Information about Brindle Great Danes

Brindle Great Danes are dressed to kill, wearing golden brown coats and tiger striping.

A brindle Great Dane at play is art in motion. Try to catch the rushing blur of colors as they pass your eye.

Action, speed....whoosh, stripes and patterns, ever changing as muscles flex and the ground thunders.

At a stand still we see......Brindle color is a pattern of stripes, red and black, fawn and black, charcoal and gray, and more. Brindle occurs in Great Danes and many other dog breeds. Base color of a brindle Dane may be light fawn, golden brown, deep golden red, to a pale color with a black tint rather than gold.

Golden base to the brindle color is most desirable, this is true for fawn Danes as well.

AKC standard for Brindle Great Danes: The base color shall be yellow gold and always brindled with strong black cross stripes in a chevron pattern. A black mask is preferred. Black should appear on the eye rims and eyebrows, and may appear on the ears and tail tip. The more intensive the base color and the more distinct and even the brindling, the more preferred will be the color. Too much or too little brindling are equally undesirable. White markings at the chest and toes, black-fronted, dirty colored brindles are not desirable. Any variance in color or markings as described above shall be faulted to the extent of the deviation. Any Great Dane, which does not fall within the above color classifications, must be disqualified.

Most all varieties of brindle color are acceptable for showing. Like other AKC Dane colors, white coloring on brindle Great Danes should be minimal. Dirty white patches, or merle coloring on your brindle Dane can cost you points with the wrong judge!

Blue Brindle?

Blue brindle is mismarked color caused by a breeding in which both parents carry a recessive "blue gene". Although unique and actually nice looking dogs, blue brindle Great Danes are destined to enjoy their lives as companion animals:)

Breeding brindle/brindle can produce fawn or brindle puppies. Breeding a brindle, even one with perfect color conformation will not assure pups of the same color. Although the litter's pattern will most certainly be brindle, the actual color and shade of the puppies can differ.

Fawn, golden tan, light or dark simply can't be predicted. Dark brindle, such as "reverse", or "onyx", is also a possibility. The nice thing about breeding brindle Danes is there are fewer genetic health concerns such as vision and hearing problems found in some harlequin litters.