standard colors
and non standard colors
standard colors
Great Danes, like most other dog breeds, come in a variety of different colors and markings.
Some of these are seen frequently, while others are not that common, depending on the preferences of buyers and breeders at the time. However, there is no rare gene for a specific color in a Great Dane.
However, depending on the Great Dane Club and country or continent, there are so-called standard colors.
In Germany, these are the following three colors or patterns, which are permitted in German clubs for breeding and exhibition:
blue
yellow/brindle (fawn/brindle),
Black/spotted (black/harlequin) or also called Tigerdogge
and now, after a long struggle, finally
the Grautiger (merle) under the category Spotted.
Small note: According to the standard, the black/spotted category also includes the (black) Piebald Great Danes and the (black) Mantle Great Danes, even if neither one nor the other, apart from the gene for black, is genetically linked to a black spotted (Harlequin or Merle) dog.
non standard colors
In other countries, more colors and patterns are permitted in the standard.
In addition, there are distinctions between show dogs, which must conform to the color standard, and all other purebred dogs. These are registered for example in the American Dog Club (AKC) in contrast to the German/European clubs with all their existing colors, patterns and markings:
The non-standard colors or, as they are called here in Germany, the Fehlfarben (wrong colors).
We prefer to use the term different color -off color- because wrong colors implies that these animals are faulty, which is in no way the case. Since the possibilities are almost endless, here we have tried to list some of these beautiful colors and patterns for you:
