Northern Great Dane

5 adults · all health tested

Our Danes.

These are the dogs behind every litter on this site. Their clearances are published here in full, because a breeder who will not show you the paperwork is telling you something.

Sires

The boys.

Northern Hollis of Bay Mills

Called Hollis · Harlequin · 5 yr old

Sire

Hollis is the dog the whole program is built around. Correct harlequin markings, a genuinely sound front, and the flat, unbothered temperament that makes a 178-pound dog liveable. He sleeps on the landing and has never once raised his voice at a visitor.

Height
35 in
Weight
178 lb

Clearances

  • OFA Hips — Good
  • OFA Elbows — Normal
  • OFA Cardiac (advanced) — Normal
  • OFA Thyroid — Normal
  • BAER hearing — Bilateral normal
  • DNA panel — Clear

Northern Alder

Called Alder · Blue · 4 yr old

Sire

A deep, even blue with excellent bone and a classically long neck. Alder is softer than Hollis and more biddable — we use him when we want to bring the volume down a litter.

Height
34 in
Weight
165 lb

Clearances

  • OFA Hips — Good
  • OFA Elbows — Normal
  • OFA Cardiac (advanced) — Normal
  • OFA Thyroid — Normal
  • DNA panel — Clear

Dams

The girls.

None of our girls leaves at the end of her breeding life. They retire here, on the same sofas, and we keep paying the vet bills.

Northern Juniper

Called Juniper · Mantle · 5 yr old

Dam

A careful, attentive mother who raises tidy, confident puppies. Juniper will have one more litter and then retire here with us — none of our girls leave at the end of their breeding life.

Height
32 in
Weight
136 lb

Clearances

  • OFA Hips — Good
  • OFA Elbows — Normal
  • OFA Cardiac (advanced) — Normal
  • OFA Thyroid — Normal
  • BAER hearing — Bilateral normal
  • DNA panel — Clear

Northern Wren

Called Wren · Merle · 4 yr old

Dam

Wren throws the soft, speckled merles she is known for. She is the busiest of our adults and the most inclined to supervise — she still checks on her last litter when they come back to visit.

Height
31 in
Weight
128 lb

Clearances

  • OFA Hips — Good
  • OFA Elbows — Normal
  • OFA Cardiac (advanced) — Normal
  • OFA Thyroid — Normal
  • BAER hearing — Bilateral normal
  • DNA panel — Clear

Northern Mabel

Called Mabel · Blue · 5 yr old

Retired

The most sensible dog in the house. Mabel is quiet, clean and endlessly patient, and her puppies reliably inherit it. This was her third and final litter; she is spayed and retired, and she is not going anywhere.

Height
31 in
Weight
130 lb

Clearances

  • OFA Hips — Excellent
  • OFA Elbows — Normal
  • OFA Cardiac (advanced) — Normal
  • OFA Thyroid — Normal
  • DNA panel — Clear

This season

Who is paired with whom.

Litter A

“The Harlequins”

Sire
Northern Hollis of Bay Mills
Dam
Northern Juniper

Litter B

“The Merles”

Sire
Northern Hollis of Bay Mills
Dam
Northern Wren

Litter C

“The Blues”

Sire
Northern Alder
Dam
Northern Mabel

What we test for

Six screenings, before any pairing.

Every one of these is done before a dog is bred, not after. If a result comes back wrong, the litter does not happen — and we have cancelled planned litters more than once.

01

Hips & elbows (OFA)

Radiographed at two years or later and graded by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. Fair is the lowest grade we will breed; we have never used a dog graded Borderline or worse.

02

Advanced cardiac echo

An echocardiogram read by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist, repeated annually. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the single biggest killer in this breed and a stethoscope will not find it early.

03

Thyroid (OFA)

Full autoimmune thyroiditis panel. Hypothyroidism is common in Danes and heritable, and it is easy to screen for.

04

BAER hearing

Brainstem auditory evoked response testing on every merle and harlequin adult, and on every puppy from a merle litter before it goes home.

05

Full DNA panel

Breed-relevant genetic panel covering degenerative myelopathy, inherited coagulopathies and the merle locus, so we know exactly what each pairing can produce.

06

Annual re-screening

Cardiac and thyroid are repeated every year for as long as a dog is in the program. A clearance from four years ago is not a clearance.

Ask us for the certificates. Every clearance above has a certificate number on file, and any serious enquirer is welcome to see them before putting money down. You can also look our dogs up yourself on the OFA public database.

Screenings per adult
6
Merle-to-merle pairings
0
Cardiac re-screening
Annual
Results published
100%

Want to see the paperwork before anything else?

Sensible. Ask us for the certificates, or look our dogs up on the OFA database yourself — we will give you the registered names.

Ask for the records

See the puppies

Prefer to text? +1 (619) 781-6400