46 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



Before giving the description and standard which have been 

 adopted by the Great Dane Clubs, a few remarks on some of 

 the leading points will be useful. The general characteristic 

 of the Great Dane is a combination of grace and power, and 

 therefore the lightness of the Greyhound, as well as the heavi- 

 ness of the Mastiff, must be avoided. 



The head should be powerful, but at the same time show 

 quality by its nice modelling. 



The eyes should be intelligent and vivacious, but not have 

 the hard expression of the terrier. The distance between 

 the eyes is of great importance ; if too wide apart they give 

 the dog a stupid appearance, and if too close he has a treacher- 

 ous look. 



Another very important point is the graceful carriage of 

 the tail. When it is curled over the back it makes an other- 

 wise handsome dog look mean, and a tail that curls at the 

 end like a corkscrew is also very ugly. In former times 

 " faking " was not infrequently resorted to to correct a faulty 

 tail carriage, but it is easily detected. Great Danes sometimes 

 injure the end of the tail by hitting it against a hard substance, 

 and those with a good carriage of tail are most liable to this 

 because in excitement they slash it about, whereas the faulty 

 position of the tail, curled over the back, insures immunity 

 from harm. 



Until recently British Great Dane breeders and exhibitors 

 have paid very little attention to colour, on the principle that, 

 like a good horse, a good Great Dane cannot be a bad colour. 

 The English clubs, however, have now in this particular also 

 adopted the German standard. The orthodox colours are 

 brindle, fawn, blue, black, and harlequin. In the brindle 

 dogs the ground colour should be any shade from light yellow 

 to dark red-yellow on which the brindle appears in darker 

 stripes. The harlequins have on a pure white ground fairly 

 large black patches, which must be of irregular shape, broken 

 up as if they had been torn, and not have rounded outlines. 

 When brindle Great Danes are continuously bred together, 



