Dogs and All about Them

CHAPTER VI THE GREAT DANE The origin of the Great Dane, like that of many other varieties of dogs, is so obscure that all researches have only resulted in speculative theories, but the undoubted antiquity of this dog is proved by the fact that representatives of a breed sufficiently similar to be considered his ancestors are found on some of the oldest Egyptian monuments. A few years ago a controversy arose on the breed's proper designation, when the Germans claimed for it the title "Deutsche Dogge." Germany had several varieties of big dogs, such as the Hatzrude, Saufanger, Ulmer Dogge, and Rottweiler Metzgerhund; but contemporaneously with these there existed, as in other countries in Europe, another very big breed, but much nobler and more thoroughbred, known as the Great Dane. When after the war of 1870 national feeling was pulsating very strongly in the veins of reunited Germany, the German cynologists were on the lookout for a national dog, and for that purpose the Great Dane was re-christened "Deutsche Dogge," and elected as the champion of German Dogdom. For a long time all these breeds had, no doubt, been indiscriminately crossed. The Great Dane was introduced into this country spasmodically some thirty-five years ago, when he was commonly referred to as the Boarhound, or the German Mastiff, and for a time the breed had to undergo a probationary period in the "Foreign Class" at dog shows, but it soon gained in public favour, and in the early 'eighties a Great Dane Club was formed, and the breed has since become one of the most popular of the larger dogs.