, was challenged by Germany in the 1930ties, as that nation sought to assert itself abroad during this period. In 1936 Germany, through it’s national kennel club, demanded that history be re-written and that the Dane should now be recorded a German breed and re-named Deutsche Dogge. The matter was addressed by the general assembly of the FCI in Paris 22nd July 1937. The FCI refuted all demands made by Germany and the question of the country of origin of the breed was settled finally by Germany irrevocably renouncing any claim on the breed henceforth. In the records of the FCI the Great Dane thus continued to be a Danish breed, and only the standard for the breed (from 1935) provided by the Danish Kennel Club is considered valid. English speaking countries refer to the breed as “Great Dane”, whereas in Scandinavia we term the breed by its French name “Grand Danois”, or it’s Danish name “Den danske Hund” (literally “the Danish Hound”).