A family program since 2014

Our story.

Name: Northern Great Dane Home
Address: MI, US
Telephone: +1 (619) 781-6400

We are not a kennel and we are not a business that happens to sell dogs. We are a household with five Great Danes in it, two or three litters a year, and strong opinions about how it should be done.

Where it began.

In 2009 we bought a mantle Great Dane called Bess from a man with a tidy yard, a handshake and no paperwork at all. We did not know to ask for any. She was the best dog either of us had ever had, and by two years old she could not get up the stairs without help.

Her hips were bad. Her dam's hips had been bad too — we found out later, from somebody else. Nobody had done anything wrong exactly; nobody had done anything at all. That is how it mostly goes.

Bess lived nine years, which is a normal Great Dane life, and the last three of them were harder than they needed to be. Everything in this program exists because of her: the testing, the records, the refusals, the irritating number of questions we ask before we let a puppy go anywhere.

We bred our first litter in 2014. We have never bred more than three in a year and we never will, because the whole point is that they grow up in the middle of a house with people in it.

— The Northern Danes family

Larry, a harlequin Great Dane puppy, sitting indoors at home

What we stand on

Three commitments.

Health before everything

Not one dog in this program has been bred without full OFA clearances on hips, elbows, heart and thyroid, plus a DNA panel. We have skipped planned litters because a clearance came back borderline. We will keep doing that.

Raised inside, by hand

Puppies are whelped in the spare room and move to the kitchen at three weeks, where everything happens. By nine weeks they have met children, cats, the hoover, the postman and a thunderstorm recording at breakfast volume.

Honest about everything

Great Danes live eight to ten years. They are expensive. They drool, they counter surf and they can bloat. We say all of this before you pay us anything, because a family who knows what is coming keeps the dog.

The long way round

Sixteen years, in order.

2009

A mantle bitch called Bess

Our first Great Dane, bought from someone we now know we should not have bought from. She was wonderful and she had bad hips from two years old. She is the reason we test.
2014

The first litter

Juniper's grandmother, eight puppies, and far more questions than we had answers for. We kept records on everything from day one and still have that notebook.
2017

Full OFA testing as standard

We stopped breeding on auscultation alone and moved every adult to advanced cardiac echo. It is expensive and slow and it is the single best thing we have done.
2020

Travel, done properly

After one bad cargo experience we never used a hold again. Every puppy now travels in the cabin on a nanny's lap, or goes home in your car.
2023

Lifetime support, written down

We put in writing what we had always done informally: you can call us about your dog for as long as you have him, and if you ever cannot keep him, he comes back here.
Today

Still deliberately small

Two or three litters a year, five adults in the house, and a waiting list we are in no hurry to clear.

Years raising Danes: 12+
Adults in our home: 5
Placed with full records: 100%
Support and return policy: Lifetime