About the Real Giants of the Dog World

The history of the Great Dane is one riddled in mystery and ferocity. Once a rare breed trained to hunt large game, these now gentle giants have proven themselves as loyal guardians more than boar killers. Below you'll find the brief, yet magnificent history of the breed in real life and petz!

Model Dane; Cargo/APK's Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Dusk)

We see the first appearance of Great Dane like dogs carved around 3000BC on Egyptian monuments.



Fast forward to the 5th century in what is now known as present day Europe. The Alāns, an Asiatic race, are invading parts of North Africa and along them fought these giant mastiff dogs to which the likes have yet to be recorded. The breed becomes the now extinct Alaunt, resembling more of a modern day Dogo Argentino or Caucasian Shepherd Dog in shape. Over the next several hundred years, it is surmised that these dogs were cross bred with Irish Wolfhounds, producing a similar sized yet slimmer variant known as the Englische Docke (or Englischer Hund in Germany).

  

Of course the Great Dane's upbringing is up to speculative history, but one thing for certain is that by the 16th century, the breed was gaining traction among Europe's nobility as a popular boar hunter and, eventually, as a Kammerhunde or chamber dog. Outfitted with ornate collars, the Englische Docke kept close to their master's bedside, again normally for nobles, to keep intruders at bay. Instances of this have been found in Johann Friedrich von Flemmings 1719 "Von denen Englischen Docken" ["On the English mastiffs"]:
"... such a chamber-hound is mostly put about with a strong leather collar covered with green velvet, on which there are silver letters or the master's name or arms. ... Such body-dogs are also assigned beautiful collars of red or green plush with brass letters."


And so as the 18th and 19th centuries came, English-speaking countries dubbed the breed as the "German boarhound". It was with this that German dog breeders began to concentrate on evolving their boar hound's image into a breed of good temperament and friendliness. Some breeders tried to introduce the names "German Dogge" and "German Mastiff" on the English market, because they believed the breed should be marketed as a dog of luxury and not as a working dog. However, due to the increasing tensions between Germany and other countries at the time, the dog later became referred to as a "Great Dane", after the grand danois in Buffon's Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière in 1755.

In 1891, the Great Dane Club of Germany was formed (still called Deutsche doggen or German Dog club) and the modern day standard was adopted. Eight years later, the Great Dane club of America was founded in Chicago and the Dane was officially recognized in North America.

It is with this that today, the American Kennel Club recognizes the 'Apollo' of dogs and describes it as;