The cornerstone of our philosophy starts with a promise to our dogs and every puppy we produce. Always do what is best for the dog. Sometimes this can lead to some controversial issues which we will address later. We believe every generation is a building block.
When thinking about a Great Dane, this particular breed has a lot to live up to. They are after all the "Apollo of dogs" and "gentle giants". They must be regal and beautiful, they must be gentle and kind, they must love and know children, they must be loyal and affectionate, they should be intelligent & easy to train.
Beyond the character and temperament mentioned above, I feel it is also important that we don’t lose the functional part of our breed – not only should Danes be a beautiful and noble picture standing still….but to me they should still embody the “boar hunter” of the past – there should be no question of their strength and grace when moving, but still have the regal temperament that Danes are known for.
We strive to bring all of this together and maintain a very high standard in our breeding program. However, to do this, we may not always employ conventional, popular, or current mainstream thinking. We rely on, history and proven track records but, also research and science.
If anything is worth doing you must not be afraid to take the path less traveled, otherwise how will you ever break new ground.
We are blessed to have been entrusted with our line of Danes. All of our Danes are Longview lines. Longview has been producing high quality healthy danes for 25 years. With a proven track record of mental stability, health, longevity, and strong conformation we strongly felt this was the right choice for us to build our breeding program on. We are looking forward to bringing such strong combination of attributes to the show ring and performance sports.
Every one of our dogs is an individual and we do not force them to perform in areas that they do not enjoy. If one of our dogs does not like to show in conformation, we will not force them to do so. If they do not like tracking, again, they will not be forced to do so.
While the Great Dane clubs frown upon breeding against their color code, you must take a look deep into their history and into the history of the great dane in general. In the past they have temporarily lifted their position on cross color breeding to attain certain goals that they believed would benefit the breed.
Our position on this is simple. We do not believe in limiting an already small gene pool. While we mainly stay true to color pure breeding, we know that to continuously do so can diminish and degrade desireable traits that we strive to keep in the breed. We will not breed dogs with inferior traits, temperment, or health just to promote color. While we certainly do not make a practice of this, we will, however, cross color code with serious thought to what we are trying to achieve in an effort to better the breed.
As stated above, we are breeding for the "all around" Great Dane. What we want is a healthy combination of: Self assurance, athleticsm, intelligence, trainability, versatility, and kindness. When taking a good hard look at our dogs, there are many factors that we take into consideration when choosing who we will breed. First and foremost, we wait until a dog is mature prior to breeding. This gives us the time to see a mature adult structure and we get a clear picture of temperment. When you make the choice to breed, you must have a critical eye. There is no "perfect" dog. We look for pairings that complement each other. If one dog has a slight shortcoming, the mate chosen must be exemplary in that area.
Currently we will be broadening our breeding program to lines with proven longevity even beyond what we have in our lines. We are excited about some of the opportunities that will be commencing later this year and early into 2010. Stay tuned.
As stated in many locations throughout our site, our dogs and puppies are our priority. Every puppy brought into this world will forever be our responsibility whether they reside in your home or mine. So with with commitment, we do everything in our power to start our puppies off on the best possible paw. We have baby moniters set up 2-3 weeks prior to the date of whelping so that I can always be there for the delivery of the pups. All puppies are handled from the time of birth up to the time they go home.
