Seven standard colors
Great Dane colors.
Colour is the last thing we choose a pairing for and the first thing most people ask about. Here is the whole picture, including the part the 'rare colour' sellers leave out.
The seven standard colors
The AKC breed standard recognises seven colors and patterns. All seven are equally healthy when they come from properly tested parents, and none of them is rarer or more valuable than another in any way that should cost you money.
Fawn
Golden yellow with a black mask. The classic Great Dane of film and photograph. The mask should reach the eyes and the ears may be darker.
Brindle
A fawn base with strong black cross-stripes, like a tiger. A heavily striped brindle can read almost black from a distance.
Blue
A solid steel or slate grey, from nose to tail, with blue eyes as a puppy that usually settle amber. A dilute of black — not a separate colour gene.
Black
Glossy solid black. Small white marks on the chest and toes are common and are a cosmetic fault only, not a health concern.
Harlequin
A pure white ground with torn, irregular black patches well distributed over the body. The neck should be largely white. A grey-patched harlequin is also produced but is not shown.
Mantle
Black and white, patterned like a dog wearing a black blanket: black body, white muzzle, white collar, white chest, white legs and tail tip. Sometimes called "Boston" marked.
Merle
A grey or fawn base with darker torn patches. Added to the AKC standard in 2019 after decades of being produced by harlequin breeding and quietly placed as pet quality.
Merle — and why it matters
Merle is a pattern, not a colour: a gene that randomly dilutes patches of an otherwise solid coat, producing the speckled grey or fawn marbling you see on dogs like Aura and Dexter. It is beautiful, it has always existed in harlequin lines, and since 2019 it has been a fully recognised standard colour.
It is also the one piece of Great Dane genetics that can genuinely harm a puppy.
Never breed merle to merle
A puppy that inherits the merle gene from both parents is a double merle. Roughly 25% of the puppies from a merle × merle pairing will be, and a large proportion of those are born deaf, blind, or both. They are usually mostly white, which is why "rare white Great Dane" advertisements should make you close the tab.
The same risk applies to merle × harlequin pairings, because harlequin requires a merle gene to express at all. Any breeder pairing two merle-carrying dogs either does not understand the genetics or does not care.
Every merle litter we raise follows the same two rules, without exception:
- One merle parent only, crossed to a solid non-merle, non-harlequin partner.
- Every puppy from a merle litter is BAER hearing tested before it leaves, and the result goes in your file.
You can verify the pairing yourself — the sire and dam of every litter are named on the Our Danes page with their colors and clearances.
Non-standard colors
"Non-standard" means it cannot be shown in conformation. With one exception it says nothing about health, and a non-standard dog makes exactly as good a companion as any other.
| Colour | What you should know |
|---|---|
| White | Almost always a double merle. Very high rates of deafness and blindness. Never deliberately bred by anyone responsible. |
| Merlequin | A harlequin-patterned dog whose patches are merle rather than solid black. Healthy, but not shown. |
| Fawnequin / Brindlequin | Harlequin patterning in fawn or brindle instead of black. Perfectly healthy pet dogs. |
| Chocolate / Fawn-mantle | Occurs naturally in some lines. No health implication, simply outside the standard. |
| Blue merle | A dilute merle. Healthy when bred from one merle parent only. |
A warning about "rare" colors
If a seller is charging a premium for a "rare" Great Dane colour, treat it as a warning sign rather than a selling point. Three things are usually true:
- It is not rare. Every colour in this breed occurs regularly. There is no colour worth paying extra for and no reputable program prices by coat.
- Breeding for colour means breeding for something other than health. Every pairing is a trade-off. A breeder chasing a coat is not simultaneously choosing for hips, hearts and temperament.
- "Rare white" usually means double merle. A mostly-white Great Dane advertised at a premium is very often a deaf or partially blind puppy from an irresponsible merle × merle pairing, sold before the deafness is obvious.
Our puppies are priced by litter, not by coat, and we will happily talk you out of a colour preference if the right dog for your household happens to be a different one.
Colors we have now
Right now we have 4 colors on the ground: Harlequin, Fawn Merle, Blue Merle, Blue. Every puppy's exact coat is described on its own page, and the photographs are recent and unretouched — a blue puppy really is that colour.
Temperament outlives colour
by about nine years.
Tell us how you live and we will tell you which puppy fits. If a colour happens to match, all the better.
See available puppiesPrefer to text? +1 (619) 781-6400